INTRODUCTION TO

WEB SYSTEMS &

TECHNOLOGIES
CIT 210 - Web Systems & Technologies
WEB vs INTERNET
Internet
● The internet is short for INTERconnected NETwork
● A giant network of networks
● A network may include PCs, and other devices like servers or
printers
● A network is connected through a communication channel
Internet History
● Early research was performed by the US Department of Defense in
1962
● This research group established ARPAnet (Advanced Research
Project Agency) in order to connect the US Defense Department
network
● The objective of the ARPAnet project was to investigate the
development of a decentralized computer network
● Original aim was to create a network that would allow users of a
research computer at one university to be able to ‘talk to’ research
computers at other universities
Internet History
● A side benefit of the ARPAnet’s design was that, because messages
could be routed or rerouted in more than one direction, the
network could continue to function even if parts of it were
destroyed in the event of a military attack or disaster
● In 1969, four computer clients were connected via ARPAnet
● The ethernet is developed during this period which is a protocol for
describing how computers can be connected in a LAN
● In 1973, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn created the TCP/IP
communication protocols
INTERNET PROTOCOL
SUITE
Internet Protocol Suite
● Includes a number of standard protocols. The two most common
are:
○ Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
○ Internet Protocol (IP)
● A computer communication protocol is a description of the rules
computers must follow to communicate with each other
● TCP/IP defines how electronic devices (like computers) should be
connected to the Internet, and how data should be transmitted
between them
● The TCP/IP protocol is imbedded in TCP/IP software that is part of
the operating system
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
● Handles communication between applications
● Uses a fixed connection
● A connection-oriented protocol
● If one application wants to communicate with another via TCP, it
sends a communication request
● This request must be sent to an exact address
● After a “handshake” between the applications a communication line
opens
Internet Protocol (IP)
● Handles communication between computers
● A connection-less protocol
● With IP, messages are broken down into small independent
“packets” and are sent between computers via the Internet
● IP is responsible for “routing” each packet to its correct destination
● Communication between IP is like sending a long letter as a large
number of small postcards, each finding its own (often different)
way to the receiver
TCP/IP
● TCP takes care of the communication between your application
software (your browser) and your network software - the
handshake
● IP takes care of the communication with other computers - the
postal system which lets you address the package and put it into the
post
● TCP is responsible for breaking down the data into IP packets
before they are sent, and for assembling the packets as they arrive
● IP is responsible for sending the packets to the correct destination
● Every computer has an IP address
WHO OWNS THE
INTERNET?
Who owns the Internet?
● No person or organization owns the entire Internet
● As the internet is a network of networks, each network is owned by
a company
● This is similar to the motorway and road system wherein each town
or state owns and maintains roads in its jurisdiction
WORLD WIDE WEB
World Wide Web
● Also commonly referred to as “The Web”, “WWW”, or “W3”
● In 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee created a set of technologies that
allowed information on the Internet to be linked together through
the use of links, or connections in documents
● The language used to write these documents with links is HTML
● The web was mostly text based until the Mosaic browser was
created in 1992 and people started thinking about adding videos,
sound, and graphics on the Web
World Wide Web
● Essential components of the Web: HTTP (Hypertext Transfer
Protocol), HTML (HyperText Markup Language), and URL (Uniform
Resource Locator)
● The web is therefore online content that is formatted in HTML and
accessed via the HTTP protocol with the help of a URL, which refers
to the address of a given or particular resource on the web.
Internet vs The Web
● A simple way to conceptualize this would be to think of the internet
as a series of roads that connect cities to each other
● The World Wide Web can be thought of as the houses, shops, and
buildings that can be accessed thanks to these roads
DOMAIN NAMES
Domain Names
● Names are easier to remember than a 12 digit (or longer) number
● Some applications let you identify a computer or an IP network
using a logical or domain name
○ www.facebook.com is a domain name
● When you address a web site, like http://www.facebook.com, the
name is translated to a number by a Domain Name Server (DNS)
● When a new domain is registered together with a TCP/IP address,
DNS servers all over the world are updated with this information
Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
● Used to address a document on the Web
● The name that corresponds to an IP address in the DNS is known as
a URL
● A full Web address is like:
○ http://www.example.com/index.html
● A URL usually follows these syntax rules:
○ Protocol (http)
○ Hostname or Domain name (www.example.com)
○ File name (index.html)
URL Codes
● For international use, the domains end in the country code
○ .ie for Irish websites
○ .fr for French websites
○ .co.uk for United Kingdom
○ .ph for Philippines
URL Codes
● Other URL Codes
○ .com - Commercial institute or service provider
○ .me - Personal website
○ .edu - educational institute
○ .gov - Government
○ .org - Nonprofit organization
○ .net - Network service provider
○ .mil - military
Retrieving a URL
● Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is used for sending requests
from a web client (a browser) to a web server, returning web
content (web pages) from the server back to the client
● The Web browser specified the details of the required Web page in
a HTTP Request message
● The Web server receives this request and after processing it
completes the operation by returning either the document or an
error in the HTTP Response message
The HTTP
● Takes care of the communication between a web server and a web
browser
● Before the Web, the Internet protocol was File Transfer Protocol
(FTP)
● FTP was too slow, and HTTP was invented
● HTTP adopted the concept of Hypertext links but its protocol
includes other methods
Four HTTP Messages:
● Connection - establishes a connection between the client and the
server
● Request - asks for a resource
● Response - delivers the resource
● Close - terminates the connection
References

● https://boneymaundu.medium.com/internet-vs-www-5c95f5a9196f

● https://www.slideshare.net/jwhuqyqtayaw/websystemandtechnologiesintroduction1pptx