Some Interesting Knowledge about Network

Recently, I watched a very interesting video - 'Warriors of the Net' about how the network infrastructure works from one terminal to another through the internet. Here is the link: http://www.warriorsofthe.net/.

As we all known, the first step to learn how to build a website on the internet is to understand the importance of the internet. The internet is a global computer network which provides a way for remote computers to communicate and share services and resources. We should understand the types of connections such as ISDN (Intergrated Services Digital Network) and DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), the connection speeds, the Internet Service Provider (ISP).

From another viewpoint, the Internet can be seen as a set of communication protocals. The data communication protocals are used for different purposes. So there is an international ratified standard which is called 'OSI (Open Systems Interconnect) Model' setting out these purposes in seven layers which are Appllication, Presentation, Session, Tranport, Network, Data and Physical layer. And an alternative model is the TCP/IP Model.

When we are going to build up a website on the Internet, we mainly focus on the Application Layer of protocals like HTTP, SMTP, POP3, FTP, Telnet, etc., which are built on the top of the TCP/IP protocal stack. We need to master the knowledge about the format of IP addresses, data packets, how router and swotch works, domain names, DNS, the meaning of URL, the client-server model, and the world wide web. All of these information constitute the whole structure of the Internet. Before commencing the journey of programming, they are the essential and necessary foundation.

References:
Kinkoph, S.W. 2005, Teach Yourself VISUALLY HTML, 2nd edn, Wiley Publishing, Inc., Hoboken, Canada.
Murphy, B. 2000, Building a Web Site on the Internet, 1st edn, Internet Handbooks, United Kingdom.