Practise Protocols. 11 exam-style questions on this subtopic, at up to four difficulty levels, with full mark schemes and a progress tracker. Free, no account needed.
Cover the answers and test yourself. The app has these as flashcards that come back just before you'd forget them.
Define the term 'network protocol'.
A set of rules for how data is sent and received.
State the protocol used to send the email from Zara's phone to her mail server.
SMTP
Sample questions
Written for this site in the style of Edexcel exam questions. They are not taken from real past papers.
Question 1Easy3 marks
(a) Define the term 'network protocol'.[1]
(b) Identify the protocol that is used to send an email from an email client to a mail server.[1]
FTP
SMTP
HTTP
POP3
(c) State what the letter S stands for in HTTPS.[1]
Show the answer and mark scheme
(a)Answer: A set of rules for how data is sent and received.
a set of rules that govern how data is transmitted between devices on a network
(b)Answer: SMTP
(c)Answer: Secure
secure
Question 2Medium4 marks
(a) Explain why protocols are needed for devices to communicate over a network.[2]
(b) Explain the difference between POP3 and IMAP.[2]
Show the answer and mark scheme
(a)Answer: Different devices must follow the same rules so each can understand the data the other sends.
devices made by different manufacturers, running different software, need to follow the same rules
so that data is sent in a format, at a speed and in an order that the receiving device understands, e.g. how data is addressed, split up and checked for errors
(b)Answer: POP3 downloads and usually removes emails from the server; IMAP leaves them on the server, synchronised across devices.
POP3 downloads emails from the mail server to one device and usually deletes them from the server
IMAP keeps emails on the server, so they can be accessed and kept in step on several devices
Question 3Hard4 marks
A student claims, 'The Internet Protocol (IP) makes sure that all the packets of a file arrive in the right order.' Explain why the student is wrong.[4]
Show the answer and mark scheme
Answer: IP only addresses and routes packets, which can arrive out of order or be lost; TCP makes delivery complete and ordered.
IP is responsible for addressing and routing
it adds the source and destination IP addresses to each packet
each packet is routed separately, so packets may take different routes and arrive out of order, or be lost
it is TCP that checks that all packets have arrived, has lost packets resent and puts the packets in order