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CSIS-116: Exam 1
Which of the following are more closely associated with the Internet than the WWW?
(a) Packet Switching
(b) Hypertext
(c) URLs
(d) POP protocol
(e) TCP/IP protocol
(f) Network Routers
List 5 essential things that you would need in order to host a website with your own domain name (i.e.,
www.yourname.com) from your own residence?
1. Computer or Web Server
2. Internet connection with Static IP Address or a host service
3. Content (HTML documents, images, etc)
4. Registration for your domain name
5. Software (Apache, Dreamweaver, FrontPage, etc)
Which of the 5 items (if any) can be obtained for free? Explain how you could get each for free?
Web server software can be free (Apache)
Creating content may not cost anything except time (assuming you already have a computer, etc)
While you might be able to get an internet connect for free via a company or a college, ultimately
somebody is paying for it.
Some hosting services are free (geocities, angel fire, etc)
Which of the 5 items could potentially be the most expensive to obtain and maintain? Explain.
A good internet connection could cost $1000’s per month. Some web design software can cost
$1000’s. If you don’t have the skills to create content, then hiring web designer (consultants) can
be the most expensive. The cost of a good web server is very small relative to the other costs.
What does DNS stand for? Domain Name System
What do DNS servers do specifically?
Translates Domain Names into IP Address so that URL’s can be located on the Internet.
Who is Vinton Cerf? Co-creator of the TCP/IP Protocol
What does http stand for? HyperText Transfer Protocol
What is the difference between http and https?
The S stand for Secure, which means that packets are encrypted before they are sent.
What does TCP/IP stand for? Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
Who invented HTML? (circle one)
(a) Paul Barans
(b) Claude Shannon
(c) Tim Berners-Lee
(d) Derek Jeter
(e) Nobody
(f) A group of 12 nerds at MIT
What does HTML stand for? HyperText Markup Language
What is telnet and SSH used to do? To remotely connect to a server (gives you a command line
interface for typing commands and running programs)
What is the difference between telnet and SSH? SSH stand for Secure Shell and is simply a secure
version of telnet
Is Macromedia Fireworks (circle one)
(a) Desktop Publishing Software
(b) Word Processing Software
(c) Illustration Software
(d) Image Editing Software
(e) Both (c) and (d)
(f) 3D Rendering Software
What is packet switching?
packet switching is a communications paradigm in which packets (messages or fragments of
messages) are individually routed between nodes, with no previously established communication
path
Explain in detail how a web browser is able to locate a web page on another computer.
The web browser sends out a web page request (an http request). This request includes the URL
of the requested web page. The URL includes the network domain name and the web server
name. Throughout the Internet is a hierarchical system of DNS servers, which translate the
server name and domain name into the IP address of the web server. Initially, the http request is
handled by a local DNS server, which forwards the request to higher level DNS servers that are
responsible for the given domain. Once the request reaches the DNS server of given domain, the
IP address of the web server will be translated, so that the request can be directly sent to the web
server.
The Industrial Age is characterized by the simplification of work processes through mechanization
and automation.
Effectiveness is the extent to which desirable results are achieved.
The pervasiveness of knowledge-based products, services, and activities in today’s society has:
(a) reshaped business processes to remove barriers that prohibit an organization from providing better
products and services.
(b) separated a work process into component tasks, with different workers specializing in each of the tasks.
(c) so thoroughly changed the way we act that we often take this technology for granted.
(d) Both a and b.
(e) Both a and c.
Information refers to an organized, meaningful, and useful interpretation of data.
What are the five components of a computer system (hint: a computer system is more than just the
computer)?
Hardware, Software, People, Procedures, and Information
What is the essential difference between a CD ROM disk and a DVD disk?
DVD have multiple layers can store much more data than a CD ROM
What are the four categories of computer hardware?
Input Devices, Output Devices, Processors, and Secondary Storage.
Describe the difference between Main Memory (RAM) and secondary storage.
Main memory stores the data and actual programs as they execute. Main memory is much faster
than secondary storage. Secondary storage refers to hardware such as hard disks, tape drives,
and even CDRW’s, which store programs and data for the long term.
List three different examples of secondary storage devices.
Hard Disk
Tape Drive
CDRW
What are the six characterists of the Information Age? For each one, give a real world example or an
explanation.
1. An information-based society has arisen.
– duh?
2. Businesses depend on information technology to get their work done.
– Could you imagine if E-bay’s computer systems went down?
3. Work processes are being transformed to increase productivity.
– UPS is the classic model company
4. Information technology provides the means to rethink/recreate/reengineer conventional
business processes.
– Amazon.com: PublishersUPSCustomers
5. Success in business is largely determined by the effectiveness with which information
technology is used.
– Prentiss Hall vs. Addison Wesley
6. Information technology is embedded in many products and services.
– Soon it’ll be embedded in all products and service
Recall the six functions of information technology. Actually there are only five because store and
retrieve can be considered a single function. Label each hardware device with one of the five functions.
Example: Keyboard  Capture
Scanner  Capture
Barcode Reader  Capture
Network/Ethernet Card  Transmit
Digital Camera  Capture
Monitor  Generate
Cellular Modem  Transmit
CPU  Process
Printer  Generate
Graphics Card  Generate
Robotic Arm  Capture, Process, Generate
Hard Disk  Store/Retrieve
Microsoft Excel can directly perform four of the five functions. List the four functions and explain
exactly how Excel can perform these functions. Be specific and consider the Excel lab.
1. Capture - raw data can be cut-and-pasted or imported from a variety of different sources
2. Process - raw data can be processed (sorted, grouped, pruned, and summarized)
3. Store/Retrieve - information can be saved and retrieved
4. Generate - reports, charts, etc. can be generated for printing or for presentations.
Draw a diagram of how the computers in lab are connected (connected to each other, connected to the
servers, and connected to the Internet). Label each device. Hint: remember the picture in lab1?
See the lab#1 handout. Its on the course website.
What is the name (abbreviation) of the military department that pioneered the idea of the Internet?
DARPA
What was the motivation behind making the military network a web-like structure rather than a
centralized structure?
Redundancy: If one node was destroyed, the other nodes could still communicate. This simple
concept is what make the Internet so reliable even though servers and connections are constantly
“going down.”
What was the name (abbreviation) of the government department that inherited the initial infrastructure
of the Internet from the military?
ARPA
In what decade was the Internet born (i.e., computers became seamlessly connected across the USA)?
In 1968, the first computers on the Internet became seamlessly connected across the USA.
In what decade did the Internet decide to switch to a common standard protocol?
In 1984, TCP/IP was adopted as the Internet’s standard.
The World Wide Web is more than just web pages. List at least 5 other types of content/services that
are available on the WWW.
Email, Instant Messaging, Online Multi-player gaming, FTP or file sharing, Message boards, etc.
Explain a logical reason why it takes 15 Internet hops for a web page to go from RPI to Siena (6 miles
apart), whereas it make take only 10 Internet hops for a web page to go from California to Siena?
RPI and Siena have different Internet service providers, and the two service providers’ networks
are not locally connected. Whereas, a website in California might be directly connect Siena’s ISP.
Even though search engines exist, why is it still important to create hubs, i.e., websites devoted to a
specific topics that have links to other related websites. Why are hubs still important even though we
can use search engines to find “almost” everything.
Hubs are used by search engines to help identify, group, and rank websites.