assignment on internet services

In a sentence that a non-technical friend or family member would understand, what is the internet?

What does it mean if a URL begins with https:// as opposed to http://?

What does it mean for a computer to have a private IP address (e.g. one that begins with 10., 192.168., or 172.16.)?

Why do TCP/IP packets from one computer to another not always take the same amount of time to arrive at their destination?

Today’s “home routers” are often much more than routers alone. They are also “access points” (aka APs) and “firewalls” too. What is an access point (AP)? And what is a firewall?

Both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are wireless technologies, but each tends to be used differently. In one or more sentences, distinguish the two technologies, citing one or more use cases for each (e.g., devices that use each and why).

Suppose that you turn on your computer and visit https://www.harvard.edu/ in a browser. Using each of the terms below in a context that makes clear your understanding of each, explain in a paragraph the process by which Harvard’s home page appears on your screen: DHCP server, DNS server, IP address, packet, TCP port, web server.

Whether or not you have internet service at home, Google around for an internet service provider (ISP) that provides internet service to your neighborhood (or somewhere nearby). What’s the ISP you found? What speeds does the ISP you found offer? At what cost? And do they offer symmetric (i.e., identical) upload and download speeds, or do they differ?

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Internet Basics  - What is the Internet?

Internet basics  -.

What is the Internet?

Internet Basics What is the Internet?

Internet Basics: What is the Internet?

Lesson 1: what is the internet, introduction.

The Internet is an increasingly important part of everyday life for people around the world. But if you've never used the Internet before, all of this new information might feel a bit confusing at first.

Throughout this tutorial, we'll try to answer some basic questions you may have about the Internet and how it's used. When you're done, you'll have a good understanding of how the Internet works , how to connect to the Internet , and how to browse the Web .

The Internet is a global network of billions of computers and other electronic devices. With the Internet, it's possible to access almost any information, communicate with anyone else in the world, and do much more.

You can do all of this by connecting a computer to the Internet, which is also called going online . When someone says a computer is online, it's just another way of saying it's connected to the Internet.

What is the Web?

The World Wide Web —usually called the Web for short—is a collection of different websites you can access through the Internet. A website is made up of related text, images, and other resources. Websites can resemble other forms of media—like newspaper articles or television programs—or they can be interactive in a way that's unique to computers.

The purpose of a website can be almost anything: a news platform, an advertisement, an online library, a forum for sharing images, or an educational site like us!

Once you are connected to the Internet, you can access and view websites using a type of application called a web browser . Just keep in mind that the web browser itself is not the Internet; it only displays websites that are stored on the Internet.

How does the Internet work?

At this point you may be wondering, how does the Internet work? The exact answer is pretty complicated and would take a while to explain. Instead, let's look at some of the most important things you should know.

It's important to realize that the Internet is a global network of physical cables , which can include copper telephone wires, TV cables, and fiber optic cables. Even wireless connections like Wi-Fi and 3G/4G rely on these physical cables to access the Internet.

When you visit a website, your computer sends a request over these wires to a server . A server is where websites are stored, and it works a lot like your computer's hard drive. Once the request arrives, the server retrieves the website and sends the correct data back to your computer. What's amazing is that this all happens in just a few seconds!

Watch the video below from Tata Communications to learn more about how the Internet functions.

Other things you can do on the Internet

One of the best features of the Internet is the ability to communicate almost instantly with anyone in the world. Email is one of the oldest and most universal ways to communicate and share information on the Internet, and billions of people use it. Social media allows people to connect in a variety of ways and build communities online.

There are many other things you can do on the Internet. There are thousands of ways to keep up with news or shop for anything online. You can pay your bills, manage your bank accounts , meet new people, watch TV , or learn new skills. You can learn or do almost anything online.

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Number Resources

We are responsible for global coordination of the Internet Protocol addressing systems, as well as the Autonomous System Numbers used for routing Internet traffic.

Currently there are two types of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in active use: IP version 4 (IPv4) and IP version 6 (IPv6). IPv4 was initially deployed on 1 January 1983 and is still the most commonly used version. IPv4 addresses are 32-bit numbers often expressed as 4 octets in “dotted decimal” notation (for example, 192.0.2.53 ). Deployment of the IPv6 protocol began in 1999. IPv6 addresses are 128-bit numbers and are conventionally expressed using hexadecimal strings (for example, 2001:0db8:582:ae33::29 ).

Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are generally assigned in a hierarchical manner. Users are assigned IP addresses by Internet service providers (ISPs). ISPs obtain allocations of IP addresses from a local Internet registry (LIR) or National Internet Registry (NIR), or from their appropriate Regional Internet Registry (RIR):

Our primary role for IP addresses is to allocate pools of unallocated addresses to the RIRs according to their needs as described by global policy and to document protocol assignments made by the IETF . When an RIR requires more IP addresses for allocation or assignment within its region, we make an additional allocation to the RIR. We do not make allocations directly to ISPs or end users except in specific circumstances, such as allocations of multicast addresses or other protocol specific needs.

IP Address Allocations

Internet protocol version 4 (ipv4).

• IPv4 Address Space
• IPv4 Multicast Address Assignments
• IPv4 Special Purpose Address Registry
• IPv4 Recovered Address Space Registry
• Bootstrap Service Registry for IPv4 Address Space

Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)

• IPv6 Address Space
• IPv6 Global Unicast Allocations
• IPv6 Parameters (Parameters described for IPv6, including header types, action codes, etc.)
• IPv6 Anycast Address Allocations
• IPv6 Multicast Address Allocations
• IPv6 Sub-TLA Assignments (DEPRECATED)
• IANA IPv6 Special Registry
• Bootstrap Service Registry for IPv6 Address Space
• Announcement of Worldwide Deployment of IPv6 (14 July 1999)
• RIR Comparative Policy Overview

Autonomous System Number Allocations

• Autonomous System Numbers
• Special-Purpose AS Number Assignments
• Bootstrap Service Registry for AS Number Space
• Internet Number Resource Request Procedure

Regional Internet Registry Creation

• Criteria for Establishment of New Regional Internet Registries (ICP-2) (4 June 2001)
• IANA Report on Recognition of LACNIC as a Regional Internet Registry (7 November 2002)
• IANA Report on Recognition of AfriNIC as a Regional Internet Registry (8 April 2005)

Technical Documentation

• RFC 4632 — Classless Inter-domain Routing (CIDR): The Internet Address Assignment and Aggregation Plan
• RFC 1918 — Address Allocation for Private Internets
• RFC 5737 — IPv4 Address Blocks Reserved for Documentation
• RFC 4291 — Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Addressing Architecture
• RFC 3587 — IPv6 Global Unicast Address Format
• RFC 6177 — IPv6 Address Assignment to End Sites
• RFC 6890 — Special-Purpose IP Address Registries
• RFC 7020 — The Internet Numbers Registry System
• RFC 7249 — Internet Numbers Registries
• Locally Served DNS Zones

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Introduction to Internet

Computers and their structures are tough to approach, and it is made even extra tough while you want to recognize phrases associated with the difficulty this is already utilized in regular English, Network, and the net will appear to be absolutely wonderful from one some other, however, they may seem like identical.

A network is a group of two or more computer systems (Multiple gadgets, additionally called hosts), which are related through a couple of channels for the motive of sending and receiving data (records/media) in a shared environment. The community also can consist of serval gadgets/mediums that resource communique among or extra machines; those gadgets are called Network devices and consist of routers, switches, hubs, and bridges, amongst others.

Internet is a group of computer systems connected from all around the world. The Internet protocol suite is a framework defined through the Internet standards. Methods are divided right into a layered set of protocols on this architecture. The Internet gives a huge variety of statistics and communique offerings, which includes forums, databases, email, and hypertext. It is made of the neighborhood to global personal, public networks connected through plenty of digital, wireless, and networking technologies.

The Internet is a worldwide interconnected network of hundreds of thousands of computers of various types that belong to multiple networks.

Working of the internet: The internet is a global computer network that connects various devices and sends a lot of information and media. It uses an Internet Protocol (IP) and Transport Control Protocol (TCP)-based packet routing network. TCP and IP work together to ensure that data transmission across the internet is consistent and reliable, regardless of the device or location. Data is delivered across the internet in the form of messages and packets. A message is a piece of data delivered over the internet, but before it is sent, it is broken down into smaller pieces known as packets.

IP is a set of rules that control how data is transmitted from one computer to another via the internet. The IP system receives further instructions on how the data should be transferred using a numerical address (IP Address). The TCP is used with IP to ensure that data is transferred in a secure and reliable manner. This ensures that no packets are lost, that packets are reassembled in the correct order, and that there is no delay that degrades data quality.

History of Internet 

Talking about the history of internet , the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, later renamed the internet) established a successful link between the University of California Los Angeles and the Stanford Research Institute on October 29, 1969. Libraries automate and network catalogs outside of ARPANET in the late 1960s.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol) is established in the 1970s, allowing internet technology to mature. The development of these protocols aided in the standardization of how data was sent and received via the internet. NSFNET (National Science Foundation Network), the 56 Kbps backbone of the internet, was financed by the National Science Foundation in 1986. Because government monies were being used to administer and maintain it, there were commercial restrictions in place at the time.

In the year 1991, a user-friendly internet interface was developed. Delphi was the first national commercial online service to offer internet connectivity in July 1992. Later in May 1995, All restrictions on commercial usage of the internet are lifted. As a result, the internet has been able to diversify and grow swiftly. Wi-Fi was first introduced in 1997. The year is 1998, and Windows 98 is released. Smartphone use is widespread in 2007. The 4G network is launched in 2009. The internet is used by 3 billion people nowadays. By 2030, there are expected to be 7.5 billion internet users and 500 billion devices linked to the internet.

Uses of the Internet:

• E-mail: E-mail is an electronic message sent across a network from one computer user to one or more recipients. It refers to the internet services in which messages are sent from and received by servers. 
• Web Chat: Web chat is an application that allows you to send and receive messages in real-time with others. By using Internet chat software, the user can log on to specific websites and talk with a variety of other users online. Chat software is interactive software that allows users to enter comments in one window and receive responses from others who are using the same software in another window.
• World Wide Web: The World Wide Web is the Internet’s most popular information exchange service. It provides users with access to a large number of documents that are linked together using hypertext or hyperlinks.
• E-commerce: E-commerce refers to electronic business transactions made over the Internet. It encompasses a wide range of product and service-related online business activities.
• Internet telephony: The technique that converts analog speech impulses into digital signals and routes them through packet-switched networks of the internet is known as internet telephony.
• Video conferencing: The term “video conferencing” refers to the use of voice and images to communicate amongst users.

Web Client 

The client (or user) side of the Internet. The Web browser on the user’s computer or mobile device is referred to as a Web client. It could also apply to browser extensions and helper software that improve the browser’s ability to support specific site services.

Web browser

A web browser is a software program software that searches for, retrieves, and presentations material which includes Web pages, photos, videos, and different files. The browser sends a request to the Webserver, which then transmits the statistics returned to the browser, which presentations the findings at the laptop. Example – Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Safari etc.

An internet web page (additionally called a web page) is a report that may be regarded in an internet browser at the World Wide Web. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) are used to generate the primary shape of an internet web page. An internet web page is generally a segment of an internet site that carries statistics in plenty of formats, which includes textual content inside the shape of paragraphs, lists, tables, and so on.

The home web page is the beginning or first web page of an internet site. It gives trendy statistics and connections to all the internet pages which are associated. Every internet web page has its personal deal with. This may be visible withinside the deal with the bar. As a result, if we need to get admission to a selected internet web page, the deal needs to be placed inside the browser’s deal with bar.

An internet site, in trendy, is a group of statistics approximately statistics prepared into many internet pages. An internet site is probably made for a sure motive, subject matter, or to provide a service. An internet site (abbreviated as “website” or “site”) is a group of online pages connected collectively through links and saved on an internet server. By clicking on links, a tourist can pass from one web page to the next. An internet site’s pages also are connected below one area call and proportion a not unusual place subject matter and template.

Search Engine

Search engines are websites that search on the internet on behalf of users and show a listing of results. More than actually written may be discovered on seek engines. You can be capable of looking for different online content material which includes photographs, video content material, books, and news, in addition to gadgets and offerings, relying on the seek engine you are the use of.

To make use of the Internet, you do not always want to recognize the deal with an internet site. It is crucial to recognize the way to do a look for statistics . Using a seek engine is one of the only methods to seek. A seek engine can help you in finding what you are looking for. You also can appearance up net maps and instructions to help you to plot your adventure from one factor to some other. Example: Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, yahoo, etc.

Web 1.0: The Beginning of the Internet

Web 1.0, which emerged with the invention of the Internet, featured static web pages that could only be viewed. These early websites were essentially digital brochures, with limited interactivity and no ability for users to contribute content. This era saw the rise of early browsers such as Mosaic and Netscape Navigator, which made it easier for users to access the Web.

Web 2.0: The Era of Social Media and User-Generated Content

Web 2.0, which emerged during the “ Internet Boom ” era of the late 1990s and early 2000s, introduced more dynamic web pages and websites, and allowed for user-generated content. This era saw the rise of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, as well as the introduction of blogs, wikis, and other forms of user-generated content.

Web 3.0: The Future of the Internet

Web 3.0, which is still in development, promises to bring a more personalized and intuitive experience for users. It is expected to be more intelligent and able to understand the context and intent of the user’s actions. This will be achieved through the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies.

Many experts in the tech industry claimed that Web 3.0 is the next evolution of the internet that is focused on decentralization, intelligence, and security. It aims to create a more personalized, intuitive, and inclusive experience for users by leveraging new technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence. The goal of Web 3.0 is to make the internet more democratic, open-source, and secure.

Differentiation between Network and Internet

The number one distinction between a network and the internet is that a network is made of computer systems that are bodily related and may be used as a personal laptop at the same time as additionally sharing records. The Internet, on the alternative hand, might be an era that connects those small and massive networks and creates a brand new in-intensity community.

Advantages of the Internet:

• It is the best source of a wide range of information. There is no better place to conduct research than the internet.
• Online gaming, talking, browsing, music, movies, dramas, and TV series are quickly becoming the most popular ways to pass the time.
• Because there are hundreds of thousands of newsgroups and services that keep you updated with every tick of the clock, the Internet is a source of the most recent news.
• Because of virtual shops where you may buy anything you want and need without leaving your house, internet shopping is becoming increasingly popular. Recently, virtual shops have been making a lot of money.
• With the emergence of online businesses, virtual stores, and credit card usage, purchasing goods without going to the store has never been easier.

Disadvantages of the Internet:

• Spending too much time on the internet is hazardous for the young generation’s physical and mental health.
• Children who use the internet develop an addiction, which is quite dangerous.
• It is now quite easy to decipher someone’s chat or email messages thanks to the hacking community.
• With the emergence of online stores, people prefer to order online rather than going to local stores which results in less social interactions among people.

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Internet Services allows us to access huge amount of information such as text, graphics, sound and software over the internet. Following diagram shows the four different categories of Internet Services.

Communication Services

There are various Communication Services available that offer exchange of information with individuals or groups. The following table gives a brief introduction to these services:

Information Retrieval Services

There exist several Information retrieval services offering easy access to information present on the internet. The following table gives a brief introduction to these services:

Web Services

Web services allow exchange of information between applications on the web. Using web services, applications can easily interact with each other.

The web services are offered using concept of Utility Computing.

World Wide Web (WWW)

WWW is also known as W3. It offers a way to access documents spread over the several servers over the internet. These documents may contain texts, graphics, audio, video, hyperlinks. The hyperlinks allow the users to navigate between the documents.

Video Conferencing

Video conferencing or Video teleconferencing is a method of communicating by two-way video and audio transmission with help of telecommunication technologies.

Modes of Video Conferencing

Point-to-point.

This mode of conferencing connects two locations only.

Multi-point

This mode of conferencing connects more than two locations through Multi-point Control Unit (MCU).

Module 5: Communications and Information Literacy

Reading: ip address, introduction.

The designers of the Internet Protocol defined an IP address as a 32-bit number and this system, known as Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4), is still in use today. However, because of the growth of the Internet and the predicted depletion of available addresses, a new version of IP (IPv6), using 128 bits for the address, was developed in 1995. IPv6 was standardized as RFC 2460 in 1998, and its deployment has been ongoing since the mid-2000s.

IP addresses are usually written and displayed in human-readable notations, such as 172.16.254.1 (IPv4), and 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:8:1 (IPv6).

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) manages the IP address space allocations globally and delegates five regional Internet registries (RIRs) to allocate IP address blocks to local Internet registries (Internet service providers) and other entities.

IP versions

Two versions of the Internet Protocol (IP) are in use: IP Version 4 and IP Version 6. Each version defines an IP address differently. Because of its prevalence, the generic term IP address  typically still refers to the addresses defined by IPv4. The gap in version sequence between IPv4 and IPv6 resulted from the assignment of number 5 to the experimental Internet Stream Protocol in 1979, which however was never referred to as IPv5.

IPv4 addresses

Decomposition of an IPv4 address from dot-decimal notation to its binary value.

In IPv4 an address consists of 32 bits which limits the address space to 4294967296 (2 32 ) possible unique addresses. IPv4 reserves some addresses for special purposes such as private networks (~18 million addresses) or multicast addresses (~270 million addresses).

IPv4 addresses are canonically represented in dot-decimal notation, which consists of four decimal numbers, each ranging from 0 to 255, separated by dots, e.g., 172.16.254.1. Each part represents a group of 8 bits (octet) of the address. In some cases of technical writing, IPv4 addresses may be presented in various hexadecimal, octal, or binary representations.

In the early stages of development of the Internet Protocol, network administrators interpreted an IP address in two parts: network number portion and host number portion. The highest order octet (most significant eight bits) in an address was designated as the  network number and the remaining bits were called the rest field or host identifier and were used for host numbering within a network.

This early method soon proved inadequate as additional networks developed that were independent of the existing networks already designated by a network number. In 1981, the Internet addressing specification was revised with the introduction of classful network architecture.

Classful network design allowed for a larger number of individual network assignments and fine-grained subnetwork design. The first three bits of the most significant octet of an IP address were defined as the class of the address. Three classes ( A , B , and C ) were defined for universal unicast addressing. Depending on the class derived, the network identification was based on octet boundary segments of the entire address. Each class used successively additional octets in the network identifier, thus reducing the possible number of hosts in the higher order classes ( B and C ). The following table gives an overview of this now obsolete system.

Classful network design served its purpose in the startup stage of the Internet, but it lacked scalability in the face of the rapid expansion of the network in the 1990s. The class system of the address space was replaced with Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) in 1993. CIDR is based on variable-length subnet masking (VLSM) to allow allocation and routing based on arbitrary-length prefixes.

Today, remnants of classful network concepts function only in a limited scope as the default configuration parameters of some network software and hardware components (e.g. netmask), and in the technical jargon used in network administrators’ discussions.

Private addresses

Early network design, when global end-to-end connectivity was envisioned for communications with all Internet hosts, intended that IP addresses be uniquely assigned to a particular computer or device. However, it was found that this was not always necessary as private networks developed and public address space needed to be conserved.

Computers not connected to the Internet, such as factory machines that communicate only with each other via TCP/IP, need not have globally unique IP addresses. Three ranges of IPv4 addresses for private networks were reserved in RFC 1918. These addresses are not routed on the Internet and thus their use need not be coordinated with an IP address registry.

Today, when needed, such private networks typically connect to the Internet through network address translation (NAT).

Any user may use any of the reserved blocks. Typically, a network administrator will divide a block into subnets; for example, many home routers automatically use a default address range of 192.168.0.0 through 192.168.0.255 (192.168.0.0/24).

IPv4 address exhaustion

High levels of demand have decreased the supply of unallocated Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) addresses available for assignment to Internet service providers and end user organizations since the 1980s. This development is referred to as IPv4 address exhaustion. IANA’s primary address pool was exhausted on 3 February 2011, when the last five blocks were allocated to the five RIRs. [5] [6] APNIC was the first RIR to exhaust its regional pool on 15 April 2011, except for a small amount of address space reserved for the transition to IPv6, intended to be allocated in a restricted process. [7]

IPv6 addresses

Decomposition of an IPv6 address from hexadecimal representation to its binary value.

The rapid exhaustion of IPv4 address space prompted the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to explore new technologies to expand the addressing capability in the Internet. The permanent solution was deemed to be a redesign of the Internet Protocol itself. This new generation of the Internet Protocol was eventually named Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) in 1995. The address size was increased from 32 to 128 bits (16 octets), thus providing up to 2 128 (approximately 3.403×10 38 ) addresses. This is deemed sufficient for the foreseeable future.

The intent of the new design was not to provide just a sufficient quantity of addresses, but also redesign routing in the Internet by more efficient aggregation of subnetwork routing prefixes. The resulted in slower growth of routing tables in routers. The smallest possible individual allocation is a subnet for 2 64 hosts, which is the square of the size of the entire IPv4 Internet. At these levels, actual address utilization rates will be small on any IPv6 network segment. The new design also provides the opportunity to separate the addressing infrastructure of a network segment, i.e. the local administration of the segment’s available space, from the addressing prefix used to route traffic to and from external networks. IPv6 has facilities that automatically change the routing prefix of entire networks, should the global connectivity or the routing policy change, without requiring internal redesign or manual renumbering.

The large number of IPv6 addresses allows large blocks to be assigned for specific purposes and, where appropriate, to be aggregated for efficient routing. With a large address space, there is no need to have complex address conservation methods as used in CIDR.

All modern desktop and enterprise server operating systems include native support for the IPv6 protocol, but it is not yet widely deployed in other devices, such as residential networking routers, voice over IP (VoIP) and multimedia equipment, and network peripherals.

Just as IPv4 reserves addresses for private networks, blocks of addresses are set aside in IPv6. In IPv6, these are referred to as unique local addresses (ULA). RFC 4193 reserves the routing prefix fc00::/7 for this block which is divided into two /8 blocks with different implied policies. The addresses include a 40-bit pseudorandom number that minimizes the risk of address collisions if sites merge or packets are misrouted. [8]

Early practices used a different block for this purpose (fec0::), dubbed site-local addresses. However, the definition of what constituted sites remained unclear and the poorly defined addressing policy created ambiguities for routing. This address type was abandoned and must not be used in new systems.

Addresses starting with fe80:, called link-local addresses, are assigned to interfaces for communication on the attached link. The addresses are automatically generated by the operating system for each network interface. This provides instant and automatic communication between all IPv6 host on a link. This feature is required in the lower layers of IPv6 network administration, such as for the Neighbor Discovery Protocol.

Private address prefixes may not be routed on the public Internet.

IP subnetworks

IP networks may be divided into subnetworks in both IPv4 and IPv6. For this purpose, an IP address is logically recognized as consisting of two parts: the network prefix and the host identifier , or interface identifier (IPv6). The subnet mask or the CIDR prefix determines how the IP address is divided into network and host parts.

The term subnet mask is only used within IPv4. Both IP versions however use the CIDR concept and notation. In this, the IP address is followed by a slash and the number (in decimal) of bits used for the network part, also called the routing prefix . For example, an IPv4 address and its subnet mask may be 192.0.2.1 and 255.255.255.0, respectively. The CIDR notation for the same IP address and subnet is 192.0.2.1/24, because the first 24 bits of the IP address indicate the network and subnet.

IP address assignment

Internet Protocol addresses are assigned to a host either anew at the time of booting, or permanently by fixed configuration of its hardware or software. Persistent configuration is also known as using a static IP address . In contrast, in situations when the computer’s IP address is assigned newly each time, this is known as using a dynamic IP address .

Static IP addresses are manually assigned to a computer by an administrator. The exact procedure varies according to platform. This contrasts with dynamic IP addresses, which are assigned either by the computer interface or host software itself, as in Zeroconf, or assigned by a server using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). Even though IP addresses assigned using DHCP may stay the same for long periods of time, they can generally change. In some cases, a network administrator may implement dynamically assigned static IP addresses. In this case, a DHCP server is used, but it is specifically configured to always assign the same IP address to a particular computer. This allows static IP addresses to be configured centrally, without having to specifically configure each computer on the network in a manual procedure.

In the absence or failure of static or stateful (DHCP) address configurations, an operating system may assign an IP address to a network interface using state-less auto-configuration methods, such as Zeroconf.

Uses of dynamic address assignment

IP addresses are most frequently assigned dynamically on LANs and broadband networks by the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). They are used because it avoids the administrative burden of assigning specific static addresses to each device on a network. It also allows many devices to share limited address space on a network if only some of them will be online at a particular time. In most current desktop operating systems, dynamic IP configuration is enabled by default so that a user does not need to manually enter any settings to connect to a network with a DHCP server. DHCP is not the only technology used to assign IP addresses dynamically. Dialup and some broadband networks use dynamic address features of the Point-to-Point Protocol.

Sticky dynamic IP address

A sticky dynamic IP address is an informal term used by cable and DSL Internet access subscribers to describe a dynamically assigned IP address which seldom changes. The addresses are usually assigned with DHCP. Since the modems are usually powered on for extended periods of time, the address leases are usually set to long periods and simply renewed. If a modem is turned off and powered up again before the next expiration of the address lease, it will most likely receive the same IP address.

Address autoconfiguration

RFC 3330 defines an address block, 169.254.0.0/16, for the special use in link-local addressing for IPv4 networks. In IPv6, every interface, whether using static or dynamic address assignments, also receives a local-link address automatically in the block fe80::/10.

These addresses are only valid on the link, such as a local network segment or point-to-point connection, that a host is connected to. These addresses are not routable and like private addresses cannot be the source or destination of packets traversing the Internet.

When the link-local IPv4 address block was reserved, no standards existed for mechanisms of address autoconfiguration. Filling the void, Microsoft created an implementation that is called Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA). APIPA has been deployed on millions of machines and has, thus, become a de facto standard in the industry. In RFC 3927, the IETF defined a formal standard for this functionality, entitled Dynamic Configuration of IPv4 Link-Local Addresses .

Uses of static addressing

Some infrastructure situations have to use static addressing, such as when finding the Domain Name System (DNS) host that will translate domain names to IP addresses. Static addresses are also convenient, but not absolutely necessary, to locate servers inside an enterprise. An address obtained from a DNS server comes with a time to live, or caching time, after which it should be looked up to confirm that it has not changed. Even static IP addresses do change as a result of network administration (RFC 2072).

Unicast addressing

The most common concept of an IP address is in unicast addressing, available in both IPv4 and IPv6. It normally refers to a single sender or a single receiver, and can be used for both sending and receiving. Usually, a unicast address is associated with a single device or host, but a device or host may have more than one unicast address. Some individual PCs have several distinct unicast addresses, each for its own distinct purpose. Sending the same data to multiple unicast addresses requires the sender to send all the data many times over, once for each recipient.

Broadcast addressing

In IPv4 it is possible to send data to all possible destinations (“all-hosts broadcast”), which permits the sender to send the data only once, and all receivers receive a copy of it. In the IPv4 protocol, the address 255.255.255.255 is used for local broadcast. In addition, a directed (limited) broadcast can be made by combining the network prefix with a host suffix composed entirely of binary 1s. For example, the destination address used for a directed broadcast to devices on the 192.0.2.0/24 network is 192.0.2.255. IPv6 does not implement broadcast addressing and replaces it with multicast to the specially-defined all-nodes multicast address.

Multicast addressing

A multicast address is associated with a group of interested receivers. In IPv4, addresses 224.0.0.0 through 239.255.255.255 (the former Class D addresses) are designated as multicast addresses.   IPv6 uses the address block with the prefix ff00::/8 for multicast applications. In either case, the sender sends a single datagram from its unicast address to the multicast group address and the intermediary routers take care of making copies and sending them to all receivers that have joined the corresponding multicast group.

Anycast addressing

Like broadcast and multicast, anycast is a one-to-many routing topology. However, the data stream is not transmitted to all receivers, just the one which the router decides is logically closest in the network. Anycast address is an inherent feature of only IPv6. In IPv4, anycast addressing implementations typically operate using the shortest-path metric of BGP routingand do not take into account congestion or other attributes of the path. Anycast methods are useful for global load balancing and are commonly used in distributed DNS systems.

Public address es

A public IP address , in common parlance, is synonymous with a globally routable unicast IP address .

Both IPv4 and IPv6 define address ranges that are reserved for private networks and link-local addressing. The term public IP address often used excludes these types of addresses.

Modifications to IP addressing

Ip blocking and firewalls.

Firewalls perform Internet Protocol blocking to protect networks from unauthorized access. They are common on today’s Internet. They control access to networks based on the IP address of a client computer. Whether using a blacklist or a whitelist, the IP address that is blocked is the perceived IP address of the client, meaning that if the client is using a proxy server or network address translation, blocking one IP address may block many individual computers.

IP address translation

Multiple client devices can appear to share IP addresses: either because they are part of a shared hosting web server environment or because an IPv4 network address translator (NAT) or proxy server acts as an intermediary agent on behalf of its customers, in which case the real originating IP addresses might be hidden from the server receiving a request. A common practice is to have a NAT hide a large number of IP addresses in a private network. Only the “outside” interface(s) of the NAT need to have Internet-routable addresses.

Most commonly, the NAT device maps TCP or UDP port numbers on the side of the larger, public network to individual private addresses on the masqueraded network.

In small home networks, NAT functions are usually implemented in a residential gateway device, typically one marketed as a “router”. In this scenario, the computers connected to the router would have private IP addresses and the router would have a public address to communicate on the Internet. This type of router allows several computers to share one public IP address.

Diagnostic tools

Computer operating systems provide various diagnostic tools to examine their network interface and address configuration. Windows provides the command-line interface tools ipconfig and netsh and users of Unix-like systems can use ifconfig, netstat, route, lanstat, fstat, or iproute2 utilities to accomplish the task.

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U.S. Government Accountability Office

Get ON the Internet and Do Your Homework!

These days, internet access is crucial for students both in and out of the classroom. “Underconnected” students—those with limited or no internet access at home—may have difficulty completing homework assignments. This puts them at risk of falling behind better-connected students.

With back to school season on the horizon, today’s WatchBlog looks at our report on how school districts are attempting to address this “homework gap,” and the role the federal government is playing in those efforts.

Income and internet access

Not having fast, reliable, in-home internet can make it tough for students to complete homework. We found that school-age children from lower-income households are more likely to rely on mobile wireless service for their internet connection than their peers in higher-income households. Have you ever tried typing a 300-word essay on a smartphone?

Underconnected students may seek out ways to access wireless internet away from home to do their homework, which can bring other challenges.

Bridging the homework gap

Some school districts have addressed disparities in students' in-home internet access by finding ways to expand wireless access off school grounds. For example:

• The Green Bay Area Public School District in Wisconsin loans out mobile wireless hot-spot devices to students who do not have access at home.
• The Boulder Valley School District in Colorado allowed a local wireless provider to build antennas on some school buildings in exchange for providing free service to lower-income students.
• From 2014 to 2017, Coachella Valley Unified School District in California equipped its fleet of about 100 school buses with Wi-Fi, enabling students to do homework during long bus rides. District officials said they are seeking funding to restart the initiative.

The federal connection

None of the 6 school district projects we reviewed had used federal funds to help provide wireless internet access for students off school grounds, and we found that the federal role in these efforts was limited.

The Federal Communication Commission’s E-rate program provides discounts on telecommunications and internet access services to schools. But E-rate does not support off-premises internet access. School district officials told us this restriction may affect districts’ ability to expand wireless access off school grounds, and thus to address the homework gap.

We recommended that FCC take steps to assess and publish the potential benefits, costs, and challenges of making off-premises wireless internet access eligible for E-rate support.

• Comments on GAO’s WatchBlog? Contact [email protected] .

GAO Contacts

Related Posts

Internet-Connected Technologies Can Improve Services, but Face Risks of Cyberattacks

Back to School for K-12 students: Issues Ahead

Challenges in Mapping the Digital Divide

Related products, wireless internet: fcc should assess making off-school-premises access eligible for additional federal support, product number.

GAO's mission is to provide Congress with fact-based, nonpartisan information that can help improve federal government performance and ensure accountability for the benefit of the American people. GAO launched its WatchBlog in January, 2014, as part of its continuing effort to reach its audiences—Congress and the American people—where they are currently looking for information.

The blog format allows GAO to provide a little more context about its work than it can offer on its other social media platforms. Posts will tie GAO work to current events and the news; show how GAO’s work is affecting agencies or legislation; highlight reports, testimonies, and issue areas where GAO does work; and provide information about GAO itself, among other things.

Please send any feedback on GAO's WatchBlog to [email protected] .

Welcome to Southwestern College

Creating Effective Internet Assignments

Consider these issues in creating an effective internet assignment for your course.

• Make sure your students understand the assignment. Give your assignments in writing to reduce confusion.
• Could we please get a written copy of your assignment? It will better help us at the Reference Desk to assist your students.
• Check URLs carefully for any typos.

The internet is continually changing. Check your assignment regularly so your students are not looking for outdated or no-longer-existing web pages/sources.

• Do the assignment yourself to see how long it takes before you decide how much time students will need to complete it.
• Remember to consider unexpected technical problems (e.g., servers down, home campus system not available, etc.).
• Allow time for students' inexperience with this new technology.

Critical Thinking

• Information quality varies considerably on the internet. Stress the importance of evaluating what they find.
• If the process itself is too overwhelming, students will settle for the first piece of information they find-regardless of its value.

Realistic Expectations

• Students do not learn good research skills from frustrating "no-win" assignments.
• Make sure the information you are requesting actually exists and is available on the internet.

TRY TO AVOID THIS ASSUMPTION: "Most students already know the basics."

Consider a Library Research Orientation for your entire class.

Remember: Librarians are available to assist you when creating internet or other research assignments!

(Some ideas for this web page were taken from the California Clearinghouse on Library Instruction- Southern Section's "Guidelines for Effective Library Assignments" and "Characteristics of Effective Assignments" from the Sterling C. Evans Library at Texas A&M University.)

Let's get started.

• Search this site
• All of Oklahoma State University

Enterprise Information Technology

Internet protocol (ip) assignment for printers/scanners.

The common network components (BootP, DHCP, and DNS) are the functions for managing the networks through Internet Protocol (IP) assignment. Each computer or device in a network has its own identity, which is its IP address. Network administrators use IP addresses to manage and troubleshoot network services.

The DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) service provides automatic IP address assignment to computers and other network attached systems. BootP/DHCP also is used to assign of static IP addresses – addresses that need to remain the same. Printers that need to be allowed to send mail through LSMTP need a DHCP reservation as well.  Please note that while older procedures refer to it as a BOOTP reservation, it is a DHCP reservation; configure your device to use DHCP.  If the device is configured as a BOOTP client, it will not automatically assign the DNS and gateway settings.

The DNS (Domain Name System) is how domains named with words (example: “okstate.edu”) are translated into an IP address. Domain names using words are easier for people to remember than are strings of numbers (IP addresses), which is what digital systems use. A BOOTP reservation can be used to assign a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) to a device so it can be accessed by the FQDN rather than the IP address.  Note that any workstations joined to our domain will have an FQDN starting with the computer name and ending with ad.okstate.edu.  

Available to

Students and Employees

An A record or address record is a type of resource record in the Domain Name System (DNS) that is most used to map domain names to an IP address of the computer hosting the domain. A fully qualified domain name (FQDN) is a domain name specified with all labels in the hierarchy of the DNS, having no parts omitted. OSU uses FQDNs to identify department and sub-department domains such as su.okstate.edu for the Student Union, uhs.okstate.edu for Student Health Services, or it.okstate.edu for Information Technology. Contact the IT Helpdesk to request the creation of a new A record via one of the two options below:

• Submit a new request by authenticating to the New Network Domain Name System (DNS) A Record form .
• Your Phone Number
• Affiliated campus name
• A Record Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)
• A Record Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) IP Address

CNAME record or Canonical Name record is a type of resource record in the Domain Name System (DNS) specifying the domain name is an alias of or pointing to the IP address of another canonical domain name. A fully qualified domain name (FQDN) is a domain name specified with all labels in the hierarchy of the DNS, having no parts omitted. OSU uses FQDNs to identify department and sub-department domains such as su.okstate.edu for the Student Union, uhs.okstate.edu for Student Health Services, or it.okstate.edu for Information Technology. Contact the IT Helpdesk to request the creation of a new CNAME record via one of the two options below:

• Submit a new request by authenticating to the New Network Domain Name System (DNS) CNAME Record form .
• CNAME Record Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)
• CNAME Target Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)

A DHCP reservation is used to ensure a network device is assigned the same IP address each time the device connects to the OSU wired network. OSU Information Technology does not create DHCP reservations for wireless connected network devices. Only DHCP reservation requests from current OSU employees will be processed. Contact the IT Helpdesk to request a new DHCP reservation via one of the two options below:

• Submit a new request by authenticating to the New Wired Network DHCP Reservation form .
• Full Computer & Host Name
• Ethernet MAC Or Physical Address
• Current IPv4 Address
• Device’s affiliated campus
• Device’s corresponding building

A DHCP reservation is used to ensure a network device is assigned the same IP address each time the device connects to the OSU wired network. OSU Information Technology does not create DHCP reservations for wireless connected network devices. Only DHCP reservation requests from current OSU employees will be processed. Contact the IT Helpdesk to request to reassign a DHCP reservation via one of the two options below: 

• Submit a new request by authenticating to the Reassign Wired Network DHCP Reservation form .
• Current Full Computer Or Host Name
• Current Ethernet MAC Or Physical Address
• Current Ethernet IPv4 Address
• Identify which features (Full Computer Or Host Name, Ethernet MAC Or Physical Address, and/or Ethernet IPv4 Address) is being changed
• New Reassignment Information

A DHCP reservation is used to ensure a network device is assigned the same IP address each time the device connects to the OSU wired network. OSU Information Technology does not create DHCP reservations for wireless connected network devices. Only DHCP reservation requests from current OSU employees will be processed. Contact the IT Helpdesk to request to remove a DHCP reservation via one of the two options below:

• Submit a new request by authenticating to the Remove Wired Network DHCP Reservation form .

What is FAST.com measuring? FAST.com speed test gives you an estimate of your current Internet speed. You will generally be able to get this speed from leading Internet services, which use globally distributed servers.

Why does FAST.com focus primarily on download speed? Download speed is most relevant for people who are consuming content on the Internet, and we want FAST.com to be a very simple and fast speed test.

What about ping, latency, upload and other things? When you click the “Show more info” button, you can see your upload speed and connection latency (ping). FAST.com provides two different latency measurements for your Internet connection: “unloaded” and “loaded” with traffic. The difference between these two measurements is also called “bufferbloat”.

How are the results calculated? To calculate your Internet speed, FAST.com performs a series of downloads from and uploads to Netflix servers and calculates the maximum speed your Internet connection can provide. More details are in our blog post .

Will the FAST.com speed test work everywhere in the world? FAST.com will test Internet speed globally on any device (phone, laptop, or smart TV with browser).

Why is Netflix offering the FAST.com speed test? We want our members to have a simple, quick, ad-free way to estimate the Internet speed that their ISP is providing.

What can I do if I'm not getting the speed I pay for? If results from FAST.com and other internet speed tests (like dslreports.com or speedtest.net ) often show less speed than you have paid for, you can ask your ISP about the results.

Internet explorer is no longer supported

We have detected that you are using Internet Explorer to visit this website. Internet Explorer is now being phased out by Microsoft. As a result, NHS Digital no longer supports any version of Internet Explorer for our web-based products, as it involves considerable extra effort and expense, which cannot be justified from public funds. Some features on this site will not work. You should use a modern browser such as Edge, Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. If you have difficulty installing or accessing a different browser, contact your IT support team.

Publication, Part of Mental Health Services Monthly Statistics

Mental Health Services Monthly Statistics, Performance May 2024

Official statistics

Previous Chapter

• Notes on Measures

Current Chapter

• Methodology

Next Chapter

• Data Quality

Data collection

These statistics are produced from the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) and are published monthly.

The MHSDS is a complex relational data set which collects record-level data on NHS-funded specialist mental health, learning disabilities and autism services. As a secondary uses data set it intends to re-use clinical and operational data for purposes other than direct patient care.

The MHSDS is unique in its coverage, because it covers not only services provided in hospitals, but also in outpatient clinics and in the community, where the majority of people in contact with these services are treated. MHSDS brings together key information from Adult and Children's mental health, learning disabilities or autism spectrum disorder, CYP-IAPT and early intervention care pathway that has been captured on clinical systems as part of patient care.

From April 2019 data, the MHSDS is collected via the  Strategic Data Collection Service (SDCS) Cloud  service using the MHSDS v4.0 (or later) Intermediate Database ( IDB) . Prior to this, MHSDS data was collected via the Bureau Service Portal.

Unlike the Bureau Service Portal, the SDCS Cloud an internet-facing service that does not require an N3 or HSCN connection, making it easier for providers to submit data and therefore enabling better coverage in published statistics. This new service stores MHSDS data in cloud-based infrastructure.

Detailed  guidance  is available to support providers in making submissions via the SDCS Cloud. This includes detailed technical and user guidance. New providers must complete a defined process to gain access to the SDCS Cloud. It also uses two-factor authentication as the secure method of confirming user identity using a combination of two different factors.

Data Processing

From April 2019 data, the MHSDS data are processed using NHS Digital’s new Data Processing Services (DPS). DPS uses modern technologies and processes to collect, process and access data more efficiently.

Find out more about our  Data Processing Services (DPS) here .

Assignment of Sub ICB

Currently this publication uses two approaches to assigning Sub Integrated Care Board (Sub ICB) activity. The key difference to consider when using the statistics in this publication is the methodology for assigning Sub ICB to activity; a brief explanation of the different methodologies is presented below and any Sub ICB level statistics should be used with consideration of these differences.

• Sub ICB of GP Practice or Residence – the Sub ICB is assigned to activity based on the most recent information about an individual and, as such, activity measured will be attributed to a single Sub ICB. The Sub ICB methodology also assigns a Sub ICB based on the Sub ICB of GP Practice or Residence.
• Sub ICB of Residence – the Sub ICB is assigned to activity based on the information available at the time of activity and, as such, activity measured may be attributed to multiple Sub ICBs. The Sub ICB methodology is based on Sub ICB of Residence only.

A review of these approaches is currently underway with a view to using one standard approach for reporting by Sub ICB.

Data validation

MHSDS data is validated in stages.

Firstly, the data is validated at the point of submission, for each provider. If file-level validation checks are not passed the provider will receive a file-level rejection report. If file-level rejection is passed, the data are successfully submitted but the provider will still receive a report containing details of field-level errors and warnings. These can be investigated, corrected and further submissions can be made within the submission window.

For submitted data, NHS Digital publishes two types of data quality reports in this publication series. By publishing data from both ‘provisional’ and ‘performance’ submissions, providers can review issues identified in a ‘provisional’ submission and investigate and resolve them for a ‘performance’ submission.

The first type of report is a coverage report. This shows the number of records successfully submitted by each provider, for each data table in the MHSDS. When viewed in time-series format in our Power BI reports, this also provides intelligence on the consistency of submissions and enables outliers to be identified.

The second type of report is a ‘VODIM’ report. This classifies each record into five categories; Valid, Other, Default, Invalid, Missing. NHS Digital is expanding the number of items for which VODIM reporting is available. This file also includes a number of Integrity measures. This information is also available as a Power BI report.

In addition to these reports NHS digital also publishes a Submission Report that provides additional information, especially around the use of the Multiple Submission Window Model.

Dissemination

These statistics are disseminated via the NHS Digital website.

Monthly statistics are disseminated from data collected in ‘provisional’ and ‘performance’ submission windows for each month. At reporting year end, monthly statistics will be disseminated as a 'final' version from the latest submitted data throughout the year collected as part of the Multiple Submission Window Model. The ‘provisional’ data are designated as provisional and the ‘performance’ as performance data.

As part of ongoing initiatives to provide more timely data, the Provisional April 2023 data will include all reporting metrics. This new position will be monitored through quarter 1 and quarter 2 of 2023-24 with a view to moving to a single submission window towards the end of 2023.

The data are also disseminated in the annual Mental Health Bulletin, which contains reporting based on a financial year reporting period and additional analysis where resources permit.

The statistics presented in this publication are currently designated as official statistics; where possible, major changes to methodologies are made between reporting years in order to preserve time-series. 

The Mental Health Analysis team welcomes any comments or feedback on the publication so please send any such communications to  [email protected]  with ‘Mental Health Monthly Statistics’ in the subject.

Related Links

• Mental Health Data Hub
• Multiple Submission Window Model
• Report from the latest consultation on adult mental health services statistics
• Further information on the Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS)
• Learning Disabilities Services Statistics
• Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Resource Hub - FutureNHS Collaboration Platform (Sign-up required)
• Diagnosis recording in MHSDS
• Number of referrals to secondary mental health services in England - broken down by primary reason for referral
• Changing the submission windows for the Mental Health Services Data

Last edited: 25 July 2024 9:31 am

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