What are RSS feeds ?

RSS  stands for Really Simple Syndication,Its is a kind of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video.An RSS document also called a web feed includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place.

RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. A variety of RSS Readers are available for different platforms. Some popular feed readers include Amphetadesk (Windows, Linux, Mac), FeedReader (Windows), and NewsGator (Windows - integrates with Outlook). There are also a number of web-based feed readers available. My Yahoo, Bloglines, and Google Reader are popular web-based feed readers.Once you have your Feed Reader, it is a matter of finding sites that syndicate content and adding their RSS feed to the list of feeds your Feed Reader checks. Many sites display a small icon with the acronyms RSS, XML, or RDF to let you know a feed is available.

The user subscribes to a feed by entering into the reader the feed's URI or by clicking an RSS icon in a web browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.

If one looks from a Website owner's point of view its like as shown below

and for a web user its like as shown

Now as a example i will show you how to subscribe to Geek Island feeds using a feed reader

1.Click on the Subscribe in a reader link as shown

2.Something like this will appear, now select the reader of your choice, as here i have selected Google reader

3.As you arrive at following page, you are provided with 2 choices either you can receive the feeds on google homepage or to google reader, select google reader

4.Finally enter your email id and password and you are through.

Few words about Google Wave

Google Wave has been around for a while and winning users' trust.Google Wave is a communication device all its own, which allows you to communicate online as if the team is in the same room, and it makes your communication with large groups of people more powerful and useful. Google Wave is really good for collaborative things such as project planning, document editing, or just a small chat.

Google Wave is an online communication and collaboration tool that makes real-time interactions more seamless. A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
A wave is a conversation with multiple participants – participants are people added to a wave to discuss and collaborate on its content. Participants can reply any time and anywhere within a wave, and they can edit content and add more participants as a wave develops. It’s also possible to rewind waves with the playback functionality, to see what happened, and when.
With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.
When you logon to Google Wave, you come across a three-pane page – Navigation and contact searching on the left, your Wave inbox in the middle, and editing and reading on the right.
You can hide / minimize the left and middle pane by clicking the minimize button on the top right corner of each pane. You can minimize the left-hand sidebar and the middle inbox to get maximum space for reading or editing your wave.
Starting a Wave is just like an e-mail. You can start a new wave by clicking on your minimized Inbox and clicking the “New wave” button. Now you see a new wave, click on the plus button next to your profile picture to add collaborators or readers.
Now the ‘team’ is ready, it’s time to start working. Once you start typing, everyone else on the wave will see you type, as if you see in chat. Once you complete a paragraph, the wave will be shoyou see the similarities to e-mail. Once you bold your first headline, you’ll see the similarities to online collaborative documentation like Google Docs.

How to Use Google Wave
* Professional writing and editing – You can write and collaborate on facts, links, and editing at the same time with your editor, fact-checker, or anyone else you trust. In fact, your editor can edit while you write. By the time you’re done, the document may be ready for it’s next draft.
* Online classroom – Not only does Google Wave allow large amounts of people in the same room, it allows everyone their own replies on the same document (or their own documents as replies to their documents). Want everyone to work on a lab at the same time? Post the questions and let everyone reply with their questions, answers, and homework.
* Role-playing games – You’re the dungeon master. You write the story, the participants play by chatting in replying waves. Display maps, pictures, even music while everyone is connected from anywhere there is an internet connection.
* Continuing Stories – Like the childhood game, you start the story by writing the introductory chapter. Then the buck is passed to the next author to continue the story, and on and on until everyone lives happily ever after.
With the current Wave version, you cannot remove recipients once they have been added. Google Wave is considered by Google developers to be the future of e-mail. It’s hard to believe that Google Wave will replace a legacy system that everyone already understands and just works, like letter writing did in the past, but anything is possible.
(Thanks to tech.in)
 

How to make a Torent ?

You can make a a new torrent easily using µTorrent's built-in torrent maker, just follow some simple steps:

1.Go to µTorrent menu > File > Create a New torrent

2.The Source:
Specify the location of the content you wish to share. Before selecting the path chose whether you are sharing a single file or multiple ones. If you are making a torrent with more then one file those files must be located in a single folder, with nothing else in it, else its always better to make a RAR Archive if multiple files are included.

• Select "Add a File" or "Add a directory."
• Browse your way to the location of file or directory you would like to share.

 






















3.The Tracker
A tracker is an application or script on a system that relays connection information about peers on a given torrent. However, it is most important since without it BitTorrent clients would not know how to find other clients sharing the same files. µTorrent knows which tracker to contact by reading the announce URL in the torrent. Trackers generally look like any other internet address (http//somewebaddress:portnumber/announce). If you need a tracker you may:

•Check the site where you wish to upload the torrent.

•Private sites usually provide their own tracker.

•Public sites may also provide their own tracker, or include the URL of generic ones.

•In a pinch, look at the properties of a torrent you have downloaded from the site you wish to use and copy the tracker from there (but in such a case wait to test the torrent out before uploading it to the site as even those tracker may require you to have registered the torrent with them first).

µTorrent supports HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) and HTTPS( Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure-Its a combination od HTTP and SSL/TLS to provide encryption) trackers. UDP trackers are not supported. µTorrent also supports torrents with multiple trackers; trackers from the same server (with similar URLs) must be grouped together and those from different servers separated by a blank line.

[Transport Layer Security (TLS) and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), are cryptographic protocols that provide security for communications over networks such as the Internet.
UDP-User Datagram Protocol or Universal Datagram Protocol.With UDP, computer applications can send messages, referred to as datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol.]

µTorrent contains an "embedded tracker" intended for people wishing to share with a small group for a short period of time. This should not be used for sharing torrent over public or private sites, but only for private stuff and over short periods of time (along the lines of family movies shared with friends and such).

•The embedded tracker URL is: http://your_ip_address:port/announce (where your ip is your computer's ip address and port is µTorrent's listening port)

•The embedded tracker must be enabled in: µTorrent menu > options > preferences > Advanced > bt.enable_tracker: set to "true".

Warning: Using the embedded tracker requires you to have the same IP address and the same port as long as the torrent is active. This means if you use a dynamic IP and randomized port and get disconnected from the internet, your IP and port will get reset, and the torrent will die.


4.Comments:
You may add a comment about the torrent (in µTorrent these comments appear at the bottom of the general tab.)

5.Piece Size:
When making a torrent, the content gets divided in small pieces for easier transfer and management. You may use this option to select the size of the pieces. As a rule, the larger the content the larger the pieces. Most people should leave this setting to auto-detect and allow µTorrent to make the proper selection.

Others:
•"Start Seeding" will automatically load the newly made torrent into µTorrent when you have completed the process. Some may wish to disable it if the site they are uploading to requires them to "re-download" the torrent for seeding (this occurs with some sites requiring passwords or cookies). If unchecked, you will need to load the torrent into µTorrent manually for seeding.

•"Private Torrent" will disable DHT (Distributed Hash Table) and PEX (Peer EXchange), which are alternate means of getting peers from other peers instead of the tracker. This is particularly useful when the tracker is unavailable for some reason. However some private sites do not allow it because it keeps them from monitoring users' share ratio properly and allows members to share torrents with unregistered users.

Create and Save As...

This is the final step in making a torrent. For all intents and purposes it works just like saving a file in any other application.

You should save the torrent in an appropriate location, such as where your other torrents are located or in the folder of the torrent you are making (this will not affect the content).
Naming conventions:
You can name your torrent anything you want, but remember that other people need to search for it and find it. The name should be significant, and representative of the content. Calling it "My first torrent" will not tell anything about the content, and few people will take a chance and download it. You may have seen this naming convention around before:
Making your Torrent Available to Others
The most common way to do this is to upload it to a torrent site. If this was your intention you should have read up on the site's policies, rules and procedures of that site before uploading.
Uploading the .torrent
1.Using your web browser, go to the site (log in if needed).

2.Navigate your way to the upload page, and follow the instructions provided.

3.Some sites allow you to add comments and descriptions. Try to put something you would find useful as a peer.

Do not panic if the torrent just sits there without uploading, it may take a while for other people to notice the torrent and start downloading it. It may take longer if the content is something obscure with limited appeal.


Private Trackers
Some private sites will require you to download your own torrent from their site so you can seed it.
1.Download your torrent from the site and load it into µTorrent (it should go to download mode and show 0%.)

2.Stop the torrent, right-click on it, and select "Set Download Location" in the context menu under "Advanced".

3.Browse your way to where the content is located (i.e. the same path you specified when making the torrent) and open. For torrents with multiple files, make sure you point TO the containing folder and not IN it.

4.Start the torrent. µTorrent will start checking the files (% will rise rather quickly), and when it reaches 100% it will start seeding (the larger the torrent the longer this will take).
 

How an ISP works?

An Internet Service Provider (ISP), also called an Internet Access Provider, is a company that supplies individuals with access to the Internet. An ISP acts as an intermediary between a user's computer system and the Internet. The ISP feeds the small user's outbound information to the Internet, and also feeds inbound Internet traffic into the user's Internet connection. ISPs offer a wide variety of services. They generally charge their customers for Internet access depending on their usage needs and the level of service provided.

 Internet access is available from a wide range of companies, including telephone and cable companies, online services, large national ISPs, and small independent ISPs.

 

Types of ISPs:

1.Online services—such as America Online (AOL) and Microsoft Network (MSN)—are probably the easiest way for beginners to gain access to the Internet. It is usually very easy to set up an account with one of the major online services. In fact, many of these companies include access programs on new computers or offer free setup software in the mail. Computer users can establish an account and begin surfing the Internet with just a few clicks of a mouse. Unlike many other ISPs, the online services also offer a number of additional services to members, like discussion forums on various topics.

2.National ISPs,such as Earthlink and Mind Spring (USA) and BSNL ,Reliance and TATA (India) are large companies that offer Internet access in a broad geographical area. Compared to local ISPs, these companies tend to offer higher-speed connections and greater long-term stability. Many national providers also offer a broad range of services, including long-distance telephone service, web site hosting, and secure electronic transactions. They are generally a good choice for small businesses that want employees to be able to access the Internet while traveling. They may also be convenient for businesses that operate in several locations and wish to use the ISP for all locations.

3.Small, independent ISPs operate in many local or regional markets. These companies vary widely in size, stability, and quality of service. On the plus side, their access lines may be less busy than national ISPs. In addition, many smaller providers specialize in offering services to small businesses. Some of these ISPs may visit a small business customer's work site, evaluate the company's Internet access needs, and present different service packages. They may even assign a personal account representative to handle the small business's growing electronic needs.

How basically it all works?

You must remember that Internet is simply a network of networks. You must be familiar with these two terms to understand the whole thing..

1.Point of Presence (POP).- These are the points from where a given network can be accessed.

2. Network Access Points or NAPs.- These are the points through which different networks are interconnected.

When you connect to your ISP, you become part of their network. The ISP may then connect to a larger network and become part of their network.

Here's an example. Imagine that Company A is a large ISP. In each major city, Company A has a POP. The POP in each city is a rack full of modems that the ISP's customers dial into. Company A leases fibre optic lines from the phone company to connect the POPs together .

Imagine that Company B is a corporate ISP. Company B builds large buildings in major cities and corporations locate their Internet server machines in these buildings. Company B is such a large company that it runs its own fiber optic lines between its buildings so that they are all interconnected.In this arrangement, all of Company A's customers can talk to each other, and all of Company B's customers can talk to each other, but there is no way for Company A's customers and Company B's customers to intercommunicate. Therefore, Company A and Company B both agree to connect to NAPs in various cities, and traffic between the two companies flows between the networks at the NAPs.

In the real Internet, dozens of large Internet providers interconnect at NAPs in various cities, and trillions of bytes of data flow between the individual networks at these points.  

                                                                          The Internet is a collection of huge corporate networks that agree to all intercommunicate with each other at the NAPs. In this way, every computer on the Internet connects to every other. 

Routers:

The routers determine where to send information from one computer to another. Routers are specialized computers that send your messages and those of every other Internet user speeding to their destinations along thousands of pathways. A router has two separate, but related, jobs:

• It ensures that information doesn't go where it's not needed. This is crucial for keeping large volumes of data from clogging the connections of "innocent bystanders."
• It makes sure that information does make it to the intended destination.

In performing these two jobs, a router is extremely useful in dealing with two separate computer networks. It joins the two networks, passing information from one to the other. It also protects the networks from one another, preventing the traffic on one from unnecessarily spilling over to the other. Regardless of how many networks are attached, the basic operation and function of the router remains the same. Since the Internet is one huge network made up of tens of thousands of smaller networks, its use of routers is an absolute necessity

Internet Backbone:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) created the first high-speed backbone in 1987. Called NSFNET, it was a T1Line  that connected 170 smaller networks together and operated at 1.544 Mbps . IBM, MCI and Merit worked with NSF to create the backbone and developed a T3 (45 Mbps) backbone the following year. Backbones are typically fiber optic trunk lines. The trunk line has multiple fiber optic cables combined together to increase the capacity. Fiber optic cables are designated OC for optical carrier, such as OC-3, OC-12 or OC-48. An OC-3 line is capable of transmitting 155 Mbps while an OC-48 can transmit 2,488 Mbps (2.488 Gbps). Compare that to a typical 56K modem transmitting 56,000 bps and you see just how fast a modern backbone is.

Today there are many companies that operate their own high-capacity backbones, and all of them interconnect at various NAPs around the world. In this way, everyone on the Internet, no matter where they are and what company they use, is able to talk to everyone else on the planet. The entire Internet is a gigantic, sprawling agreement between companies to intercommunicate freely.

Difference between Internet and WWW: 

What is The Internet?
The internet is a massive network of networks, a networking infrastructure. It connects millions of computers together globally, forming a network in which any computer can communicate with any other computer as long as they are both connected to the Internet. Information that travels over the Internet does so via a variety of languages known as protocols.

What is The Web (World Wide Web)?
The World Wide Web or simply Web, is a way of accessing information over the medium of the Internet. It is an information-sharing model that is built on top of the Internet. The Web uses the HTTP protocol, only one of the languages spoken over the Internet, to transmit data. Web services, which use HTTP to allow applications to communicate in order to exchange business logic, use the the Web to share information. The Web also utilizes browsers, such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, to access Web documents called Web Pages that are linked to each other via hperlinks. Web documents also contain graphics, sounds, text and video. 

Who Owns the Internet? No one actually owns the Internet, and no single person or organization controls the Internet in its entirety. More of a concept than an actual tangible entity, the Internet relies on a physical infrastructure that connects networks to other networks. There are many organizations, corporations, governments, schools, private citizens and service providers that all own pieces of the infrastructure, but there is no one body that owns it all. There are, however, organizations that oversee and standardize what happens on the Internet and assign IP addresses and Domain names, such as the National Science Foundation, the Internet Engineering Task Force,ICANN, InterNIC and the Internet Architecture Board. 
 

What is an IP address?
All about Torrents
 

Various Types Of Internet Connections:

Thinking of taking a Internet Connection But confused which to choose, here i am mentioning a list of connections to chooose from:

1.Dial-up connections :

Dial-up connections are one type of internet connection available from ISPs,(Internet Service Provideres) they are the slowest and the cheapest.

A dial-up connection allows you to connect to the internet via a local server using a standard 56k modem. Your Computer dials  a phone number   and connects to the server and finally the internet.

Modern dial-up modems typically have a maximum theoretical transfer speed of 56 kbit/s  although in most cases 40-50 kbit/s is the norm. Factors such as phone line noise as well as the quality of the mode itself

play a large part in determining connection speeds.  .

Dial-up connections usually have latency as high as 400 ms or even more, which can make online gaming or video conferencing difficult, if not impossible.  An increasing amount of Internet content such as streaming media will not work at dialup speeds.

Increasing Dial-up Speed:

Now a days various algorithms of data compression are used to increase the speed of data transfer like

 V.42, V.42bis and V.44.

 2.DSL Connections:
DSL is also called an always on connection because it uses existing 2-wire copper telephone line connected to the premise and will not tie up your phone as a dial-up connection does. There is no need to dial-in to your ISP as DSL is always on. The two main categories of DSL for home subscribers are called ADSL and SDSL.

ADSL :
ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscribers Line) connections are becoming more and more widely available and popular. It  work by splitting your phone line into two separate channels, one for data (internet) and one for voice (phone calls), which means you can talk on the phone and be connected to the internet at the same time. Some common configurations for a ADSL connections:

• 256Kbps/128Kbps
• 512Kbps/128Kbps
• 1Mbps/256Kbps
• 2Mbps/512Kbps
• 8Mbps/1024Kbps

Notice there are two values to each configuration, the first figure states the download speed and the second figure is the maximum upload speed. 

 

Lex in fig denotes your local exchange.

ADSL filter/splitter:

ADSL technology eliminates the need for a second phone line by allowing voice and data transfer at the same time.Since ADSL transfers data digitally it eliminates the usual performance overhead associated with standard dial-up connections, in other words ADSL doesn't need to convert the data from digital to analogue and back It enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice telephone call.The distinguishing characteristic of ADSL over other forms of DSL is that the volume of data flow is greater in one direction than the other, i.e. it is asymmetric. Providers usually market ADSL as a service for consumers to connect to the internet in a relatively passive mode: able to use the higher speed direction for the "download" from the Internet but not needing to run servers that would require high speed in the other direction.

ADSL+2
ADSL +2 is an extension to ADSL broadband technology that provides subscribers with significantly faster download speeds when compared to traditional ADSL connections. ADSL+2 works in the same fashion as ADSL a special filter is installed on a subscriber's telephone line to split existing copper telephone lines (POTS) between regular telephone (voice) and ADSL+2. ADSL2+ service is most commonly offered in highly-populated metropolitan areas and subscribers must be in close geographical locations to the provider's central office to receive ADSL2+ service. 

SDSL
 SDSL is still more common in Europe. Short for symmetric digital subscriber line, a technology that allows more data to be sent over existing copper telephone lines . SDSL supports data rates up to 3 Mbps. SDSL works by sending digital pulses in the high-frequency area of telephone wires and can not operate simultaneously with voice connections over the same wires. SDSL requires a special SDSL modem. SDSL is called symmetric because it supports the same data rates for upstream and downstream traffic. 

VDSL or VHDSL (Very High Bitrate DSL) is a DSL technology providing faster data transmission over a single flat untwisted or twisted pair of copper wires. It offers fast data rates over relatively short distances — the shorter the distance, the faster the connection rate. These fast speeds mean that VDSL is capable of supporting high bandwidth applications such as HDTV, as well as telephone services  and general Internet access, over a single connection.

3.Cable Connections:
Cable connections are considered one of the best types of internet connection available to the home user, they offer very fast and reliable connections with a fixed monthly fee. Cable companies usually offer different packages to suit different internet subscribers, your choice of package, as with all internet connections, will depend on how you intend to use the internet.The different packages will offer different speed specifications and bandwidth limits.Because a cable connection uses a totally separate medium to transfer data it doesn't affect your ability to make/receive phone calls.Cable Internet works by using TV channel space for data transmission, with certain channels used for downstream transmission, and other channels for upstream transmission. Because the coaxial cable used by cable TV provides much greater bandwidth than telephone lines, a cable modem can be used to achieve extremely fast access.

 

What is an IP address?
 

IP Addresses - Subnetting and Default Gateways

A Class A, B, or C TCP/IP network can be further divided, or subnetted, by a system administrator. This becomes necessary as you reconcile the logical address scheme of the Internet (the abstract world of IP addresses and subnets) with the physical networks in use by the real world.

A system administrator who is allocated a block of IP addresses may be administering networks that are not organized in a way that easily fits these addresses. For example, you have a wide area network with 150 hosts on three networks (in different cities) that are connected by a TCP/IP router. Each of these three networks has 50 hosts. You are allocated the class C network 192.168.123.0. (For illustration, this address is actually from a range that is not allocated on the Internet.) This means that you can use the addresses 192.168.123.1 to 192.168.123.254 for your 150 hosts.

Two addresses that cannot be used in your example are 192.168.123.0 and 192.168.123.255 because binary addresses with a host portion of all ones and all zeros are invalid. The zero address is invalid because it is used to specify a network without specifying a host. The 255 address (in binary notation, a host address of all ones) is used to broadcast a message to every host on a network. Just remember that the first and last address in any network or subnet cannot be assigned to any individual host.

You should now be able to give IP addresses to 254 hosts. This works fine if all 150 computers are on a single network. However, your 150 computers are on three separate physical networks. Instead of requesting more address blocks for each network, you divide your network into subnets that enable you to use one block of addresses on multiple physical networks.

In this case, you divide your network into four subnets by using a subnet mask that makes the network address larger and the possible range of host addresses smaller. In other words, you are 'borrowing' some of the bits usually used for the host address, and using them for the network portion of the address. The subnet mask 255.255.255.192 gives you four networks of 62 hosts each. This works because in binary notation, 255.255.255.192 is the same as 1111111.11111111.1111111.11000000. The first two digits of the last octet become network addresses, so you get the additional networks 00000000 (0), 01000000 (64), 10000000 (128) and 11000000 (192). (Some administrators will only use two of the subnetworks using 255.255.255.192 as a subnet mask. For more information on this topic, see RFC 1878.) In these four networks, the last 6 binary digits can be used for host addresses.

Using a subnet mask of 255.255.255.192, your 192.168.123.0 network then becomes the four networks 192.168.123.0, 192.168.123.64, 192.168.123.128 and 192.168.123.192. These four networks would have as valid host addresses:

192.168.123.1-62
192.168.123.65-126
192.168.123.129-190
192.168.123.193-254
Remember, that binary host addresses with all ones or all zeros are invalid, so you cannot use addresses with the last octet of 0, 63, 64, 127, 128, 191, 192, or 255.

You can see how this works by looking at two host addresses, 192.168.123.71 and 192.168.123.133. If you used the default Class C subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, both addresses are on the 192.168.123.0 network. However, if you use the subnet mask of 255.255.255.192, they are on different networks; 192.168.123.71 is on the 192.168.123.64 network, 192.168.123.133 is on the 192.168.123.128 network.

Default Gateways:
If a TCP/IP computer needs to communicate with a host on another network, it will usually communicate through a device called a router. In TCP/IP terms, a router that is specified on a host, which links the host's subnet to other networks, is called a default gateway. This section explains how TCP/IP determines whether or not to send packets to its default gateway to reach another computer or device on the network.

When a host attempts to communicate with another device using TCP/IP, it performs a comparison process using the defined subnet mask and the destination IP address versus the subnet mask and its own IP address. The result of this comparison tells the computer whether the destination is a local host or a remote host.

If the result of this process determines the destination to be a local host, then the computer will simply send the packet on the local subnet. If the result of the comparison determines the destination to be a remote host, then the computer will forward the packet to the default gateway defined in its TCP/IP properties. It is then the responsibility of the router to forward the packet to the correct subnet.
(extracted from microsoft)
 
What is an IP Address?
IP Addresses-Network and Host Id
IP Addresses-Classes

 

IP Addresses - Classes

Network classes:
Internet addresses are allocated by the InterNIC (http://www.internic.net/), the organization that administers the Internet. These IP addresses are divided into classes. The most common of these are classes A, B, and C. Classes D and E exist, but are not generally used by end users. Each of the address classes has a different default subnet mask. You can identify the class of an IP address by looking at its first octet. Following are the ranges of Class A, B, and C Internet addresses, each with an example address:

Class A networks use a default subnet mask of 255.0.0.0 and have 1-126 as their first octet. The address 10.52.36.11 is a class A address. Its first octet is 10, which is between 1 and 126, inclusive.

Class B networks use a default subnet mask of 255.255.0.0 and have 128-191 as their first octet. The address 172.16.52.63 is a class B address. Its first octet is 172, which is between 128 and 191, inclusive.

Class C networks use a default subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and have 192-223 as their first octet. The address 192.168.123.132 is a class C address. Its first octet is 192, which is between 192 and 223, inclusive.
(from microsoft)

Class D is used for multicasting and class E is reserved for scientific purposes..

IP classes can also presented as :

From our earlier discussion on IP Addresses Network and Host ID can be easily determined as shown in figure.
Class IDs are the bits which denotes a particular class and are peculiar to it.
 
What is an IP Address?
IP Addresses-Network and Host Id
IP Addresses-Subnetting and Gateway

 

IP Addresses - Network and Host ID

An IP address is a 32-bit number that uniquely identifies a host (computer or other device, such as a printer or router) on a TCP/IP network.
In TCP/IP wide area network (WAN) , the routers that pass packets of data between networks do not know the exact location of a host for which a packet of information is destined. Routers only know what network the host is a member of and  using the information stored in their routing table they determine how to get the packet to the destination host's network.

An IP address has two parts. The first part of an IP address is used as a network address, the last part as a host address.
Consider an IP address 192.168.123.133, splitting in to two parts
192.168.123 - Network
           .133 - Host
     or
0.0.0.133

Subnet Mask:
The subnet mask is used by the TCP/IP protocol to determine whether a host is on the local subnet or on a remote network.In TCP/IP, the parts of the IP address that are used as the network and host addresses are not fixed, so the network and host addresses above cannot be determined unless you have more information about a  32-bit number called a subnet mask.
Consider subnet mask 255.255.255.0 for our example, then converting to binary values:
192.168.123.133    -   11000000.10101000.01111011.10000101


255.255.255.0     -      11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000
 
Lining up the IP address and the subnet mask together, the network and host portions of the address can be separated:
11000000.10101000.01111011.00000000 - Network address
 
00000000.00000000.00000000.10000101 - Host address
 
The first 24 bits (the number of ones in the subnet mask) are identified as the network address, with the last 8 bits (the number of remaining zeros in the subnet mask) identified as the host address.

What is an IP Address?
IP Addresses-Classes
IP Addresses-Subnetting and Gateway

 

What is an IP Address ?

 IP addresses are four sets of numbers occupying 32bits separated by periods that allow computers to identify each other. Every computer has at least one IP address, and two computers should never have the same IP address. If they do, neither of them will be able to connect to the internet.IP address is an exclusive number used by all information technology devices (printers, routers, modems etc).It identifies and allows them the ability to communicate with each other on a computer network. There is a standard of communication which is called an Internet Protocol standard. In general terms it is the same as your home address. In order for you to receive your mail at home the sending party must have the correct mailing address in your town.Now talking in terms of Internet the house address corresponds to IP address and town corresponds to the network on which your terminal lies.IP addresses may either be assigned permanently for an Email server/Business server or a permanent home resident or temporarily, from a pool of available addresses (first come first serve) from your Internet Service Provider.

Domain Name System (DNS): This allows the IP address to be translated to words. It is much easier for us to remember a word than a series of numbers. The same is true for email addresses.

For example, it is much easier for you to remember a web address name such as www.kumarrakesh.co.cc than it is to remember 192.168.1.1 or in the case of email it is much easier to remember email@somedomain.com than email@192.168.1.1

When you type the name of the website in the internet browser it is actually translated to its IP address by DNS server. You can also reach the same site by entering its IP directly in the browser.

 Dynamic vs Static IPs

An IP address that  could change at any time is called Dynamic. This IP address is issued to you from a collection of IP addresses allocated by your ISP or DHCP(Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol-Its a computer Networking Potocol which is used by DHCP clients to distribute IP addresses to destination hosts) Server. This is for a large number of customers that do not require the same IP Address all the time. Your computer will automatically get this number as it logs on to the network and saves you the trouble of having to know details regarding the specific network configurations. This number can be assigned to anyone using a dial-up connection, Wireless and High Speed Internet connections. If you need to run your own email server or web server, it would be best to have a static IP.

 An IP address that is fixed and never changes is static. This is in contrast to a dynamic IP address which may change at any time.
                                                               

 Most routers assign dynamic IP addresses by default. They do this because dynamic ip address networks require no configuration.  When ip addresses are assigned dynamically, the router is the one that assigns them. Every time a computer reboots it asks the router for an ip address. The router then hands it an ip address that has not already been handed out to another computer. 

Now at some places like colleges,schools or big organizations there is a single external IP assigned to a router which further routes the connection to different sections in the organization with different internal IP addresses.Internal IP addresses look like something 192.168.n.n .

Some Other Links:
Find IP of a site using Ping
IP Addresses-Network and Host Id
IP Addresses-Classes
IP Addresses-Subnetting and Gateway
 

Find IP address of a site using PING:

You can find the IP addr of a website by using PING command in Microsoft windows.

1.Press Win + R.
2.Type cmd   in the command space.

This will open the command prompt .

3.Type ping and your website whose IP has to be found.
  EX- c:\documents and settings\user>ping  www.yahoo.com  
and you will see the IP in brackets.

So the IP address of http://www.yahoo.com/ is 209.131.36.158 , it also shows that connection was successfully created as the no of packets sent and received is same without any loss.

 Basically Ping is a network tool used to test whether a particular host is reachable across an IP network.It works by sending   “echo request” packets to the target host and listening for  “echo response” replies. . Ping measures the round trip time and records any packet loss, and prints when finished a statistical summary of the echo response packets received, the minimum, mean, max and in some versions the standard deviation of the round trip time.

Some Other Links:
What is a Proxy Server?
What is an IP address?
 

Necessary Run Commands in Win 7:

Sometimes it becomes very annoying to shift between keyboard and  mouse time and again ....what to do?
Ahh.... Learn some RUN commands,you will love them...
You can access run window in two ways:

1.Press Win+r on your keyboard,a small window will appear...

type the command in the space provided and you are through.


2.Press WIN key on your keyboard and then select 'RUN'

List of commands:
•Add/Remove Programs = appwiz.cpl

•Administrative Tools = control admintools

•Authorization Manager= azman.msc "New"

•Calculator = calc

•Certificate Manager = certmgr.msc

•Character Map = charmap

•Check Disk Utility = chkdsk

•Control Panel = control "New"

•Command Prompt = cmd.exe

•Component Services = dcomcnfg

•Computer Management = compmgmt.msc = CompMgmtLauncher "New"

•Date and Time Properties = timedate.cpl

•Downloads = Downloads "New"

•Device Manager = devmgmt.msc

•Direct X Troubleshooter = dxdiag

•Disk Cleanup Utility = cleanmgr

•Defragment User Interface = dfrgui "New"

•Ditilizer Calibration Tool = tabcal "New"

•Disk Management = diskmgmt.msc

•Disk Parmelonion Manager = diskpart

•Display Properties = control desktop or desk.cpl

•DPI Scaling = dpiscaling "New"

•Driver Package Installer = dpinst "New"

•Driver Verifier Utility = verifier or /reset

•DVD Player = dvdplay "New"
 
•Libraries = explorer or Windows key + E

•Local Security Settings = secpol.msc

•Local Users and Groups = lusrmgr.msc

•Logs You Out Of Windows = logoff

•Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool = msdt "New"

•Microsoft Paint = mspaint.exe

•Mouse Properties = control mouse

•Mouse Properties = main.cpl

•Mobility Center (only on mobile) = mblctr or Windows key + X

•Network Connections = control netconnections

•Network Connections = ncpa.cpl

•Notepad = notepad

•ODBC Data Source Administrator = odbcad32 "New"

•Optional Features Manager = optionalfeatures "New"

•On Screen Keyboard = osk or Windows key + U

•Task Manager = taskmgr

•Trusted Platform Module = TpmInit "New"

•Utility Manager = utilman

•User Accounts = netplwiz

•Windows Activation = slui "New"

•Windows Backup Utility = sdclt "New"

•Windows Fax and Scan = wfs "New"

•Windows Firewall = firewall.cpl

•Windows Firewall with Advanced Security = wf.msc "New"

•Windows Image Acquisition = wiaacmgr "New"

•Windows Media Player = wmplayer

•Windows Magnifier = magnify

•Windows Management Infrastructure = wmimgmt.msc

•Windows Update App Manager = wuapp "New"

•Windows Standalong Update Manager = wusa "New'

•Windows System Security Tool = syskey

•Windows Share Creation Wizard = shrpubw "New"

•Wordpad = write

Give them a shot..


Some Other Links:
Free ebooks
All about Torrents
What is an IP Address?
 

Remain updated of Gizmo world: Top 3 sites

Dont tell me that you are not  fond of the latest Gizmos surfacing in the market everyday and evolving every second with unbelievable features like mobiles,TVs,ipods,HD players and much more..how about getting all the news about your favorite gizmo with the help of just few clicks....how?

Visit these sites for every type of update on new Gadgets and their Reviews:

1. engadget

Not much of the review stuff,but material  is good....

2.gizmodo

Overall layout is better with more stress on new technology and stuff,reviews are also good...

3. T3

Best for reviews and searching the top stuff of its category....like top ten Mobiles,Cars etc