LJ2: Intro to web technology

In this section of class I reinforced my knowledge of computer security. I knew some of the basics such as firewalls and antivirus protection but some of the facts about phishing and spyware were newer to me.  I had only heard the word phishing in browsing some websites. Now that I know that it is a somewhat hidden attempt to collect your personal information I can be more aware of it.  The mini game/quizzes were a great way to learn about internet security. The web lab on the different browsers gave me insight to other browsers that I may just begin to use.  I never knew that Opera and flock even existed, or that firefox was such a good alternative to Internet explorer.  This site --> http://raygen.info/blog/2010/01/13/firefox-vs-ie-vs-opera-vs-chrome/   , helped explain some of advantages and disadvantages of the different browsers. The answer to one of my biggest questions of the internet was about IP addresses, and that was answered in the material from this lesson.  After reading chapter 6, I now know that all the numbers with the dots between them mean. That each of them is an IP address that is specific to a different Domain Name. I enjoyed participating in the web labs, I found them a great way to learn important things. I feel I actively participated in this section, minus missing a quiz cause I lost track of the date, but other than that I plan on continuing to be eager to learn new things.  Some new terms I learned from this section are:

Biometrics: using devices to measure biological data to identify a user.

digital certificate:  electronically authenticates ano organization's or individual's identity

SmartScreen Filter:  when browsing the web, it works in the background, analyzing the pages you visit and looking for suspicious attributes that might indicate threats.

Data Switch:  an intelligent device that also interprets MAC addresses and filters and forwards packets to other network segments.