Understanding the Web: Client-Server Model, DNS, Web Server Hardware, and Technologies, Study notes of Web Design and Development

Download Understanding the Web: Client-Server Model, DNS, Web Server Hardware, and Technologies and more Study notes Web Design and Development in PDF only on Docsity! ASSIGNMENT 1 FRONT SHEET Qualification BTEC Level 5 HND Diploma in Computing Unit number and title 10: Website Design & Development Submission date Date Received 1st submission Re-submission Date Date Received 2nd submission Student Name Student ID Class Assessor name Student declaration I certify that the assignment submission is entirely my own work and I fully understand the consequences of plagiarism. I understand that making a false declaration is a form of malpractice. Student’s signature Grading grid P1 P2 P3 P4 M1 M2 M3 D1 II. DEFINITION AND PURPOSE OF DNS DEFINITION: DNS stands for Domain Name System - A system for transforming alphabetic names to numeric IP addresses on the Internet to translate our domain names. It was created in 1983 at the University of California, Irvine. It is intended to be a distributed hierarchical system (Krajacic, 2021). Figure 2: DNS Image PURPOSE:  It can handle the large volumes of requests required by the internet or a tiny private network.  When a user types a Web address (URL) into a browser, DNS servers return the IP address of the Web server that corresponds to that name. The DNS translates the URL www.company.com into the IP address 204.0.8.51 in this made-up example.  To retrieve the website without DNS, you'd have to type a series of four digits and dots into your browser, which you can do. Look at the IP address. It is a system that matches names with numbers like a phonebook does. III.  When a client attempts to resolve google.com, it checks its DNS cache first. If it has it cached, it will show up.  Simply type that address into your browser. If it doesn't, the lookup procedure will begin. DNS TYPES There are some main DNS server types:  DNS Resolver: Once a DNS query has been sent from the client, a recursive resolver will bring back cached data if it is found in the cache, or it will send a request to a root nameserver, then another request to a TLD (Top Level Domain) nameserver, and finally a request to an authoritative nameserver. If the recursive resolver does not have the requested website in its cache, it will go through the process of obtaining the desired website's IP address and returning it. It will then save this IP address for a length of time in its memory (W3schools, 2017).  DNS Iterative: The iterative DNS query will ask a DNS server for information on a website; the user will enter the URL of the website they are looking for, and the resolver will either provide an answer from cached memory or ask another DNS server if they have the answer by returning the address of that DNS server; if it cannot return a definitive answer, it will ask the next server. The query will begin at the root server and work its way down the levels based on the referrals it receives.  DNS Root Servers: The root name server for DNS records is a server that plays a key role in converting a domain name into an IP address for a machine by responding to queries made in the DNS root zone. The servers can respond to queries that have been cached in the root zone. They can also redirect non-TLD server queries to the TLD server.  TLD (Top Level Domain) Nameserver: The TLD nameserver refers to the portion of a domain name that comes after the dot. TLDs are divided into two groups: country TLDs and industry TLDs. As an example. FR stands for France, while.GOV stands for government websites. In the root zone of the DNS for the internet, the TLD is the highest level of domain names. It is the last section of the domain name 1 for the other domains at lower levels. The IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), which is part of the ICANN organization, is in charge of managing TLD nameservers (W3schools, 2017).  Authoritative Nameservers: Answers to a DNS query are provided by an authoritative nameserver. It does not deliver replies from the cached memory for websites 3. The authoritative nameserver responds to recursive DNS nameservers with the IP address of the website (or other server) being sought. The authoritative name server manages domain name records, which can be A, CNAME, MX, NS, SOA, or TXT records. If a DNS server in a network stores a record for a website, such as www.example.co.uk, this DNS server becomes the authoritative server for the example.co.uk domain (W3schools, 2017). IV. HOW DNS WORKS 1. How DNS are organised: DNS servers are arranged in a hierarchical structure and communicate via private network protocols. Each DNS server has a public IP address and a database of other Internet hosts' network names/addresses (Fielding, 2014). Process: Step 1: Requesting Website Information When you ask your computer to resolve a hostname, such as https://dyn.com, the procedure begins. Your computer's local DNS cache, which retains information that it has recently retrieved, is the first place it checks for the associated IP address (Mitchell, 2018). Step 2: Contact the Recursive DNS Servers In case the information is not kept locally, your computer queries (contacts) your internet service provider's recursive DNS servers (resolvers) (ISP). Step 3: Query the Authoritative DNS Servers In case the recursive servers are unable to find a solution, they contact the root name servers. A name server is a computer that responds to inquiries for domain names and IP addresses. The TLD name servers examine the next element of our request — www.dyn.com — and route our inquiry to the name servers for that domain. These authoritative name servers are in charge of knowing everything there is to know about a domain, which is kept in DNS records. There are many different types of records, each with its own set of data. Step 4: Access the DNS Record The recursive server obtains the dyn.com A record from the authoritative name servers and stores it in its local cache. If someone else asks for the dyn.com host record, the recursive server will already know the answer and won't have to go through the lookup procedure again. Every record has a timetolive value, which is similarly to an expiration date. To ensure that the information doesn't get out-of-date, the recursive server will need to request a new copy of the record after a while. Step 5: Final DNS Step. Recursive server returns the A record to your machine after receiving the answer. Your multimedia files, text files, and documents, among others, are examples of file types (W3schools, 2017).  Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP): HTTP is a protocol for exchanging hypertext between two or more systems. Links are created using HTML tags. These links can take any form, including text and graphics. HTTP is based on client-server concepts, allowing a client system to connect to a server machine in order to send a request. The server acknowledges the client's request and responds as appropriate. o HTTP convention:  HTTP requests: A client sends an HTTP request to a specific host, which is located on a server. The request's goal is to gain access to a server resource.  HTTP responses: A server sends an HTTP response to a client. The response's goal is to either supply the client with the resource they requested, or to alert them that the action they asked was completed, or to inform them that an error occurred while processing their request. o Apache is a general-purpose HTTP server developed by the Apache HTTP Server Project with the goal of creating and maintaining an open-source HTTP server for modern operating systems such as UNIX and Windows NT. o Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) - Microsoft's Web server that provides Web application infrastructure for Windows Server; the IIS 6.0 release is the most recent version (Fielding, 2014). o Novell's Web Server – is a Web server for NetWare customers; the most recent release is the NetWare Enterprise Web Server, which comes included with NetWare 6 (Mitchell, 2018). o There are some HTTP request methods:  GET: The GET method requests a representation of the specified resource. Requests using GET should only retrieve data.  HEAD: The HEAD method asks for a response identical to a GET request, but without the response body.  POST: The POST method submits an entity to the specified resource, often causing a change in state or side effects on the server. II.  PUT: The PUT method replaces all current representations of the target resource with the request payload.  DELETE: The DELETE method deletes the specified resource.  CONNECT: The CONNECT method establishes a tunnel to the server identified by the target resource. WEB SERVER HARDWARE: Server Hardware refers to the computer hardware provided by Central Square upon which Licensed Software has been installed and which operates in a local area network and runs administrative system that controls direct exposure to all or part of the network and its resources and tends to make such resources available to computers acting as network workstations (Anon., 2018). III. WEB SERVER SOFTWARE: Server software is software that is intended to be executed, managed, and used on a computer server. It allows and simplifies the use of underlying server computing capacity for a variety of high-end computing services and functions. Server software is designed to connect with the physical infrastructure of a server, which includes the CPU, memory, storage, I/O, and other communication interfaces. Server software can be classified into many types depending on the type of server and how it is utilized (Anon., 2017). Each Communication has it own communication protocols and Web Server Software also has HTTP protocol. IV. OPERATING SYSTEMS: Software is just instructions that can be stored and run by hardware, and software on the computer is apps that run inside the computer, which we cannot hold or touch. There is a lot of software on a computer. Each piece of software caters to a distinct function. V. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COMMUNICATION PROTOCOLS, SERVER HARDWARE, OPERATING SYSTEMS AND WEB SERVER SOFTWARE Communication Protocols: The protocol communication specifies communication rules, syntax, semantics, and synchronization, as well as error recovery mechanisms. Hardware, software, or a combination of both can be used to implement protocols. Message, sender, receiver, transmission medium, and protocol are the four components of data communication, and there are several features of a transmission that a convention might characterize. Servers Hardware: Hardware is made up of all the physical objects that you can touch and see that have been integrated and built into a single entity known as a Personal Computer (PC). In this situation, it may be a laptop or perhaps one of your mobile devices. Web server hardware aids in the delivery of web content that can be accessed via the internet, and it is important for web traffic because it must ensure that HTTP requests are serviced with the shortest possible response time. Web server hardware is also important for the customer's perspective, as it is considered rude if a service provider makes his customer wait primarily on the web (Fielding, 2014). Operation System: A host operating system is required to run those web server hardware, software, and communication protocols. The host operating system employs container-based virtualization, in which containers are logical partitions that are used to separate applications on the same server and allow them to share the same usually faster and more concise, but this relies on the level of activity within the framework — as demonstrated by a framework like Ruby on Rails, which has a large community and is known for its friendly nature and good support. o It reduces Code Length. Frameworks remove the need to create a lot of repetitive code, which can be found in a variety of applications. Efficiency is a benefit that should never be overlooked. You can expect to complete a project in a fraction of the time it would take to write code without a framework. o As a framework that is typically developed and tested by a large number of developers, it can achieve a high level of security. When the framework is being constructed, it is quite likely that various security issues will be addressed and tested. o Integration: A database is often used to develop practically any form of application (including a website) that requires data storage. There are numerous other tools related to web development. As a result, many frameworks will make it easier to connect to and communicate with these technologies (Nick, 2020). Disadvantaged of Technologies, framworks: o It Prevents Developers from Learning the Pure or detail Language: Frameworks, as previously said, handle the implementation of some capabilities in the background for developers. Because they don't need a deep understanding of the programming language to learn and use these frameworks to design and deploy web apps. It eliminates the possibility of these programmers learning how to use the programming language more effectively. As a result, one's knowledge is limited to only a few libraries that are fluent in that language. o Provides a Programming Paradigm That Is Inflexible: For designing web applications, frameworks can be customized to use specific tools or follow specified methods. A lot of the key components of these frameworks are nearly impossible to change as a result of this. Even though frameworks enable for the creation of unique web apps, the level of customization that can be achieved is limited. Because developers don't have the ability to fine-tune specific functionality. o Loading Time for Hampers' Website: Because of the large number of pre-defined programming code that come with a library or framework, the majority of which are basically unnecessary for creating simple web apps. These frameworks frequently include big files that degrade the website's speed and performance. As a result, the final application should have a substantially slower load time. Developers do have the option of choosing between a full-stack and a micro web framework, though. Frameworks, on the other hand, vary in terms of functionality, usability, and performance (Anon., 2018). E. REVIEW THE INFLUENCE OF SEARCH ENGINES ON WEBSITE PERFORMANCE AND PROVIDE EVIDENCE-BASED SUPPORT FOR IMPROVING A SITE’S INDEX VALUE AND RANK THROUGH SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION(M2). I. Definition of Search Engine Definition: A search engine is Internet-based software that searches a database of information for answers to a user's query. The engine returns a list of results that best fit the user's search criteria. All search engine data is gathered using a crawler that visits and collects information from each page on the Internet. The data on a page is processed and indexed once it has been crawled. This frequently entails the steps outlined below. o o o o Remove all stop words. Make a list of the remaining terms on the page, as well as the frequency with which they appear. Make a list of other pages' links. Make a note of any images, audio, or embedded media that appear on the page. II. o A lot of factors are used to rank search results. Keyword density, speed, and linkages are examples of these factors. The goal of the search engine is to offer the most relevant result to the user. Review the Influence of Search Engines on Website Performance More than half of all visitors and users come to websites via a search engine (Introna and Nissenbaum 2000), and most of them say they always or almost always find the information they are looking for when using search engines. Search engines gradually have been becoming a crucial channel for enhancing global reach as well as competing with larger companies. The webpage could be one of the first few results returned from a related search engine query by using Search engines. This refers to information that is readily available and accessible to a certain audience. That's a boost in exposure, which means more people will visit our website. Search engine optimization improve its ranking in the search engine result page, which is possessed of small business which cannot afford other marketing channels to enhance their business visibility. It is indicated that some companies whose websites appear on the top of Search Engine Results Page all applied SEO well (iProspect, 2006). Many experts in this field claimed that search engines are no longer only useful information tools, but also significant agents of change in the business world, making it more transparent and competitive through SEO contributes directly to new customer acquisition (Hansell, 2007). III. The Evidence-based Support for Improving a Site’s Index Value and Rank Through Search Engine Optimisation 1. Make Research Keywords Well: High results page ranks aren't always guaranteed by powerful and well-chosen appropriate Keywords. They can, however, make you incredibly competitive for a top spot in search results(Hansell, 2007). Starting the site's name with Keywords, every aspect of your site can help the website improve its search exposure. Because if users search different theme, it will customize the title and tagline in the Appearance page, which are both searchable. If the website's domain name doesn't contain Keywords or a description of its site, adding keywords wherever possible in these two lines might assist make web's site more search friendly. So, it would be necessary for independently testing each keyword's performance on Google. This impartial audit will only take a few time, but it will help find the possibility for more high- performing keywords. 2. Maximize the Website: One of the finest SEO options is to optimize your website in order to maximize the effectiveness of your SEO strategy. Visitors can still quit your site if they aren't impressed, no matter how efficient your SEO marketing is. In fact, if your site isn't user-friendly and captivating from the start, you'll have a high bounce rate. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly to get the most out of your SEO efforts. This ensures that anyone may visit your site and view its content comfortably on any screen (Anon., 2019). This is critical since many users will do business-related searches on their mobile devices. It should also be simple to navigate your website. Menu tabs should be visible and distinct. Ensure that users can quickly access the most critical information, such as contact information, product options, and FAQ pages (Barnard, 2020). Finally, make sure that none of web's material contains any grammatical or spelling issues.