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What Is Web Address ?? Explained Briefly.

HTTPS and padlock in website address bar

WEB ADDRESS

The Internet is network where millions of computers are connected together. Each computer on the network is called a node. Each node needs an identity for proper Communication on the Internet. An Internet address uniquely identifies are node on the Internet without which it cannot be reached by other computers. Internet address may also refer to the name or IP address of a Web site (URL).
There two ways of writing the Web address.

1. Domain name system


2. IP address


IP Address- Internet Protocol address that computers, servers and other devices use, to identify one another on the network. IP address uses four numbers between 0 and 255 to address a computer or we can say it uses 32 bits (4 bytes). They are normally written as four numbers separated by a period. For example:104.43.195.251 is the IP address of Microsoft in India.

Domain Name System
– There are a millions of websites and it is difficult to remember the 12 digit address for each. Hence, a character based naming system, Domain name system (DNS) is used. When you enter a domain name, its IP address will be resolved by Domain Name Resolvers (DNR). DNRs or resolvers, are located within individual Internet Service Providers and Organizations. They locate the IP address of the required domain and the process is called as Domain Name Resolution.

URL- Uniform Resource Locator is the unique address of each web page. You can access the webpage quickly if you know it’s URL.
The Web address is specifies the protocol for accessing the page, the domain on which it resides as well as the path for pages and files on the site. The URL consists of a special format.

Protocol is the first part and tell you what type of connection is established.

Common protocols include Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) for accessing Web pages or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), which is a secure version commonly used on sites that perform e-Commerce.

Domain Name is the second part of the Web Address. It is the unique identifier for the website on the Internet and its mostly the name of the website for ease of remembering. Here the domain extension follows the domain name and used to denote what type of website it is. Here www.oracle.com is the domain name The domain name also has domain extension which is the three letter word, com in this case. This indicates that the website which is making this resource available to you is commercial in nature.

Path and Filename
The path is the section of the Web Address after the domain extension. It tell the browser which folder or file to open. The path name is case sensitive so “/about. html” is not the same as “/About.html.” If no path has been specified, “Home Page” file is shown. In this example sun/index.html is the path/filename.

E-mail address
An email address is the name for an electronic postbox that can receive and send e-mail messages on a network. It identifies the address of the person for whom the e-mail is meant.

Format for an e-mail address: An e-mail address has the format user_name@domain. An address consists of two parts. The user name is separated from the domain name by the symbols @. The part before the @ (at) sign identifies the name of a mailbox. You will learn more about it in the next chapter.

SSH (Secure Shell)
The SSH protocol is a method for secure remote login from one computer to another. It was originally developed by Tatu Ylonen in 1995 is response to a hacking incident in the Finish University network. It provides several alternative options for strong authentication. It uses from strong encryption to protect the security and integrity of the data being transferred.

SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol)
SFTP is also known as Secure File Transfer Protocol. It runs over the SSH protocol. It supports the full security and authentication functionality of SSH. It is quickly replacing FTP/s for the file transfer. It provides all the functionality offered by these protocols, but in a more secure and the reliable manner and with easier configuration.

SFTP is preferred to FTP because of its underlying security feature and ability to run on an SSH connection. FTP is an insecure protocol that should only be used in limited cases or an networks which you can trust. The data is insecure and can be stolen easily when it travels over FTP.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
FTP taked care of transmission of files between different computers. FTP can transfer files between any computers that have an Internet connection and also transfer between computers using totally different operating systems. Although new method have come up for file transfer, FTP is still faster than other contemporary methods.

FTP supports Automatic Resume. This means that if you are downloading a latest new game and for some reason the download stops and the middle of the transfer, the FTP client will try to continue from where it is stopped in the next attempt out download. This feature helps in saving a lot of time.

FTP is the language that computers used to transfer of share files to and from each other on a TCP/IP Network. You can use an FTP client to log into an FTP server and navigate the server folder structure to exchange files. You can modify or delete files at the server.

FTP clients interface is usually divided into panes- the pane on the left shows the files and folders on your computer (Desktop, My Documents, etc.) and the pane on the right displays the files on the remote server.

Connecting to a Remote Machine
The browser will prompt you for a password and you do not have to worry about it being stored. When you are connected to an FTP server either using your web browser or an FTP client, you can see a list of folders and documents that have files which can be downloaded to your computer. If you are using a web browser, click on the files you would like to download and it will prompt you to save it or open it. You should first specify where you would like to save to, and then double click on the file to start the download.

TELNET (Terminal Network)
Telnet is the network protocol used with TCP/IP networks such as the Internet to connect to remote computers. It is a simple, text-based network protocol that is used for accessing remote computers. Telnet was created and launched in 1969.
The Telnet program runs on your computer and connect your computer to a server on the network. It is used on a local area network to provide a bidirectional interactive communication facility.
To start a Telnet session, the user must log in to a server by first providing the hostname. The user will then be promoted for entering a valid username and password. The user can then use Telnet program to enter the commands and they will be executed as if the user was entering them directly on the server console. This helps the user to control the server and also communicate with other servers on the network.
The computer which initiates the connection is referred to as the local computer. The computer which accepts the connection, is referred to as the remote computer. The remote computer can be located physically in the next room, the next city on an another country.

Using Telnet in Windows
Telnet is a common way to control Web server remotely. It is rarely used to connect to devices or systems anymore as it provides zero file transfer encryption which means that all data transfer made over Telnet are in clear text and all the passwords are also clearly visible.

Internet is very useful for everyone. It is the superhighway of information. As you have already read and see in that we cannot imagine our lie without a computers but even more so without the Internet. Can you imagine spending even a single day without the internet ?

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Lucifer

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