Internet Self Quiz
Consider each of the following questions and statements and try to answer them from your own understanding. Then hover over the question or statement to compare your thoughts with the given answer.
Q1. What was the name of the first network?
ARPAnet.
Q2. Who funded the first network?
Q3. What was the first message printed when two computers in the above network were connected?
Q4. What is a protocol in the context of networks?
Q5. Why are network protocols important?
Q6. What is an IP address?
It is an address formed according to the Internet Protocol and is used to uniquely identify computers connected to the Internet so that communication can be made reliably between any two computers on the Internet.
Q7. What is a network interface card (NIC)?
A network interface card must be part of any computer that is to be connected to the Internet. It is hardware responsible for delivering and receiving network communications from and to the computer to which it is attached.
Q8. What is a MAC address?
A MAC address is a permanent address embedded by the manufacturer in a network card. When an IP address is assigned to a computer it can be uniquely done by associating the IP address with the MAC address.
Q9. What does DNS stand for and what is its purpose?
DNS stands for Domain Name Service. Since all communication among computers on the Internet must be done via IP addresses, all domain names, such as montana.edu, must be resolved to equivalent IP addresses before a file can be transmitted across the Internet. A Domain Name Service is a program that, when given a domain name (e.g., montana.edu), will return its associated IP address (e.g., 153.90.2.87). This IP address can then be used to reach the computer associated with the domain name.
Q10. What is DHCP, and what is its purpose?
DHCP stands for yet another protocol: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. As we know, a computer attached to the Internet must have a unique IP address assigned to it. Computers acting as servers generally stay put in one location and can have an assigned IP address that is fixed for a long time. Laptops, smart phones, iPads, and tablets move around widely and regularly and show up in different local area networks all the time when they "join" whatever wireless network is in range at a given time. Those computers usually have their network settings configured to "Use DHCP." In these cases, a temporary IP addressed is assigned on the fly to the computer joining the network (it is known which computer has which IP address because the IP address is associated with the MAC address of the computer).
Q11. What is a "gateway" in a local area network (LAN)?
A gateway in a LAN is a computer with associated software that provides the connection from computers in the internal LAN to the external Internet so that email correspondence, Web browsing, and so forth can get out to all of the world. Having a gateway helps secure the LAN as all traffic between computers in the LAN and computers on the Internet must go through the gateway.
Q12. What is an Internet packet?
A packet is a chunk (certain number of bytes) of a file that is augmented with head and tail information according to the Internet Protocol in a way that ensures that the packet will reach its intended destination with its original contents, and be able to be reasembled with all other packets from the sent file back into the original file.
Q13. What kinds of information are sent with a packet?
See the example in page 3 of this section about the Internet.
Q14. Discuss the benefits of sending a file in packets across the Internet.
Compare your answer with the presentation in page 3 of this section about the Internet.