Chapter 1

Question 1

What are the four core capabilities of IT within organizational settings?

Answer 1

Storing and Retrieving Data, Analyzing and Visualizing Data, Automating Data Operations, Protecting Data

Question 2

What are three basic hardware components for a data communications network

Answer 2

a server (e.g., personal computer, mainframe), a client (e.g., personal computer, terminal), and a circuit (e.g., cable, modem) over which messages flow.

Question 3

What does the Server do?

Answer 3

stores data or software that can be accessed by the clients.

Question 4

What is a client?

Answer 4

The input–output hardware device at the user’s end of a communication circuit.

Question 5

What is the Circuit?

Answer 5

the pathway through which the messages travel. It is typically a copper wire, although fiber-optic cable and wireless transmission are becoming common.

Question 6

What is Peer-to-peer Networks?

Answer 6

A network designed to connect a set of similar computers that share their data and software with each other. Does not need a server

Question 7

What does a File Server do?
What does a Web Server do?
What does the Mail Server do?

Answer 7

1. Stores data and software that can be used by computers on the network.
2. Stores documents and graphics that can be accessed from any Web browser, such as Internet Explorer
3. Handles and delivers email over the network

Question 8

What is a Local Area Network (LAN)

Answer 8

A group of computers located in the same general area. A LAN covers a clearly defined small area, such as one floor or work area, a single building, or a group of buildings.

Question 9

What is a Backbone Network (BN)?

Answer 9

a larger, central network connecting several LANs, other BNs, MANs, and WANs. BNs typically span from hundreds of feet to several miles and provide very high-speed data transmission, commonly 100–1,000 Mbps.

Question 10

What is an Intranet

Answer 10

a LAN that uses the same technologies as the Internet (e.g., Web servers, Java, HTML [Hypertext Markup Language]) but is open to only those inside the organization.

Question 11

What is an Extranet?

Answer 11

uses the same technologies as the Internet but instead is provided to invited users outside the organization who access it over the Internet. It can provide access to information services, inventories, and other internal organizational databases that are provided only to customers, suppliers, or those who have paid for access

Question 12

What are the layers of the Open Systems Interconnection Reference Model (OSI Model)

Answer 12

1. Physical
2. Data Link
3. Network
4. Transport
5. Session
6. Presentation
7. Application

Question 13

What are the layers for the Internet Model?

Answer 13

1. Physical
2. Data Link
3. Network
4. Transport
5. Application

Question 14

What is a protocol?

Answer 14

a set of rules that define what the layer will do and that provides a clearly defined set of messages that software at the layer needs to understand.

Question 15

What is a Protocol Data Unit?

Answer 15

contains information that is needed to transmit the message through the network. Some experts use the word packet to mean a PDU

Question 16

What is the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)?

Answer 16

responsible for breaking large files into smaller packets and for opening a connection to the server for the transfer of a large set of packets. (Within Transport Layer)

Question 17

What is the Internet Protocol (IP)?

Answer 17

(Within the the Network Layer)

selects the next stop on the message’s route through the network. It places the TCP segment inside an IP PDU, which is called an IP packet, and passes the IP packet, which contains the TCP segment, which, in turn, contains the HTTP packet, which, in turn, contains the message, to the data link layer.

Question 18

What Are Standards?

Answer 18

defines a set of rules, called protocols, that explain exactly how hardware and software that conform to the standard are required to operate. Any hardware and software that conform to a standard can communicate with any other hardware and software that conform to the same standard. Without standards, it would be virtually impossible for computers to communicate.

Question 19

What are the two types of standards?

Answer 19

A de jure standard is developed by an official industry or a government body and is often called a formal standard.

De facto standards are those that emerge in the marketplace and are supported by several vendors but have no official standing.

Question 20

What are the three stages of the de jure standardization process?

Answer 20

specification, identification of choices, and acceptance.