What is a mail server, proxy server & a firewall?
Explain the differences
How would you go about setting up a mail server & webserver
Registering a domain name
Webserver
I have a this domain (www.thedeakin.net) registered with easy space which hosts the website for me as well. How would I go about hosting my own website and registering it. Then how would I make it a mail server as well.
These are the questions and my thoughts on the previous question, I don’t know the answer yet but I will find out.
To first understand all these I need to first find out what happens on the internet.
Webopedia.com is an excellent resource to find out what a computer terms mean.
I know every time you dial up to the internet you are given an IP address, the problem is you are given a different each time you dial up, unless you are connect continually or you have a fixed IP address, e.g. if you have ADSL you will have a fixed IP address, there are advantages and disadvantages to having a fixed IP address but I will not go into this now.
Now I have ADSL I have a fixed IP address so theoretically I can host my own website but how? My computer has to become a web sever which is:-
Webopedia’s definition
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Web server
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A computer that
delivers (serves up) Web pages. Every Web
server has an IP
address and possibly a domain name. For
example, if you enter the URL
http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html in your browser, this sends a
request to the server whose domain name is pcwebopedia.com. The server
then fetches the page named index.html and sends it to your browser. Any
computer can be turned into a Web server by installing server software and
connecting the machine to the Internet. There are
many Web server software applications, including public domain software from
NCSA and Apache, and commercial packages from Microsoft, Netscape and others.
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While I was working in Tameside schools I know that the schools WebPages where put on the internal Internet servers, I will find out how they did it, I also know they used mdaemon for email.
I have just found a goodweb site
http://www.pineapplesoft.com/newsletter/archive/19980701_server.html
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Welcome to the seventh issue of Pineapplesoft Link. Last month's article on domain names proved very popular. Based on the
comments I received, the right mix seems to be some "technical"
topics like XML, Java and CORBA and some "background" articles like
domain names. This month is more in the "technical topics" track and I'll
discuss the web servers. I have also added a short piece on XML/EDI in
Europe. Finally there's the usual section on Pineapplesoft activities that is
packed with news. Please continue to send your comments or suggestions to bmarchal@pineapplesoft.com. Pineapplesoft Link, July 98:
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The Server is Everywhere
There are also many simple web servers that works great on desktop PCs.
You too can be a web site! Why would you want a web server on your computer? The web server is also
the basis of an Intranet. Install a simple server, hack a few pages and, in
no time, you have created a simple Intranet site. It is a very simple
solution to share documents or your agenda with your co-workers but remember
that you can no longer turn off your computer -- lest your Intranet is no
longer accessible. The latest versions of Windows 95 and Windows 98 ships Personal Web
Server. If you don't have it, you can download it free of charge from the
Microsoft web site. My personal preference is for Netscape FastTrack (http://home.netscape.com),
which is a very powerful yet easy to use server. O'Reilly WebSite (http://www.ora.com) is another
strong choice. What I really like about O'Reilly is the one version that
ships with a book "Building Your Own Web Site". The book teaches
you everything about building a web site and the software allows you to do
it! But Really Everywhere
However web servers are particularly attractive for non-computer devices.
Thanks to progress in electronic chips, a web server can be installed on
virtually any device: garden watering system, answering machines, video
recorders, etc. In practical terms, it means you can hook these devices to
the Internet, or an Intranet, and remotely control them from a PC with a browser. Imagine you are in the office and you suddenly realise you forgot to water
your garden. No big deal, just connect to the web site of your watering
device and turn it on! Sounds like science-fiction? It's not. People are
building such devices today. The main problem is not the hardware but the
pipe. Few homes have the right kind of Internet connection but cable modems
and xSDL promise to change that. Both cable modems and xSDL offer more
bandwidth to the home. Finally IPv6, the next version of the Internet core
protocol, is ready to accommodate more than one device per square meter on
Earth! One of the most intriguing products in that field is probably the
web-enabled keylock. In large buildings the ability to remotely control which
doors are open and which are closed is essential. At least one vendor has put
a web server in its keylocks to support just that. Using a simple web
browser, guards can check the building in minutes. There are many advantages to building a web server in devices. To name but
a few: the web is familiar and easy to use. It is also universal. To control
the device, there is no need for fancy hardware or software -- a very common
web browser suffices. Like the Internet, it's universal: it works both from
home and from the other side of Earth. Finally, it's cheap. Web tools are
widely deployed. What About Security?
At this point, you may be worried about security. What if a villain opens
the door through the web? What if your mother-in-law screw up your video
programming? Security is a very important issue but lots of work has been done on
securing the Internet. There are many standard security and authentication
mechanisms to choose from. Surfing Home
The web is stretching to new horizons and it could stretch to places we never thought of before. Imagine controlling your house, from the heating to the cooking, through you web browser --
worldwide! XML/EDI in Europe
If you read this newsletter since the beginning, you know I have been very
active in developing XML/EDI, through the XML/EDI Group. We started the Group
almost one year ago, before XML was formally adopted as a standard, because
we thought it was a great solution for electronic commerce, particularly EDI. Things have evolved positively. We won the support of many players and,
today, few question that XML and electronic commerce have a long way to go
together. On July 5th, CEN/ISSS Electronic Commerce Workshop announced a
project, with the co-operation of the XML/EDI Group, to promote and study the
application of XML/EDI in Europe. CEN/ISSS is the arm of the European Standardisation Body in charge of the
information society. What the Electronic Commerce Workshop does is evident by
its name. The project has just been approved and we are still looking for partners
(not to mention financing) but I encourage you to visit the project homepage
at http://www.cenorm.be/isss/workshop/ec/xmledi/isss-xml.html. As a background to the issue, I recommend the Netscape View Source article
I wrote in February, "EDI on the Internet", available from http://developer.netscape.com/viewsource/marchal_edata.htm. Seminars on XML/EDI remain very popular. I spoke before Edifrance at the
end of June. My special thanks to Pilar Barea and Claude Chiaramonti for
organizing the event. Self-promotion department
June was a very busy month and there are so many announcements to make
that I don't know where to start. First, Pineapplesoft's new logo. If you have not visited the web site
recently, you have probably missed it. In my view, the logo perfectly
symbolizes IT: it has both a very formal part and an exuberant, lively top.
Just like good IT which is a mix of formalism and creativity. No less than two new articles appeared in June:
Also developer.com ranked the February issue of Pineapplesoft Link (What
You Need to Know About XML) as a "Cool Resource". Which gives me a smooth transition to another award. Pineapplesoft web
site was designated among the top 100 New Technologies web sites and Business
sites in Belgium. Thank you for your support! Last but not least, the demonstration site, Emailaholic.com, is up and
running. The site is still young and features only one applications that
demonstrates a database-driven web application. It gives a fun tour in
smileyland, written in Java with an object database and CORBA. We will
gradually introduce new services for emailaholics, those people who use email
regularly. About Pineapplesoft Link
Pineapplesoft Link is published freely, every month via email. The focus
is on Internet applications in its broadest sense: distributed and mobile computing,
e-commerce, Java, XML, etc. The articles target people interested or
concerned about technology either personally or professionally. This issue of Pineapplesoft Link may be distributed freely for
non-commercial purposes as long as attribution (including the URL: http://www.pineapplesoft.com)
is given. For commercial redistribution, please contact me at bmarchal@pineapplesoft.com. Editor: Benoit Marchal (bmarchal@pineapplesoft.com)
Publisher: Pineapplesoft sprl (http://www.pineapplesoft.com) Acknowledgements: thanks to Sean McLoughlin MBA (smcloughlin@compuserve.com) for
helping me with this issue. To subscribe or unsubscribe point your browser to http://www.pineapplesoft.com/newsletter/index.html.
If you have problems with the Web interface, email bmarchal@pineapplesoft.com. Back issues are available at http://www.pineapplesoft.com/newsletter/archive/index.html. Although the editor and the publisher have used reasonable endeavors to
ensure accuracy of the contents, they assume no responsibility for any error
or omission that may appear in the document. (C) Copyright 1998, Benoit Marchal |
I think I’ve found my answer, I am not going to get ASDL until moday the 21st so I will continue this project very soon.
P.S I’ve not proof read this
I have heard computer people talk about DNS so what is it?
Webopedia’s definition
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DNS
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(1) Short for Domain Name
System (or Service), an Internet service
that translates domain
names into IP addresses. Because domain names are alphabetic, they're
easier to remember. The Internet however, is really based on IP addresses.
Every time you use a domain name, therefore, a DNS service must translate the
name into the corresponding IP address. For example, the domain name www.example.com
might translate to 198.105.232.4. The DNS system is, in fact, its own network. If one DNS server doesn't know how to translate a particular domain name, it asks another one, and so on, until the correct IP address is returned. (2) Short for digital nervous system, a term coined by Bill Gates to describe a network of personal computers that make it easier to obtain and understand information. |
I have found out that when you type in a website DNS translates the website (domain name) to a IP address which is like a house address but for computers.
What is DNS and what exactly does it do
I understand it until I get to the second paragraph is a DNS service a piece of software that comes with you web browser of what?
I found this picture at zoneedit.com which seems to make more understandable
Client enters a
domain name (www.domainname.com) into his browser The browser
contacts the Client's ISP for the IP address of the domain name The ISP first
tries to answer by itself using "cached" data. If the answer is
found it is returned. Since the ISP isn't in charge of the DNS, and is just
acting as a "dns relay", the answer is marked
"non-authoritative" If the answer
isn't found, or it's too old (past the TTL), then the ISP DNS contacts the
nameservers for the domain directly for the answer. If the
nameservers are not known, the ISP's looks for the information at the 'root
servers', or 'registry servers'. For com/net/org, these start with
a.gtld-servers.net. NOTE: The 'whois' information
is never used for DNS, and is often misleading and inaccurate
ZoneEdit.Com
: Simplified example of how DNS works
