19.1 Java4620: general information

Table of contents

• Preface
• Introduction
• Background Information
  • Communication Protocol
  • Network Layers
  • Clients and Servers
  • IP, TCP, and, UDP
    • IP
    • TCP
    • UDP
  • IP Addresses
  • Domain Names
  • What is Your IP Address?
  • Ports
  • Firewalls
  • Proxy Servers
  • Standards and Protocols
  • URL
• Socket Classes and the URL Class
  • Socket Programming
  • URL Programming
• A local area network
• The operating system
• What's Next?
• Miscellaneous

Preface

This module is one in a collection of modules designed for teaching INEW 2338 Advanced Java (Web) at Austin Community College in Austin, TX. More specifically, it is one in asub-collection of modules designed for teaching network programming in that course. The purpose of this module is to introduce the student to variousaspects of network programming that will be incorporated into future modules.

Introduction

One of the Java books on my bookshelf makes the following analogy (or one very similar) . Just because you may know how to speak conversational French doesn't mean that you know how to interpret an autopsy report written in French.In order to interpret the autopsy report, you must also know a good deal about the meaning of the medical terms used in such reports.

A similar situation exist for networking. It isn't very difficult to learn how to use the Java programming language to implement some network operations.However, in order to achieve depth in this area, you probably also need to know something about the many other technical aspects of networking.

This is not a new field, and many good books have been written on the technical details of networking. you are referred to one or more of those booksto gain an in-depth knowledge of networking. In particular, I would refer you to Java Network Programming by Elliotte Rusty Harold.

In addition there are many other books that contain excellent sections on network programming. I would recommend that you take a look at the following:

• Exploring Java by Patrick Niemeyer and Joshua Peck
• Just Java 1.1 and Beyond by Peter van der Linden
• Java Primer Plus by Tyma, Torok, and Downing
• Java How to Program by Deitel and Deitel

These books have been around for a long time, so you should be able to find a used copy online for a reasonable price.

For the most part, this and the next few modules will be restricted to how you can use the programming capabilities of Java to write and execute networkprograms and won't attempt to go into overall network programming in depth. However, a minimal amount of background information will be required, so we willattempt to provide that background in this module. Subsequent modules will use this background along with the network programming capabilities of Java to writesome simple, but interesting networking programs.

Background Information

For our purposes, a network is a group of computers and other devices that are connected in some fashion for the purpose of exchanging data.