Success is a Process!

NETBIOS HACKING Part2

2012-06-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

Netbios Hacking Part2.
The first step is to identify a target computer. Click here!

Step2. Trial and Error

Now, we don’t know if we have our designated target, or if we have a computer or printer, or whatever else is on the LAN or WAN (refer to the previous post to get more info about LAN and WAN). If you did get the IP of the target though, I still recommend reading through this section, for it could be helpful later on. Click on the start menu and go to run, type in cmd, and click ok. This should bring up the command prompt. From here we will do most of the hacking. Now I will be referring to certain commands that need to be inputted into the command prompt. I will put these commands in quotes, but do not put the quotes in the code when you type it into the prompt. I am only doing this to avoid confusion. Let’s get back to the hacking. Type in “ping (IP address of the target).”

For example in this tutorial, “ping 192.168.1.103.” This will tell us if the target is online. If it worked, it will look something like this (note, I have colored out private information):

IF it didn’t work, meaning that the target is not online, it will look something like this:

If the target is not online, either switch to a different target, or try another time. If the target is online, then we can proceed.

At this stage it's getting very interesting. The next step is to "Gather information". Information is the key!

NETBIOS HACKING Part1

2012-06-18T03:47:00.000-07:00

NetBIOSHacking

For this tutorial, I used Microsoft’s Windows XP Home Edition OS.

-What is it?

NetBIOS Hacking is the art of hacking into someone else’s computer through your computer. NetBIOS stands for “Network Basic Input Output System.” It is a way for a LAN or WAN to share folders, files, drives, and printers.

-How can this be of use to me?
Most people don’t even know, but when they’re on a LAN or WAN they could possibly have their entire hard drive shared and not even know. So if we can find a way into the network, their computer is at our disposal.

-What do I need?
Windows OS
Cain and Abel >>>Get it here: www.oxid.it/cain.html

Step1: How to Find the Target?

So first of all, we need to find a computer to hack into. So if you are plugged in to the LAN, or connected to the WAN, you can begin. Open up Cain and Abel. This program has a built in sniffer feature. A sniffer looks for all IP addresses in the local subnet. Once you have opened up the program click on the sniffer tab, click the Start/Stop sniffer, and then click the blue cross

Another window will pop up, make sure “All host in my subnet” is selected, and then click ok.

It should begin to scan.

Then IP’s, computer names, and mac addresses will show up. Now remember the IP address of the computer you are going to be breaking into. If you can’t tell whether the IP address is a computer, router, modem, etc, that’s ok. During the next step we will begin our trial and error.

Thanks for following us! I hope you've enjoyed it.

Success is a Process!: Hacking Websites

2012-06-18T02:18:00.001-07:00

Success is a Process!: Hacking Websites: Hacking Websites There are many ways to hack a website . Some are more efficient, some are just useless. In this series, we are going to...

Hacking Websites

2012-06-18T02:11:00.002-07:00

Hacking Websites

There are many ways to hack a website. Some are more efficient, some are just useless.
In this series, we are going to learn some tricks only for educational purpose. We believe that
when you start thinking the way an attacker thinks then you can find ways to escape from him.
Well, lets start the job!! Have fun.

If you posess the HTML & JAVA knowledge then you can even access password protected websites.

To hack a Password Protected Websites just follow these steps: -

* Open the website you want to hack. Provide wrong username-password.
(e.g : Username - me and Password - ' or 1=1 --)
An error occured saying wrong username-password. Now be prepared
ur work starts from here...

* Right click anywhere on that page =>> go to view source.

* There you can see the html codings with javascripts.

* There you find somewhat like this..

* Before this login information copy the url
of the site in which you are.(e.g : www. hack.com)

* Then delete the java script from the above that validates your
informaiton in the server.(Do this very carefully, your success to
hack the site depends upon this i.e how efficiently you delete the
Javascripts that validate ur account information)

then look for...code ..: input name="password" type="password"
=> replace
there instead of . See there if
maxlength of password is less than 11 then increase it to 11
(e.g : if then write

* Just go to file => save as and save it any where within
the hardisk with ext.html(e.g :c:hack.htm)

* Close your webpage and go to the webpage u save in your
harddisk(e.g : c:hack.htm) Open it.

* You see that some changes in current page as compared to original
One. Don't worry.

* Provide any username[e.g:hacker] and password[e.g:' or 1=1 --]

Congratulation!You have cracked the above website and entered into the
account of Ist user saved in the server's database.

Now you know how attackers can exploit HTML and JAVA.

Thanks for reading us, please send us your comments.

Success is a Process!

COMPUTER PROGRAMMING: FUNDAMENTALS PART4

2011-05-11T01:44:00.000-07:00

HIGH-LEVEL LANGUAGE

The machine and assembly languages are referred to as low-level languages because they are closest to hardware. To create programs that are hardware independent, programmers have developed a new type of programming language called the high-level language. A high-level language is user-friendly because it is similar to the English language and uses words, such as PRINT and GOTO to print and jump to a particular line, respectively. Some examples of a high-level language are Basic, COBOL, C, and Pascal.

High-level languages are also called third-generation languages.

Each instruction in a high-level language is translated into multiple machine-level instructions. High-level languages have made programming an easy task, which has increased the usage of high-level languages by programmers.

Some advantages of using a high-level language are as follows:

· Learning a high-level language is easier than learning a machine or assembly language because their instructions are more English like.

· A programmer can easily read, write, and maintain a program written in a high-level language. This is because high-level languages vocabularies are similar to the English language.

· The high-level language programs being hardware independent provide the feature of portability. The high-level language program written in one type of computer can easily be used on another type of computer.

Compiler

To execute a program written in a high-level language, a computer needs translation software called a compiler.

A compiler is always language-specific which means each high-level language has its own compiler, which translates the source code of that language into the object code. For example, a compiler for COBOL compiles only the programs written in COBOL. It cannot compile programs written in any other high-level language, such as FORTRAN.

The following figure shows how a compiler works:

The preceding figure shows two programs written in two different high-level languages. The programs are compiled using the respective compilers of the languages and are converted into corresponding object code.

When a compiler program translates a source code, it checks the syntax of the statements. If the compiler finds an error in the source code, it generates a list of errors. The compiler does not generate the object code until the errors are removed.

Linker

When a program is written in any programming language, it uses predefined keywords, such as Print or Accept, whose functionalities are defined in the libraries. A library is the collection of various keywords and their functionalities, which are written by experienced programmers and stored for reuse by other programmers. These predefined keywords can be reused by giving the references of libraries in the programs.

On compilation, the compiler generates the object code. To generate the executable code from the object code the functionality of the keywords also needs to be attached. The linker performs the task of linking the functionality of the keywords with the object code.

The process of linking is shown in the following figure:

Interpreter

Some high-level languages use a different type of translator program called an interpreter. An interpreter takes each instruction of the source code, converts it to a machine language instruction, executes it and does not save the generated object code. This process is repeated each time before execution. Therefore, executing the program using an interpreter is time-consuming.

Debugging is easier using an interpreter because interpreter error messages are usually specific and point out the line on which the error occurs.

PERL, BASIC, and Visual Basic languages typically use interpreter.

Examples of High-level Languages

A large number of high-level languages have been developed since the first high-level language, FLOWMATIC, was developed in 1952. Some of the common high-level languages are Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC), Formula Translation (FORTRAN), Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL), Pascal, and C.

BASIC

BASIC was developed in 1964 by Professor John Kemny and Thomas Kurtz at Darmouth College in the USA.

Basic is an interpreter-based language that is easy and simple to use. BASIC was one of the earliest high-level languages to be implemented on personal computers.

FORTRAN

FORTRAN is one of the oldest high-level languages. It was developed in 1957 by John Backus and his team at International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation. FORTRAN was designed to solve scientific and engineering problems. After the first version was launched, various versions of FORTRAN have been developed, such as FORTRAN II, FORTRAN IV, and FORTRAN 77. FORTRAN IV was the first language that was standardized by American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

COBOL

COBOL was initially developed by the mathematician, Grace Hopper, in 1959. It was later modified in 1959-60 by a committee of the Conference on Data Systems Languages (CODASYL). This committee defined the language specifications for COBOL.

COBOL was standardized by ANSI in 1968. Revised versions of this standard were published in 1974 and 1985, which are known as COBOL 74 and COBOL 85, respectively. Currently, the latest version of COBOL is known as COBOL 2002.

COBOL was designed to solve business data processing problems.

Pascal

Pascal was designed in 1971 by Professor Nicklaus Wirth of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. He named it after the famous French mathematician, Blaise Pascal.

Pascal was designed to help beginners to learn good problem solving and programming practices. Today, Pascal is recognized as a language that allows programmers to write structured and modular programs. It is suitable for scientific as well as business applications.

Pascal was standardized by ANSI in 1983. Since then, different versions of Pascal are available.

C was developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan at AT&T’s Bell Laboratories, USA. They designed C in such a way that it incorporated the features of a high-level language along with the efficiency of a low-level language.

C was standardized by ANSI in 1989. C is a compiler-based language. Therefore, C programs can be easily transferred to other computers equipped with a C compiler. It is widely used for writing word-processing programs, compilers, and operating systems. For example, the UNIX operating system is written in C.

Selecting a Programming Language

With the availability of a wide variety of programming languages, the selection of an appropriate programming language is an important issue today. The following factors should be considered when selecting a programming language:

· The first criterion for selecting a language is the type of application that is to be developed. For example, COBOL is for solving business data processing problems.

· If multiple languages are suitable for an application, programmers should select a language in which they are proficient.

· If the programmers are not familiar with any language, they should select a language that is easy to learn and use

High-level language computer architecture (Advances in VLSI series)

High-level Languages for Microprocessor Projects

The Master Handbook of High-Level Microcomputer Languages

COMPUTER PROGRAMMING: FUNDAMENTALS PART3

2011-05-10T06:05:00.000-07:00

ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE

To overcome the limitations of machine language, assembly language was introduced in 1952. Assembly language uses alphanumeric code and symbols instead of binary digits to represent instructions and memory addresses. For example, it uses ADD for addition and SUB for subtraction.

NB: Alphanumeric code uses a set of letters and numbers to represent an instruction.

These alphanumeric code and symbols make the program shorter and easier to write than machine language. They also reduce the possibility of errors. Additionally, the programs can be modified easily.

An assembly language is called a second-generation language.

A sample program snippet in an assembly language to add two numbers is shown below:

1. LD Ax, 9

2. LD Bx, 10

3. ADD Ax,Bx

4. LD (100),Ax

5. JMP Bx

6. HLT

Here, Ax and Bx are registers. Registers are nothing but the memory locations inside a microprocessor. Every instruction and data needs to be loaded from main memory to registers before the CPU can process it.

In the above program:

The line number one loads register Ax with the value, 9.

The line number two loads register Bx with the value, 10.

The line number three adds the value of register Bx to the value of register Ax.

The line number four stores the value of register Ax in the main memory location, 100.

The line number five uses JMP to jump to register Bx to transfer the control to register Bx.

The line number six stops the program execution.

As mentioned earlier, a computer cannot understand any language other than machine language. As a result, a translation program is needed to interpret assembly language code into machine language code. This translation program is called an assembler. A code written in any programming language, which requires translation for execution, is known as source code.

Functioning of an Assembler

The assembler takes each program statement in the source code in assembly language and generates a corresponding bit stream or pattern (a series of 0s and 1s of a given length). This set of instructions in a bit stream is the output of the assembler and is called the object code. The object code can then be executed whenever required. The assembler generates a list of errors instead of object code if it finds errors in the source code.

The functioning of an assembler is illustrated in the following figure:

Functioning Of An Assembler

Advantages of the Assembly Language

Assembly language programs are easier to write and understand than machine language because they use alphanumeric code instead of binary numbers. The programmer can easily remember the opcode and alphanumeric names for the addresses of data and instructions. This saves time and effort in developing and modifying assembly language programs.

Limitations of the Assembly Language

Assembly language also has a few limitations. These are as follows:

The programs created in assembly language are slower than those created in the machine language. This is because extra time is required to translate assembly language instructions into machine language instructions.
Programs created in assembly language are dependent on processors because the assembly language vocabulary varies for different processors. Therefore, a program written in assembly language for one processor might not run on another processor.

COMPUTER PROGRAMMING: FUNDAMENTALS PART2

2011-05-10T04:07:00.000-07:00

MACHINE LANGUAGE

All computers use the binary number system, comprising the binary digits, 0 and 1 for performing internal operations. Machine language is the only language that uses binary digits, to represent an instruction. Therefore, the computer can directly process the instructions written in machine language.

A number of languages can be used to write programs. However, the computer understands only machine language. The programs written in other programming languages need to be translated to machine language for execution.

The machine language program being written in binary digits is difficult to learn because it is difficult to read and understand. For example, a program instruction to print a number might be

1011001111101001 1110110011001111

NB: The binary number system uses the base of 2. For example, 101 in the binary system is equal to 5 in the decimal system.

The conversion can be done as:

101=1*2²+ 0*2¹+ 1* 2⁰=1*4 + 0*2 + 1*1 = 4 + 0 + 1=5

Machine language is also called a first-generation language.

Advantage of the Machine Language

The main advantage of the machine language is that computer programs written in a machine language execute fast. This is possible because machine instructions are in binary form, which are directly understood by the computer and no translation of the instructions is required.

Limitations of the Machine Language

Machine language has the following limitations:

· Machine language programs are difficult to write because the programmer either needs to remember all the operation code or refer constantly to the reference card of the computer. The programmer also needs to remember the memory locations of the data.

NB:A reference card is a documented form of machine instructions for a computer. It lists the binary form of various machine language instructions such as print and read.

· The machine language code differs from one type of computer to another. This is because the internal design of each type of computer varies from other types and needs different signals to operate.

· Machine language programs are error-prone because it is difficult to write a machine language program. A single error of a 0 or 1 can change the interpretation of the program.

Programs written in a machine language are difficult to modify because of their complexity.

SPECTRUM +2: MACHINE LANGUAGE FOR THE ABSOLUTE BEGINNER

8080 machine language programming for beginners (DP series in software ; no. 3)

Amstrad Machine Language for the Absolute Beginner

Machine Language for Beginners

Compute's Apple IIGS Machine Language for Beginners (Compute! library selection)

COMPUTER PROGRAMMING: FUNDAMENTALS PART1

2011-05-10T03:19:00.000-07:00

INTRODUCING PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES

A language is a means of communication between people. Similarly, a programming language is a means of communication between a programmer and a computer. A programmer writes a set of instructions in a programming language to instruct the computer to perform a task. A set of logically related instructions is called a program.

Every language is nothing but a collection of words and symbols, which are understood by users of the language. This collection of words and symbols is called the vocabulary of a language.

The vocabulary of a programming language is not as vast as the vocabulary of a commonly spoken communication language. Like any other communication language, all programming languages have a set of rules, called the syntax of the language.

Programming languages can be classified into three broad categories:

· Machine language

· Assembly language

· High-level language

As stated earlier, a program written in any programming language is a set of logically related instructions. These instructions have two parts, as shown in the following figure:

Format Of A Programming Language

· Operation code (opcode): This part instructs a computer about the operation to be performed.

· Operand: This part instructs the computer about the location of the data on which the operation specified by the opcode is to be performed.

For example, in the instruction Add A and B, Add is the Opcode and A and B are operands.

Each computer has its own set of opcode. The opcode in the instruction set can perform the following operations:

· Logical operations: These operations involve the comparison of data and the result is either True or False.

· Arithmetic operations: These operations involve mathematical calculations.

· Branch operations: These operations involve transfer of control a memory location given in an operand field.

· Data movement operations: These operations involve data transfer between the memory and the processor or between the input/output devices and the computer.

It must be understood here that the objective of writing a program is to generate the predefined output with the use of computers. However, programs can be long and complex. There are tools available to programmers that help them minimize the time taken to get a program up and running. Depending on the standards followed by their organization, programmers use flowcharts or pseudocode during the planning phase of problem solving. There are also specialized tools available for representing complex logic like decision tables and decision trees.

FIGHTING CYBER SQUATTING

2011-05-06T04:14:00.000-07:00

CLICK HERE KNOW MORE ABOUT CYBER SQUATTING: What is Cyber Squatting?

WHAT IS ACPA? OVERVIEW

The Anti Cyber Squatting Consumer Protection Act is a federal law that took effect on November 29, 1999. This new domain name dispute law is intended to give trademark and service mark owner’s legal remedies against defendants who obtain domain names "in bad faith" that are identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark. If a mark is a famous mark, the same remedies are available if the domain name is identical to, confusingly similar to or dilutive of the mark.

Cyber Squatting Evidence

The plaintiff must prove the following elements to be convicted of cyber squatting:

The Defendant has a bad faith intent to profit from that mark, including a defendant name which is protected as a mark;

Registers, traffics in, or uses a domain name that--

(I) In the case of a mark that is distinctive at the time of registration of the domain name, is identical or confusingly similar to that mark;

(II) In the case of a famous mark that is famous at the time of registration of the domain name, is identical or confusingly similar to or dilutive of that mark; or

(III) Is a trademark, word, or name protected by reason of 18 U.S.C. § 706 (the Red Cross, the American National Red Cross or the Geneva cross) or 36 U.S.C. § 220506

*The key element that needs to be proven is that the defendant has bad faith intent to profit from the mark.

Determining Bad Faith

The ACPA gives the court some guidance when deciding whether ‘bad faith,” exists or not. This should make it easier for the courts to follow the “rubric,” in a sense and determine “bad faith.” “Bad faith,” is a mandatory requirement to award the plaintiff with statutory awards of any kind.

1. The trademark or other intellectual property rights of the defendant, if any, in the domain name;

2. The extent to which the domain name consists of the legal name of the defendant or a name that is otherwise commonly used to identify the defendant;

43. The defendant's prior use, if any, of the domain name in connection with the bona fide offering of any goods or services;

. The defendant's bona fide noncommercial or fair use of the mark in a site accessible under the domain name;

5. The defendant's intent to divert consumers from the mark owner's online location to a site accessible under the domain name that could harm the goodwill represented by the mark, either for commercial gain or with the intent to tarnish or disparage the mark, by creating a likelihood of confusion as to the source, sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement of the site;

6. The defendant's offer to transfer, sell, or otherwise assign the domain name to the mark owner or any third party for financial gain without having used, or having an intent to use, the domain name in the bona fide offering of any goods or services, or the defendant's prior conduct indicating a pattern of such conduct;

7. The defendant's provision of material and misleading false contact information when applying for the registration of the domain name, the defendant's intentional failure to maintain accurate contact information, or the defendant's prior conduct indicating a pattern of such conduct;

8. The defendant's registration or acquisition of multiple domain names which the defendant knows are identical or confusingly similar to marks of others that are distinctive at the time of registration of such domain names, or dilutive of famous marks of others that are famous at the time of registration of such domain names, without regard to the goods or services of the parties; and

9. The extent to which the mark incorporated in the defendant's domain name registration is or is not distinctive and famous within the meaning of Section 1125(c) (1) of the Lanham Act.

Bad faith intent will not be found in situations where the plaintiff believed they were acting lawfully and not in bad faith.

Violation Remedies

The Act authorizes a court to order the forfeiture or cancellation of a domain name or the transfer of the domain name to the owner of the mark. In lieu of actual damages, the plaintiff may elect statutory damages and the court has discretion to award damages of a minimum of $1,000 and maximum of $100,000 per domain name, as the court considers just.

WHAT IS ICANN? OVERVIEW

The contract for ICANN came from the US Department of Commerce and all other bidders were excluded from being involved. The tasks delegated included managing the assignment of domain names and IP addresses. Currently Paul Twomey heads ICANN and is the CEO. Public participation was decided to be excluded on March 14, 2002, in a public meeting in Accra, in Ghana.

ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Located in California, it is a non-profit corporation that consists largely of Internet society members. It was created on September 18, 1998 in order to take over a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed on behalf of the US Government.

ICANN holds their periodic public meetings with the intent of staying in touch with its members. Critics site that the locations of the meetings are often in countries with small Internet access and far away from locations that the majority of the Internet-using public can afford to reach, therefore making public input and participation quite limited. Some other people criticize ICANN as playing into the hands of US interests, given that the Internet is a worldwide resource and its formation was created through contributions from worldwide scientists. Meanwhile, ICANN is seeking to privatize itself, withdrawing from its connections to the US Government and US Department of Commerce.

FUTURE OF CYBER SQUATTING

The importance of cyber squatting to corporations has been growing since the creation of the ACPA and will continue to grow as time goes on. We predict that cyber squatting will be an issue involved in e-commerce law in the future although the complainant may shift from big businesses to smaller businesses based on recent court decisions. In addition, there are various amendments that could be made to the current cyber squatting acts in order to increase their effectiveness as well as fairness. These changes will need to occur as the Internet expands and online businesses continue to flourish.

There are many current cases which challenge both the powerful individuals’ and businesses’ right to a domain name, as well as challenging the individual’s right to hold the domain for personal use. Earlier this month, a case was tried in the U.S. Court of Appeals in regards to the use of the domain “fallwell.com” as a critical site to the preaching of televangelist Jerry Falwell. Jerry Falwell accused the owner of this site of infringing on trademarks and cyber squatting but his claims were rejected when the courts decided that the site could not be confused with Jerry Falwell’s official domain “falwell.com” due to differences in both appearance and content.

This case is a major victory for individuals who wish to criticize public figures or organizations through the use of the Internet. In the future, granted that the individuals who own and operate the domain have no intent to profit from its use, there is very slim chance that a court could find in favor of either a powerful individual or a large corporation. This lack of “bad faith” intent involved with the operation of a site is used to protect individuals from being bullied out of cyberspace by large businesses.

Bad Faith in the Future

“Bad faith” has been used as a defense for many small businesses and has provided them with a layer of security when their use of the domain does not infringe upon the larger company’s trademark. Non-profit use is one of the strongest defenses and its inclusion in the ACPA is one of the greatest strengths of the act. Many other aspects of the ACPA allow big businesses to push smaller ones out of the Internet market and simply having larger exposure and a larger name has allowed them to bully others out of the e-commerce market [19].

The ability of large companies to force smaller ones to give up domain rights is being challenged by many court cases and the victories of some of these small businesses is paving the way for others in the future. These results are also being looked at in many states as they look to clarify and improve the cyber squatting laws. This is because as we stand now, the Internet may not be able to survive only on the acts which have been passed in the last few years. With the Internet rapidly expanding into new domains, such as “.biz”, “.edu”, “.in”, and many others, the chances of registering common domains increases greatly. Along with this, many individuals and companies are becoming more educated on the technical aspects of cyber squatting. This is only increasing the complicated nature of cases and making it harder for courts to come to a decision regarding the rightful ownership of a domain name.

Changes

Problems can be dealt with through the expansion of the acts that currently deal with cyber squatting. The ACPA, in conjunction with the ICANN, has power over the domain names that are registered and can influence the decisions made in regards to them. By enhancing the ACPA with more individual-friendly sanctions, the government can help to protect the rights of an individual to own and operate a site that may be common to a corporation’s trademark. In addition to this, the ICANN and other such organizations have the authority to sell the rights to a domain to anyone who pays for it, but also have gained the power to transfer these rights to another party if they deem fit. These decisions can be appealed and taken to court; however, a failure to promptly file an appeal with the domain registrar can lead to a loss in court no matter what arguments are brought about.

In order to prevent these organizations from unfairly dictating the law of the Internet, legislation must be passed in order to amend the ACPA in order to correct the flaws that have been found in recent court hearings. This will undoubtedly gather much opposition from large businesses and influential individuals who wish to protect their own rights without concerning the right of the common individual. These laws in the United States act to override the laws of foreign nations and also act to undermine the authority of international efforts such as ICANN in order to avoid complex and costly international lawsuits. The ACPA has received much opposition and typically gains complaints including such grounds as legislative overkill, free speech concerns, and reverse domain hijacking. The future of the ACPA holds legal ramifications that will affect not only U.S citizens, but also foreign citizens and businesses. This holds true in the case of the International Olympic Committee which has used the ACPA as a weapon in order to prevent the use of domains remotely associated with the Olympics.

CONCLUSION

Cyber squatting has been an active threat since the early 1990’s and has increased in severity ever since. The prevention of cyber squatting revolves mainly around two acts, the UDRP and the ACPA. The UDRP was adopted by ICANN in order to provide a mechanism for trademark holders to obtain domain names from cyber squatters. The UDRP states that before a domain name registrar will cancel, suspend, or transfer a domain name that is the subject of a trademark-based dispute, it must have an agreement signed by the parties, a court order, or an arbitration award. The development of the UDRP created a "cyber arbitration" procedure to quickly resolve domain name ownership disputes that involve trademarks. All owners of “.com”, “.net”, and “.org” domain names are subject to the UDRP by virtue of the registration agreements at the time of acquiring their domain names.

The ACPA is a valuable tool intended to protect the infringement of trademarks online and to protect the credibility of a company through the protection of their name as a domain. However, it is also a weapon used by corporations in order to force smaller businesses out of the e-commerce market. For this reason, the ACPA must be modified in order to account for some of the unfair court cases which have been decided in the past years. The rights of the individual must be protected and as it currently stands, courts have been favouring the businesses with the largest name and largest pockets regardless of the intent of the individual who owns the domain.

Both of these systems have their advantages, but they must be used properly in order to achieve the desired result. The UDRP provides a method for quick resolution of a dispute whereas the ACPA allows for an extended legal battle with the potential of large monetary settlements being awarded. However, both systems help to provide security and structure to the complicated and widespread problem of cyber squatting. These acts, along with the legal system, are the only protection available to those who wish to defend themselves from cyber squatters.

Since cyber squatting is going to shift from larger businesses to small businesses in the future, modifications to the cyber squatting acts will need to be made in order to increase protection. The ACPA will need to be modified to protect individuals who own a cite similar to a corporation's trademark because currently the act favours big businesses. Cyber squatting problems are going to continue to develop because of the rapid growth and expansion of the Internet. The issue cannot simply be ignored or else it may hurt the economy. Its important to learn from the victims of cyber squatting so we can prepare ahead of time for the issues to come.

CLICK HERE KNOW MORE ABOUT CYBER SQUATTING

ARE YOU A VICTIM OF CYBER SQUATTING?

2011-05-06T02:52:00.000-07:00

DEFINITION

Cyber squatting (also known as domain squatting), according to the United States federal law known as the Anti cyber squatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The cyber squatter then offers to sell the domain to the person or company who owns a trademark contained within the name at an inflated price.

INTRODUCTION

After the dot com boom, it became apparent to business owners how vital the Internet would be to their success. At this time there were few people ahead of those business owners who found a way to use this to their own advantage. These people, or cyber squatters, realized the importance of the Internet as a part of business, and knew the business owners would soon wise up as well. If you own a trademark and find that someone is holding it hostage as a domain name until you pay a large sum for it, according to www.nolo.com, you may be a victim of cyber squatting.
Victims of cyber squatting are protected under the 1999 federal law known as the Anti-Cyber Squatting Consumer Protection Act. Victims can sue or initiate arbitration proceedings under the authority of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and win the name back. This became known as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy.
In this report the beginnings of cyber squatting are outlined and discussed, some of the laws and acts that were born as a result of this problem compared and contrasted, example cases over domain names briefed, and our future outlook on cyber squatting is predicted as follows.

I. HISTORY OF CYBER SQUATTING

Before 1999, the business world was still resisting the need for the Internet as a tool for success. They didn’t see the need to register their trademarks as domain names. However, cyber squatters did see the increasing importance of the Internet, and saw the businesses making the mistake of ignoring it. This is how cyber squatting was born and began causing problems. Cyber squatters took advantage of those companies by registering domain names identical or similar to the business’ trademarks. Domain name registrars accept all applications for domain names by applicants unless that exact identical name is in use. After the cyber squatter has the domain name registered, the company can no longer have their trademark as their domain name. This causes a problem since customers and clients frequently try to find businesses online.

One of the first cyber squatters were Dennis Toeppen in the early 90’s who registered some very famous marks before companies did. He then demanded a ransom of $13,000 for each domain name. This type of cyber squatting causes firms to lose money not only by paying cyber squatters to get their domain names, but as a loss of profit for what they could be making with an effective website. Some of the cyber squatters made websites to slam a business using their own mark as a domain name for that page. This could ruin the reputation of a company and now take away from business they had at one point. Cyber squatting causes monetary losses and damaged reputations. Businesses were not happy when these issues become apparent to them. They have wised up since the beginning of cyber squatting, and now realize the harm it can cause to their business and customers. They have learned of the important benefits of owning their trademark domain names. Congress decided to take action in 1999 to help out businesses and stop cyber squatting. The laws and acts passed helped businesses battle the increase in cyber squatting from 1999 on.

II. Recognizing Cyber Squatting

How do you know if the domain name you want is being used by a cyber squatter? Follow these steps to find out.Check where the domain name takes you. As a general rule, first check to see if the domain name takes you to a website. If it does not take you to a functioning website, but instead takes you to a site stating "this domain name for sale," or "under construction," or "can't find server," the likelihood increases that you are dealing with a cyber squatter. The absence of a real site may indicate that the domain name owner's only purpose in buying the name is to sell it back to you at a higher price.

Of course, absence of a website does not always mean the presence of a cyber squatter. There may also be an innocent explanation and the domain name owner may have perfectly legitimate plans to have a website in the future.

If the domain takes you to a functioning website that is comprised primarily of advertisements for products or services related to your trademark, you may also have a case of cyber squatting. For example, if your company is well-known for providing audio-visual services and the website you encounter is packed with ads for other company's audio-visual services, the likelihood is very strong that the site is operated by a cyber squatter who is trading off your company's popularity to sell Google ads to your competitors.

If the domain name takes you to a website that appears to be functional, has a reasonable relation to the domain name, but does not compete with your products or services, you probably aren't looking at a case of cyber squatting. For example, if your trademark is "Moby Dick" for fine art dealing with whaling, and the website you encounter (www.mobydick.com) is for road cleaning machines, you do not have a case of cybersquatting. You may, under certain circumstances, have a case of trademark infringement.

Contact the domain name registrant. Before jumping to any conclusions, contact the domain name registrant. To find the name and address of a domain name owner, you can use the "WHOIS Lookup" at whois.net. Find out whether there is a reasonable explanation for the use of the domain name, or if the registrant is willing to sell you the name at a price you are willing to pay.

Pay, if it makes sense. Sometimes, paying the cyber squatter is the best choice. It may cheaper and quicker than filing a lawsuit or initiating an arbitration hearing.

However there are some options available to help fighting Cyber Squatting:

Sue under the provisions of the Anti-cyber squatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA).
Use an international arbitration system created by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Trademark experts consider the ICANN arbitration system to be faster and less expensive than suing under the ACPA and the procedure does not require an attorney.

BASIC OF WANs

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Basics of WANs

A WAN typically consists of two components, which are:

Transmission lines: These lines move bits of data between the nodes. Transmission lines could be circuits, channels, or trunks.
Switching elements: Switching elements are specialized nodes to connect two or more transmission lines. The elements direct the information from an incoming transmission line to an outgoing transmission line. The switching element or the node has specialized software installed on it to determine the appropriate outgoing transmission line. The switching elements are also known as packet switching nodes.

Transmission Lines

Transmission lines used for WAN connectivity are normally leased from the service provider, such as a telephone company, and are known as leased lines. After being leased by an organization, the leased line functions as a dedicated transmission line that caters to the network traffic of the specific organization.

Switching

Switching is the technique of dynamically selecting a path from multiple paths that carry data to its desired location. WAN uses the following three types of switching techniques:

Circuit switching
Message switching
Packet switching

Circuit Switching
In circuit switching, a dedicated path or communication channel is set up for use between two communicating nodes. Until the connection lasts, only the two nodes can use the channel. After the communication between the two nodes is over, the channel becomes available to another set of communicating nodes. A telephone conversation is an example of circuit switching.

The biggest disadvantage of the circuit switching technology is that if the specified path fails, the communication between the two nodes is disrupted completely. Circuit switching also results in wasting the bandwidth of a communication channel. This is because, during a connection, the channel is not used for any other purpose.

Message Switching
In message switching, there is no direct communication channel between the sender and the receiver. The message is stored temporarily at the switching element and forwarded later. The message is always stored and forwarded in entirety. The message is forwarded from the switching element one hop at a time. A typical example of message switching is e-mail and fax.

NB: A message might consist of a number of data packets.

Message switching makes full use of the bandwidth of the communication channel because multiple messages can be sent using one channel. Message switching transmits the messages in their entirety so there is no need to assemble or disassemble the packets in the messages. In addition, message switching does not require the sender and the receiver to be present at the same time. However, the disadvantage of message switching is that the communication between the sender and the receiver is not interactive.

Packet Switching

Packet switching segments a message into small packets, which are then transmitted over a communication channel. Due to the breaking up of message into small packets, a channel can be used by many users at the same time.

The main advantage of packet switching is that due to fixed packet sizes, the data packets of a single user do not block the transmission channel. In addition, packet switching does not statically reserve the bandwidth. Instead, packet switching acquires and releases the bandwidth, as required. However, the disadvantage of packet switching is that the sizes of data packets are restricted.

The following figure shows WAN connectivity between two LANs at Florida and Texas, over the Internet by using the services of a service provider. This service provider could be a telephone company. T1 and E1 are dedicated phone lines.

WAN Connectivity

IEEE LAN STANDARD

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IEEE LAN Standards

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) has published a set of standards for LANs. The standards are collectively known as the IEEE 802.x standards. These standards have gained industry acceptance in the development and implementation of LANs.

The commonly used IEEE 802.x standards for LANs are:

IEEE 802.1
IEEE 802.2
IEEE 802.3
IEEE 802.4
IEEE 802.5

IEEE 802.1

The IEEE 802.1 LAN standard provides information about the prerequisites for the interface of LAN standards. This standard is also known as the Higher Layer Interface (HILI).
An interface is a set of services that a layer offers to the layer above it in the protocol suite.

IEEE 802.2

The IEEE 802.2 LAN standard is a part of the Logical Link Control (LLC) sublayer of the Data Link layer. LLC compensates for the difference between the various 802 networks by providing a single format and interface to the Network layer.

IEEE 802.3

The IEEE 802.3 LAN standard is used for 1-persistent Carrier Sense Multiple Access/ Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) LAN, which is commonly known as Ethernet. Using the CSMA protocol, a node transmits data packets when it finds the channel or the transmission media idle. Due to this, it is known as 1-persistent CSMA.

If the channel is free, the node transmits data; otherwise, the node waits for it to become idle. If there is a collision in the channel, all nodes terminate their transmission, wait for a random time, and retransmit the data.
The IEEE 802.3 LAN standard falls under the MAC sublayer of the Data Link layer and the OSI Physical layer.

IEEE 802.4

The IEEE 802.4 LAN standard, which is also known as the token bus, was developed to avoid collisions on a network.

The token bus comprises of nodes, which are physically arranged linearly but logically organized to form a ring. Each node on the ring knows the addresses of the nodes to its immediate left and right. The following figure shows a token bus.

Token Bus

The token bus is based on a principle of a calculated wait period for each node in the ring. If the token bus takes time t for each node to transmit a frame and there are y nodes in the ring, the wait period for each node would be at most t*y. Each node in the ring holds the token for an equal time, transmits its frames within that period, and then passes the token to its neighbor.

NB: A token is a special control frame required by a node to send the frames on the logical ring. A control frame carries the administrative information responsible for maintaining the ring or delivering data from the source to the destination.

IEEE 802.5

The IEEE 802.5 LAN standard is also known as the Token Ring. The standard defines the specification for ring networks.
When the ring is initially set up, all the nodes are idle and the token circulates in the ring. When a node needs to transmit data frames to the ring, it would need to acquire the token and remove it from the ring. There is only one token traversing the ring and only the token holder can transmit its frames to the ring.

NETWORK COMPONENTS OF A LAN

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Network Components of a LAN

Any network requires four components so that the nodes within it can communicate with each other and exchange information. These components include the following:

The transmission medium over which the data is exchanged
Rules and standards or protocols that facilitate the communication on the network
Software components in the form of NOS and management applications
Hardware devices that make up the network

Transmission media and protocols have already been covered in the previous articless. This section consists of the hardware components that are used in a LAN. These components include the following devices:

Media connectors
Network Interface Cards
Repeaters
Hubs
Bridges
Switches

Media Connectors

Media connectors are devices that connect a node to the transmission medium. They correspond to the Physical layer of the OSI reference model.

The commonly used media connectors include the following:

British Naval Connectors (BNCs): These connectors connect coaxial cables to the node. These connectors are commonly used to connect nodes in a bus topology.
T-Connectors: These connectors connect a network card of a PC to a network through cables.
RJ-45 connectors: These connectors connect a PC to the network socket in the wall.
DB-9 connectors: These connectors are used with different interfaces, such as video interfaces.
DB-25 connectors: These connectors are used in serial connections and parallel interfaces, such as printers.

Network Interface Cards

Network Interface Cards (NICs) are the internal components of nodes and connect each node to the network. NICs operate in the Data Link layer of the OSI model. As a result, they perform the functions corresponding to this layer. They supply the hardware or physical address to each node on the network.

Repeaters

The information traversing through the transmission media on a network is known as a signal. Each medium has a maximum range to carry data reliably. While traversing, the signal undergoes weakening, degradation, and distortion because the length of the network segment increases. As a result, the transmission media restricts the network segment's length.

This problem is overcome by the use of a hardware device known as repeaters. Repeaters amplify and regenerate the signal from one node to another on a network. As a result, repeaters allow you to extend the effective length of the transmission media. A repeater does not filter or interpret the signal. It only repeats or regenerates the signal. The repeaters operate at the Physical layer of the OSI reference model. If the distance between the segments to be connected is very large, multiple repeaters may be required.

The following figure shows the extension of a network segment between two floors of the same building and two different buildings using repeaters.

Network Setup Using Repeaters

Hubs

Hubs are the central point of connection on a network because they allow multiple nodes and devices to be attached to them at the same time. The point where a node or a network device is attached to the hub is referred to as a port.
Based on the number of ports, hubs can be 8-port, 10-port, 16-port, 24-port, and 32-port. Hubs with a higher port capacity are also available in the market.

The following figure shows a hub:

Network Setup Using Hub

Hubs are of the following types:

Passive hubs: These hubs do not regenerate the signals that they receive. In addition, the signals are sent to all devices that are connected to them.
Active hubs: These hubs are capable of signal regeneration. However, they also forward the signals that they receive to all the nodes attached to them.
Intelligent hubs: Apart from signal regeneration, these hubs are capable of basic management-related activities, such as gathering statistics about network traffic and collisions. In addition, the signal that passes through the hub goes to the destination node and the other nodes do not receive the signal. As a result, these hubs actively participate in reducing network traffic.

Bridges

Bridges are devices to connect network segments to each other. Bridges not only extend a network, but also filter unnecessary traffic on the network.

In a large bus setup, network traffic is very high because the data packets are sent to all the nodes attached to the bus. As a result, excessive traffic is generated, which results in the low performance of the setup. The network device, bridge, is used to overcome this problem. The bridge operates on the MAC sublayer of the OSI Data Link layer.

The bridge between the two segments examines each packet for its destination information and forwards only those data packets that are specific to other segments instead of sending all the data packets. This helps reduce the network traffic between the two segments and the overall network traffic. The segregation of the network into segments and their connectivity by bridges enables the smooth functioning of the network in the event of a breakdown of a particular segment. The following figure shows the use of bridges to manage network traffic.

Network Setup Using Bridge

Bridges cannot join dissimilar network segments because it needs the physical address of the device to send the data packet. The physical address is the function of the Data Link layer that uses different protocols on each type of network.

Switches

Switches are intelligent network devices that provide universal connectivity. At the same time, switches make efficient use of network resources, especially transmission media and their bandwidth.

On receiving data packets, instead of forwarding the packets to all connected nodes or segments, switches forward the packets only to the node that is the intended recipient of the packets. As a result, switches prevent network bandwidth from being wasted.

Switches are capable of basic network management activities, such as gathering statistics about network traffic and collisions. In addition, switches can also perform advanced management activities, such as selecting the optimal path for signal delivery within a network. As a result, switches play an active role in bringing down the overall network traffic.
Switches can operate at the Data Link layer, the Network layer, or both. The switches that operate at both the Data Link layer and the Network layer are known as multilayer switches. The switches perform both the switching and routing function.

NB: Bandwidth is the range of frequencies that a signal, such as analog or digital, can occupy over a specific transmission medium. Bandwidth is measured in bits of data per second (bps) for a digital signal, while it is measured in kilohertz (kHz) for an analog signal.

HOW TO CHOOSE A PROTOCOL?

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Choosing and Combining Protocols

The factors that govern the choice and implementation of protocols on a network are:

Physical layout of the network: The Physical layout is the topology of the network used. For example, the star topology typically uses the Ethernet protocol.

Span of the network: Networks can span a room, a floor, a building, a city, a country, or continents. The span of the network also dictates what protocols need to be implemented. For example, networks that span across cities, countries, and continents can use protocols, such as TCP/IP, while networks in a room or on a floor can use protocols, such as NetBIOS and NetBEUI.

Network operating system (NOS): NOSs also influence the choice of protocols largely. For example, Netware v3.2 uses the IPX/SPX protocol suite, while Windows 3.11 uses NetBEUI, by default.
Budget of the organization: This factor is possibly the most important factor because it influences the physical layout of the network and the choice of NOS, which, in turn, influences the choice of protocol.

The choice of a protocol to be used on a network depends on the requirements of the network. The requirements of a network may change over time.
To understand this, consider a scenario in which an organization had a LAN setup of 10 computers a decade ago. This network used the NetBEUI protocol. Now, the company wishes to connect the LAN to the Internet. Because the Internet uses TCP/IP, the company cannot use NetBEUI to communicate over the Internet.

Similarly, consider a scenario in which an organization with a TCP/IP-based network takes over another organization, which has two mainframes. In this case, the SNA protocol is required to implement connectivity between the two mainframes and TCP/IP-based hosts.

DLC & NETBEUI PROTOCOLS SUITES

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DLC Protocol Suite

The Data Link Control (DLC) protocol communicates between personal computers and mainframes (IBM Hosts). The DLC protocol provides services to the Data Link layer of the OSI reference model. It provides reliable data transfer across each connection on a network. The DLC protocol also defines frames and maintains flow control on the network.

NetBEUI Protocol Suite

NetBEUI stands for NetBIOS Extended User Interface. This protocol extends the functionality of the NetBIOS protocol. The NetBIOS protocol enables the transmission of data within a network. NetBEUI supplements this functionality of NetBIOS by formalizing the format of frames transmitted across the network. NetBEUI is best suited for small LANs because it is a nonroutable protocol that cannot route data packets across LANs.

SNA PROTOCOL SUITE

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SNA Protocol Suite

IBM invented Systems Network Architecture (SNA) in the 1970s. The SNA protocol suite consists of the following:

Document Interchange Architecture (DIA): This specification controls file services, such as the storage and retrieval of files and file transfers among heterogeneous systems.

SNA Distribution Services (SNADS): This service controls the distribution of documents and messages.

Distributed Data Management (DDM): This service coordinates the execution of file requests locally or on a server. When DDM receives file requests, it executes them locally, if required resources are available. However, if required resources are not available on the node on which the request originated, the execution takes place at the server end, which can support the requirements.

Advanced Program-to-Program Communication (APPC): This service allows peer-to-peer communication among clients.

Information Management Systems (IMS): This service provides information management capabilities by scheduling priority transactions.

Customer Information Control Systems (CICS): This service provides multitasking capabilities, security, storage management, transaction management, and restart capabilities.

Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN): This specification facilitates peer-to-peer communication among SNA-based networks.

Network Control Program (NCP): This specification provides routing and gateway functionality on SNA-based networks.

Virtual Telecommunication Access Methods (VTAM): This specification works with the NCP protocol to control network resources. In addition, it provides domain support on SNA-based networks.

Synchronous Data Link Control (SDLC): This specification supports remote connections through leased or dial-up connections. It provides point-to-point, multipoint, half duplex, and full duplex transactions.
Token Ring: This is the LAN specification for IBM Token Ring networks.

APPLE TALK PROTOCOL SUITE

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AppleTalk Protocol Suite

Apple Computer, Inc. developed the AppleTalk protocol suite in the early 1980s. This protocol suite allows the integration of Macintosh computers on a network. It also provides interconnectivity between Apple computers and other networking technologies, such as IBM mainframes and VAX computers.
The following figure shows the AppleTalk protocol suite mapped to the seven layers of the OSI reference model:

In the preceding figure, the AppleTalk protocol suite consists of the following protocols:

AppleShare: This protocol is subdivided into three applications, AppleShare File Server (AFS), AppleShare Print Server (APS), and AppleShare PC (APC). AFS allows users to interact with a file server while APS allows users to send print commands to the print server. APC provides interconnectivity with MS-DOS-based nodes.

AppleTalk Filing Protocol (AFP): This protocol facilitates file sharing between network nodes.

AppleTalk Data Stream Protocol (ADSP): This protocol provides the services of the Session layer of the OSI reference model.

Zone Information Protocol (ZIP): This protocol divides an internetwork into zones and coordinates the interaction of these zones. In addition, ZIP assigns service providers to zones.

Printer Access Protocols (PAP): This protocol establishes connections between network nodes and various servers, such as print and file.

AppleTalk Session Protocol (ASP): This protocol optimises file service functions.

AppleTalk Transaction Protocol (ATP): This protocol provides a reliable delivery service for connection-oriented operations.

Name Binding Protocol (NBP): This protocol maps the names of nodes to their addresses.

Routing Table Maintenance Protocol (RTMP): This protocol manages routing information.

Datagram Delivery Protocol (DDP): This protocol provides routing services.

AppleTalk Address Resolution Protocol (AARP): This protocol maps the physical addresses of devices to their logical addresses.

IPX/SPX PROTOCOL SUITE

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IPX/SPX Protocol Suite

Novell Inc. developed this protocol suite in early 1980s. Although, officially this protocol is referred as the Netware protocol suite, but due to the immense popularity of two protocols, Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) and Sequential Packet Exchange (SPX), this protocol suite is commonly referred to as the IPX/SPX protocol suite.

The following figure shows the IPX/SPX protocol suite mapped to the seven layers of the OSI reference model:

In the preceding figure, the IPX/SPX protocol suite consists of the following protocols:

Service Advertisement Protocol (SAP): This protocol is used by various servers, such as file and print servers, to publicize their IPX addresses and services.
Netware Core Protocol (NCP): This protocol is used to make server functions, such as file and print sharing, available to clients.
Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX): This protocol provides fast but connectionless communication service. For this purpose, it uses datagrams, which are not acknowledged. In addition to providing logical addressing on the network, IPX also provides routing services.
Sequential Packet Exchange (SPX): This protocol is connection-oriented and guarantees the error-free delivery of data packets.
Netware Link Service Protocol (NLSP): This protocol works with the IPX protocol to find the appropriate route between communicating networks.
Routing Information Protocol (RIP): This protocol provides routing-related information to the Network layer.
Link Support Layer (LSL): This protocol provides the interface between network cards and upper layer protocols.
Multiple Link Interface Driver (MLID): This protocol enables the integration of network cards with upper layer protocols.

NETWORK PROTOCOL SUITES: TCP/IP SUITE

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Network Protocol Suites

A protocol suite is a hierarchical collection of protocols. Similar to individual protocols, protocol suites can either be developed by a standards organization or a vendor.
Some of the protocol suites are:

TCP/IP Protocol Suite

Department of Defense (DOD) developed this protocol suite in collaboration with a number of research organizations and universities in the 1970s. Initially, this protocol suite was referred to as the Internet protocol suite because it evolved with the Internet. However, with the emergence of two of its protocols, TCP and IP, this suite is better known as the TCP/IP protocol suite.

The following figure shows the TCP/IP protocol suite mapped to the seven layers of the OSI reference model:

In the preceding figure, the TCP/IP protocol suite consists of the following protocols:

File Transfer Protocol (FTP): This protocol enables the transfer of files from one computer or node to another.
Telnet: This terminal emulation protocol enables access to remote nodes and works on the node as if you were working on it locally.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP): This protocol enables the exchange of electronic mails (e-mails) between two nodes.
Routing Information Protocol (RIP): This protocol provides routing-related information to the Network layer.
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF): This protocol helps the Network layer to discover the shortest available path across networks between two communicating nodes.
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP): This protocol enables reliable, connection-oriented data transfers between two nodes.

User Datagram Protocol (UDP): This protocol enables fast but unreliable connectionless data transfers between two nodes.
Internet Protocol (IP): This protocol moves data between the intermediate networks that lie between the source and destination nodes.
Domain Name Service (DNS): This protocol resolves the names of hosts to their corresponding logical addresses, known as IP addresses.
Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP): This protocol generates control messages related to any error in connection or flow control.
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP): This protocol resolves the MAC address of a node given its logical address.

OSI LAYERS INTERACTIONS

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OSI Layer Interactions

Various protocols are implemented at each of the seven layers defined in the OSI reference model. The protocols function based on the guidelines defined for each layer.
In the OSI model, a layer at one end of the communication can interact with a peer layer at the other end. The message travels down the layer of the sending end through the transmission medium to the peer layer of the receiving end.
The following figure shows the communication between the Transport layers of two peers:

Communication Between Transport Layers Of Two Peers

In case two peers need to communicate with each other, the Application layer initiates the message for the recipient end. However, the two Application layers cannot communicate directly. As a result, the message is passed to the Presentation layer at the sender end, which adds its own header to the message and passes it to the Session layer. The Session layer, in turn, adds its own header and passes it to the next lower layer, the Transport layer. In this manner, each layer at the sender end receives the message, adds its own header, and passes the message to the next lower layer. This is because the message is converted into bits and placed on the transmission medium at the Physical layer. The Physical layer does not append any header.
When the recipient's Physical layer receives the message, it passes the message to the Data Link layer. The header added by the peer Data Link layer is stripped and passed to the Network layer, which, in turn, strips its own header. In this manner, each time the message is passed to the upper layer, the corresponding header is stripped off. When the message reaches the Application layer, it is read and interpreted.
The following figure shows the communication between the layers of two communicating ends:

OPEN SYSTEM INTERCONNECTION REFERENCE MODEL

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The Open System Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model

The International Standards Organization Open System Interconnection (ISO OSI) reference model first achieved the International standardization of the protocols. ISO developed the standards for connecting systems that are open to communication with other systems.
The OSI reference model has seven layers. The following figure shows the seven-layer OSI reference model:

OSI Seven Layers

The seven layers of the model are listed as follows in the bottom-to-top approach:

Physical Layer
Data Link Layer
Network Layer
Transport Layer
Session Layer
Presentation Layer
Application Layer

Physical Layer
The Physical layer is responsible for the transmission of data over a communication channel or the transmission medium. This transmission medium is the physical path over which the data is transmitted in the form of signals. During a transmission, the Physical layer converts the data into series of bits and places these bits on the transmission medium. This layer is also responsible for specifying the physical structure or topology of the network. Although the Physical layer deals with transmission media, the transmission medium is not specified.

Data Link Layer
The Data Link layer is responsible for the following aspects of communication:

Providing unique identification to each node on the network
Transforming data bits from the Physical layer into groups called frames
Detecting errors that occur during a transmission
Managing the flow of data packets or frames

The Data Link layer provides unique identity to each node on the network. It uses the network address, which is hard-coded into the network card of each node for this purpose. Although the Data Link layer is responsible for the detection of transmission errors, it is not responsible for the correction of errors.

The Data Link layer is divided into two sublayers. These are:

Media Access Control (MAC): This sublayer helps the nodes on a network to communicate with each other as it provides information about physical address of the node or the MAC address.
Logical Link Control (LLC): This sublayer establishes and manages a logical link between two communicating devices on the network. It provides error control and flow control within a network

Network Layer
The Network layer is responsible for the following functions:

Providing a unique network address to each node on the network
Transmitting data across networks
Controlling network traffic

The Network layer provides a unique address to each node on a network. The addresses are different from Data Link layer addresses because Data Link layer addresses can only be used for communication within a single local network. However, if a node on a network A, needs to communicate with a node on network B, it would not be able to do so using Data Link layer addresses.

For communication among different networks, a special Network layer-addressing scheme known as logical addressing is used. When two nodes that are located on two separate networks need to communicate with each other, they need the logical address provided by the Network layer.

The Network layer is also responsible for determining all the possible routes to the destination network and selecting the best path to the network where the destination node is located. This process is known as routing.

Transport Layer
The Transport layer is responsible for the following functions:

Organizing messages into segments or breaking large segments into smaller segments
Delivering segments to recipients
Providing error control

The Transport layer segments and reassembles data. In case the upper layers generate large data packets, the Transport layer breaks the large packets into smaller segments that can be handled by lower layers. Similarly, when lower layers pass small segments to the Transport layer, it combines multiple segments to form large packets. Because the Transport layer deals with segmentation and reassembly, it is also responsible for correctly sequencing the segments so that the entire data can be reconstructed correctly.

The Transport layer is also responsible for the unreliable or reliable delivery of segments with the help of connectionless or connection-oriented services, respectively. The recipient acknowledges a transmission in connection-oriented services. If the sender does not receive an acknowledgement from the recipient within a specific interval, it retransmits the unacknowledged packets. In connectionless services, the sender continues to transmit packets without receiving acknowledgements.

The Transport layer also provides error control services. When a packet is lost during transmission, the Transport layer retransmits it after a specific interval. In addition, the Transport layer adds checksums to the segments before transmission. The recipients use these checksums to determine whether the segment was corrupted during the transmission or not. If the segment is corrupted, the Transport layer retransmits the appropriate segments.

Session Layer
The Session layer establishes, manages, and synchronizes the communication between two communicating nodes. The two nodes can exchange information only after a session has been established between them. In this case, session is defined as a logical connection between the two nodes.

The Session layer can also control the direction in which data flows. Based on this direction of data flow, a session can be any one of the following:

Simplex: Only one node can transmit data at a time.
Half duplex: One node can transmit while the other node can receive data. However, both nodes cannot transmit data at the same time.
Duplex: Both nodes can transmit as well as receive data at the same time.

Presentation Layer
The Presentation layer encodes and decodes data in a mutually agreeable format. As a result, this layer plays an important role in facilitating data exchange between heterogeneous hardware and software platforms that use different data formats. For example, if one node uses one byte to represent a character and the other node uses two bytes to represent a character, the Presentation layer plays a significant role in facilitating successful data exchange between the two nodes.

If required, the Presentation layer also compresses and decompresses data packets. As a result, the network traffic is less, preventing congestion. The Presentation layer also plays an important role in the encryption and decryption of data. This ensures high data security during transmission.

Application Layer
The Application layer provides an interface between the user and the network. It supports a number of software programs and end-user processes that act as a link between the user and the network. As a result, all network applications and protocols reside on this layer. This is the reason for the name Application layer. Some of the common applications and protocols that operate on this layer include e-mail, FTP, and Telnet.

BASICS OF NETWORK PROTOCOLS

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Understanding the Need for Protocols

Apart from network components and transmission media, protocols are also basic building blocks of networks.Due to the immense popularity of networks, many vendors offer the network components and software solutions required for a network. However, the problem is that each vendor uses their own specifications to develop their network solutions and products. The specifications might not be compatible with each other.

In everyday life, we follow some rules while communicating. For example, in a phone transaction, one person speaks at a time. If both people speak at the same time, neither of them will be able to understand what the other person is saying.

Similar to the example discussed above, a set of established and agreed-upon rules is required to enable effective communication on a network. The set of standards, rules, or conventions are called protocols.
Either a vendor or a networking standard organization can develop protocols.
After a protocol is conceived, developed, and tested, it must be approved by a standardization organization.

Understanding the Need For OSI Reference Model

A protocol model or reference model is a set of guidelines followed by vendors to develop protocols. The models also explain the services that are required to transfer data from one computer to another. In addition, reference models also help understand complex network functions.

The International Standards Organization Open System Interconnection (ISO OSI) reference model first achieved the International standardization of the protocols. ISO developed the standards for connecting systems that are open to communication with other systems.

COLLABORATIVE NETWORK COMPUTING MODEL

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Network Computing Models

Centralized network computing model

Distributed network computing model

Collaborative network computing model

Collaborative Network Computing Model

The collaborative network computing model is an advanced distributed computing model. In this model, nodes also share processing capabilities apart from sharing data, resources, and other services. In other words, processes can run on two or more computers. The following figure shows the collaborative network computing model:

Advantages
The advantage of the collaborative network computing model is:
Increased processing speed: The nodes on the collaborative network share the task of processing the request. This reduces the processing time and increases the overall network performance.

DISTRIBUTED NETWORK COMPUTING MODEL

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Network Computing Models

Centralized network computing model

Distributed network computing model

Collaborative network computing model

Distributed Network Computing Model

The distributed network computing model allows all network computers to take part in processing but at their respective ends, separately. This model allows sharing data and services but does not help the other network computers in processing.

In this network model, a processing-intensive task is broken into a subset of tasks and distributed among multiple nodes. The nodes work on their individual subsets of tasks. The following figure shows the distributed network computing model:

Advantages

Some of the advantages of the distributed network computing model are:

Faster data access: The distributed network model allows a node to store the information locally. As a result, data can be accessed faster than in the centralized network model.
High reliability: In the distributed network model, no single point of failure exists because the network does not entirely depend on a single node. This ensures lower network downtime.
Customized network setup: The distributed network model offers the flexibility of treating different computers as clients and servers. It allows the optimized use of resources because the roles of the server and the client are interchangeable.

CENTRALIZED NETWORK COMPUTING MODELS

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Network Computing Models

A network can be designed for processing information by either the client or the server. The network model can also be structured in a way that both the client and the server can process information. Depending on this flexibility, network computing models can be of three types:
Centralized network computing model
Distributed network computing model
Collaborative network computing model

Centralized Network Computing Model

In the centralized network computing model, the clients use the resources of high-capacity servers to process information. In this model, the clients are also referred to as dumb terminals with very low or no processing capability. The clients only connect to the server and not to each other. The following figure shows the centralized network computing model:

Advantages
Some of the advantages of the centralized network computing model are:

Centralized data management: In a centralized network computing model, data is stored on the server. This increases the reliability of data because all data modifications are stored at a central location.
High level of security: The centralized network computing model is a highly secure network model. This is because network security can be implemented and monitored centrally from the server.
Cost effectiveness: High-end investment is required for establishing a high-capacity and secure server. On the other hand, clients require very low investment. This reduces the overall cost of setting up a centralized network.

Limitations
The centralized network computing model is a conventional model that is used only by a few network setups due to the following limitations:

Low performance and network speed: The centralized network computing model consists of a server that manages numerous requests, simultaneously. This increases network traffic, consequently reducing the speed and performance of the network.
Central point of failure: The server is the central place for storing data and processing all client requests. If the server fails, the functioning of the entire network is disrupted.