[Year]

Assignment 2

STRONACH, BETHANY

SELBY COLLEGE | [Company address]

Contents
User side factors ..................................................................................................................................... 2
Download speed ................................................................................................................................. 2
PC performance factors ...................................................................................................................... 2
Browser ............................................................................................................................................... 2
Cache memory .................................................................................................................................... 2
Processor speed .................................................................................................................................. 2
Server side factors........................................................................................................................... 2
Number of hits .................................................................................................................................... 2
Web server capacity............................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Vector .................................................................................................................................................. 3
MP3 ..................................................................................................................................................... 3
JPG....................................................................................................................................................... 3
Bitmap ................................................................................................................................................. 3
User side factors
Download speed
Download speed is related to your internet connection, so say if you have a download speed of
12Mbps then your download speed is going to be pretty average. So for example if you want to visit
facebook.com then your download speed comes down to how fast the website loads up. Your
browser has to load up all of the content on that web page, images, text, links, and videos and so on,
so if your download speed is 12Mbps and you have more than one person using that network at
once then you could experience some lag during the time it takes to load up. But if you have internet
connection at a download speed of 20Mbps then you’re probably going to have no issue at all with
the connect loading as fast as it can. So depending on what download speed you have will overall tell
you how you’re internet will perform loading up a website.

PC performance factors
Browser
A browser is an application such as google chrome that is used to access the World Wide Web.
Whatever browser you use can affect the loading speed/time of a website. So for instance google
chrome uses a rendering engine called Webkit, and internet explorer uses one called Trident. The
difference between these two rendering engines are that Webkit is very fast at loading up a website
but doesn’t load all the content in at the same time and Trident can be slow but it loads all the
websites content up at the same time. So whichever browser you use can all depend on how fast a
website can be loaded up.

Cache memory
Cache memory is a small part of memory that is based in the CPU, this holds frequently used
instructions which the processor may require. Sometimes if the cache memory is too occupied with
so many instructions that it has stored then this can affect the usability of being able to access a
website, this means the webpage could take so long to load or may not load at all.

Processor speed
Processer speed is measured in megahertz, so for example 12megahertz is the amount of
instructions that the computer can perform in a second. So if you have a very good processor speed
such as 30megahertz then your webpage will load up in no time but if you don’t have a good
processor speed then this could cause your webpage to not load completely or not load at all.

Server side factors

Number of hits
The person who created the web page can see how many hits they get. The number of hits means
they can see how many people clicked on their website, how long they stayed on for and what
browser they used. The whole point of this is to see whether their website is getting a lot of views or
if one browser is being used more than the other so they know that they will have to improve the
performance of the website in a certain browser. This might affect the performance of the website
because if a lot of people are using it in a certain browser because that’s the only one that works
then people without that browser won’t be able to access the website, that means that the website
won’t be getting as many hits and they won’t be able to figure out where the website has gone
wrong.
 Available bandwidth
Bandwidth is the amount of data can be uploaded and downloaded from the server to the user per
second. If you have a bigger bandwidth then that means you can have more people look at your
website at the same time. It also allows users to download data from your website quicker.
Depending on how many people visit your website a month will determine how much broadband
bandwidth you will require. Available bandwidth is normally measured in Bps (bits per second)

File types
Vector
Vector images are used to identify paths within images, they can also be enlarged and the resolution
won’t be lost.

MP3
An MP3 file is a file that is an audio, so for example some music.

JPG
JPG is a type of file format for storing images, the image saved by a JPG file is compressed by JPEG. It
is used most by digital cameras to store images.

Bitmap
A bitmap is an image made up of ‘bits’. So if you zoom into the image you can see the resolution of
it. Bitmap file types are made up of gif, jpeg etc.

Task 2

Security
Risks;

Hacking
A lot of people can get hacked, and it is most common that people get hacked on websites such as
eBay or amazon, just because bank details and home addresses are saved to websites like that. A lot
of big business owners can get hacked, the hackers mainly aim to steal a lot of the money that they
can get access too. Also a lot of businesses can be hacked for different reasons, they could want
passwords, client’s information, and staffs information, anything that could help them with
something. They could have all their data stolen which means that customers could sue them for
letting their information be stolen. The white hat hacker is a very popular one, these are the people
who test existing internet infrastructures to research loopholes in the system. Another one is the
black hat hacker, this is the bad hacker, these people hack into systems for things such as bank
details and public databases.
Viruses
Having a virus on your computer can cause your computer to basically die, not literally but your
computer will start to run down and be slow, this means that some of your applications on your
computer may not load anymore. Also having a virus on your computer means that all your files that
you have could be lost or messed with. An example of a virus is a overwrite virus, this is a virus that
over rides all your files and programmes, the only way to get rid of this virus is to delete the virus
infected files, this is why you should always back up your files and data.

Identity theft
It is common that people steal others identity’s, someone could easily get hold of your personal
details and pretend to be you, this gives them access to your bank, home and other personal
belongings. Identity theft is also common for criminal activities, if they set up a profile somewhere
with your information and do something to break the law, you will end up responsible for it.

Security protection mechanisms

Firewalls
A firewall is a security system on your computer that will monitor incoming and out coming network
traffic based on security rules. So basically a firewall can tell the difference between a trusted
internal network and an untrusted external network. Having a firewall will prevent you from getting
any viruses onto your computer, sometimes firewalls can also protect you from hackers. If a piece of
data within the website breaks its rules then immediately the firewall will block its access to the
server.

Secure socket layers

A secure socket layer is the main method to stop identify theft online. It is a standard security
technology that protects data in transit by encrypting it into a link which is between a web server
and a browser. This link is there to make sure that all the data passed between the web server and
browser remains private. When you search a website and the starting protocol is HTTPS means that
the connection between the client and the server is secure, this is one way of knowing that you’re
safe from any hacking or identity theft.

Adherence to standards
Using a strong password is also good to prevent you from being hacked, an example of this is instead
of having a password of your own name such as ‘beth123’ have a more complicated password that
you can remember, include symbols and numbers not just characters, for example ‘!b3th6*’. The risk
of a server or a website being hacked will be reduced if you have a strong password, this means that
it isn’t easy for the hacker to guess and they will give up and go try somewhere else, this will stop
the hackers from being able to put a virus onto your website which would lead to everyone who
clicked on your website to get the virus.