Week 4: Mechanics and Downloads

We've done IP addresses, in that we know they identify computers on a network. We've looked at DNS, the domain name service that connects the name (uml.edu) to a number (129.63.1.11). This week, we asked the question "why do IP address numbers go 0 to 255?" The answer required learning about binary numbers.

Binary is the two-state representation of numbers inside a computer. For more references on binary numbers, look online. Try http://www.mathsisfun.com/binary-digits.html or http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-from-Decimal-to-Binary

We can now convert a base-10 decimal number into and out of base-2 binary representation.

This week we also learned about WinSCP, a program that lets us transfer files between the web server and our local machine. New concepts were introduced:

• local vs. server copy
• images

With WinSCP and a text editor (like jEdit or notepad++), we can edit our webpages locally on our computers, then upload them to server or all to see when we're ready.