Introduction

This course will cover 6 key areas of the Internet. Modems and connecting to the internet. How IP’s, or Internet Protocols, work. A discussion on the 3 major browsers available on the Windows operating system as well as some open source browsers for those that don't like the big 3. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and 6, Opera and Netscape Navigator. A more in depth at URLs, or Uniform Resource Locaters, what they are and how they work. A look at the more unsavory aspects of the Internet such as Hacking, Cracking etc. And finally playing games online. I’ve also included a Glossary at the end which has each and every term that I have used through out this course and some that I haven't.

This isn’t meant to be used as a tutorial for a person absolutely brand new to the Internet. Such a thing isn’t required for an IWATS course because you are all EH members and therefore know those basics already. This is slightly more advanced, giving you the ability to delve a little deeper into the electronic world. From there, you can delve even further if you wish to. It is my personal hope that the following pages will prove useful to you. Especially since you are apart of a major online organization such as the Emperor’s Hammer. Completing the Computer Basics IWATS course is a good idea as well to give you a starting point as some of the terms I use are explained there. Enjoy the material.

Modems and Connecting to the Internet

There are several types of modems depending on how much money you have and what sort of connection you want. Everyone knows about dial-up modems. They run at a top speed of 56kb, or Kilobits (8 bits being equal to 1 byte), per second. This means that on the typical 56k connection, you probably won’t achieve download speeds higher then around 7k a second. There are exceptions of course, as with most Net related things. Dial-up modems work by dialing a number provided by your ISP. They then negotiate the connection with the ISP’s servers, check your username and password, and once that is all done, you are connected to the Net.

The second type is an ISDN modem and connection. ISDN is more of a digital connection, but it still uses your phone line as a dial-up modem does by dialing a number. It is different though in the modem creates 2 channels. One for the Net and one for the phone so theoretically you could use the net and the phone at the same time. If you do this, then your maximum possible speed is 64kb per second. Not really much of an increase over dialup. What you can do is use both channels that the modem creates for the net. This effectively gives you 128kb per second bandwidth to play with at the expense of using your phone. ISDN is old technology and not used a whole lot anymore since DSL and Cable has become more widespread throughout the world.

Which brings us to out next connection type. DSL. DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line. It is a very speed connection that uses your homes existing phone line with. The speeds possible with DSL are rather phenomenal. I used to have a 1.5mb (That’s Mega bits) per second connection. That enabled me to download at 220k per second. Since DSL doesn’t use your phone line, you are free to use your phone while surfing the internet. There are some disadvantages though. The further away you are from your ISP, the more unreliable the connection can get. Also, your download speed is usually always substantially faster then your upload speed. Even 1.5mb plans allow you to upload at a maximum 256k. Most people find that sufficient for their needs. Even people running games servers can have an 8 player server with that connection with minimal lag. You can get DSL that has the same upload and download speeds. SDSL and SHDSL are 2 types that allow this. With this, you can have a 4mb connection up and down. Those would be pretty amazing speeds.

The last of the major connection types is Cable. Cable is something I know the least about, but here goes. Cable modems work by connecting a special cable modem directly to the cable that is laid either above or below ground. It has advantages over DSL. Speeds are higher. 3mb to an astonishing 50mb per second is possible upto 100 kilometres from your ISP. This is a big advantage over DSL. DSL remains on top however due to its price. At least in this country. Another major disadvantage is that with DSL, you can change speeds as long as you can pay what the ISP will charge. With Cable, you’re somewhat more limited. Also, if several people in your block use Cable, your own speed will be affected. This isn’t a problem that many really encounter though.

There are of course numerous other ways to connect to the Internet. I will outline some of them now:

Satellite is an odd one. It has some real nice advantages, but some equally nasty disadvantages as well. The biggest advantage is to those that live in remote areas of the world as all you need is for there to be a Satellite in orbit that you can access for you to be able to use it. Thus it doesn’t require a phone line at all. It’s speeds are pretty awesome to. Maximum download speeds can be in excess of 500kb per second. Uploads can reach 80kb per second which is also pretty fast. I did speak of those nasty limitations though, and they are damn nasty. All that nice speed won’t be of much use if you want to play games over the Net because of the time it takes for the signal to reach the satellite bounce to the ISP, back to the satellite and then to you. That can be in excess of 100,000 miles that your data has to travel. But ping times of 600-800 are common, and that is before you factor in any Net lag. The other major limitation is cost. You need to buy a box to decode the satellite signal and they can be expensive, and then there is the Dish itself. Here in Australia, it can cost as much as $1000 for the equipment, let alone the setup fees that an ISP might have.

The final connection types are the really high speed connections. These are pure digital lines. Specially installed and very expensive. If you’re lucky enough to have access to these connections, then count yourself as very lucky. As with everything else in life, you do get what you paid for. These connections types are T1, T3, OC1, OC3, OC12, OC48, OC192, OC256 and OC768. Connections speeds are 1.544 megabits per second (mbps) for T1, 43.232mbps for T3, 51.84 mbps for OC1, 155 mbps for OC3, 622 mbps for OC12, 2.488 gigabits per second for OC48, 9.6 gigabits per second for OC192, 13.271 gigabits per second for OC256 and and an astonishing 40 gigabits per second for OC768. Those speeds are truly amazing. OC stands for Optical Carrier.

A T1 line is typically used by small and medium sized companies with heavy network traffic. It is large enough to send and receive very large text files, graphics, sounds, and databases instantaneously, and is the fastest speed commonly used to connect networks to the Internet. Average cost of T1 can exceed $1200 a month. A T3 line represents a bandwidth equal to about 672 regular voice grade telephone lines, which is wide enough to transmit full motion, real-time video, and very large databases over a busy network. A T3 line is typically installed as a major networking artery for large corporations and universities with high volume network traffic. For example, the backbones of the major Internet service providers are comprised of T3 lines. A T3 line can cost as much as $28000 per month. I won’t go into depth with regards to the others. Needless to say, OC lines are enormously expensive and serve as Internet Backbones.

Fiber Optical cable is another high speed connection. Usually used within a companies own Intranet due to its high security and speed as well as it takes up little space. Fibre Optical cable works by transmitting the information as a light. You usually see Fiber optical Christmas trees in stores. Next time you get the chance, have a look. They are the ones which have little plastic or glass strands sticking out of them that glow and change colour.

IP’s

I won’t go into too much detail with IP’s. If I did, I’d fill multiple pages just with the basics alone. Your IP is a number which identifies your computer. Each IP is unique. It isn’t possible for someone else to have the same IP. They look something like this: 123.456.789.012. They can have 2 or 3 numbers. To find out what your current IP is, click on START then RUN. If you use Windows 95, 98, 98 SE or ME, type IPCONFIG. This gives you your IP. If you use Windows XP type CMD. When the dos type box comes up, type in IPCONFIG.

TCP and IP are two of the most important of the Internet protocols, and the whole protocol suite is named after them. Protocols are like a recipe. It gives a computer directions as to how to send and receive information. Your computer uses TCP/IP for this. If you have ever looked at your Network settings, you would >of seen TCP/IP and perhaps even IPX. IPX is generally used for Networks and is something required should you want to play a game via a LAN or Local Area Network. TCP/IP stands for transmission control protocol Internet protocol. TCP/IP has become the standard for transmitting data over networks and the Internet. Some network operating systems have their own protocols which have become widely used and internationally recognized.

Browsers

There are 3 major browsers available for the Windows Operating System. Internet Explorer. Owned by Microsoft and distributed with the Windows Operating system. Netscape Navigator, a company that ran toe to toe with Microsoft for a long time for Browser supremacy before falling away and Opera. I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these Browsers and go into their features a little.

Internet Explorer — Everyone who uses Windows knows what Internet Explorer or IE is. It is a pretty basic browser. Doesn’t feature many special tools. But that is what makes it a great browser. Its simplicity make it easy enough for even the most computer illiterate person to comes to grips with quickly. That is also its major disadvantage. By the time a person knows the Net a bit better, they might want something a bit more powerful. Plus, IE always has security issues. More so then with other browsers. Some will say this is because of Microsoft. But I believe it is because a lot of hackers know IE. They know where it is vulnerable. Whereas the other browsers aren’t as common and therefore aren’t as well know. One major advantage though is the inclusion of Outlook Express. A pretty decent Email program that is powerful enough for even a hard core user.

Netscape Navigator — Netscape used to be pretty huge. It gave some real competition to Microsoft and IE. In the last few years though, the war has taken its toll on Netscape. Sort of how the US won the Cold War. They managed to win the arms race and the Soviets couldn’t keep up and they imploded from the inside. Nothing so dramatic happened to Netscape. But they have withdrawn somewhat from the home browsers focusing more on Business. But you still can download a copy of new Navigators. Navigator and Opera are 2 browsers that have done a lot about changing the basic look of the browser. The buttons aren’t the standard fare you find with IE and you can even use different skins like you can with programs such as Winamp. The extra programs that come with Navigator like the inbuilt email program are not the best.

Opera — Opera is my personal choice. I’ve used it for about 2 years now. It combines the features of IE and Navigator to make a good browser. Unlike IE which requires a fairly decent computer to run it with any good speed, Opera can be run on a 486. How do I know this? Because I did it for 6 months. When that was all I had for a computer, I tried to find an older copy of IE as 5 or 6 wouldn’t work. Someone suggested Opera though and I haven’t looked back. It has an inbuilt email program as all browsers seem to have but I do not use it in favor of Outlook that comes with Office XP. Opera’s strengths come with its speed and the way it deals with bookmarks. While you can put them into a single folder like you can with every other browser, you can put folders or single links onto the main browser interface so that your favorite sites are right there.

There are various Open Source Browsers out there. Mozilla is probably the most well known. Visually, I don’t see many differences between Mozilla and Netscape. Mozilla is available for all the Major operating systems including Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Because Mozilla is an Open Source product, you can download the original Source Code from the Mozilla website and make tools, or tweak the program to suit your needs, or the greater community. Mozilla started life on January 23, 1998 when the Netscape company announced 2 important things. 1 that the Netscape Communicator product would remain free and 2 the Source Code for the program would be freely available.

Mozilla was the original codename for the product that we all know as Netscape Navigator. Now, Mozilla is a general term referring to an Internet Client software that is developed using the open source project. Through the Mozilla project, several different programs have been created, or are in the process of being created. They include Firebird, Thunderbird, Camino and Bugzilla. These programs include the Browser, Email and Newsgroup reader amongst other things.

Uniform Resource Locators (URL’s)

What is a URL? How do they work? You might be surprised to learn that even by coming to this page that you’ve used a URL. In its most basic form, a URL is a web address such as www.emperorshammer.net. The HTTP:// part indicates what type of file you are using. HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer protocol which is the protocol used for displaying web pages. Other types are FTP://, Telnet:// and file:// The second part of the URL tells your computer where abouts to look on the World Wide Web. The next step involves the DNS or Domain Name Server. This is the system which gives us the different types of domain names like .com, .net and so forth. The DNS will resolve the internet address to an IP. Once it has that IP, it will search for the requested file on that server and display the results.

Hacking and Cracking

There are many different types of hacking and cracking attacks out there. From simple Port Scans and virii to more malicious hacks. I’ll go over some of the most common attacks that you can face, as well as suggest some strategies to protect yourself. These strategies will by no means protect you 100%. I don’t believe anyone is truly 100% safe from hackers. But you can minimize their impact quite easily. I will also talk about the differences between hackers and crackers and even show that there are responsible hackers out there.

One of the most common types of attacks is the DoS or Denial of Service. This is done by our would be hacker flooding the target server with many many packets of data per second in an attempt to overload and therefore crash it.

Port Scanning is when a program scans all the ports on your computer (Ports are a place where information goes into and out of a computer). While this has legitimate uses, it can also be misused when someone port scans you to find a port that they can use to hack into your system.

A Packet Sniffer is either a program or a piece of hard ware that inspects every packet that passes it. It can be instructed to store information such as credit card numbers, username and passwords and other sensitive material.

IP Spoofing is when a hacker or cracker impersonates another network or computer in an attempt at hiding their own identities.

Key Loggers are a nasty piece of work. They will monitor and record every single keystroke you make. So they won’t record just usernames, passwords, credit card numbers etc, but also private emails, notes on sensitive matters and other assorted information. The FBI uses its own version of this type of program called ‘Magic Lantern’ in an attempt at catching suspected cyber criminals.

A Password Cracker will attempt to guess the password by literally trying every single possible combination. This is one of the reasons why many people suggest making up passwords with both numbers and letters in them. That way, the amount of possible passwords is so high that it would take the average computer months to try very possible combination. There is another sort of Password Cracker that will use a Dictionary to try to open up an account.

A Logic Bomb is a piece of code which, when executed will check for a particular condition or a particular state of the system before triggering an act that was not intended. This can be something benign like rebooting your computer. Or it could be something bad like deleting files, or stuff like that.

A Honey Pot is a Network especially setup to catch Hackers and Crackers. These networks are left rather vulnerable to attacks in an attempt at luring hackers or cracks to it.

Dumpster Diving is when a person or program examines a systems Trash Bin looking for deleted information that as yet hasn’t been properly deleted yet.

There are some major differences between a hacker and a cracker. A Cracker will gain access to a computer or network using what means they have at their disposal. They will steal or destroy data, plant viruses, etc. A Hacker on the other hand is traditionally a person who is a computer enthusiast. A person who has a lot of knowledge about systems and networks. Due to the media though, many Crackers are referred to as Hackers. Many Hackers though work for the government or businesses. They are paid to try to hack into their companies networks to find the back doors that the Network Administrators might have missed. That way, the network will be safer from real Crackers.

It is easy to protect yourself from Hackers and Crackers. Installing a Firewall is a good place to start. A Firewall will act as a gateway between your computer/Network and the Internet. It will make sure that all the vulnerable ports are closed. And it will stop illegal packet flooding attempts. A Firewall can be either Software or Hardware, but most people use Software Firewalls in their homes. 2 major ones are Zone Alarm and Norton Internet Firewall. Users of Windows XP though have a Firewall which is built into the Operating System. It does the job I guess, but it can be rather infuriating as it will block a lot of legitimate connections like file sharing using MSN Messenger or IRC. Zone Alarm will allow you to set which programs have access to the Net and how much access they have.

There are other ways of protecting yourself to. Many attacks happen because person A offended person B who has decided to get back at A for his perceived wrongs. Staying out of disagreements is always a good place to start, but that is never easy. So to help protect you, you should always avoid giving anyone your IP address unless you know the person. If you’re unsure of someone who wants to play XWA or JK2 online with you, then organize the game through the Zone. That way, you keep your IP address protected.

Online Games

We are all members of the Emperor’s Hammer so the vast majority of us have played online games. They are a lot of fun. Playing against, or with, human opponents and beating them gives us much more satisfaction then playing against the computer. The reason? Because the computer will only use the strategies that were programmed into it. If you play a game enough, you’ll know all of the computers strategies for a given situation. A human opponent on the other hand might hear about different strategies. They might think up their own and try them out. There are literally limitless numbers of strategies that you would face in any online game. Something that you will never find in a Single Player game. At least not yet. Within a few decades, I suppose it might be possible to have a game which can out think us. But that day isn’t today.

Games played online use IP’s. Each game has a port that it uses for an online game. A port is usually made up of 4 or 5 numbers and it allows the computer to recognize the game and connect to it. On a single server, there might be an FTP server, Email server, Games server and a general Web Server. With all these servers attached to a single IP, you need to use special programs and port numbers in order to connect to the right server. Trying to play Jedi Outcast and being connected to a servers FTP site wouldn’t be very fun. Ports aren’t something the casual gamer has to really worry about. The game does a lot of that stuff for you. The time when you will have to deal with them is if you want to host a dedicated server. Or multiple dedicated servers. In this case, you need to alter the games config files to point at different Ports. Like 27015 and 27016 for example.

Your Ping is something that affects every online gamer in the world. Your ping depends on 2 things. Your connection speed and the number of Hops between you and your destination. A hop is an intermediate connection in a string of connections linking two devices. On the Internet, for example, most data packets need to go through several routers before they reach their final destination. Each time the packet is forwarded to the next router, a hop occurs. The more hops, the longer it takes for data to go from source to destination. A ping of less then 100 ms is considered very good. Up to around 300 ms is playable. Over that, things start to get pretty slow.

Glossary

Closing, Hints and Credits

EXAM Hints

Due to the Amounts of issues we have had with Questions & answers, I have done some minor clarifications in the notes, and here are the few Exam Hints I will provide. The course is somewhat outdated now, however your answers must still come from the notes, and not elsewhere:

1. Whenever you have to Explain something -- REPHRASE into your own words. -- If you Copy/Paste Explanations, I will give you big fat 0!!
2. Always FULLY Expand Acronyms that are assked for.
3. Never forget the Full "unit".
4. Remember, All the answers Come from these Notes. If you didnt read about it somewhere else. Especially whe answering the Essay Questions.