Week 7: Networking

This week in class we talked about how the internet works. Data is transfered over the internet from what is called network packets. Network packets are basically just envelopes of information data that have a source and a destination. Each of these data packets are numbered so it can organize correctly and display what you are trying to see over the internet. We then learned about internet protocols which are communication rules that these packets follow. For example the most common internet protocol is HTTP, or hyper text transfer protocol. What this protocol does is it first makes a connection to the server, then it requests a file, the server in response sends the file, and then lastly the web server closes the connection.The last part of this protocol is what is important when running a web server. If the server did not close off the connection to its users then the server would be overflowed with users and most likely freeze or crash.

The next important protocols we learned in class were the transmission control protocol and the internet protocol (TCP/IP). TCP is the protocol which controls the data flow between one network device to another and the IP address is what defines the route that data packets take to arrive to different devices on a network. As I further explored the components of a network I learned about the default gateway, which is basically a network router. This network router is what forwards network communications from one network to another. Also I learned about the DNS and DHCP servers. The DHCP server is a network protocol that helps configure a computer with its own leased IP address, as well as the IP adress for the default gateway. the DNS server is a service which sorts out and maps names to the network IP addresses and IP addresses to names.


Since my idea is a website, networking becomes a major part of my job of running this website. A good understanding of the internet and networking is necessary to have a successful website. Some things specifically that I would have to make sure of is that I buy the right amount of web servers to support the amount of incoming and outgoing connections to my website. Also if users ever have trouble connecting to my website I need to know how to fix these problems by identifying where exactly the problem of connecting is occurring.