Pupose: The purpose of this excercise is to show you how standards that are created for the Internet affect Internet users, web content creators, and network administrators.

What to do:

1. Choose one of the topics below. Think about where you would find information on the topic. Write a 2 to 4 paragraph discussion on the topic. Use the web, course material, text books, or other sources of information for your research. Some additional links to web resources are at the bottom of this document.
2. For each topic, some questions are given. Use these questions as thought starters to develop your discussion. You do not necessarily need to answer every question for the topic. You can add your own thoughts and ideas to the topic which are not related to any of the questions given.
3. Email the results of your research to your instructor. You can either type the results directly into the email message, copy and paste the results into an email message, or send the results as an attachment to the email message. If you send the discussion as an attachment, the preferred format for the attachment is either a plain text file (like a notepad .txt file) or a Rich Text Format (.rtf) file (Rich Text Format). This is becuase your instructor may not have the same version of the program that you used to write up your discussion.

1. There are many different standard protocols involved in sending and recieving email (like POP, Sendmail, IMAP, X.400, LDAP,...) Pick three protocols and describe what each one does and how it can be used for sending and recieving email. Consider the following questions in your discussion:
• Is the protocol used for sending email, receiving email, or does it just enhance email messaging in some way?
• Does the protocol allow for reading and managing messages while they are on the email server, or must messages be downloaded to a local computer?
• Which protocols are most commonly used for email messaging? Which protocols are the newest and allow for the most enhanced email features?
2. Standards can be categorized into three broad categories: official standards, industry standards, and de facto standards. Briefly explain what these three categories are. Then pick three of the following standards and tell which category each fits in and why it belongs to that category:
• The AT modem command set standard.
• The HTML language standard.
• The ethernet networking standard.
• The GIF file format standard.
• The AVI video format standard.
3. There is much talk about a new type of audio format called mp3 which is becoming increasingly popular. Mp3 audio files can be downloaded over the Internet, played on a computer, or played on a small, portable player like a Walkman. Use the following questions to discuss the mp3 format:
• The mp3 format is not an official standard itself, but it is a portion (the part dealing with audio files) of another Video standard. Which standard is mp3 a part of?
• Who controls the standard from which mp3 is derived?
• Record companies in general do not like the distribution of music in mp3 format. Why do they not like this?
• Why is using mp3 a good way to send audio files over the Internet or store audio files on a disc?
4. There are many different standard formats for graphic files that computer artists use to store the images they create on computers. Pick one format from each of the three goups to discuss:
• Group 1: JPEG or GIF
• Group 2: PNG or BMP
• Group 3: TIFF or PICT
Consider the following questions when discussing each graphic file format:
• What type of artwork would this standard be good for (like for storing drawings/pictures on a personal computer, displaying art on the web, storing black and white illustrations, storing color photographs, storing color artwork with a few simple colors, ...)
• Does the given format compress the file? That is, shrink the file size, but not the actual dimensions of the picture, so it will take up less space on a computer or download faster over the Internet.
• If the given format compresses the image, does it alter the way the image looks (this is called "lossy" compression, because information about the image is lost).
5. The ITU standard for high speed modems is V.90. People commonly refer to modems that adhere to this standard as being capable of 56Kbps (kilo bits per second) transfer rates (speed). Consider the following questions, and discuss the V.90 standard:
• The maximum transfer rate for downloading information to your computer is not really 56kbp. There is a theoretical maximum speed which is slightly more than 56Kbps. What is this theoretical maximum speed?
• In order to achieve these high speeds, the modem takes advantage of certain types of lines and switches that the telephone company uses. What types of switching does a telephone company have to have for modems to communicate at high speeds?
• There is an actual maximum download speed that is slightly slower than 56Kbps which is governed by U.S. law. What is this speed?
• Why is the actual maximum download speed slower than the maximum theoretical speed?
• What governmental organization sets the actual maximum download speed?
• Similarly, the upload speed (transferring information from your computer to a server) is also not 56kbps but actually considerably slower. What is the upload speed of a V.90 modem?
• Why is this upload speed considerably slower than the download speed.

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Author: Chris Leonello: chris@leonello.com
Editor: Laurence J. Krieg
Institution: Internet Professional Department, Washtenaw Community College
History: Original: 20 March 2000; This revision posted Monday, 20-Mar-2000 15:12:54 EST
Copyright © 2000, Chris Leonello.

Instructors: You may point to this file in your Web-based materials.
Students: you may make a copy for your personal use.
All other uses: contact the author, Chris Leonello, for permission.