Network Protocols

Objectives

At the completion of this lecture you should be able to:

explain what protocols are describe the basics of a packet switched network differentiate between IP, TCP and DNS use the FTP protocol use the Telnet protocol Understand the historical nature Gopher protocol explain the difference between WWW, FTP, Telnet and HTTP

What is a protocol?

Protocol in general

- an acceptable way of behaving. - driving on the left hand side of the road - how to participate in a tutorial discussion. Protocols are critical and there must be agreement on them.

A network protocol

Is the set of very detailed rules, sequences, message formats, and procedures that computer systems use and understand when exchanging data with each other

Examples of Protocols

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Telnet Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) Gopher WWW (World Wide Web)

Packet Switched Network

Network a collection of connected computers

A switched network computers connected via multiple links - data is switched from one machine to the next until it reaches its destination. Packet Switched Network (PSN) message is broken into chunks called packets packets sent - but not necessarily via the same route.

TCP/IP

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)

ARPANET was converted to use TCP/IP which allowed the formation of the Internet It is a group of protocols that allows networked computers to communicate with each other It doesn't matter whether: they are part of the same network or are attached to separate networks. one computer is a mainframe and the other a Macintosh. TCP/IP is a platform-independent standard that bridges the gap between dissimilar computers, operating systems, and networks

More on TCP/IP

So TCP/IP allows two computers to exchange data. This is achieved as follows: When two or more networks are involved they are physically connected by devices called IP routers. A router is a computer that transfers packets of data from one network to another. TCP/IP software makes everything seem like one big network. That is, TCP/IP has the affect of allowing two separate networks to communicate as though they were part of the same physical network.

What is the family of TCP/IP protocols?

Some of the common TCP/IP application protocols include : File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Telnet, Domain Name System (DNS), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME), X Window System, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

SO HOW DOES TCP/IP WORK?

Firstly the Internet Protocol (IP)

Allows for data to be sent over the Internet occurs in packets contains from 1 - 1500 bytes of data each packet is given a destination IP address:
An IP address is an unique identifier for a particular computer on the Internet The addresses include four eight-bit octets, which are often written in decimal format for simplicity. To illustrate this, it is easy to see that the following address 10000111.10100101.00100011.11110000 is more easily written and understood as 135.165.35.240

More on IP
It is a connectionless protocol meaning that all packets are sent on a "best effort" basis. There is no guarantee that the packets will get to the destination in the order they that were sent, or even at all.

Therefore the problems are

packets may get lost packets may arrive out of sequence the message may be longer than 1500 bytes

Answer .
Another protocol .

The second protocol: Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

ensures a sent message is sent without any loss of data or any mix up of the order of the data will request re-transmission of lost or damaged packets. How does it do this? a long message is broken up into many IP packets each packet have a number allocated to it there is error checking damaged or missed packets may be asked for again

Domain Name System

Every computer on the internet has a unique address (like a unique phone number) called an IP address
137.66.125.5 - such numbers are difficult to remember Domain Naming Service (DNS), an Internet protocol and distributed database, provides more English like names for IP addresses. DNS names are easy to understand, for example: www.microsoft.com equates to 198.105.232.6

DNS Who controls it?

Translating the name into the IP address is called resolving the domain name.

ICANN is the global non-profit, private sector body responsible for ensuring the operability of DNS. It overseas the distribution of unique IP addresses.
So how does DNS work when you enter a domain name into your browser?

DNS - divides each IP address into top-level domains, sub-domains, sub-sub-domains etc a bit like a hierarchical type diagram.

How does DNS work?

At the heart of DNS are 13 special computers distributed around the world containing the same information these are called root servers maintained by ICANN.

These root servers contain the IP addresses of all the Top Level Domains (TLD) registries. A TLD registry contains all the information about every top level domain names; for example, .edu.au, .org, .com.uk etc are examples of TLD.
There are also thousands of other computers scattered around the world typically located with ISPs or other network suppliers called Domain Name Resolvers. They are used to resolve the remaining parts of the domain name.

Resolving a domain name ..

So you enter a URL (e.g. www.csu.edu.au) This request is sent to a local resolver (e.g. at tgp.com.au)

This local resolver splits the request and knows where to find the edu.au register and therefore sends the whole URL to one of the 13 root servers. The register responds with the IP address for csu.edu.au
Then the local resolver queries the csu.edu.au register to find the final IP address for www.csu.edu.au

Root server

EDU

COM

ORG

GOV

CSU

ANU

MONASH

CSUSAP

Structure of Internet host names

Example : http://lorenz.mur.csu.edu.au The process is to read backwards: au = Australia edu - educational institution csu - name of the institution mur - a physical location indication Murray lorenz - actual machine name

Naming Conventions for DNS

As you are aware DNS is made up of a sequence of labels separated by periods (.). Also note:

Each label has a maximum of 63 characters Total name can only be 255 characters. The organisation that owns a domain name is responsible for its local DNS server it provides the mapping between the hostname and the IP

Allocation of DNS

In Australia this is administered by APNIC Asia Pacific Network Information Center It is one of four Regional Internet Registries in the world Is charged with ensuring the fair distribution and responsible management of IP addresses Executive of seven members to oversea its operations with 62 countries across the region. http://www.apnic.net

Top level domain names

Examples of these include: edu, com, gov, net, org, mil Latest top level domain names (introduced in 2000): Biz business Info for all users Coop cooperatives Aero air-transport industry Museum museums Name for individuals launched January 2004 Pro - professionals

Rules for allocating second level domain names

Must be a distinct name (e.g. csu)

Cannot be a place

Is not a generic product e.g. pizza, car, restaurant etc.

Is not a generic name describing an organisation or an industry e.g. bank, pharmacy, tennis etc.

So how do I register a domain name?

Domain names ending in .aero, .biz, .com, .coop, .info, .museum, .name, .org or .pro are registered through registrars refer to http://www.internic.net/regist.html once registered your details are sent to other computers with your specific details

What is File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

protocol that allows for the transfer of files across the Internet.

both computers need to run FTP - one acts as a server (remote), the other as a client (local).
mainly shareware type of files. usually stored in ZIP format or self-extracting EXE

disadvantage must know the name of the file you are after

How can I FTP?

Steps to FTP:
1. log on to machine e.g. to csusap 2. Connect to a another remote machine by either: a. anonymous FTP - very common - but can only access files in the pub directory.
login name anonymous password <your email address> e.g. jatkinson@csu.edu.au

Anonymous FTP allows users to enter public data archives and download file

How can I FTP?

b. log in as yourself - this requires you to have an account on that machine i.e. username and password. This is what you do on CSUSAP Typically these machines are UNIX boxes

Pictorial explanation of FTP

get file1.txt Computer B file2.txt

Computer A file1.txt

put file2.txt
Computer B has established an FTP session with Computer A and issues the get and put statement

Both Computer A and Computer B have FTP running

FTP

Basic commands with FTPing

ftp>open csusap.csu.edu.au - establishes FTP session ftp>ls -l (List Long) equivalent to dir on the remote machine

ftp>cd . Changes to a new directory on the remote machine ftp>quit (or perhaps exit) - terminates an FTP session

Which FTP program do I use?

A number are available: WINQVT - traditionally used on Windows 3.1 Unix ftp - activated through Start, Run, ftp CuteFTP - excellent, windows based, easy to use WS-FTP - an FAQ exists for it on the ITC125 site Tucows - excellent repository for FTP programs: (www.tucows.com) Web browser - e.g. Netscape/Explorer to retrieve files

Another practical example of how to use WS-FTP

FTP - summary

The FTP protocol is responsible for allowing the transfer of files from one computer to another (and vice versa). To do this: The FTP program must be running on both connecting machines. You need to login to the remote machine to establish the formal link to allow transfer to occur. There are two types of FTP connection : anonymous (where you connect to a public transfer area) and personal (where you login to your FTP space). You can upload and/or download files to the connection machine

What is the Telnet protocol

Telnet is a protocol that allows for one machine to connect to another computer on the Internet. Basically one computer utilising the resources on another computer local machine a dumb terminal is still based on TCP/IP some 40 Request for Comments (RFCs) specify the nature of the Telnet protocol

Why have a telnet session?

a local machine can access remote computer hardware reduces organisations hardware costs still used to connect to library servers.

ITC125 The Information Super Highway Telnet protocol

Computer A
program S program Y

Computer B

Both Computer A and Computer B have telnet running

Computer B has established a telnet session with Computer A and can now access the programs and resources on Computer A

Historical information interest only .

Gopher - only develop in 1992

- returns a series of menus (which you search through) - these point to other menus - Gopher will go and locate the information for you - no longer popular because of the WWW.

Wide Area Information Service (WAIS)

- basically an indexing tool for information on your server

WWW

World Wide Web (WWW)

a protocol that uses hypertext links accessed by using a browser Uniform Resource Locator (URL) - a specific address to a particular resource. protocol://host/directory/resource Examples http://csu.edu.au/images/csu.gif ftp://ftp.monash.edu.au/pub/win95/update.txt telnet://csusap.csu.edu.au news:aus:computing

Other Web based protocols - HTTP

'HyperText Transfer Protocol' is the primary protocol of the World Wide Web (WWW) When a Web browser connects to a Web server, it uses HTTP to request Web pages A Web browser is an Internet client application, and the Web server is an Internet server application HTTP has the ability to transfer Web pages, graphics, and any other type of media that is used on the Web.

Please note ..

Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) is not an Internet protocol

It is a means to format of Web pages

It consists of a set of tags and internal commands that are embedded inside Web pages to control the appearance and layout of Web pages, as well as links to other Web pages