ASSIGNMENT 1 FRONT SHEET

Qualification BTEC Level 5 HND Diploma in Computing

Unit number and title 10: Website Design & Development

Submission date Date Received 1st submission

Re-submission Date Date Received 2nd submission

Student Name Duong Van Thanh Son Student ID GCD201619

Class GCD1002 Assessor name Phyo Min Tun

Student declaration

I certify that the assignment submission is entirely my own work and I fully understand the consequences of plagiarism. I understand that
making a false declaration is a form of malpractice.

Student’s signature

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Table of Contents
PART I: EXPLAIN SERVER TECHNOLOGIES AND MANAGEMENT SERVICES ASSOCIATED WITH HOSTING AND MANAGING WEBSITES. ..... 4
A. INTRODUCTION OF WEB TECHNOLOGIES ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 4
I. DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM – DNS (P1) ...................................................................................................................................................................... 5
1. Explain the concept of DNS ............................................................................................................................................................................... 5
2. The purpose of DNS ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 5
3. Type of DNS Server ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 5
4. How domain names are organized .................................................................................................................................................................... 7
II. EXPLANATION OF WEB ELEMENT (P2, M1) ........................................................................................................................................................... 9
1. Communication protocol ................................................................................................................................................................................... 9
2. Server hardware ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 9
3. Server software................................................................................................................................................................................................ 12
4. Server operating system .................................................................................................................................................................................. 13
5. Web server (Apache, IIS) ................................................................................................................................................................................. 13
6. Relationships between communication protocols, server hardware, operating systems and web server software: .................................... 14
III. WEBSITE TECHNOLOGIES (P3)............................................................................................................................................................................ 15
1. Static Web ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 15
2. Dynamic Web ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 15
3. Font - end and Back - end technologies .......................................................................................................................................................... 16
4. Capabilities and relationship front - end and back - end................................................................................................................................. 17
5. How these relate to presentation and application layers. ........................................................................................................................ 17
IV. ONLINE CREATION TOOLS AND CUSTOM BUILT (P4) ......................................................................................................................................... 18
 1. Online creation tools ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 18
2. Custom build .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 19
3.Comparison between online and custom built tools or application ................................................................................................................ 20
References ...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................21

PART I: EXPLAIN SERVER TECHNOLOGIES AND MANAGEMENT SERVICES ASSOCIATED WITH HOSTING
AND MANAGING WEBSITES.
A. INTRODUCTION OF WEB TECHNOLOGIES
Web development was one of the fastest growing professions in the early 21st century. Web development deals with building,
creating, and maintaining websites. It covers aspects like web design, web publishing, web programming, and database
management. The term web developer is widely used across the tech industry, but it's not surprising to those who are not part of
 the development community, it is not always clear what web development is or what web developer does. Examples of web
applications are social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter or e-commerce sites like Amazon, Shopee. We will learn more in this
report.

I. DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM – DNS (P1)

1. Explain the concept of DNS
Domain Name System (DNS) is a collection of databases that translate hostnames to IP addresses. DNS is often referred to as the
internet's phone book because it converts easy-toremember hostnames like www.moet.gov.vn, to IP addresses like
125.212.206.186. This takes place behind the scenes after you type a URL into a web browser's address bar. Without DNS (and
especially search engines like Google), navigating the internet wouldn't be easy since we'd have to enter the IP address of each
website we want to visit (Fisher, 2021).

2. The purpose of DNS

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource participating in the
Internet. It associates various information with domain names assigned to such participants. Most importantly, it translates
domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical (binary) identifiers associated with networking equipment for the
purpose of locating and addressing these devices worldwide. An often used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it
serves as the "phone book" for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses (Hoffmann,
2019).

3. Type of DNS Server

All DNS servers fall into one of four categories: Recursive resolvers, root nameservers, TLD nameservers, and Authoritative name
servers. In a typical DNS lookup (when there is no caching in play), these four DNS servers work together in harmony to complete
the task of delivering the IP address for a specified domain to the client (the client is usually a stub resolver - a simple resolver built
into an operating system) (Cloudflare, 2022).

a. DNS recursive resolver

A recursive resolver (also known as a DNS recursor) is the first stop in a DNS query. The recursive resolver acts as a middleman
between a client and a DNS nameserver. After receiving a DNS query from a web client, a recursive resolver will either respond
 with cached data, or send a request to a root nameserver, followed by another request to a TLD nameserver, and then one last
request to an authoritative nameserver. After receiving a response from the authoritative nameserver containing the requested IP
address, the recursive resolver then sends a response to the client.

During this process, the recursive resolver will cache information received from authoritative name servers. When a client
requests the IP address of a domain name that was recently requested by another client, the resolver can circumvent the process of
communicating with the nameservers, and just deliver the client the requested record from its cache. (Cloudflare, 2022)

b. DNS Root Name Server

The 13 DNS root nameservers are known to every recursive resolver, and they are the first stop in a recursive resolver’s quest for
DNS records. A root server accepts a recursive resolver’s query which includes a domain name, and the root nameserver responds
by directing the recursive resolver to a TLD nameserver, based on the extension of that domain (.com, .net, .org, etc.). The root
nameservers are overseen by a nonprofit called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Note that while there are 13 root nameservers, that doesn’t mean that there are only 13 machines in the root nameserver system.
There are 13 types of root nameservers, but there are multiple copies of each one all over the world, which use Anycast routing to
provide speedy responses. If you added up all the instances of root nameservers, you’d have 632 different servers (as of October 2016).

c. TLD Name Server

A TLD nameserver maintains information for all the domain names that share a common domain extension, such as .com, .net, or
whatever comes after the last dot in a url. For example, a .com TLD nameserver contains information for every website that ends in
‘.com’.
If a user was searching for google.com, after receiving a response from a root nameserver, the recursive resolver would then send
a query to a .com TLD nameserver, which would respond by pointing to the authoritative nameserver (see below) for that domain.

Management of TLD nameservers is handled by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which is a branch of ICANN. The
IANA breaks up the TLD servers into two main groups:

• Generic top-level domains: These are domains that are not country specific, some of the best-known generic TLDs include
.com, .org, .net, .edu, and .gov.
 • Country code top-level domains: These include any domains that are specific to a country or state. Examples include .uk,
.us, .ru, and .jp. (Cloudflare, 2022)

d. Authoritative name servers

When a recursive resolver receives a response from a TLD nameserver, that response will direct the resolver to an authoritative
nameserver. The authoritative nameserver is usually the resolver’s last step in the journey for an IP address. The authoritative
nameserver contains information specific to the domain name it serves (e.g. google.com) and it can provide a recursive resolver
with the IP address of that server found in the DNS A record, or if the domain has a CNAME record (alias) it will provide the
recursive resolver with an alias domain, at which point the recursive resolver will have to perform a whole new DNS lookup to
procure a record from an authoritative nameserver (often an A record containing an IP address) (cloudflare., 2022).

4. How domain names are organized

Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System (DNS). Any name registered in the DNS is a
domain name. Domain names are organized in subordinate levels (subdomains) of the DNS root domain, which is nameless. The
first-level set of domain names are the top-level domains (TLDs), including the generic top-level domains (gTLDs), such as the
prominent domains com, info, net, edu, and org, and the country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). Below these top-level domains
in the DNS hierarchy are the second-level and third-level domain names that are typically open for reservation by end-users who
wish to connect local area networks to the Internet, create other publicly accessible Internet resources or run web sites .
 Figure 1 DNS Database

The DNS system is dependent upon its database to perform lookups on hostnames to locate the correct IP address. The DNS
database is a general-purpose distributed, hierarchical, replicated database. It also defines the style of hostname used on the
internet, properly called a FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name).

FQDNs consist of complete hostnames such as hornet.example.com and test1.example.com. FQDNs break down into three parts.

1. The TLDN (Top-Level Domain Names): such as .com, .net, .biz, .org, .info, .edu, and so on, provide the last segment of a FQDN. All
TLDNs are managed on the root name servers. Aside from country top-level domains such as .us, .uk, and so on, there were
originally only a few main top-level domains. As of February 2017, there are 1528 top-level domains.

2. The second level: domain name is always immediately to the left of the top-level domain when specifying a hostname or URL, so
names like Redhat.com, Opensource.com, Getfedora.org, and example.com provide the organizational address portion of the
FQDN.

3. The third level: of the FQDN is the hostname portion of the name, so the FQDN of a specific host in a network would be something
like host1.example.com. (Both, 2017 )
II. EXPLANATION OF WEB ELEMENT (P2, M1)

1. Communication protocol
Communication protocols are formal descriptions of digital message formats and rules. They are required to exchange
messages in or between computing systems. Communication protocols are important in telecommunications systems and other
systems because they create consistency and universality for the sending and receiving of messages .

There are many protocols that are used to communicate or impart information on the Internet, here are some typical
protocols:

• TCP (Transmission Control Protocol): establishes a connection between computers to transmit data. It breaks data
down into packets and ensures a successful data transmission.
• IP (Internet Protocol): routes data packets as they are transmitted over the Internet, ensuring data will arrive at the
right place to receive.
• HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol): allows to exchange information (mainly in the form of hypertext) over the
Internet.
• FTP (File Transfer Protocol): allows to exchange files over the Internet.
• SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol): allows sending electronic mail messages (email) over the Internet.
• POP3 (Post Office Protocol, version 3): allows receiving email messages over the Internet.
• MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension): an extension of the SMTP protocol, allowing sending binary files, movies,
music, ... by email.
• WAP (Wireless Application Protocol): allows information exchange between wireless devices, such as mobile phones.

2. Server hardware
A hardware server means that it is not a virtual machine. It means that it is a physical server. Servers are computers
designed to wait for any requests from users or other computers and then act on that request (Samuel, 2020). It works continuously
for a long time and improves productivity for users.
 Purpose of Server Hardware: Their main purpose is to be there for you, to share data and perform tasks to keep your workflow
smooth and productivity elevated .

Type of server hardware:

 Rack Servers: Just as the title implies, rack servers are designed to be mounted in a modular rack design for efficient
management and storage. Rack servers are very versatile in their ability to manage different tasks and workloads, and
they can maximize utility in one dedicated location (John Aaron, 2019).

Figure 2 Rack Server

 Blade Servers: Blade servers are chassis-based servers similar to rack servers, but the more stripped-down design
allows for even more space efficiency than rack servers, among other key advantages (John Aaron, 2019)
 Figure 3 Blade Server

 Tower Servers: Tower servers are singular computers with the dedicated purpose of a server – they are housed in a
standalone upright cabinet, or “tower”, much like the tower of a personal desktop computer (John Aaron, 2019)

Figure 4 Tower Server

  Mainframes: A mainframe is a large-scale computer with a sophisticated design and high workload capacity.
Mainframes are large machines – about the size of a refrigerator or a stacked washer and dryer. They feature many
swappable components, and are highly configurable (John Aaron, 2019)

Figure 5 Mainframes

Hardware Component:
 Server board: is an important component of the server hardware. It links the rest
 CPU: The CPU processes all the instructions it receives from the hardware and software that runs on the computer.
 RAM: RAM is cache of the host help save the current information for CPU can go export and process.

 Hard Drive: The hard drive is the place to store all the data.
 Power Supply: Power supply is a critical component of a computer, it provides energy for the rest of the computer.

3. Server software
Server software is a type of software that is designed to be used, operated and managed on a computing server. It provides and
facilitates the harnessing of underlying server computing power for use with an array of high-end computing services and functions
Purpose of Software: Web server software is used to edit and create Web pages along with many other HTTP format files.
4. Server operating system
A server operating system is software that was especially developed to serve as a platform for running multi-user computer
programs, applications that are networked and programs critical to business computing. This type of operating system (OS) often
comes bundled with the most common types of applications deployed in the client-server model, a term used to indicate the
exchange of information between computers (Harvey, 2022)

Purpose of Server operating system: is an operating system specifically designed to run on servers, which are specialized
computers that operate within a client/server architecture to serve the requests of client computers on the network . Server
operating systems enable and facilitate typical server roles such as Web servers, mail servers, file servers, database servers,
application servers, and print servers.

Most popular server operating systems: Popular server operating systems include Windows Server, Mac OS X Server, and variants
of Linux such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server .

5. Web server (Apache, IIS)

Definition: A web server is a computer that runs websites. It's a computer program that distributes
web pages as they are requisitioned. The basic objective of the web server is to store, process and deliver web pages to the users.
This intercommunication is done using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). These web pages are mostly static content that
includes HTML documents, images, style sheets, test etc. Apart from HTTP, a web server also supports SMTP (Simple Mail transfer
Protocol) and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) protocol for emailing and for file transfer and storage.

 Apache HTTP Server: Apache is an open-source and free web server software that powers around 40% of websites around
the world. The official name is Apache HTTP Server, and it’s maintained and developed by the Apache Software Foundation
(B, 2022). It is an open-source server, and it can support mostly all types of operating systems like as UNIX, Linux, Windows,
Mac O/S and more.
 Internet Information Services (IIS): is Microsoft’s web server offering, playing second fiddle to market leader Apache. As is
expected of a core Microsoft product, it only runs and is bundled on Windows operating systems, but is otherwise free for
use. It is a closed software product and supported by solely by Microsoft. Although development is not as open and quick as
the open-source user-supported nature of Apache, a behemoth like Microsoft can throw formidable support and
development resources at its products, and IIS has fortunately benefitted from this .
 Purpose of Web server: Purpose of Web server is to display web page content. When anyone requests a website by adding URL or
web address in the address bar of web browser, browser will send request to Internet to see corresponding website for that
address. The Domain Name Server (DNS) converts this URL into an IP Address, which in turn points to the Web Server.

6. Relationships between communication protocols, server hardware, operating systems and web server
software:
- Communication protocol: The protocol defines rules, syntax, semantics, and synchronization of communication and can methods
of error recovery. Protocols can be implemented by hardware, software or a combination of both.

- Server Hardware: Hardware represents all the physical things that you can touch and see which merged and built together as a
single entity called a Personal Computer (PC). It can be a laptop or even your smart devices in this case.

- Operating System: Operating System (OS) is working on top of the hardware. OS is the software that brings you the interface to
be able to communicate with the hardware. Well, of course, there is more than that. OS communicates with the kernel using the
device drivers to send “commands” to the hardware to do the things that you want to do.

- Web server software: Web Server Software is also just a software application. It is installed, and runs on a computer - the server
serves as a Web Server, thanks to this program that users can access the Web site information from another computer on the
network (Internet, intranet). ). Web Server has the ability to send Web clients via the Internet environment (or Intranet) via HTTP
protocol.

- Communication protocols allow other devices to communicate with each other. As a result, devices can transmit and receive
signals and also communicate with each other from one device to another. Server hardware is used to store, process data, retrieve
and share data from one computer to another but must use the same network and perform tasks for the workflow. smooth and
improve productivity. However, if you want to have good server hardware, you need a dark and stable server operating system.
The operating system is the core of the computer. Without this software, other applications would not be able to run, as well as
assign the tasks of other components in the server. In short, the software manages the operating system hardware and the server's
internal data.
III. WEBSITE TECHNOLOGIES (P3)
1. Static Web

Figure 6 Static web

Static Web pages are very simple. It is written in languages such as HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc. For static web pages when a server
receives a request for a web page, then the server sends the response to the client without doing any additional process. And
these web pages are seen through a web browser. In static web pages, Pages will remain the same until someone changes it
manually.

2. Dynamic Web

Figure 7 Dynamic web

 Dynamic Web Pages are written in languages such as CGI, AJAX, ASP, ASP.NET, etc. In dynamic web pages, the Content of pages is
different for different visitors. It takes more time to load than the static web page. Dynamic web pages are used where the
information is changed frequently, for example, stock prices, weather information, etc (MKS075, 2020)

3. Font - end and Back - end technologies

a. What is Fond - end?
Font - end development refers to "client - side' development, where the focus is on what users visually see first in their browser or
application. Font - end development are responsible for the look and feel of a site.

Fond End Languges:

• HTML

• CSS
• JAVASCRIPT
• JQUERY

b. What is Back - end?

Back - end development refers to the server side of an application. The back - end usually consists of three parts: a sever, an
application, and a database. Users can't see the back - end work, but this code is what communicates the database information to
the browser.

Back - end Languages:

• JAVA
• PHP
• RUBY ON RAILS
• PYTHON
 • .NET

c. Difference between Front - end and Back - end

Role of Front - end vs Back - end: Both play a crucial role in web development and although they have their fair share of
differences, they are like two sides of the same coin. Front - end is all about the visual aspects of the website that a user can see
and experience. On the contrary, everything that happens in the background can be attributed to the back - end web development.
It’s more like an enabler for frontend web experience

The developer of Front - end vs Back - end: The web designer is the most common job title for the front - end web development
and the role of a web designer is to design and rebuild websites keeping the visual aspects in mind. Backend developers are the
ones who make sure the data and systems requested by the front - end application or software are efficiently delivered. Backend
developers handle everything that happens in the background

Essentials of Front - end vs Back – end: Front - end is also referred to as the “client - side” as opposed to the back - end which is basically
the “server - side” of the application. The essentials of back - end web development include languages such as Java, Ruby, Python, PHP,
.Net, etc. The most common front - end languages are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

4. Capabilities and relationship front - end and back - end

Front - end is the user interface/client and code/tools related to it, whereas the back - end is the server - side and the code/tools
related to it. User interface code and tools are CSS, HTML, and JavaScript and the many tools and frameworks that work with these
technologies and this will be how the User/Human will interact with the application. The Back - end/server will communicate over
the internet responding to requests via a protocol called “http” which facilitates requests/responses in the form of “packets” over
a network or networks (bailey, 2021).

The back - end will contain some logic in code (PHP, Python, Java, etc.) that will tell the server what to do… do I want to grab some
data, create new data, update some data, delete some data…etc. Then usually the server will interface with some sort of datastore
such as a database that will store and provide data in an orderly way. Of course it is much more involved and many more processes
and technologies are involved, but this is the basic relationship between front - end and back - end, it facilitates interactions
between a human on a browser (or another server with just back-end via API’s) and a server/database somewhere on the internet
(bailey, 2021)

5. How these relate to presentation and application layers.

 These two examples will help to show the strong cohesion of an unbeaten duo, fornt-end and back-end.

Ex1 : Front-end When you log in to facebook, everything you are seeing on this site right now can be done by a front-end
developer. A designer creates logos and graphics, a photographer provides images, a copywriter writes the content. But a front-
end developer combines all the pieces together and converts it into a web language, and creates the experience you have while
browsing through each page.

Ex2 : Back-end Just like when you log into Facebook, when you navigate to this site, Udacity's servers send information to your
computer or mobile device, and then they are converted to the site you are seeing.

IV. ONLINE CREATION TOOLS AND CUSTOM BUILT (P4)

1. Online creation tools

Online creation tools: - With the design of most templates, what you see is what you get. You can change the colors and maybe
the fonts but the layout is pretty set. If you really love the layout and design and do not have a desire to change it, a template
could work in your favor. Start-up companies and DIYers often need a website up rather quickly and on a low budget. Website
templates and platforms like WordPress, Squarespace and Wix are often plug and play PROS/CONS OF USING TEMPLATES:

• Lots of other businesses can could be using the same template which means your site won’t stand out as much.
• You are limited on how much you can customize the site. What you see is what you get.

• May not 100% work on all devices

• Some templates are not built to be search engine friendly. They need to be customized to fit your business.
• Any custom or added technologies are not possible to be installed as templates run on a structured system.
• Templates are great for low budget. There is a cheaper upfront cost.
• Templates have a shorter development time.
• Template sites will mostly likely not have as good of a support system as a custom built site.
 Some of online website creation tools are listed below:

• Wix
• Webbly
• Google site
• Wordpresss

2. Custom build
Custom Websites: - With a custom website, you are allowed and encouraged to show your company culture and personality
through design. A unique design can be presented, revised and built into a custom template for your website. A solid web
development firm is constantly updating their code and finding new ways to increase the longevity of the sites they build.
They are on the lookout for new SEO best practices as they roll out from Google . PROS/CONS OF CUSTOM BUILT WEBSITES:

• The website will have a completely unique design that will incorporate the company’s branding and will be based around the
needs of your business.
• A customized website is adaptable to your company’s needs
• The site is tested to work across all browsers.
• The site will be built to be search engine friendly.
• A customized website is more expensive than a template.
• The process to create a custom site takes longer than a template site.
• The site will grow with your business. If you know how you will need your site to operate in the future, a professional web
developer will install technologies that will work with those ideas.
• The company that built your site is there for support if you need it.
 3.Comparison between online and custom built tools or application
ONLINE CREATION TOOLS
DESIGN
FLEXIBILITY The design is less flexible as it is based
on pre-existing models, which may not
be compatible with many other types
of screen sizes.
PERFORMANCE Low performance as it is limited on
some browsers. Low security stability
is difficult to upgrade and develop
further.
FUNCTIONALITY
Functions may be limited to website
templates. Difficult to add other
features.
UX
Low experience users get bored with
similar websites. No personal highlight
effects. Limited on site templates, and
bound on the size built
CUSTOM BUILT WEBSITE
High flexibility because it can design
style, own ideas. Can add other
extended features.
High performance because we can
customize the size suitable for
different types of browsers as well
as building, additional security
features.
Unlimited in features, flexible in the
ability to update and edit.
Highly customizable, user experience
for optimal experience. There is its
own difference
 UI Simple interface that does not
highlight, user interface may be
duplicated with many other websites
that are boring for users.
Funeral web was built according to
its own ideas. It will be easy to
organize according to the
requirements of users or
programmers. In addition, website
creators can assist when users need
to change or edit that website.

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