Important Web Basics Affecting Your Computer Security
Without a doubt, malware is here to stay. And with our increasing dependence on computing devices and the Internet to run our lives, it’s essential to have the right know-how to keep your personal information protected.
This guide series will explore some basic yet important Web terms to better enable you to keep your computer or home network safe. Part 1 will look at Hosts, IP addresses, DNS, ISP’s and what is known as the Backbone.
Hosts
While the term “host” has multiple meanings in the computer world, for average users it is used to describe a computer or server that delivers web pages.
Host also refers to the companies that allow people to share their server hardware and Internet connection as a service.
An additional use for the term describes a host as any computer that has a live connection with the Internet. All computers on the Internet are peers to one another, so they can all act as servers or as clients. In other words, you can run a web site on your computer just as easily as you can use your computer to view web sites from other computers.
IP Address
Every computer (host) has a unique identification called its IP (Internet protocol) address. This is made up of four blocks of three numbers between 0 and 255. In addition, different ranges of IP addresses are owned by different companies who provide Internet to customers. What all this means is that effectively your individual computer can be identified and your Internet actions traced. IP addresses are the language which computers understand to facilitate the correct funnelling of information.
DNS
The DNS (domain name system) is what the Internet uses to translate IP addresses to properly route communications. For example, if you enter “gmail.com” into your web browser, that information is sent to a DNS server which checks its database and translates the address to the IP address in numbers which computers understand, so they can then relay communications to their intended destinations.
DNS servers are located globally rather than there being a single, central database. This helps to protect the Net by not providing a single point of failure that could take down everything. It also helps speed up processing and minimises the time it takes to translate names into IP addresses by dividing the workload among many servers across the world.
ISP
ISP means Internet Service Provider. Most suppliers these days have their own DNS servers to handle their customer’s online communications. Depending on the size of an ISP, they may have multiple DNS servers which might also be scattered across the globe. An ISP will also own or lease the telecommunications lines necessary to connect you to the Internet – this is the service you pay for from your provider.
Backbone
The major conduits of the Internet are referred to as the “backbone” – these telecommunication channels are owned by the world’s largest ISP’s. They operate in the same way as your spinal cord going through your backbone and acting as the central pipeline for communications throughout your nervous system. Continuing with this analogy, the nervous system then branches off into smaller pathways until it gets to the individual nerve endings, similar to the way Internet communications branch from the backbone to the smaller ISP’s and finally down to your individual computer (host) on the network.
If something negatively impacts one of the companies that provide the telecommunications lines that make up the backbone, it can affect huge portions of the Internet because many smaller ISP’s that use that section of the backbone will be affected as well.
Conclusion
Since malware threats are only getting increasingly prolific, it’s crucial to have a basic understanding of how the Web is structured to help you ensure your computer has adequate Internet security. In summary of the above guide, you will now know that the Internet backbone providers supply communication access to smaller ISP’s who in turn supply that online access to you. You’ll also be aware that your computer is a host which is connected to the billions of other “hosts” on the Internet, and that the DNS system translates the “plain-English” names we use into the computing language of IP addresses so that information can be correctly channelled.
About the Author: Peter McKiel is an independent IT Consultant.
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