Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Brett Richard
Bob Davis
Idaho Department of Labor
IT for Non-Techies
Intro/Bio
The Basics
Internet
Telecommunications
Telephony
New Trends & Technologies
IT for Non-Techies
My Background
BSCS University of Idaho
Idaho Dept of Labor – 8 years
Mostly Software Development
COBOL, RPG, Visual Basic, ASP
Development Manager
Our goal is to explain some terms and
answer some questions about technology
Questions? – Go ahead and ask.
The Basics
Mainframes
Large computers
Typically a centralized computing model
Used “dumb” terminals
Servers
Provide services to other computers
Database Servers, Web Servers
Wait for a request, then respond quickly
Personal Computers (PC)
A computer designed for a single user
Richer functionality – graphics, etc
The Basics
Databases / Relational Databases
An organized place to store your data
Data stored in tables
Each table has multiple rows/records
Tables are related by keys – hence relational
The Basics
Relational Databases
Easier to:
Get data in
Get data out
Expand and change data structures, types, and sizes
The Basics
Mainframe Terms
COBOL, CICS, Assembler
Mainframe programming languages
Batch
A job that runs without user interaction – often at night
On-line
A job that interacts directly with the user (often CICS)
Viewing records, updating records…
Internet Basics
What is the Internet?
A worldwide system of computer networks
Millions of computers
Multiple servers and connections ensure stability
No single point of failure
World Wide Web
The part of the Internet that uses HTTP/web pages
Also e-mail & FTP
TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
Set of rules that describe how information is transferred
on the network
It’s the nuts & bolts of the internet, and probably the
network in your office as well.
Internet Basics
HTML
HyperText Markup Language
Just a way to describe how to display text, and allow links
from one document to another
Tags mixed with text to tell the browser how to display the
information
Example: <b>This text is bold</b>
Basically just pages of text & images
HTTP
HyperText Transfer Protocol
Defined rules for transferring HTML pages
Internet Basics
Intranet
Private network that provides functionality similar to the Internet
Extranet
An intranet that is shared with other entities
Firewall
Protects resources on a private network
Internet Applications
Need to be able to do more than just present a document
UI Technology Matrix
Internet – Domain Names
Domain Names
Meaningful and easy-to-remember "handle" for an
Internet address.
www.mycompany.com
Map to IP Addresses
125.134.10.205
.com, .org, .net, .us, .biz, .ws, etc, etc
.gov is carefully controlled
See www.internic.net or www.nic.gov
Internet – Domain Names
Taken from:
www.nic.gov
Internet – Domain Names
Portal
A portal is a website that serves as a good
starting site for users
Brings together a variety of information the user is
likely to be interested in
Yahoo, Excite, AOL, etc
Internet Security
The Internet is loosely connected, and loosely
secured.
Need to make sure no-one can intercept data
between website and browser
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Encryption
Even if they grab it, it’s very difficult to decrypt
There should be a LOCKED PADLOCK image in the
lower right of the browser – that’s how you know your
data is encrypted
Internet Security
Need to make sure that customers are who they
say they are
PIN’s and Passwords
Should you buy stuff from the Internet?
Yes, if:
It’s a site you trust
It’s secured with SSL (See the padlock)
Internet & E-mail
SPAM
Unwanted e-mail, especially mass
e-mail marketing
Name comes from a Monty Python
skit
Spam spam spam spam spam and
eggs
No matter what you ordered, you
got this spam with it…
Hormel Spiced Ham
One person’s spam is another
person’s ham
Try SpamBayes or similar software
Just delete them – best not to
respond
Internet Filtering
Restricting Pages users can visit
Keywords
Known bad sites
Can be done at an enterprise level or
for an individual machine
IDOL uses WebSense
PC packages
Cybersitter, NetNanny, CyberPatrol, etc etc
None of them block every bad site
Internet & Viruses
What’s a virus?
A program that
Propagates itself (usually)
Does something unwanted
What can they do?
Delete files – cause you to lose data
Send annoying message
May act immediately, may lay dormant
Annoy your friends
What can’t they do?
Set you computer on fire
Completely ruin your computer
Internet & Viruses
How do I get one?
Get and run a program that is infected
Open e-mail attachment that is infected
What should you do or not do?
Don’t run programs you don’t trust
Do consider using antivirus software.
Will scan files periodically and e-mail attachments
Keep the software updated (we update nightly)
99% of what our AV software finds is in e-mail
Virus Hoaxes
If you get this e-mail, run screaming from the room
Cost as much as actual viruses
www.vmyths.com
Telecommunications
Dial-Up
Call Internet Service Provider (ISP) using standard modem
28-56 Thousand Bits per Second (Kbps)
Ties up your phone line
DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)
256-640 Thousand Bits per Second (Kbps)
Shares existing phone lines. Can also use phone
Cable Modems
500K – 1Million Bits per Second
Uses existing cable with Cable TV
Telecommunications
T1
1.544 Million Bits per Second
Enough bandwidth for a medium sized office
DS3
44.7 Million Bits per Second
Separate into multiple T1’s, Support very large
office, etc
Switches, Routers & Hubs
Hardware that manages/transfers data packets on
a network
IP Telephones
Also known as Voice Over IP (VOIP)
Open Source
Can’t be any good for free, right?
Linux
Recognized as highly reliable and stable
MySQL
ASP.Net IBuySpy Portal/Rainbow Portal
In use today at Idaho Dept of Labor
OpenOffice (Similar to MS Office)
Functionality can be somewhat limited
New Trends and Technologies
XML
eXtensible Markup Language
A set of rules to define data as plain text rather
than in proprietary binary representations.*
Data Exchange
Human Readable
Looks like HTML
Example: <name>John Smith</name>
Widely Supported by many Vendors
Relational Databases Support XML *Computerworld, May 19, 2003
New Trends and Technologies
Web Services
Services (programs) available on the
Internet/Intranet for use by other programs
Based on XML
How would we use web services?
A list of all jobs for a specific employer
They send us a request with an employer number
We return an xml document that contains the data
They format the data to fit their site
New Trends and Technologies
Peer to Peer File Sharing
Allow users to share data between each other
Napster
Had some central coordination
Kazaa
Truer Peer to Peer
Optimized to share and copy files across the Internet
eDonkey, Gnutella, BitTorrent
Not just sharing music
Deploying Software (Linux Red Hat)
Reduced dependence on single source
Many legitimate uses
New Trends and Technologies
Wireless Networks (Wi-Fi)
User can connect PC to the network through a
wireless connection
Wireless network card is required
PC or Laptops
10 Mbps or faster
802.11(a,b,g) – Wireless LAN Standard
WarChalking
Drive around with an active wireless card
Identify and mark open wireless access points
New Trends and Technologies
Telecommuting
Using telecommunications to be able to work from
home instead of the workplace
Broadband (DSL & Cable Modems) enables this
Similar concerns as people working on site
How do I know if they’re doing the right things?
New Trends and Technologies
Hardware - Monitors
CRT – Cathode Ray Tube
The same technology as your TV set
Flat Panel Displays
LCD – Liquid Crystal Display
Thin, flat screens
Use less energy, generate less heat
Still more expensive, but they’re cheaper
every day
Also LED and Gas Plasma – but these less
common
New Trends and Technologies
Hardware – Devices
A device can be just about any piece of hardware
Laptops
Personal Digital Assistants (PDA)
Palm Computers
Combined Devices
Phone/PDA/Internet Browser/e-mail
Other Acronyms & Terms
WAN – Wide Area Network CICS – Customer
LAN – Local Area Network Information Control System
VSAM – Virtual Storage
DNS – Domain Name Access Method
System SQL – Structured Query
ATM – Asynchronous Language
Transfer Mode SAN – Storage Area
Cluster – 2 or more servers Network
configured to fail over in Web Farm – Multiple web
case one breaks servers linked together to
service web requests
Where to Find More Info…
www.WhatIs.com
www.google.com
Good definitions of IS terms
www.internic.net Google has it all
Information about Internet www.howstuffworks.com
Domain Names Just like it says…
www.nic.gov www.vmyths.com
Information about .gov
registration and domain names
Virus Hoax site
www.w3.org
World Wide Web Consortium
(w3c)
Web Standards Setting Body
Good background info on html,
xml