CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background of the Study

The rapid growth of the Internet and World-Wide Web (WWW) has allowed more people access to global computer network and network applications. Internet Service Providers (ISP) profit by offering many kinds of Internet services such as electronic mail, WWW, FTP, and others. Some closed computer user groups such as companies, research centers, or a universities, have opted for smaller, Internet-like network environments called ‘Intranets’. Intranets provide integrated network services using Internet technologies that are, technically, the same as Internet’s. Intranet services, however, are more integrated and task specific services with consistent user interfaces. Intranet is gradually replacing old proprietary messaging systems such as Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) and document processing systems (Berners-lee et al, 2005).

Electronic mail service is one of the most popular and essential services in both Internet and Intranet. There could be no Internet/Intranet services without the electronic mail service. Mail server is a computer system that sends and receives electronic messages for a number of users in a certain management domain. Mail servers are connected to networks and should reliably process incoming and outgoing mail messages. Sending and receiving tasks are actually processed by special software called mail server program running in the mail server. The most widely-used Internet mail server program is send mail, which was first developed in 1982 for 4.1 BSD UNIX system (Eric, 2002).

Since electronic mail service is booming, mail servers are handling more and more user messages. The mail server’s and reliability do not always satisfy user requirements. Even when the mail server runs normally, the administrator of mail server need to know the current status of servers. They need to know how many mail messages their system processes, how many errors occur when the system handles messages, how much hardware resources their system needs, and more. Systematic management of electronic mail servers naturally has evolved so mail server administrations may satisfy expanding market demands. Systems and services management has become very important area of research and development, coinciding with the need and establishment of international standards. For example, ISO/ITU-T has developed the OSI management framework (Marshall, 2002). The managing complexity of the OSI model, for Internet-based systems and services, motivated Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), to create a simple and light management framework called Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) (Case et al, 2002). There is another big trend in the systems and services management. As WWW technologies are rapidly evolving, those technologies such as Java and Common Gateway Interface (CGI) are applied to many computing areas (Arnold et al, 2006). Systems and services management is one of such areas that WWW technologies can be adopted to increase the efficiency and usability of management systems (NCSA, 2016).

Internet is all about connecting machines together. One of the most existing accept of java is that it in cooperates any easy to use cross platform model for network communication. A socket is the most popular operating systems provide to give programs access to the network. That is, it allows messages to be sent and received between applications on different networked machines. The TCP socket is part of socket programming. Since they provide a connection oriented service with both flow and congestion control. Socket programming is the APL for application to the read and writes data from transmission control protocol, Internet protocol and the user datagram protocol, Internet protocol in socket programming. The socket programming file abstraction (open, read, write, close) then abstraction operating system resources. Socket allows the communication between two different processes on the same or different machine java socket model is deviled from BSD Unix. A UNIX socket is used to client server application framework. A server is a process that performs some function on request from a client. It is a computer program that needs to connect to a local or wide area network such as the Internet; it uses a software component called a socket system. The socket opens the network connection for the program, allowing data to be read and write over network. It is important to note that sockets are software, but not hardware, like a wall socket (Pooja et al, 2017).

1.2     Statement of the Problem

Communication is one important factor that should never be neglected in any organization. The process through which messages are transferred in an organization is something vital to look into. Hence it becomes a necessity to improve the standard of communication. Below are most problems that are encountered in the existing system.

1. Most staffs are often not familiar with the interface of most mail servers due to the fact that it keeps changing as years past.
2. The means through which mail servers make income is mostly through adverts. Adverts as a matter of fact serves as a means for the cyber exploitation of organizations through there mail.

The software application in this research work is intended to solve the above mentioned problems currently encountered in the existing system.

1.3     Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of this research is to develop an electronic mailing system using java socket programming. The system will allow mailing communication in the Nigerian Army Institute of Technology and Environmental Study.

The objectives of the proposed system are as outlined below:

1. To explore the impact of sending electronic mails using java socket programming
2. To develop a user friendly means of sending electronic mails in the Nigerian Army Institute of Technology and Environmental Study
3. To improve on the communication method currently existing in the Nigerian Army Institute of Technology and Environmental Study.
4. The reduce the risk of possible exploitation in the Nigerian Army Institute of Technology and Environmental Studies.

1.4     Significance of the Study

The development of the proposed system will be of great significance to several organizations, most especially to those organizations that send confidential emails. The proposed system will aid in giving organizations staff the user friendly interface required to carry out their respective tasks.

Also, the proposed system will be of great benefit to organizations in a way that it will reduce the risk in vulnerability since there will be no room for adverts and unnecessary mailing by users. Hence this, the overall cyber security of organizations is increased with the rate of cybercrime technically reduced.  

1.5     Scope of the Study

The scope of this research work is strictly limited to sending electronic mails. Java socket programming will be explored in creating the electronic mail system using the Nigerian Army Institute of Technology and Environmental Study as a case study.

1.6     Definition of Terms

• Client: A computer device or workstation in a network that is capable of obtaining information and applications from a server.
• Communication: means of sending or receiving information, such as telephone lines or computers.
• Electronic Mail: This is most times written as e-mail or email. However, it is the exchange of computer-stored messages by telecommunication.
• Framework: This is a platform for developing software applications.
• FTP: This is a standard Internet protocol for transmitting files between computers on the Internet over TCP/IP connections.
• Interface: A boundary across which two independent systems meet and act on or communicate with each other.
• Internet: A global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities, consisting of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols.
• Intranet: A local or restricted communications network, especially a private network created using World Wide Web software.
• ISP: This stands for Internet Service Provider. An ISP provides access to the Internet.
• Server: A computer or computer program which manages access to a centralized resource or service in a network.
• SMTP: This is an acronym for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It is a TCP/IP protocol used in sending and receiving e-mail.
• SNMP: This stands for Simple Network Management Protocol. It is an application-layer protocol used to manage and monitor network devices and their functions.
• Socket Programming: This is a way of connecting two nodes on a network to communicate with each other.
• Socket: This is an endpoint in communication between two computers across a computer network.
• TCP/IP: This stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, which is a set of networking protocols that allows two or more computers to communicate.
• Third Party: This refers to either a hardware manufacturer or a software developer. It is a label given to companies that produce hardware or software for another company's product.