Changes

[[File:InternetConnections.jpg|900px|InternetConnections]]

'' '''Note:''' The Internet is a packet-switching network. This means that your email, for example, is broken down into small individual packets which are then sent independently of each other along the many possible routes on the network that connect you to your friend's computer. These packets are then reassembled at the receiver's end to re-create your email. Important! You do not control how data travels through the Internet once you hit the send button.''

* Not knowing the LiveJournal address, you open Google naturally. Your computer doesn't know where www.google.com is and so asks the DNS server for Google's IP.* Using Google's IP you locate the search engine and punch in 'LiveJournal'. The search returns www.livejournal.com which you promptly click.* Once again, your computer has no idea where to locate www.livejournal.com and returns to the DNS server to get its IP.* Finally, using the correct IP you can access LiveJournal's website.

'''Media:''' A brief explanation how websites are located using the DNS.

Another video that discusses the regulative and technical framework behind DNS and why this is important.

The last part of the Internet's infrastructure concerns the applications we use to send and receive content on the Internet. These include your browser, email program, chat client and every other software on your computer that utilises utilizes or help you interact on the Internet. Every application has its particular language and protocols and these often affect how information is transmitted between two computers on the Internet. This usually involves a type of technical language (protocol) by which it communicates or the channel (port) it selects for communication. For example, some applications send data in a clear-text format and every computer/router that stands in-between the communicating parties can access and understand the transmitted information. Other applications take special care to ensure privacy for the communicating parties. For example, when you connect to http://google.com your browser is using the 'http' protocol on port 80. However when the website's address is preceded by the letters 'https' (https://mail.google.com) your browser begins to use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol on port 443. The majority of this course is explaining and exploring the different ways that applications interact on the Internet, directly impacting upon your privacy, anonymity and authentication of the transmitted message.