Domain Naming System(DNS)

A DNS server is a computer server that contains a public IP database and associated
hostnames and is typically used to correct or convert IP addresses as needed. DNS
servers run special software and connect using special protocols.
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a directory of names that matches with numbers, the numbers are
the IP addresses which computers use to communicate with each other. The DNS is a protocol which
uses the TCP/IP protocol set. It helps convert URLs into IP addresses that computers use to identify each
other on a network, it is a system that matches names with numbers like a phonebook does. With a DNS
you do not need to have the IP address of everyone, you connect to a Domain name server, which holds
a large database of domain names and translates them to IP addresses. So, when you type in a website
like www.bbc.co.uk for example, your internet service provider will request the DNS linked with the
domain name and then translates it into an IP address that a computer understands then will direct you
to the correct website. If you have previously visited the website, the computer will first check the cache
to see if it has already visited the website before, if not it will do a DNS query to find the website.

Main DNS server types

Resolver

A resolver is the first stop in a DNS query, this acts as the middle link between the client and a DNS
nameserver, once a DNS query has been sent from the client a recursive resolver will bring back cached
data if it is found in the cache, or it will send a request to a root nameserver, then another request to a
TLD (Top Level Domain) nameserver and then a last request to an authoritative nameserver. If the
recursive resolver does not have the requested website in its cache, it will go through the procedure of
retrieving the IP address of the required website and returning it. It would then keep this IP address in
its memory for a while. The amount of time that it is kept in memory is determined by the domain
owner using a setting called time to live2, which specifies how long the website remains in the cache's
memory.

Iterative

The iterative DNS question will query a DNS server for details on a database, the user will enter a
website they are attempting to search, and the resolver will either have a response from stored memory
or will ask another DNS server whether they have the answer by returning the address of that DNS
server, if it cannot return a definite answer it will ask the next server. The question will begin at the root
server and work its way down the levels based on the referrals it gets.

Root servers

The root name server for DNS records is a server that plays an important role in converting a domain
name into an IP address for a computer; they respond to requests made in the DNS's root region. The
servers will reply to queries records that have been cached in the root region. Other requests made to
the TLD registry can also be routed by them.

TLD (Top Level Domain) nameserver

The TLD nameserver is referring to the portion of a domain name that comes after the mark. TLDs was
divided into two categories: nation TLDs and industry TLDs. As an example. FR stands for France,
and.GOV stands for government websites. The top-level domain (TLD) is the highest level of domain
names in the DNS root zone for the internet. That is the last segment of the domain name 1 for the
other domains in lower ranks. The IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), which is part of the
company ICANN, manages the TLD nameservers.

Authoritative nameservers

An authoritative nameserver responds to an initial DNS query. It does not have website responses from
cached memory 3. The authoritative nameserver responds to recursive DNS nameservers by mapping
the IP address of the website (or other server) that was searched for. The authoritative name server
manages domain name data, which can be A, CNAME, MX, NS, SOA, or TXT records. For example, if a
DNS server in a network stores a record for a website, such as www.nepal.com.np, this DNS server
becomes the authoritative server for the sesew.com.np domain.

URLs

A URL is the address of the website that you type into the address bar in a browser. A URL is unique and
cannot be shared between different websites, it is just like a fingerprint with a person each person’s
fingerprint is unique to them and there is no other the same. A URL is organized by the structure of
different parts, this example shows the different parts of a URL and how they are organized –
https://moodle.nptcgroup.ac.uk. The HTTPS is the protocol that is used to send data over the browser
and the website you want to connect to. The host is “moodle” which is the name of the web servers
where it can be accessed. Then the .ac is the second level domain, this is showing that it is an academic
second level domain and is used by universities and colleges in the UK. Then the .uk is the top level
domain, this is the highest level of domain and shows that it is in the country of the UK by its top level
domain. This is the end of the URL and is normally either a company (.com), country (.fr) or a
government (.gov)

Domain name maintenance entails maintaining the DNS up to date; the management component is
handled by a third-party firm through a portal. The personal or company website may use this platform
to manage DNS records that allow access to the website, the blog, email, and other online properties.
Many businesses online have software that will manage your domain names for you. These services will
protect your domain name from expiring by using an auto renewal feature in their service. If the domain
name is operational, you can use the gateway to administer your domain and all facets of it from a
single location. You can even update the DNS records for multiple domains instantly and efficiently.
The capabilities and relationships between front-end
and back-end website technologies and how these
relate to presentation and application layers.
In web applications, the term front end refers to the code executed in the browser, and
back end to code being executed on the web server. Front end is often being called
client side and back end as server side. Browsers can execute code in the form of
JavaScript, using HTML for presentation and CSS for styling. Back-end is much more
versatile, it can be programmed in a lot of different languages, the most popular being
PHP, Ruby, ASP.NET and JavaScript (Node). The back-end development will store the
data needed to host a website on servers, the application and a database. To be able to
make the server, application and database all to be able to work and talk together, a
server-side language is used.

The database in a website is very important as it stores data and is needed in the
development of websites. A commonly used database is MySQL 8 it is used by many of
the big companies and brands in the world such as Google, Facebook and PayPal.
MySQL works by creating a database for storing and manipulating data, then clients can
make request by typing in specific SQL statements on MySQL and then the server’s
application will respond with the requested information and appear on the client’s side
browser.

The back-end development of a website will have the language, database, security and
backup side of it covered. The database of a website will be used in a query when
someone is for example searching for hotel within a certain town, the database is
responsible for accepting the query made by someone then it will find the data
requested in the database and then return it to the user that has searched for it on a
website.

The security side of the back-end development is critical in keeping data and sensate
information safe. It is important that users are logging in using the HTTPS protocol
whilst doing any development as this will encrypt the information and cannot be
intercepted by hackers. It is also important that the HTTPS is used on any websites that
use credit card information as this will ensure that the information is not intercepted by
hackers and will give the user confidence to use websites that use this protocol, for
example if they are shopping 84% of users 7 would abandon their purchase if they
cannot see that the HTTPS protocol is not being used by the website. Google will rank
sites higher in their search results if a site uses the HTTPS protocol, so it is better to use
it in terms of getting your website higher up in the search results.

The front end of a website is what happens in front of you, for example a browser will
show you what you have searched in the browser. Part of the front-end development is
the language html, this used along with CSS and JavaScript will help to build the front
end of a website. The websites pages are created using these coding standards, they are
styled to the way that a customer would want by the developer. A web developer is the
person or team that create the pages of a website that we see on the screen, they are
able to create websites without using any back-end coding or databases and these are
called static websites. These static websites are used to show information for a website
that does no need constant updating for example, a restaurant could have a static
website to just show the menus and location maybe. They do not need data to be
stored in a database, as the website may not need updating for a long period of time.

The presentation layer in the OSI model is responsible for translating data, encryption
between applications and data compression. When data is passed through the HTTPS
protocol on a browser, the data is encrypted as to keep it secure from people trying to
hack and intercept it when it is transmitted over the internet. When this occurs the two
devices that are talking to each other, for example when someone buys something off
the internet, the HTTPS protocol is used to keep credit card information safe. When this
happens the buyer and the seller will exchange keys to encrypt the data that is being
transmitted, and this means that only these two can encode the data and then decode it
in to a readable format, to keep it secure even if it does get intercepted by a hacker,
they cannot retrieve any information from the hacked data as they do not have a key to
decode it. The presentation layer is also used when building a website, HTML, CSS and
JavaScript are used to connect the user interface with the back end of the website.

In the application layer the FTP protocol is used in this layer to transfer files between the
server and the client over a network, this is used when upload files to a web server to
host a website for example. The application layer is what provides the interface of the
applications and network, it is the only layer that deals with the user that is using the
computer. This is also where the DNS protocol is used as well, there are many other
protocols that are used in the application layer and they include the SMTP, Telnet and
TFTP. Applications that are run on a computer are using this layer as this hosts the
applications that run on computers, when accessing the internet they are used there.
The mail protocol is on the application layer and uses the SMTP protocol to send emails
on the internet, then to receive emails the protocol used is the POP3 protocol.  The
Telnet protocol is also on the application layer, and this protocol is used to access a
device remotely.

Explain the purpose and relationships between

communication protocols, server hardware, operating
systems and web server software with regards to
designing, publishing and accessing a website
Protocols are seen on both the front and back end of website technologies. These
protocols are in the OSI 7-layer model's application layer.

HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) – Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is

an application-layer protocol for transmitting hypermedia documents, such as HTML. It
was designed for communication between web browsers and web servers, but it can
also be used for other purposes. (HTTP, n.d.) It runs on application layer of the TCP/IP.
Http controls how the resources among devices over the internet are transferred. It
regulates how the devices communicate over the internet.

HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) –Hypertext transfer protocol secure
(HTTPS) is the secure version of HTTP, which is the primary protocol used to send data
between a web browser and a website. HTTPS is encrypted in order to increase security
of data transfer. (what-is-https, n.d.) It encrypts the data sent over the website in is on. It
exchanges key with the client and the website for the encryption. If the data is stolen in
process of transmission then it is difficult for the hacker to decrypt the data without the
decryption key.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) – File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard

Internet protocol for transmitting files between computers on the Internet
over TCP/IP connections. (File-Transfer-Protocol-FTP, n.d.) Though HTTP handles a lot of
file transfer, FTP is commonly used to transfer files “behind the scenes”. FTP doesn’t
encrypt data so it is not considered to be the safest way to transfer files.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) – Simple Mail Transfer Protocol(SMTP) is an

application layer protocol. The mail protocol transfers emails over the internet using the
SMTP protocol; it only sends mail from one person to another. The POP3 protocol is
used to receive mail from the recipient. The end to end model is used to communicate
between different organizations whereas the store and forward method are used within
an organization. (simple-mail-transfer-protocol-smtp, n.d.)

Apache is the most commonly used web server software on the market 6. Apache is an
open source software and is maintained by a community of developers whilst being
backed by the Apache Software Foundation. Apache is a good software to use on a web
server as it is free to use and download and is most often used on Linux servers.
Microsoft have their own web server software called IIS (Internet Information Services) it
is not free like Apache and requires a license and will only runs on its windows operating
systems. The Microsoft software comes with a tidy but takes some time getting used to
GUI, it comes with a panel to manage the connected servers, but everything is one place
to is very easy to manage.

It also comes with good security features such as the TLS certificate management and
binding for enabling HTTPS and SFTP on to your websites. It also has software patches
which are regularly rolled out to keep up with the latest security threats in the world.
The security features in Microsoft’s software help to keep websites on the servers up
and running and keep down time to a very low level, this will help company’s keep their
financial losses down if their website does get attacked.

Most companies will use severs to host their websites on, it is not essential but is
recommended as servers are needed to run all day every day of the year. A server needs
to be reliable more reliable than workstations in a business as they are always on. The
main job of a web server is to deliver the content of a hosted websites on the internet to
the client. All computers that host websites must have web server programs, the most
widely used web server program is Apache. Any computer as long as it is connected to
the internet can be used as a web server as long as it has the appropriate software
installed. Web servers typically host many websites, some only host a few. Servers that
host multiple websites are called shared host while servers that host a website for a
single company or person is call a dedicated host, these dedicated host are appropriate
for websites with a high volume of traffic and sites that require custom server
modifications.
Discuss the differences between online website creation
tools and custom-built sites with regards to design
flexibility Performance, functionality, User Experience
(UX) and User Interface (UI).

 
Online website creation tools and custom-built websites
Using a template for creating a website is an easier way of creating your own website
than building from scratch, there are many different sites that will have many different
templates that will help in giving a starting point to making a website. The custom-built
websites offer themes as well as templates to give you more range of choice when
creating your website, this will help you in creating the website. Using this method will
help you to create a website easily and faster than building from scratch, but there are
drawbacks in using this method. One drawback is that lots of companies may use this
method and if there are many companies in the same sector of business doing this, you
do run the risk of other websites looking very similar. But then on the other hand it is a
much quicker and easier way than building from scratch as everything is there on the
creation tools for you to use.

When a website is created using an online service the user experience may be not be as
good as a custom-built site as you will be restricted in the way you can lay out your
website on their tools. You may want to change the flow of your website using the tools
but may be limited in what you are doing by the service itself, for example if you wanted
a user using your website to get from one page to another in your way, but then find
out you are unable to achieve this using the method of the online creation tools, then
this will have a negative impact on the users experience in using the website. But when a
site is custom built to order the user is able to put the website in the way that they want
it to work and then the user experience is as they expected and what works best.

Using a custom built website is more efficient in its performance of the website as it will
only have the code that is needed to run the website and nothing extra like the online
creation services do, the online creation tools will have lots of extra code added into it
to help the user achieve its website whilst making it very easy to use. Doing it in this way
will add more code than necessary and will affect the performance of the website. The
flexibility in custom built website is much better than the online services as you can add
anything and move anything you want in a custom built one, the online creation
services limit users in their flexibility of websites and this can be very frustrating.

A custom-built website will always be available on all devices such as computers, phones
and tablets and working correctly, showing the site on different devices is very
important these days as lots of people use their tablet and phones to look at websites
on the go. Have a custom-built website will ensure that the site is optimized for use on
both of these devices, this will ensure that the user interface is as it should be when the
developers made the website.  When using an online creation service this may not
always be part of the normal service and may require extra costs to be able to view in
mobile format. They will also normally be higher up in the search results in google as
the site is optimized to be higher up in the search, by using the key words and
structuring the website correctly it will help.

Using an online service will benefit a user in that once their website is up and running,
they do not have to worry about the security side of things, as this will be looked after
by the service you have chosen.  Also, the data storage and maintenance are taken care
of by the company, so the user can then concentrate on other things. This is an issue
which needs takin care of when using a custom-built website, as there will be additional
costs for the data storage with the need of hard drives to store the data on. Support is
also a key component of a website too, the ongoing support from a custom-built site is
always there from the company that you have used. But using an online service the
support will not be as good as the custom-built providers and they can provide more
personal support better than an online service can.
WIX

Wix is a fantastic free website builder. One of the most important advantages of WIX is the ability to
build websites with simple drag-and-drop functionality. Tools and roles are judiciously mixed. This
simplifies and expedites the process of creating and editing the website's interface. Simply go to Manage
Pages and click the button. Your new pages will be automatically added to the navigation menu. Wix has
a plethora of pre-made models, so all you have to do to create a website is select the Interface you like,
update the text and images, and you're done. The templates offered by Wix, on the other hand, have a
big downside in that you cannot change the model before you begin the editing process. You can also
change the look and sound of your website on mobile devices using Wix mobile editing.

WORDPRESS

Though it began as a simple blogging platform, WordPress soon outgrew its rivals and evolved into a
powerful builder that enabled you to create a wide range of websites. It offers over 40,000 extensions,
the vast majority of which are fully free. WordPress themes can be obtained from two sources:
wordpress.org and a number of individual theme bloggers and theme shops. However, unlike Wix, you
will not be able to tweak or upgrade the WordPress theme using WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You
Get) editing; if you wish to change anything, you would first learn how to read the text.