Information Practices

Instant Notes for Class 12

Compiled By: Azad Bukhari

01-Jun-19
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COMPUTER means any electronic magnetic, optical or other high-speed data

processing device or system which performs logical, arithmetic, and memory functions
by manipulations of electronic, magnetic or optical impulses, and includes all input,
output, processing, storage, computer software, or communication facilities which are
connected or related to the computer in a computer system or computer network.

OR

COMPUTER means any electronic data processing device which performs arithmetic
and logical operations to process data and is able to communicate.

DATA: Any raw facts about anything.

INFORMATION: Useful (processed) data.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: The study or use of systems (especially computers

and Telecommunications) for storing, retrieving, and sending information.
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COMPUTER NETWORK: A group of devices connected together through proper

communication channels (guided or unguided) to facilitate resource sharing.

IP ADDRESS (Internet Protocol Address): An address that uniquely identifies a device

(using Internet Protocol) on a network.

IP ADDRESS is of two types:

IPV4 & IPV6

An IPV4 address is 32 bit address - consists of four sets of numbers from 0 to 255,
separated by three dots. For example 172.217.166.14 is the IP address of
www.google.com

The total number of IPv4 addresses ranges from 000.000.000.000 to 255.255.255.255.

Because 256 = 28, there are 28 x 4 or 4,294,967,296 possible IP addresses. While this
may seem like a large number, it is no longer enough to cover all the devices connected
to the Internet around the world. Therefore, many devices now use IPv6 addresses.

The IPV6 address is 128 bit address- format is much different than the IPV4 format. It
contains eight sets of four hexadecimal digits and uses colons to separate each block.
An example of an IPV6 address is: 2602:0445:0000:0000:a93e:5ca7:81e2:5f9d.

MAC ADDRESS: Stands for "Media Access Control Address," (and no, it is NOT
related Apple Macintosh computers).
A MAC address is 48 bit hardware identification number that uniquely identifies
each device on a network. The MAC address is manufactured into every network
interface card, such as an Ethernet card or Wi-Fi card, and therefore cannot be
changed.

MAC addresses are made up of six 2-digit hexadecimal numbers, separated by colons.
For example: 00:0d:83:b1:c0:8e

DOMAIN NAME RESOLUTION: When using the Internet most people connect to
Internet servers by connecting to a domain name, as in www.google.com . Internet
applications, though, do not communicate via domain names, but rather using IP
addresses, such as 172.217.166.14

The way these hostnames (e.g. www.google.com) are resolved to their mapped IP
address (e.g. 172.217.166.14) is called Domain Name Resolution.
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TYPES OF NETWORKS:

 PAN: A PERSONAL AREA NETWORK is a computer network organized around

an individual person within a single building. This could be inside a small office or
residence. A typical PAN would include one or more computers, telephones,
peripheral devices, video game consoles etc.
This type of network can be used to send a document to the printer in the
office upstairs while you are sitting on the couch with your laptop.

 LAN: A LOCAL AREA NETWORK consists of a computer network at a single

site, typically an individual office building. A LAN is very useful for sharing
resources, such as data storage and printers.
LANs can be built with relatively inexpensive hardware, such as hubs,
network adapters and Ethernet cables.

 MAN: A METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORK consists of a computer network

across an entire city, college campus or small region. Also known as Campus
Area Network (CAN). A MAN is often used to connect several LANs together to
form a bigger network.

 WAN: Wide Area Network connects computers together across longer physical
distances such as an entire country or the entire world
The Internet is the most basic example of a WAN, connecting all
computers around the world.
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NETWORK TOPOLOGIES:

A Network Topology is the logical arrangement of devices in a network.

BUS TOPOLOGY: Bus topology is a network type in which every computer and
network device is connected to single cable. It transmits the data from one end to
another in single direction. No bi-directional feature is in bus topology.

To connect “N” devices we need only 1 cable in a bus topology.

Bus Topology is used to build small networks.
If the common cable fails, the network will not work.
If the network traffic is heavy, it increases collisions in the network.

STAR TOPOLOGY: In star topology, all the devices are connected to a central node
through a cable.

It is easy to setup.
If the central node fails, the whole system will break down.
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RING TOPOLOGY:

In this topology, it forms a ring connecting a device with its exactly two neighboring
devices.

 One station is known as monitor station which takes all the responsibility to
perform the operations.
 To transmit the data, station has to hold the token. After the transmission is done,
the token is to be released for other stations to use.
 The possibility of collision is low.
 Addition of stations in between or removal of stations can disturb the whole
topology.
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MESH TOPOLOGY:

In mesh topology, every device is connected to another device via particular channel.

 Fault is diagnosed easily. Data is reliable because data is transferred among the
devices through dedicated channels or links.
 Provides security and privacy.
 Installation and maintenance cost is very high.
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NETWORK MEDIA: Network media refers to the communication channels used to

interconnect devices on a computer network.
There are two types of Network Media:
1. Guided
2. Unguided

COMPARISON GUIDED MEDIA UNGUIDED MEDIA

Basic The signal requires a physical The signal is broadcasted through

path for transmission. air or sometimes water.

Alternative It is called wired It is called wireless

name communication or bounded communication or unbounded

transmission media. transmission media.

Direction It provides direction to signal for It does not provide any direction.

travelling.

Types Twisted Pair Cable, Coaxial Cable Radio wave, Microwave and

and Fiber Optic Cable. Infrared.

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TWISTED PAIR CABLE: A type of cable that consists of two independently insulated
wires twisted around one another. The use of two wires
twisted together helps to reduce crosstalk and
electromagnetic induction. Twisted Pair Cable is the least
expensive type of Local-Area Network (LAN) cable.

Coaxial cable: A type of electrical cable that has an inner conductor surrounded by a
tubular insulating layer, surrounded by a tubular conducting shield. Many coaxial cables
also have an insulating outer sheath or jacket. The term coaxial comes from the inner
conductor and the outer shield sharing a geometric axis. Coaxial cable is used to carry
high frequency electrical signals with low losses.
It is used in such applications as telephone lines,
broadband internet networking cables, high
speed computer data busses, carrying cable
television signals etc.

Optical Fibre Cable: An Optical Fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing
glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical
fibers are used as a means to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber and find
wide usage in communication, where they permit transmission over longer distances
and at higher bandwidths (data rates) than electrical cables. These are immune to
electromagnetic interference and suffer very less loss.

Fibre Optic Cables also have some drawbacks:

 Very expensive,
 Requires a lot of installation and maintenance
charge.
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Electromagnetic Spectrum

Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in the

electromagnetic spectrum longer than infrared light. Radio waves have frequencies as
high as 300 gigahertz (GHz) to as low as 30 hertz (Hz).

At 300 GHz, the corresponding wavelength is 1 mm,

and at 30 Hz is 10,000 km.

Like all other electromagnetic waves, radio waves travel at the speed of light.

Radio waves are generated artificially by transmitters and received by radio receivers,
using antennas. Radio waves are very widely used in modern technology for fixed and
mobile radio communication, broadcasting, radar and other navigation systems,
communications satellites, wireless computer networks and many other applications.

These waves do not necessarily require a cleared sight path; at lower frequencies radio
waves can pass through buildings, and other obstructions.
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MICROWAVES: Microwaves are a form of electromagnetic radiation with frequencies

between 300 MHz (wavelength- 1meter) and 300 GHz (wavelength- 1milimeter).
Microwaves travel by line-of-sight; unlike lower frequency radio waves. Terrestrial
microwave communication links are limited by the visual horizon to about 40 miles.

Microwaves are widely used in radar, satellite and spacecraft communication, remote
sensing, industrial heating, collision avoidance systems, keyless entry systems, and for
cooking food in microwave ovens.

INFRARED RADIATIONS: IR wavelengths extend from the nominal red edge of the
visible spectrum at 700 nanometers (frequency 430 THz), to 1 millimeter (300 GHz).
Infrared radiation is emitted or absorbed by molecules when they change their
rotational-vibrational movements. IR is used in industrial, scientific, military, law
enforcement, and medical applications. Night-vision devices using active near-infrared
illumination allow people or animals to be observed.

Infrared thermal-imaging cameras are used to observe changing blood flow in the skin,
and to detect overheating of electrical apparatus.
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Network Devices:

MODEM: (MODEM is short for MOdulation and DEModulation) When a computer

wishes to send digital data over an analog line, the data must first be converted to
analog form for transmission over the line. This conversion of digital data to analog data
is called modulation. On the receivers side the process of conversion from analog data
back to digital data is called demodulation.

REPEATER: A repeater is an analog device that receives a signal, amplifies the signal
and retransmits it. Repeaters do not understand frames or packets. They understand
Volts.

HUB: A hub has a number of input lines that it joins electrically. Frames arriving from
any one of the lines are sent out on all the others.
Hubs differ from repeaters in that they do not
(usually) amplify the incoming signals.
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SWITCH: A switch connects two or more devices. When a frame arrives, software in the
switch extracts the destination IP address from the frame header and sends it to the
particular device.

A BRIDGE is similar to a switch in that both route on frame address. The main
difference is that a BRIDGE connects two or more LANs.

GATEWAY: A gateway, as the name suggests, is a passage to connect two networks

together that may work upon different networking models. Gateways are also called
Protocol Converters.
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NETWORK TECHNOLGIES:

ETHERNET: A family of computer networking technologies commonly used in LAN,

MAN and WAN. Ethernet uses Twisted Pair, Coaxial Cable or Fiber Optic Cables.

BLUETOOTH: It is a wireless short-range network technology used to connect digital

devices such as cameras, headsets, scanners, mobile phones and computers. No
cables, no driver installations, almost ready to use technology. Bluetooth uses short-
wavelength UHF Radio Waves. Commonly used for Personal Area Networks(PANs).

WIFI: A network technology allowing computers, smartphones, drones or other devices

to connect to the internet or communicate with one another WIRELESSLY within a
particular area. Wifi is commonly used for the Wireless Local Area Networking (WLAN).
Based around IEEE 802.11 family of standards.
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NETWORK SECURITY:

Network Security is any activity designed to protect the usability and integrity of network
and data. It includes both hardware and software technologies. It is about policies and
practices to prevent and monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification or denial of
service.

NETWORK THREATS:

Network threats refer to anything that has the potential to cause serious harm to a
network.

While we can’t predict the emergence of new threats, here are some of the common
network threats:

VIRUS: A piece of code designed to copy itself and typically has a detrimental effect,
such as corrupting the system or destroying data. Computer viruses cause billions of
dollars’ worth of economic damage each year.
One of the ideal methods by which viruses spread is through emails – opening
the attachment in the email, visiting an infected website, clicking on an executable file,
or viewing an infected advertisement can cause the virus to spread to your system.
Besides that, infections also spread while connecting with already infected removable
storage devices, such as USB drives.

Worms cause harm to the network, even if only by consuming bandwidth, whereas
viruses almost always corrupt or modify files on a targeted computer.

Trojan horse is a program that appears harmless, but is, in fact, malicious.
Unlike a computer virus, a Trojan horse is not able to replicate itself, nor can it
propagate without an end user's assistance. This is why attackers use social
engineering tactics to trick the end user into executing the Trojan.

Denial-Of-Service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks

to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily
or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connected to the Internet. DoS is typically
accomplished by flooding the targeted machine or resource with superfluous requests in
an attempt to overload systems and prevent some or all legitimate requests from being
fulfilled.
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Snooping is unauthorized access to another person's or company's data. The practice

is similar to eavesdropping. For example malicious key-loggers are used to monitor
keystrokes, capture passwords and login information. Corporations sometimes snoop
on employees legitimately to monitor their use of business computers and track Internet
usage; governments may snoop on individuals to collect information and avert crime
and terrorism.
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Network Security Measures:

Network security is any activity designed to protect the usability and integrity of your
network and data. It includes both hardware and software technologies.

Antivirus is a type of utility software used for scanning and removing viruses from
computer. While many types of antivirus programs exist e.g. Norton, Avira, Quickheal,
their primary purpose is to protect computers from viruses and remove any viruses that
are found.

Firewalls put up a barrier between your trusted internal network and untrusted outside
networks, such as the Internet. They use a set of defined rules to allow or block traffic. A
firewall can be hardware, software, or both.

Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is a system that monitors network traffic for
suspicious activity and issues alerts when such activity is discovered. While anomaly
detection and reporting is the primary function, some intrusion detection systems are
capable of taking actions when malicious activity or anomalous traffic is detected,
including blocking traffic sent from suspicious IP addresses.
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Open Source Concepts:

Open Source Software:

Some software has source code that only the person, team, or organization that created
it and maintains exclusive control over it (can modify). People call this kind of software
"proprietary" or "closed source" software.

Unlike proprietary software, Open-source software (OSS) is software that is distributed

with source code that may be read or modified by users.

The OSS community generally agrees that open-source software should meet the
following criteria:

 The program must be freely distributed

 Source code must be included with the program
 Anyone must be able to modify the source code
 Modified versions of the source code may be redistributed
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Some Common Open Source Software’s are:

Linux is a Free Open Source operating system (OS) based on UNIX that was created
in 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Users can modify and create variations of the source code,
known as distributions, for computers and other devices. The most common use is as a
server, but Linux is also used in desktop computers, smartphones, e-book readers and
gaming consoles, etc.

GNU meaning "GNUs not UNIX" (a recursive acronym), chosen because GNU's design
is Unix-like, but differs from Unix by being free software and containing no Unix code.
The goal of developing GNU was to bring a wholly free software operating system into
existence.

Firefox is an open-source Web browser introduced in 2004 as part of the Mozilla

Application Suite. Firefox included almost all the features offered by other browsers.
Firefox is compatible with multiple operating systems including Windows, Mac OS X,
Linux and Android.

OpenOffice is an open source office productivity suite. The software is compatible with
all major operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS, and Linux.
OpenOffice is freely available to all users, and is a great alternative to Microsoft Office.

Programs included with OpenOffice

 Writer - Word processor and text editor.

 Calc - Spreadsheet
 Impress - Presentation program
 Draw - Drawing program used to create logos and flow charts.
 Math - Allows a user to create scientific formulas and equations.
 Base - Database