Contents
Introduction 2
Internet Service Providers 2
Web hosting services 3
Domain structure 3
Domain names 3
Registrars 3
World Wide Web 3
Hardware 4
Web servers 4
Web mail servers 4
Proxy servers 4
Software 4
Emails 4
Browser 4
User side factors 5
Download speed 5
PC performance factors 5
Cache memory 5
Processor speed 5
Server side 5
Web server capacity 5
Bandwidth 6
Executions to be performed before page loads 6
File types 6
Bitmap 6
Vector 6
JPG 6
GIF 7
WAV 7
MP3 7
AVI 7
SWF 7
Web functionality 7
Web 2.0 7
Blogs 8
Online applications 8
Cloud computing 8
Flow chart showing how the internet works and how email servers work. 8
Protocols 8
TCP/IP 9
The application layer 9
Transport layer 9
Network layer 9
Data link layer 9
Conclusion 10
References 10
Web Architecture and components
Introduction
In this report I will be going through absolutely everything that you will need to know about creating a website and what you will need to be looking out for such as client side and server side effects, download speeds, web 2.0, computer performances, browser cache, band width, routers, web components and different file types and image types. This should help you if you’re thinking of making a website.
Web architecture
Internet Service Providers
The Internet Service Providers are companies that are able to provide your house with your broadband connection so that you can do all the stuff that you do on the internet. They are companies like; BT, Plus Net, Talk Talk, Virgin Media. These companies all use digital wires to connect your house to the broadband package that you chose.
Web hosting services
A web hosting service is an internet hosting service that allows you website to be able to be visible on the world wide web, web hosts are companies that you can go to for help with hosting your website or you could host it yourself by buying a web server and doing all the hosting services yourself which will save you a bit of money.
Domain structure
A domain structure is how the URL is set out for example https://www.google.co.uk. The https is whether the hypertext transcript protocol secure so whether it is secure or not secure it’s usually only https if you are on a website that you can do click and pay or do any transaction with a card, the you have the www which is World Wide Web because you are searching the world wide web for your results, then you have Google which is the domain name and finally co.uk which is whether it is an organisation, a commercial or a specific country.
Domain names
Domain names are names that your website is given that has to be typed in to get your website up on the user’s computer. The reason we have domain names is because it is easier to remember them then it is to remember to IP address of all your favourite websites so we just give them the name of the company as the domain name unless that is taken then they will have a unique domain name.
Registrars
Registrars are accredited company that have the right to give other company websites their domain name only registrars are able to give out domain names. If you are making a new company website you will have to go to a registrar to get your domain name for your website. This is important because if you don’t have a domain name then you will have to use an IP address to look up your website.
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is an information system that is on the internet and has all the web pages and hyperlink documents stored in the internet its self. The World Wide Web is an application on the internet, without the internet the World Wide Web will not be able to have all the web pages and the hyperlink text documents, because the internet has all the information stored on it the World Wide Web stores the information and is what you would use in the URL every time you look something up www.
Web components
Hardware
Web servers
Web servers are servers that have every web page and hypertext link document
Stored in huge servers that are all over the world, there are 876,812,666 web server sites across the globe 5,061,365 of which were web-facing computers. Web servers are very important without them the internet would not have any information on it at all, a web server works by requesting the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol and then it will go through the world wide web and end up on your computer screen.
Web mail servers
Web mail servers are servers that store your emails and also allow you emails to flow in and out of your account. The required components that you will need to have your own web mail server are as followed; mail transfer agent, mail delivery agent, IMAP and/or POP3 server then you will also need these additional components which are; spam filter, Antivirus and webmail. So that you can be sure that you receive emails and send the emails properly, this is also for anti-virus protection. Web mail server work by using POP3 to send and receive emails.
Proxy servers
Proxies servers are servers that use other servers to collect the information you have requested therefore speeding up the search that you have just made. Most proxy servers are used on the World Wide Web to help you search for the information on the internet as quickly as possible.
Software
Emails
Emails are an electronic way of talking over the web, you can send and receive emails they are basically letters that are sent via the internet. They are a quick and easy way to contact your friends instead of sending letters in the post and waiting for a week for a response you can now send an email and get an instant response it is so much quicker to send emails then it is to send letters and wait for the response, letters can get lost in the post whereas emails can’t they are stored in a server so that you can reach it at any time.
Browser
A browser is a way of accessing the World Wide Web it opens that internet browsers which then use the World Wide Web to find the answers to your questions and also it allows you to post things on the internet. A browser is basically a window that you can open to access all the knowledge of the internet and then use it to help you do either your work or extend your knowledge.
User side factors
Download speed
The download speeds will affect the speeds of which the website is downloaded because if it is slow then the website will take quite a while to appear on the users screen. If the download speeds are high then it will download as fast as it would at the web server’s location. The higher the download speed the quicker it will download, but the lower it is the slower it will download.
PC performance factors
Browser
A browser is an application which helps with accessing the World Wide Web it opens that internet browsers which then use the World Wide Web to find the answers to your questions and also it allows you to post things on the internet. A browser is basically a window that you can open to access all the knowledge of the internet and then use it to help you do either your work or extend your knowledge.
Cache memory
The cache is a small amount of memory that is stored within the Processor also known as CPU, it stores the most important bit that the processor needs to do first like the operating system and what the time and date. It is very important as it memorises your most used websites to speed up the download speed of it sometimes it just loads in seconds because it know that you will want to use it.
Processor speed
Processor speed is how many cycles that it can do in a second so for example if you have a 4.3GHz processor then it would do 4.3 billion cycles a second if you had a quad core processor then you could do 17.2 billion cycles a second, that faster than the speed of sound. The processor is the most important piece of the computer hardware that is needed.
Server side
Web server capacity
Web server capacity is good because you can have as much storage as you like and have it a fast as you want it to be , but that is only if you own the server, if you hire a web server it will be as fast as the person that is running it has set it to be. It is easier to have your own web server because you can then set it up how you would like it to be set up, but if you use a web host then they sometimes offer you some extra things like maintenance and security for your web page.
Bandwidth
The band width is the amount of traffic that your web server can take so for example if 200 people were downloading your webpage at a once then the download speed of your webpage would be slower while everybody was trying to download the page, the more people using it the slower it would be. The bandwidth also tells you how many downloads that you can do at a time for example if you could download 2 or 3 downloads at once.
Executions to be performed before page loads
The website must execute the loading of all the images within your webpage this means that it will take a short time before it loads up to execute all the loading of words, images, links and videos if you have any videos on your webpage. The browser would also have to go through a quick security scan to check that the website doesn’t have any malware or viruses on it that your computer might be able to be infected by.
File types
Bitmap
A bitmap is a graphical pixel map which allows you to colour a shape it means that you can have 2 colours per bit; this is useful for graphical computing because they can use more colours in a picture which means that they have a bigger selection compared to a JPG of a Vector.
Vector
Vectors are used to define a certain path within an image, such as an EPS file and adobe illustrator documents. These kinds of files are often called vector graphics because they are compromised of paths instead of dots. Vector graphics can be smaller or larger without losing any quality.
JPG
Jpg also know as JPEG files are a common format for digital photos or graphics. Jpegs are used for websites because they are the easiest photos to put into a HTML document, however if you’re using dream weaver then you can use any picture file because it will type the code for you. The jpeg files can have up to 16.7 million different pictures. It uses lossy which means that it will lose quality if it is made bigger or smaller which is a bad thing if you are making a professional website and all the images are jpegs they will all look blurry and distorted.
GIF
A Gif is a bitmap image format that supports up to 8 bits per pixel for each picture; it has its own palette with up to 256 different colours chosen form 24-bit RGB colour space. Gifs support animations so you can make your images move for example making a globe spin in a picture.
WAV
This is an audio file that is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing music and audio bit streams on PCs. It is an application that allows you o store data in chunks, it is also close to the 8SC=VX and the AIFF format used on Amiga and Macintosh computers.
MP3
This is a compressed audio file uses lossy data compression and allows you to store music files that don’t take up as much memory as they would as a wav file. This is useful for a quality file piece that allows you to have sound on it with low storage needs which means more storage available.
AVI
An AVI is an audio video interleaved which is a multi media file that was introduced by Microsoft. AVI files can store audio and video files with in a single file which is what we call a movie clip or a video. They are able to be used for play back so you can record something on a camera put it on a PC or laptop and then watch it back.
SWF
A SWF is another format that is used for multimedia, vector graphics. It allows you to play back the file with audio, you can create these SWF files using adobe illustrator which means you can turn a couple of images into a short video and put a soundtrack or video in the background.
Web functionality
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is a very useful update to the World Wide Web it allows you to use social media and play games online with your friends, it is used mostly to emphasize content that is looked up by the user it will remember it and show you cheaper versions of the things you have been looking at and also what you might like. Web 2.0 has changed the way we use the internet because we now use it for gaming, social media, research, online applications and much more it’s almost as if we depend on web 2.0 to entertain us and help us with our struggles.
Blogs
Blogs are a form of diary that you can post on the internet it allows you to share information of a holiday or trip with certain people or you could share a blog with the world to help people with things that they need to know or things they want to know. People do blogs because it’s a way or publicising things that are positive within their life and things that are negative with in their life, blogs are used to educate, to inform people and to help people with how to do things that they don’t know how to do.
Online applications
These are client server soft ware’s that allow you to either store files online, play online games, install apps on to your phone using the internet and also use online offices like Microsoft online. These have changed our lives because we used to have to write out documents but now we can type up our CV’s using online apps and web pages, we can use Microsoft word and all the Microsoft apps online. This has also revolutionised our lives and helped us a lot for future and now.
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is online storage that allows you to access that storage where ever you are whenever you are, all you need is an account and then you have up to a terabyte worth of online storage for work, music, videos, photos, and much more. This is useful to us because if we store all our important files and memories from our holidays and special occasions in plastic folders and there was a fire for instance all your files will be lost all your memories but now you can store all your memories and documents in a file that is safe from fires and natural disasters, and available from all over the world. Now that is impressive don’t you think?
Flow chart showing how the internet works and how email servers work.
Protocols
TCP/IP
The TCP/IP or internet protocol suit is made up of 4 different layers; the application layer, transport layer, internet layer and data link layer.
The application layer
The application layer is the top layer of the TCP/IP, it includes applications or processes that can be used to help the transport layer to deliver the computers requested data. At each layer there is a different protocol these are; HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol), FTP (File transfer protocol), SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) and SNMP (simple network management protocol). These are all used to aid all the layers below the application layer.
Transport layer
The transport layer provides the main parts of data flow between two hosts this layer receives data from the top layer. There are many more protocols that this layer uses but the most common are the TCP and UDP. The TCP protocol is the divider; it divides the data from the application layer into proper sized chunks and passes these chunks onto the network. The UDP provides the simpler method but this method is less reliable, it sends packets from one host to another and doesn’t measure the data to ensure that it’s small enough to be received by the target host or not.
Network layer
This layer is known by everyone as the internet layer; the main purpose of this layer is organizing and handling movement of data on a network. It controls the route that the data takes and makes sure that it goes to the right place, the main protocol used buy this layer is the IP but it also uses ICMP and IGMP.
Data link layer
This layer is the device driver in the OS and the network interface card attached to your system it is important because it is like the gate keeper it sends information and communicates with the media that is being used to do the data transfer. It uses protocols like ARP (Address Resolution Protocol), AND PPP (Point to Point Protocol).
Conclusion
In this report I have mentioned all the information that you will need to know when building and website and what factors you will need to consider when designing the website for example not having too many images or having compressed files on your website so it shortens the download speed of your website. This is everything that is needed when designing and making a website.
References
Ramesh Natarajan. (2011). TCP/IP Protocol Fundamentals Explained with a Diagram. Available: http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2011/11/tcp-ip-fundamentals/. Last accessed 19/11/15.