Internet Activities

Internet Addresses

Scan through the following links to assist you in answering the following questions.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/web-server2.htm

http://www.howstuffworks.com/web-server5.htm

1. What is a URL?
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is a formatted text string used by Web browsers, email clients and other software to identify a network resource on the Internet. Network resources are files that can be plain Web pages, other text documents, graphics, or programs.


2. What is an IP address and how is it related to a URL? 
Every machine on a network has a unique identifier. Just as you would address a letter to send in the mail, computers use the unique identifier to send data to specific computers on a network. Most networks today, including all computers on the Internet, use the TCP/IP protocol as the standard for how to communicate on the network. In the TCP/IP protocol, the unique identifier for a computer is called its IP address.


3. Given our school website's URL is http://www.mcauley.nsw.edu.au, what is our domain name and what protocol do you need to use to access the site?
mcauley.nsw.edu.au
Top-level domain (TDL): edu (educational)
The protocol used to access the site is the IP (Internet Protocol).


4. In the context of an IP address, what is an octet?
IP version 4 uses 32 binary bits to create a single unique address on the network. An IPV4 address is expressed by four numbers separated by dots. Each number is the decimal (base-10) representation for an eight-digit binary (base-2) number, also called an octet. For example 202.76.178.178


Broadband Speedtest
For a bit of fun determine the speed of our internet connection using the site below. Start by testing the connection speed to the Sydney location then select a different location from the map.
http://www.speedtest.net/

1. What is meant by upload and download speeds? 
Download speed is the speed at which your computer can pull data from the network/internet. Upload speed is how fast it can push data out.

2. What are the units used to measure download speeds? 
Mbps which is megabit per second.

3. Why do different locations offer different download speeds? Hint: 'bottleneck'