Solutions Manual for

Solutions Manual for Networking in the Internet Age 1e Dennis (All Chapters) 1 / 4

1-1 Chapter 1 Introduction to Data Communications

Outline Introduction Data Communication Networks Network Models Network Standards Future Trends

Teaching Notes

It is helpful spending some time at the start of the course helping students become familiar with the organizational format of the textbook. A quick overview of the Table of Contents and some comments on each chapter helps to establish the beginning, conclusion and terrain of the course.This is also a natural time to review the syllabus and talk about expectations.The text is well organized with an outline preceding each Chapter and good summaries at the conclusions. Teaching which follows these outlines and concentrates on the summary information is particularly effective.Students should also be advised about the online resources that are available to supplement the text. The resources for Instructors are also helpful. The PowerPoint presentation and Web resources can be easily incorporated into class. The testbank is also valuable.War Stories Microsoft Internet Explorer and HTML Standards

(Objective: illustrate the importance of standards)

In early 1996, when we were developing our Web-groupware software (now a commercial product called Consensus @nyWARE (www.softbicycle.com)) we discovered that Microsoft’s IE would not work with our software. IE did not support the full HTML 3.0 standard in forms processing. All the form information was returned in reverse order from the standard. Since IE was a marginal product at the time and since our project was a research project, we decided not to bother rewriting our software to support IE.I received an email message from an IE user mentioning that they had discovered that IE would not work with our software and asking if we knew why. I didn’t really read the note very carefully. I explained the problem and told them they should use Netscape and forget about IE … It turned out that the user was Microsoft’s chief software architect for IE.Microsoft quickly confirmed that the problem was indeed their non-support for the standard.However, they ultimately decided not to support the standard, thus requiring developers to 2 / 4

Chapter 1 1-2 change the way they write code (must use the form value tags, not position in the file returned from the forms).Answers to End-of-Chapter Questions

• How can data communication networks affect businesses?

Data communication networks can affect businesses by being the foundations for distributed systems in which information system applications are divided among a network of computers.Data communication networks facilitate more efficient use of computers and improve the day-to-day control of a business by providing faster information flow. They also provide message transfer services to allow computer users to talk to one another via electronic mail.

• Discuss three important applications of data communication networks in business and

personal use.

Three important applications of data communication networks in business and personal use include email, videoconferencing, and the Internet.

• Define information lag and discuss its importance.

Information lag is the time it takes for information to be disseminated worldwide. Collapsing the information lag speeds the incorporation of new information into our daily lives. In fact, today’s problem is that we cannot handle the quantities of information we receive.

• Describe the progression of communications systems from the 1800s to the present.

Communications systems progression from the 1800s to the present:

1837 Invention of the telegraph 1876 Invention of the telephone 1892 Telephone system regulation begins in Canada 1910 Telephone system regulation begins in the United States 1951 Direct dialed long distance service begins 1962 Satellites begin to transmit international telephone calls 1968 Carterfone court decision permits non-Bell telephone equipment to be used 1970 Court permits MCI to provide long distance services 1984 Breakup of AT&T Cellular phones enter service 1996 Telecommunications Act of 1996 deregulates American telephone system

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Chapter 1 1-3

• Describe the progression of information systems from the 1950s to the present.

Information systems progression from the 1950s to the present:

1950s Batch processing done with punch cards 1960s Use of online terminals for batch processing 1970s Online real-time systems (single transaction-oriented processing) Change from discrete files to database files Integrated systems 1980s Completely integrated systems 1990s Distributed database systems Data mining and warehousing Increased information modeling in database design; object concepts On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP) 2000s 10G switch supporting OC192 fiber produced by Nortel Increased use of Web-based databases Increased use of wireless systems

• Describe the progression of the Internet from the 1960s to the present.

Internet progression from the 1960s to the present:

1969 Started by US Department of Defense as four-computer network called ARPANET 1974 ARPANET networks 62 computers 1983 ARPANET split into Milnet and Internet 1985 Canadian government completes BITNET 1986 US National Science Foundation creates NSFNET to connect leading US universities 1987 10,000 host computers on Internet and 1,000 on BITNET New high speed backbone network for NSFNET 1988 13 regional Internet networks connected 1989 Canadian National Research Council replaces BITNET with CA*NET Web conceived at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva 1990 Over 200,000 computers on combined US and Canadian Internet 1991 CERN’s first Web browser available on Internet Early 1990s Most individual country networks linked together into one worldwide network of networks.Commercial networks began connecting into NSFNET, CA*net, and government-run networks of other countries 1993 Mosaic, the first graphical Web browser, developed at the University of Illinois as part of a project for the university’s National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) 1994 More than 4 million host computers on the internet (most commercial.) US and Canadian governments stopped funding their few remaining circuits and turned them over to commercial firms Netscape and other startup companies introduce commercial Web browsers 1990s Commercial and social impacts of the Internet and Web; E-commerce 2000s Wireless Internet in use; Web databases; improved Internet access (e.g. DSL)

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