MIS 4477  Network and Security Infrastructure
JAKE MESSINGER (jake@uh.edu)

Exam 1 Notes Fall 2017

Last Update: 09/27/2017 @ 12 noon



LAYOUT:

RULES:

GRADING:

AFTERMATH:


TEST CONTENT:
Questions will come MOSTLY from the book, and the Power Point Presentations as well as any homework I assigned you including any videos I asked you to watch, although it would be a very good idea to read my notes on each chapter.  Pay attention to the SUMMARY and QUESTIONS in the back of each chapter. There will be no SPECIFIC questions from any of the case studies. It may be beneficial for you to search for some of the items on the Internet, e.g. ISO, ANSI, history of the World Wide Web, on sites such as whatis.com and google.com.

Please note that because of the brevity of the test, I am not able to ask questions over all the topics that I felt were important for you to know, otherwise the test would be 100+ questions. I placed less emphasis on physical technical issues and tried to ask more questions about the background and functions of different levels and protocols. I will ask questions about Netmasks and network addresses but you will not be doing any math to determine subnet sizes. I will leave this for the next exam.

(The following datapoints possibly relate to at least one specific questions on the test, although not in this order. Not all of these topics will be on your test. There are multiple versions:

 

Chapter 1 - Introduction to Data Communications

 

·         Be familiar with the Federal Judge order in 1984 that broke up Ma Bell and also Telecommunications Act of 1996 and what impact it had on the industry.

·         What changed in 1983 with respect to the Internet? What 2 parts were created?

·         Describe the difference and relative scope of a LAN, BN, MAN and WAN.

·         How does the Internet model differ from the OSI model? What are the layer differences?

·         Know what each layer of the Internet model is responsible for. What are the functions and how do they communicate with the other layers.

·         Define a protocol and give some examples of protocols used at each layer, e.g. Twisted Pair, Ethernet, IP, TCP, HTTP.

·         What is the difference between de facto standards and official (de juro) standards and explain why standards are important in Networking.

·         Know these Standards making groups: ANSI, ISO, ITU-T, IEEE

 

Chapter 2 - Application Layer

 

·          Define Application Architecture

·          Define a cluster.

·          What is tiered architecture? Describe different levels and the advantages/disadvantages of each (think in terms of cost, complexity and scalability) What is middleware.

·          What is a thin client versus a fat or thick client?

·          What is a client/server architecture? What are the pro's and con's of it versus a Host based and also a PC based architecture?

·          Define URL.

·          What is the main difference between SMTP, POP(3) and IMAP email protocols?

 

Chapter 3 - Physical Layer

 

·         Give some physical layer protocols.

·         Understand the difference between analog and digital data.

·         What is the difference between point to point and multipoint (shared) circuits?

·         What is simplex transmission versus half and full duplex?

·         Pros and Cons of using Fiber Optic cable versus twisted pair or Coax

·         Define Propagation Delay and understand why it is an issue with Satellite Transmission.

·         Know the important factors in choosing media

·         What is wave amplitude versus frequency?

·         Define Modulation

·         What is DSL and how is it similar and different from Cable Modem service.

 

Chapter 4 - Data Link Layer

 

·         What is Media Access control and on what are its responsibilities?

·         What is the difference between contention based and token passing and polled access control?

·         Which is better for large networks? Contention Based or Controlled approach?

·         Which types of media are more/less susceptible to noise?

·         What is the primary source of errors on data networks at this layer?

·         Define Attenuation.

·         Understand what error checking and error correcting is. (ACKs and NAKs)

 

 

Chapter 5 - Transport and Network Layer

 

·         What is the difference between the Transport and Network Layers?

·         What is TCP/IP? What does the TCP part do? What does the IP part do? Who invented it?

·         How are port address used to link the transport/network layer to the application layer. Give some standard port addresses for commonly used applications.

·         What is the difference between IPv4 and IPv6 and why was IPv6 invented?

·         What is a Netmask? What is a Class A, B and C subnet network?

·         What is the difference between Unicast, Broadcast and Multicast?

 

POSSIBLE ESSAY QUESTIONS:

 

·         Be able to draw the Internet model with all the elements at each level and describe what goes on at each level

·         Be able to describe what happens to a web request as it passes from your application layer to a server's (reciever's) application layer.

 

End of Exam 1 Notes


© 2017 Jake Messinger (all rights reserved)
Dept of Decision and Information Sciences (MIS)
Bauer College of Business
University Of Houston