e-commerce
Content
B.Com (CA)
Core – E Commerce
UNIT I : Introduction
The Word “E” is fifth letter of the English alphabet, second letter of a vowel. It is a particularly
strong letter. It represents the name and senses in general.
In mathematical science: “e” “∑” is the second most important irrational number in mathematics,
after π. The ∑ that represents the name and symbol of (SUM or Summation) value in mathematics.
It calculates the specific values in the given series. The symbol uses in the different formula to
calculate the value. The “e” that represents the value of 2.1876 in mathematic formula.
In network: E means the Edge network which is very slow compared to wifi. Edge is one of 2
networks used by AT&T. This network is what allows you to make phone calls and connect to the
internet. The other network is called 3G, this network is what the iPhone 3G uses (obviously), and
can be considerably faster than edge when surfing the web, depending on your location.
In computing: The Word “E” means Electronic. Electronics is the study of circuits involving low
voltage electronic devices.
Definition of electronics: Electronics is the branch of science that deals with the study of flow and
control of electrons (electricity) and the study of their behavior and effects in vacuums, gases, and
semiconductors, and with devices using such electrons. This control of electrons is accomplished
by devices that resist, carry, select, steer, switch, store, manipulate, and exploit the electron.
Commerce is a branch of business. It is concerned with the exchange of goods and services. It
includes all those activities, which directly or indirectly facilitate that exchange. Commerce looks
after the distribution aspect of the business. Whatever is produced it must be consumed, to facilitate
this consumption there must be a proper distribution channel. Here comes the need for commerce
which is concerned with the smooth buying and selling of goods and services.
Definition
According to the dictionary: E-Commerce means
“Commerce that is transacted electronically, as over the Internet. “
“The use of the internet and web to carry out business transactions digitally.”
The buying and selling of products and services by businesses and consumers through an
electronic medium, without using any paper documents. E-commerce is widely considered the
buying and selling of products over the internet, but any transaction that is completed solely
through electronic measures can be considered e-commerce.
According to James Stephenson,
"Commerce is an organized system for the exchange of goods between the members of the
industrial world."
E-commerce (electronic commerce or EC) is the buying and selling of goods and services, or the
transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the Internet. These business
transactions occur either business-to-business, business-to-consumer, consumer-to-consumer or
consumer-to-business. The terms e-commerce and e-business are often used interchangeably. The
term e-tail is also sometimes used in reference to transactional processes around online retail.
Here are a few examples of e-commerce:
Online Shopping
Electronic Payments
Generating online advertising revenue
Trading stock in an online brokerage account
Driving information through a company via its intranet
Driving manufacturing and distribution through a value chain with partners on an
extranet.
Benefits of Ecommerce
The primary benefits of ecommerce revolve around the fact that it eliminates limitations of time
and geographical distance. In the process, ecommerce usually streamlines operations and lowers
costs.
E-Commerce Advantages to Organizations
Using E-Commerce, organization can expand their market to national and international
markets with minimum capital investment. An organization can easily locate more
customers, best suppliers and suitable business partners across the globe.
E-Commerce helps organization to reduce the cost to create process, distribute, retrieve
and manage the paper based information by digitizing the information.
E-commerce improves the brand image of the company.
E-commerce helps organization to provide better customer services.
E-Commerce helps to simplify the business processes and make them faster and efficient.
E-Commerce reduces paper work a lot.
E-Commerce increased the productivity of the organization. It supports "pull" type supply
management. In "pull" type supply management, a business process starts when a request
comes from a customer and it uses just-in-time manufacturing way.
E-Commerce Advantages to Customers
24x7 support. Customer can do transactions for the product or enquiry about any
product/services provided by a company anytime, anywhere from any location. Here
24x7 refers to 24 hours of each seven days of a week.
E-Commerce application provides user more options and quicker delivery of products.
E-Commerce application provides user more options to compare and select the cheaper and
better option.
A customer can put review comments about a product and can see what others are buying
or see the review comments of other customers before making a final buy.
E-Commerce provides option of virtual auctions.
Readily available information. A customer can see the relevant detailed information within
seconds rather than waiting for days or weeks.
E-Commerce increases competition among the organizations and as result organizations
provides substantial discounts to customers.
E-Commerce Advantages to Society
Customers need not to travel to shop a product thus less traffic on road and low air
pollution.
E-Commerce helps reducing cost of products so less affluent people can also afford the
products.
E-Commerce has enabled access to services and products to rural areas as well which are
otherwise not available to them.
E-Commerce helps government to deliver public services like health care, education, social
services at reduced cost and in improved way.
Technical Disadvantages of E-Commerce
There can be lack of system security, reliability or standards owing to poor implementation
of e-Commerce.
Software development industry is still evolving and keeps changing rapidly.
In many countries, network bandwidth might cause an issue as there is insufficient
telecommunication bandwidth available.
Special types of web server or other software might be required by the vendor setting the
e-commerce environment apart from network servers.
Sometimes, it becomes difficult to integrate E-Commerce software or website with the
existing application or databases.
There could be software/hardware compatibility issue as some E-Commerce software may
be incompatible with some operating system or any other component.
Non-Technical Disadvantages of E-Commerce
Initial cost: The cost of creating / building E-Commerce application in-house may be very
high. There could be delay in launching the E-Commerce application due to mistakes, lack
of experience.
User resistance: User may not trust the site being unknown faceless seller. Such mistrust
makes it difficult to make user switch from physical stores to online/virtual stores.
Security/ Privacy: Difficult to ensure security or privacy on online transactions.
Lack of touch or feel of products during online shopping.
E-Commerce applications are still evolving and changing rapidly.
Difference between e commerce and e business
In both cases , E stands for “Electronic networks “ and describes the applications of Electronic
network technology – including internet and electronic data interchange (EDI) – to improve and
change business process . E-commerce primarily involves transactions that cross firm boundaries.
E-Business primarily involves the application of digital technologies to business processes within
firm.
E-commerce covers outward – facing processes that touch customers, suppliers and external
partners, including sales, marketing, order taking, delivery, customer service, purchasing of raw
materials. E-commerce only covers business transactions such as buying and selling of and
services over the internet. E-commerce essentially involves monetary trade while in e-business,
money transactions are not necessary.
E-business includes E-commerce but also covers internal process such as production, inventory
management, products development, finance, human resources, E-business strategy is more
complex, productivity and cost savings. Ex:-E-bay, Amazon. E-business is the integration of a
company's activities including products, procedures, and services with the Internet.
E-business, or electronic business, derived from 'e-commerce' is conducting business on the
Internet, but not just buying and selling but also servicing customers and collaborating with
business partners. The term conveys that the business conducts its business entirely online. So ebusiness is a super-set of e-commerce it is about utilizing the net for all aspects of the business.
The unique features of e-commerce technology include:
Ubiquity: It is available just about everywhere and at all times. Consumer can connect it to
the Internet at any time, including at their homes, their offices, on their video game
systems with an Internet connection and mobile phone devices. eCommerce is ubiquitous
technology which is available everywhere and can access all times by using internet and WiFi hotspot such as airport, coffee cafe and hill station places.
Global reach: The potential market size is roughly equal to the size of the online population
of the world. eCommerce Technology seamlessly stretch across traditional cultural and
national boundaries and enable worldwide access to the client. eCommerce website have
ability to translate the multilingual websites as well as allow the access to internatoin visitors
all over the world.
Universal standards: The technical standards of the Internet and therefore of conducting
ecommerce, are shared by all of the nations in the world. The whole online tradition are
growing and expanding their own features in the world. To development the any kind of
business need Internet and communication application which make the business relationship
more lovingly and attractive for secure business and successful business. eCommerce
Technology provide us powerful application to access our social networking and online
eCommerce store any time and everywhere.
Richness: Information that is complex and content-rich can be delivered without sacrificing
reach. It has been so simple to keep the record of our tradition commination within
the eCommerce time. You can save your audio, video, sent files, received files or data in your
user account.
Interactivity: E-commerce technologies allow two-way communication between the
merchant and the consumer. You can call them by using the voip and track the
communication record. And second is email communication which allow you to access all
kind of mailing systems and tracking.
Information density: The total amount and quality of information available to all market
participants is vastly increased and is cheaper to deliver. Most business owners use the
shopping cart and do the order of product and purchasing online. Online shopping process
allows a consumer or company to receive personal details, product shipping, billing and
payment information from a customer all at once and sends the customer's information to
the appropriate departments in a matter of second’s priority.
Personalization/Customization: E-commerce technologies enable merchants to target
their marketing messages to a person’s name, interests and past purchases. They allow a
merchant to change the product or service to suit the purchasing behavior and preferences of
a consumer.
Social technology: User content generation and social networking technologies is most
useful features which excelerat the client activity to share the information and content with
one click. eCommerce technology has tie up the social media networking application to
provide the best source of content sharing technology and eMarketing systems. You can share
you content or data easily in just one click.
Types of E-Commerce
Business to Consumer (B2C): a platform where businesses sells to consumers like amazon,
flipkart, justdial. Elimination of the need for physical stores is the biggest rationale for business
to consumer ecommerce. But the complexity and cost of logistics can be a barrier to B2C
ecommerce growth.
Business to Business (B2B): As the name, Businesses selling goods/services to other businesses.
You can say manufacturers to wholesalers or from one business entity to another. Ex: paypal,
Google selling business tools like docs, adwords to businesses, or steel manufactures selling to
wholesale dealers etc.
Consumer to consumer (C2C): a platform where consumer post the things they want to sell and
other consumer can directly buy from them. Ex: Sulekha, ebay etc.
Consumer to Business (C2B): example of this can be again justdial where consumer can post
their requirement and businesses can contact them. Say consumer planning for a trip and tour
operators making offers or naukri.com. Another example would be a consumer posting his
requirements of a holiday package, and various tour operators making offers.
Peer to Peer (P2P): People can directly share computer files and computer resources without
having to go through a central web server. To use this, both sides need to install the required
software so that they can communicate on the common platform. ex: uTorrent, Zshare etc.
M-Commerce: It deals with conducting the transactions with the help of mobile. The mobile
device consumers can interact each other and can lead the business. Mobile Commerce involves
the change of ownership or rights to utilize goods and related services.
E-Commerce I (1995-2000)
Explosive growth starting in 1995
Widespread of Web to advertise products
Ended in 2000 when dot.com began to collapse
E-Commerce II (2001-2006)
Began in January 2001
Reassessment of e-commerce companies
Crash in stock market values of E-commerce I companies throughout 2000 is an
end to E-commerce I
Led to a sobering reassessment of the prospects of e-commerce and the methods of
achieving business success.
E-commerce II begins in 2001 and ends five year later -- the limit for making
technology and business projections
Reasons for the end of E-Commerce I
run-up in technology stocks due to enormous information technology capital
expenditure of firms rebuilding their internal business systems to withstand Y2K
telecommunications industry had built excess capacity in high-speed fiber optic
networks
1999 e-commerce Christmas season provided less sales growth that anticipated and
demonstrated e-commerce was not easy (eToys.com)
valuations of technology companies had risen so high supporters were questioning
whether earnings could justify the prices of the shares.
E-Commerce I and E-Commerce II Compared
Unit II
E-Commerce Business Model:
Model is an example of an object it represents the existing or new objects seeming relevant.
(representation of an object that relevant to an existing object)
A model is a three dimensional representation of a person or thing or of a proposal
structure, typically on a smaller scale than the original.
Business model: set of planed activities designed to result in a profit in a market place.
Ecommerce business models are the fundamental methods that show how an e-business
makes money in online.
Eight key elements:
1. Value Proposition: defines how a company’s product or service fulfills the needs of
customers.
- Why should the customer buy from you?
- Customizes and personalizes the business transactions
- Reduction of product search, price discovery costs.
- Facilitation of transactions by managing product delivery.
2. Revenue Model: describes how the company will earn revenue, generate profits, and
product a superior return on invested capital.
- How will the firm earn money from online?
- Major types are 1. Advertising revenue model 2. Subscription model, 3. Transaction
free revenue model, 4. Sales revenue model, 5. Affiliated revenue model
3. Market Opportunity: refers the company’s intended market place and overall potential
financial opportunities available to the firm in that market place.
- What market space do you intend to serve and what is its size?
- Market space: area of actual or potential commercial value in which company intends
to operate
- Realistic market opportunity: Defined by revenue potential in each of market niches in
which company hopes to complete.
4. Competitive Environment: refers about same market space selling similar product
- Who else occupies your intended market space?
- (other companies selling similar products in the same market place)
- Influenced by
Number and size of active competitors
Each competitor’s market share
Competitor’s profitability
Competitor’s pricing
5. Competitive Advantage: refers to applying lower price, special advantages.
- What special advantages does your firm brings to the market space?
- Important concepts are
First mover advantages
Asymmetric
Unfair competitive advantage
Leverage
Perfect markets.
6. Market Strategy: is the plan you put together that details exactly how you intend to enter
a new market and attract new customers?
- It creates new market place by attracting customers
7. Organizational Development: it refers about how company will organize
- Structure of an organization and development in an organization.
8. Management Team: responsible for making the model work and decisions.
- Team work of an organization
Major business models
Business - to - Business (B2B) business model
B2B business model sells its product to an intermediate buyer who then sells the product to the
final customer. As an example, a wholesaler places an order from a company's website and after
receiving the consignment, sells the end product to final customer who comes to buy the product
at wholesaler's retail outlet.
The advantages of the B2B model are:
It can efficiently maintain the movement of the supply chain and the manufacturing and
procuring processes.
It can automate corporate processes to deliver the right products and services quickly and
cost-effectively.
The B2B model is predicted to become the largest value sector of the industry within a few years.
This is said to be the fastest growing sector of e-commerce.
Business - to – Consumer (B2C) business model
B2C business model sells its product directly to a customer. A customer can view products shown
on the website of business organization. The customer can choose a product and order the same.
Website will send a notification to the business organization via email and organization will
dispatch the product/goods to the customer.
Consumer - to - Consumer (C2C) business model
C2C business model helps consumer to sell their assets like residential property, cars, motorcycles
etc. or rent a room by publishing their information on the website. Website may or may not charge
the consumer for its services. Another consumer may opt to buy the product of the first customer
by viewing the post/advertisement on the website.
Consumer - to - Business (C2B) business model
In this model, a consumer approaches website showing multiple business organizations for a
particular service. Consumer places an estimate of amount he/she wants to spend for a particular
service. For example, comparison of interest rates of personal loan/ car loan provided by various
banks via website. Business organization who fulfills the consumer's requirement within specified
budget approaches the customer and provides its services.
How the Internet of Things Changes Business Models (Basic Business Concepts)
1. E commerce changes industry structure by changing
- basic of competition among rivals
- barriers to entry
- threat of new substitute product
- strength power of buyers
2. Industry value chains
- Set of activities performed by suppliers, manufactures, transporters, distributors, and
retailers that transform raw inputs into final products and services.
- Internet reduces cost of information and other transactional cost
- Leads to greater operational efficiencies lowering cost, price, adding value for
customers.
3. Firm value chains
- Activities that a firm engages in to crate final products from raw inputs
- Each step adds value
- Effect of internet
Increases operational efficiency
Enables product differentiation
Enables prices coordination of steps in chain
- Uses internet technology to coordinate the value of chains of business partners.
4. Business strategy
- Plan for achieving superior long term returns on the capital invested in a business firm.
- Four generic strategies
1. Differentiation
2. Cost
3. Scope
4. Focus
Internet
“it is a collection of interconnected networks” “ it is a Network of networks”
An interconnected network of thousands of networks and millions of computers linking business,
educational institutions, government agencies and individuals together.
Internet is a group of two or more networks that are:
• interconnected physically
• capable of communicating and sharing data with each other
• able to act together as a single network
• virtually all of today’s computers are connected via Internet
The Internet is a large group of computers that are connected to each other. The Internet is used
to send information quickly between computers around the world. It has millions of
smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks and websites, which together
carry many different kinds of information and services.
How the Internet Works
1. A user types in a web address in the URl field.
2. The browser sends the address to a router connected to the computer.
3. The router reads the address and sends a signal through a network.
4. The network directs the signal to a larger system that checks to see if the address truly exists
based on its domain name.
5. If the address exists, the system retrieves the files sequenced in the webpage.
6. The files and information are sent back through the entire system to your computer.
7. The computer puts the files onto your browser, and the browser refabricates the file to show
up on screen.
Internet Timeline
1969 ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) goes online in December, connecting
four major U.S. universities. Designed for research, education, and government
organizations, it provides a communications network linking the country in the event that
a military attack destroys conventional communications systems.
1972 Electronic mail is introduced by Ray Tomlinson, a Cambridge, Mass., computer
scientist. He uses the @ to distinguish between the sender's name and network name in the
email address.
1973 Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is designed and in 1983 it
becomes the standard for communicating between computers over the Internet. One of
these protocols, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), allows users to log onto a remote computer,
list the files on that computer, and download files from that computer.
1976 Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter and running mate Walter Mondale use email to
plan campaign events.
Queen Elizabeth sends her first email. She's the first state leader to do so.
1982 The word “Internet” is used for the first time.
1984 Domain Name System (DNS) is established, with network addresses identified by
extensions such as .com, .org, and .edu.
Writer William Gibson coins the term “cyberspace.”
1985 Quantum Computer Services, which later changes its name to America Online,
debuts. It offers email, electronic bulletin boards, news, and other information.
1988 A virus called the Internet Worm temporarily shuts down about 10% of the world's
Internet servers.
1989 The World (world.std.com) debuts as the first provider of dial-up Internet access for
consumers.
1990 The first effort to index the Internet is created by Peter Deutsch at McGill University
in Montreal, who devises Archie, an archive of FTP sites.
1991 Gopher, which provides point-and-click navigation, is created at the University of
Minnesota and named after the school mascot. Gopher becomes the most popular interface
for several years.
Another indexing system, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server), is developed by
Brewster Kahle of Thinking Machines Corp.
1993 Mosaic is developed by Marc Andreeson at the National Center for Supercomputing
Applications (NCSA). It becomes the dominant navigating system for the World Wide
Web, which at this time accounts for merely 1% of all Internet traffic.
1994 The White House launches its website, www.whitehouse.gov.
Initial commerce sites are established and mass marketing campaigns are launched via
email, introducing the term “spamming” to the Internet vocabulary.
Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark start Netscape Communications. They introduce the
Navigator browser.
1995 CompuServe, America Online, and Prodigy start providing dial-up Internet access.
Sun Microsystems releases the Internet programming language called Java.
The Vatican launches its own website, www.vatican.va.
1996 Approximately 45 million people are using the Internet, with roughly 30 million of
those in North America (United States and Canada), 9 million in Europe, and 6 million in
Asia/Pacific (Australia, Japan, etc.). 43.2 million (44%) U.S. households own a personal
computer, and 14 million of them are online.
1997 On July 8, 1997, Internet traffic records are broken as the NASA website broadcasts
images taken by Pathfinder on Mars. The broadcast generates 46 million hits in one day.
The term “weblog” is coined. It’s later shortened to “blog.”
1998 Google opens its first office, in California.
1999 College student Shawn Fanning invents Napster, a computer application that allows
users to swap music over the Internet.
2000 To the chagrin of the Internet population, deviant computer programmers begin
designing and circulating viruses with greater frequency. America Online buys Time
Warner for $16 billion. It’s the biggest merger of all time.
2001 Napster is dealt a potentially fatal blow when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
in San Francisco rules that the company is violating copyright laws and orders it to stop
distributing copyrighted music. The file-swapping company says it is developing a
subscription-based service.
Wikipedia is created.
2002 As of January, 58.5% of the U.S. population (164.14 million people) uses the Internet.
Worldwide there are 544.2 million users.
2003 It's estimated that Internet users illegally download about 2.6 billion music files each
month.
Apple Computer introduces Apple iTunes Music Store, which allows people to download
songs for 99 cents each.
2004 Internet Worm, called MyDoom or Novarg, spreads through Internet servers. About
1 in 12 email messages are infected.
Online spending reaches a record high—$117 billion in 2004, a 26% increase over 2003.
2005 YouTube.com is launched.
2006 There are more than 92 million websites online.
2007 Legal online music downloads triple to 6.7 million downloads per week.
Colorado Rockies' computer system crashes when it receives 8.5 million hits within the
first 90 minutes of World Series ticket sales.
The online game, World of Warcraft, hits a milestone when it surpasses 9 million
subscribers worldwide in July.
2008 In a move to challenge Google's dominance of search and advertising on the Internet,
software giant Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion.
2012 A major protest online in January shakes up Congressional support for anti-Web
piracy measures. The protest, including a 24-hour shutdown of the English-language
Wikipedia site, is over two bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect
IP Act in the Senate. The main goal of both bills is to stop illegal downloading and
streaming of TV shows and movies online. The tech industry is concerned that the bills
will give media companies too much power to shut down websites.
2014 A coding error discovered in April in OpenSSL, encryption software that makes
transactions between a computer and a remote secure, makes users vulnerable to having
their usernames, passwords, and personal information stolen. Millions of banks, Internet
commerce companies, email services, government sites, and social media sites rely on
OpenSSL to conduct secure transactions. The coding error was made in 2012. Computer
security experts encourage computer users to change their passwords.
There are three main way to connect to the internet
1. Dial-Up : using telecommunication technologies such as telephone receiver and cables.
2. High speed/ DSL : using integrated technologies such as ISDN Modem and fiber optic
cables.
3. Wireless connection: using WiFi technologies such as wifi router and switches and
modem.
Uses of Internet
1. Email Communication
2. Research
3. Education
4. Entertainment
5. Financial Transaction
6. Real Time Updates
7. Online booking
8. Job search
9. Blogging
10. Shopping
11. Social networks
Advantages of the Internet
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Faster Communication
Abundant Information Resources
Inexhaustible Education
Entertainment for Everyone
Social Networking and Staying Connected
Online Services and E-commerce
E-mail: E-mail is an online correspondence system. With e-mail you can send and receive
instant electronic messages, which works like writing letters. Your messages are delivered
instantly to people anywhere in the world, unlike traditional mail that takes a lot of time.
Access Information: The Internet is a virtual treasure trove of information. Any kind of
information on any topic under the sun is available on the Internet. The ‘search engines’
on the Internet can help you to find data on any subject that you need.
Shopping: Along with getting information on the Internet, you can also shop online. There
are many online stores and sites that can be used to look for products as well as buy them
using your credit card. You do not need to leave your house and can do all your shopping
from the convenience of your home.
Online Chat: There are many ‘chat rooms’ on the web that can be accessed to meet new
people, make new friends, as well as to stay in touch with old friends.
Downloading Software: This is one of the most happening and fun things to do via the
Internet. You can download innumerable, games, music, videos, movies, and a host of other
entertainment software from the Internet, most of which are free.
Disadvantages of the Internet
Personal Information: If you use the Internet, your personal information such as your
name, address, etc. can be accessed by other people. If you use a credit card to shop online,
then your credit card information can also be ‘stolen’ which could be akin to giving
someone a blank check.
Pornography: This is a very serious issue concerning the Internet, especially when it
comes to young children. There are thousands of pornographic sites on the Internet that can
be easily found and can be a detriment to letting children use the Internet.
Spamming: This refers to sending unsolicited e-mails in bulk, which serve no purpose and
unnecessarily clog up the entire system.
Internet: The technology background
INTERNET
TECHNOLOGY
1. PACKET
SWITCHING
2. TCP/IP
3. DNS / URL
4. CLIENT
SERVER
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
HTTP
SMTP,POP,IMAP: Sending Mail
FTP : Transferring File
SSL : for security (Secure Socket Layer)
Telnet: Running remote connectivity
Finger : command for finding people on
internet
7. Ping : command for testing address
8. Tracert: for checking routes
TCP/IP
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the basic communication language or
protocol of the Internet. It can also be used as a communications protocol in a private network
(either an intranet or an extranet). When you are set up with direct access to the Internet, your
computer is provided with a copy of the TCP/IP program just as every other computer that you
may send messages to or get information from also has a copy of TCP/IP.
DNS / URL
DNS (Domain Name System) translates URLs (Uniform Resource Locator) into IP(Internet
Protocol) addresses (and vice versa). For example, if you type http://www.microsoft.com into the
address bar in your web browser, your computer sends a request to a DNS server. The DNS
server translates the URL into an IP address so that your computer can find the Microsoft
web server.
Client Server computing
client/server computing is a software engineering technique often used within distributed
computing that allows two independent processes to exchange information, through a dedicated
connection, following an established protocol.
Client/server computing generally refers to a computing model where two or more computers
interact in such a way that one provides services to the other. This model allows customers to
access information resources and services located anywhere within the customers information
network. Customers are very interested in client/server computing because it allows them to be
more responsive, as well as to effectively utilize all computing resources within their network.
Client/server computing has two basic components, a client and a server. The client requests a
service to be performed. This service might be to run an application, query a data base, print a
document, or even perform a backup or recovery procedure. The server is the resource that handles
the client's request. Clients are typically thought of as personal computers but a client can be a
midrange system or even a mainframe. Servers are typically thought of as a midrange or mainframe
system, however a server can be another personal computer on the network. Client/server networks
are like our restaurant example where specific computers provide one or more services to other
computers within a network. Today's networks have computers for file serving, data base serving,
application serving, and communications serving. Each of these servers are dedicated devices
which provide a specific service to all authorized users within a network. These servers also allow
some of the processing to be handled on each user’s PC and some on a centralized server.
HTTP
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative,
hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World
Wide Web. Hypertext is structured text that uses logical links (hyperlinks) between nodes
containing text.
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the set of rules for transferring files (text, graphic images,
sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the World Wide Web. As soon as a Web user opens
their Web browser, the user is indirectly making use of HTTP. HTTP is an application protocol that
runs on top of the TCP/IP suite of protocols (the foundation protocols for the Internet).
Major facts on HTTP.
The term HTTP was coined by Ted Nelson.
HTTP commonly utilizes port 80, 8008, or 8080.
HTTP/0.9 was the first version of the HTTP and was introduced in 1991.
HTTP/1.0 is specified in RFC 1945 and introduced in 1996.
HTTP/1.1 is specified in RFC 2616 and officially released in January 1997.
HTTPS
Short for Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure, HTTPS is a secure method of accessing or
sending information across a web page. All data sent over HTTPS is encrypted before it is sent,
this prevents anyone from understanding that information if intercepted. Because data is encrypted
over HTTPS, it is slower than HTTP, which is why HTTPS is only used when requiring login
information or with pages that contain sensitive information such as an online bank web page.
HTTPS uses port 443 to transfer its information.
HTTPS is first used in HTTP/1.1 and is defined in RFC 2616.
Sending Mail
SMTP, POP3 and IMAP are TCP/IP protocols used for mail delivery. If you plan to set up an email
server such as hMailServer, you must know what they are used for. Each protocol is just a specific
set of communication rules between computers.
SMTP
SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. SMTP is used when email is delivered from an
email client, such as Outlook Express, to an email server or when email is delivered from one
email server to another. SMTP uses port 25.
POP3
POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol. POP3 allows an email client to download an email from an
email server. The POP3 protocol is simple and does not offer many features except for download.
Its design assumes that the email client downloads all available email from the server, deletes them
from the server and then disconnects. POP3 normally uses port 110.
IMAP
IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. IMAP shares many similar features with
POP3. It, too, is a protocol that an email client can use to download email from an email server.
However, IMAP includes many more features than POP3. The IMAP protocol is designed to let
users keep their email on the server. IMAP requires more disk space on the server and more CPU
resources than POP3, as all emails are stored on the server. IMAP normally uses port 143.
Examples
Suppose you use hMailServer as your email server to send an email to [email protected].
1. You click Send in your email client, say, Outlook Express.
2. Outlook Express delivers the email to hMailServer using the SMTP protocol.
3. hMailServer delivers the email to Microsoft's mail server, mail.microsoft.com, using
SMTP.
4. Bill's Mozilla Mail client downloads the email from mail.microsoft.com to his laptop using
the POP3 protocol (or IMAP).
FTP
The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard network protocol used to transfer computer files
from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a
client-server architecture and uses separate control and data connections between the client and
the server.
File Transfer Protocol, is a protocol through which internet users can upload files from their
computers to a website or download files from a website to their PCs. FTP is the easiest way to
transfer files between computers via the internet, and utilizes TCP, transmission control protocol,
and IP, internet protocol, systems to perform uploading and downloading tasks.
SSL
The Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) is the most widely deployed
security protocol used today. It is essentially a protocol that provides a secure channel between
two machines operating over the Internet or an internal network. In today’s Internet focused world,
the SSL protocol is typically used when a web browser needs to securely connect to a web server
over the inherently insecure Internet.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link
between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server
and browsers remain private and integral.
WWW
Affectionately called “The Web”
It is a collection of information stored on the networked computers over the world.
A way to provide and access information resources on the Internet
The WWW was proposed in 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN.
The Web is a collection of documents that are interconnected by hyper-links.
–
These documents are accessed by web browsers and provided by web servers.
The WWW works by establishing hypertext/hypermedia links between documents
anywhere on the network.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF WWW
Advantages
– Availability of mainly free information
– Low cost of initial connection
– Reduces the costs of divulgation
– The same protocol of communication can be used for all the services
– Facilitates rapid interactive communication
– Facilitates the exchange of huge volumes of data
– Facilitates the establishment of professional contact
– No barriers to divulgation
– Facilitates access to different sources of information, which is continuously up-dated
– Facilitates management of companies information system
– lt is accessible from anywhere
– It has become the global media
Disadvantages
– Danger of overload and excess information
– It requires an efficient information search strategy
– The search can be slow
– It is difficult to filter and prioritize information
– No guarantee of finding what one is looking for
– There is a lot of apparently unconnected information
– Net becomes overloaded because of large number of users
– No regulation
– No quality control over available data
– The ease with which information can be constantly up-dated can cause problems of
referencing.
Today’s Web has the following technology:
HTML: HyperText Markup Language. The publishing format for the Web, including the
ability to format documents and link to other documents and resources.
URI: Uniform Resource Identifier. A kind of “address” that is unique to each resource on
the Web.
HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Allows for the retrieval of linked resources from
across the Web.
WEB CLIENT/SERVER: Web server software (e.g. Apache, IIS, NGINX, Lighttpd)
usually is used to deliver content and most of times it runs on servers located in data
centers. Web client is an application (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari,
Opera) running on a local device (desktop, notebook, cell phone) used to interact mainly
with Web servers even though you can use your Web client to access servers running
protocols others than HTTP and HTTPS.
Core – E Commerce
UNIT I : Introduction
The Word “E” is fifth letter of the English alphabet, second letter of a vowel. It is a particularly
strong letter. It represents the name and senses in general.
In mathematical science: “e” “∑” is the second most important irrational number in mathematics,
after π. The ∑ that represents the name and symbol of (SUM or Summation) value in mathematics.
It calculates the specific values in the given series. The symbol uses in the different formula to
calculate the value. The “e” that represents the value of 2.1876 in mathematic formula.
In network: E means the Edge network which is very slow compared to wifi. Edge is one of 2
networks used by AT&T. This network is what allows you to make phone calls and connect to the
internet. The other network is called 3G, this network is what the iPhone 3G uses (obviously), and
can be considerably faster than edge when surfing the web, depending on your location.
In computing: The Word “E” means Electronic. Electronics is the study of circuits involving low
voltage electronic devices.
Definition of electronics: Electronics is the branch of science that deals with the study of flow and
control of electrons (electricity) and the study of their behavior and effects in vacuums, gases, and
semiconductors, and with devices using such electrons. This control of electrons is accomplished
by devices that resist, carry, select, steer, switch, store, manipulate, and exploit the electron.
Commerce is a branch of business. It is concerned with the exchange of goods and services. It
includes all those activities, which directly or indirectly facilitate that exchange. Commerce looks
after the distribution aspect of the business. Whatever is produced it must be consumed, to facilitate
this consumption there must be a proper distribution channel. Here comes the need for commerce
which is concerned with the smooth buying and selling of goods and services.
Definition
According to the dictionary: E-Commerce means
“Commerce that is transacted electronically, as over the Internet. “
“The use of the internet and web to carry out business transactions digitally.”
The buying and selling of products and services by businesses and consumers through an
electronic medium, without using any paper documents. E-commerce is widely considered the
buying and selling of products over the internet, but any transaction that is completed solely
through electronic measures can be considered e-commerce.
According to James Stephenson,
"Commerce is an organized system for the exchange of goods between the members of the
industrial world."
E-commerce (electronic commerce or EC) is the buying and selling of goods and services, or the
transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the Internet. These business
transactions occur either business-to-business, business-to-consumer, consumer-to-consumer or
consumer-to-business. The terms e-commerce and e-business are often used interchangeably. The
term e-tail is also sometimes used in reference to transactional processes around online retail.
Here are a few examples of e-commerce:
Online Shopping
Electronic Payments
Generating online advertising revenue
Trading stock in an online brokerage account
Driving information through a company via its intranet
Driving manufacturing and distribution through a value chain with partners on an
extranet.
Benefits of Ecommerce
The primary benefits of ecommerce revolve around the fact that it eliminates limitations of time
and geographical distance. In the process, ecommerce usually streamlines operations and lowers
costs.
E-Commerce Advantages to Organizations
Using E-Commerce, organization can expand their market to national and international
markets with minimum capital investment. An organization can easily locate more
customers, best suppliers and suitable business partners across the globe.
E-Commerce helps organization to reduce the cost to create process, distribute, retrieve
and manage the paper based information by digitizing the information.
E-commerce improves the brand image of the company.
E-commerce helps organization to provide better customer services.
E-Commerce helps to simplify the business processes and make them faster and efficient.
E-Commerce reduces paper work a lot.
E-Commerce increased the productivity of the organization. It supports "pull" type supply
management. In "pull" type supply management, a business process starts when a request
comes from a customer and it uses just-in-time manufacturing way.
E-Commerce Advantages to Customers
24x7 support. Customer can do transactions for the product or enquiry about any
product/services provided by a company anytime, anywhere from any location. Here
24x7 refers to 24 hours of each seven days of a week.
E-Commerce application provides user more options and quicker delivery of products.
E-Commerce application provides user more options to compare and select the cheaper and
better option.
A customer can put review comments about a product and can see what others are buying
or see the review comments of other customers before making a final buy.
E-Commerce provides option of virtual auctions.
Readily available information. A customer can see the relevant detailed information within
seconds rather than waiting for days or weeks.
E-Commerce increases competition among the organizations and as result organizations
provides substantial discounts to customers.
E-Commerce Advantages to Society
Customers need not to travel to shop a product thus less traffic on road and low air
pollution.
E-Commerce helps reducing cost of products so less affluent people can also afford the
products.
E-Commerce has enabled access to services and products to rural areas as well which are
otherwise not available to them.
E-Commerce helps government to deliver public services like health care, education, social
services at reduced cost and in improved way.
Technical Disadvantages of E-Commerce
There can be lack of system security, reliability or standards owing to poor implementation
of e-Commerce.
Software development industry is still evolving and keeps changing rapidly.
In many countries, network bandwidth might cause an issue as there is insufficient
telecommunication bandwidth available.
Special types of web server or other software might be required by the vendor setting the
e-commerce environment apart from network servers.
Sometimes, it becomes difficult to integrate E-Commerce software or website with the
existing application or databases.
There could be software/hardware compatibility issue as some E-Commerce software may
be incompatible with some operating system or any other component.
Non-Technical Disadvantages of E-Commerce
Initial cost: The cost of creating / building E-Commerce application in-house may be very
high. There could be delay in launching the E-Commerce application due to mistakes, lack
of experience.
User resistance: User may not trust the site being unknown faceless seller. Such mistrust
makes it difficult to make user switch from physical stores to online/virtual stores.
Security/ Privacy: Difficult to ensure security or privacy on online transactions.
Lack of touch or feel of products during online shopping.
E-Commerce applications are still evolving and changing rapidly.
Difference between e commerce and e business
In both cases , E stands for “Electronic networks “ and describes the applications of Electronic
network technology – including internet and electronic data interchange (EDI) – to improve and
change business process . E-commerce primarily involves transactions that cross firm boundaries.
E-Business primarily involves the application of digital technologies to business processes within
firm.
E-commerce covers outward – facing processes that touch customers, suppliers and external
partners, including sales, marketing, order taking, delivery, customer service, purchasing of raw
materials. E-commerce only covers business transactions such as buying and selling of and
services over the internet. E-commerce essentially involves monetary trade while in e-business,
money transactions are not necessary.
E-business includes E-commerce but also covers internal process such as production, inventory
management, products development, finance, human resources, E-business strategy is more
complex, productivity and cost savings. Ex:-E-bay, Amazon. E-business is the integration of a
company's activities including products, procedures, and services with the Internet.
E-business, or electronic business, derived from 'e-commerce' is conducting business on the
Internet, but not just buying and selling but also servicing customers and collaborating with
business partners. The term conveys that the business conducts its business entirely online. So ebusiness is a super-set of e-commerce it is about utilizing the net for all aspects of the business.
The unique features of e-commerce technology include:
Ubiquity: It is available just about everywhere and at all times. Consumer can connect it to
the Internet at any time, including at their homes, their offices, on their video game
systems with an Internet connection and mobile phone devices. eCommerce is ubiquitous
technology which is available everywhere and can access all times by using internet and WiFi hotspot such as airport, coffee cafe and hill station places.
Global reach: The potential market size is roughly equal to the size of the online population
of the world. eCommerce Technology seamlessly stretch across traditional cultural and
national boundaries and enable worldwide access to the client. eCommerce website have
ability to translate the multilingual websites as well as allow the access to internatoin visitors
all over the world.
Universal standards: The technical standards of the Internet and therefore of conducting
ecommerce, are shared by all of the nations in the world. The whole online tradition are
growing and expanding their own features in the world. To development the any kind of
business need Internet and communication application which make the business relationship
more lovingly and attractive for secure business and successful business. eCommerce
Technology provide us powerful application to access our social networking and online
eCommerce store any time and everywhere.
Richness: Information that is complex and content-rich can be delivered without sacrificing
reach. It has been so simple to keep the record of our tradition commination within
the eCommerce time. You can save your audio, video, sent files, received files or data in your
user account.
Interactivity: E-commerce technologies allow two-way communication between the
merchant and the consumer. You can call them by using the voip and track the
communication record. And second is email communication which allow you to access all
kind of mailing systems and tracking.
Information density: The total amount and quality of information available to all market
participants is vastly increased and is cheaper to deliver. Most business owners use the
shopping cart and do the order of product and purchasing online. Online shopping process
allows a consumer or company to receive personal details, product shipping, billing and
payment information from a customer all at once and sends the customer's information to
the appropriate departments in a matter of second’s priority.
Personalization/Customization: E-commerce technologies enable merchants to target
their marketing messages to a person’s name, interests and past purchases. They allow a
merchant to change the product or service to suit the purchasing behavior and preferences of
a consumer.
Social technology: User content generation and social networking technologies is most
useful features which excelerat the client activity to share the information and content with
one click. eCommerce technology has tie up the social media networking application to
provide the best source of content sharing technology and eMarketing systems. You can share
you content or data easily in just one click.
Types of E-Commerce
Business to Consumer (B2C): a platform where businesses sells to consumers like amazon,
flipkart, justdial. Elimination of the need for physical stores is the biggest rationale for business
to consumer ecommerce. But the complexity and cost of logistics can be a barrier to B2C
ecommerce growth.
Business to Business (B2B): As the name, Businesses selling goods/services to other businesses.
You can say manufacturers to wholesalers or from one business entity to another. Ex: paypal,
Google selling business tools like docs, adwords to businesses, or steel manufactures selling to
wholesale dealers etc.
Consumer to consumer (C2C): a platform where consumer post the things they want to sell and
other consumer can directly buy from them. Ex: Sulekha, ebay etc.
Consumer to Business (C2B): example of this can be again justdial where consumer can post
their requirement and businesses can contact them. Say consumer planning for a trip and tour
operators making offers or naukri.com. Another example would be a consumer posting his
requirements of a holiday package, and various tour operators making offers.
Peer to Peer (P2P): People can directly share computer files and computer resources without
having to go through a central web server. To use this, both sides need to install the required
software so that they can communicate on the common platform. ex: uTorrent, Zshare etc.
M-Commerce: It deals with conducting the transactions with the help of mobile. The mobile
device consumers can interact each other and can lead the business. Mobile Commerce involves
the change of ownership or rights to utilize goods and related services.
E-Commerce I (1995-2000)
Explosive growth starting in 1995
Widespread of Web to advertise products
Ended in 2000 when dot.com began to collapse
E-Commerce II (2001-2006)
Began in January 2001
Reassessment of e-commerce companies
Crash in stock market values of E-commerce I companies throughout 2000 is an
end to E-commerce I
Led to a sobering reassessment of the prospects of e-commerce and the methods of
achieving business success.
E-commerce II begins in 2001 and ends five year later -- the limit for making
technology and business projections
Reasons for the end of E-Commerce I
run-up in technology stocks due to enormous information technology capital
expenditure of firms rebuilding their internal business systems to withstand Y2K
telecommunications industry had built excess capacity in high-speed fiber optic
networks
1999 e-commerce Christmas season provided less sales growth that anticipated and
demonstrated e-commerce was not easy (eToys.com)
valuations of technology companies had risen so high supporters were questioning
whether earnings could justify the prices of the shares.
E-Commerce I and E-Commerce II Compared
Unit II
E-Commerce Business Model:
Model is an example of an object it represents the existing or new objects seeming relevant.
(representation of an object that relevant to an existing object)
A model is a three dimensional representation of a person or thing or of a proposal
structure, typically on a smaller scale than the original.
Business model: set of planed activities designed to result in a profit in a market place.
Ecommerce business models are the fundamental methods that show how an e-business
makes money in online.
Eight key elements:
1. Value Proposition: defines how a company’s product or service fulfills the needs of
customers.
- Why should the customer buy from you?
- Customizes and personalizes the business transactions
- Reduction of product search, price discovery costs.
- Facilitation of transactions by managing product delivery.
2. Revenue Model: describes how the company will earn revenue, generate profits, and
product a superior return on invested capital.
- How will the firm earn money from online?
- Major types are 1. Advertising revenue model 2. Subscription model, 3. Transaction
free revenue model, 4. Sales revenue model, 5. Affiliated revenue model
3. Market Opportunity: refers the company’s intended market place and overall potential
financial opportunities available to the firm in that market place.
- What market space do you intend to serve and what is its size?
- Market space: area of actual or potential commercial value in which company intends
to operate
- Realistic market opportunity: Defined by revenue potential in each of market niches in
which company hopes to complete.
4. Competitive Environment: refers about same market space selling similar product
- Who else occupies your intended market space?
- (other companies selling similar products in the same market place)
- Influenced by
Number and size of active competitors
Each competitor’s market share
Competitor’s profitability
Competitor’s pricing
5. Competitive Advantage: refers to applying lower price, special advantages.
- What special advantages does your firm brings to the market space?
- Important concepts are
First mover advantages
Asymmetric
Unfair competitive advantage
Leverage
Perfect markets.
6. Market Strategy: is the plan you put together that details exactly how you intend to enter
a new market and attract new customers?
- It creates new market place by attracting customers
7. Organizational Development: it refers about how company will organize
- Structure of an organization and development in an organization.
8. Management Team: responsible for making the model work and decisions.
- Team work of an organization
Major business models
Business - to - Business (B2B) business model
B2B business model sells its product to an intermediate buyer who then sells the product to the
final customer. As an example, a wholesaler places an order from a company's website and after
receiving the consignment, sells the end product to final customer who comes to buy the product
at wholesaler's retail outlet.
The advantages of the B2B model are:
It can efficiently maintain the movement of the supply chain and the manufacturing and
procuring processes.
It can automate corporate processes to deliver the right products and services quickly and
cost-effectively.
The B2B model is predicted to become the largest value sector of the industry within a few years.
This is said to be the fastest growing sector of e-commerce.
Business - to – Consumer (B2C) business model
B2C business model sells its product directly to a customer. A customer can view products shown
on the website of business organization. The customer can choose a product and order the same.
Website will send a notification to the business organization via email and organization will
dispatch the product/goods to the customer.
Consumer - to - Consumer (C2C) business model
C2C business model helps consumer to sell their assets like residential property, cars, motorcycles
etc. or rent a room by publishing their information on the website. Website may or may not charge
the consumer for its services. Another consumer may opt to buy the product of the first customer
by viewing the post/advertisement on the website.
Consumer - to - Business (C2B) business model
In this model, a consumer approaches website showing multiple business organizations for a
particular service. Consumer places an estimate of amount he/she wants to spend for a particular
service. For example, comparison of interest rates of personal loan/ car loan provided by various
banks via website. Business organization who fulfills the consumer's requirement within specified
budget approaches the customer and provides its services.
How the Internet of Things Changes Business Models (Basic Business Concepts)
1. E commerce changes industry structure by changing
- basic of competition among rivals
- barriers to entry
- threat of new substitute product
- strength power of buyers
2. Industry value chains
- Set of activities performed by suppliers, manufactures, transporters, distributors, and
retailers that transform raw inputs into final products and services.
- Internet reduces cost of information and other transactional cost
- Leads to greater operational efficiencies lowering cost, price, adding value for
customers.
3. Firm value chains
- Activities that a firm engages in to crate final products from raw inputs
- Each step adds value
- Effect of internet
Increases operational efficiency
Enables product differentiation
Enables prices coordination of steps in chain
- Uses internet technology to coordinate the value of chains of business partners.
4. Business strategy
- Plan for achieving superior long term returns on the capital invested in a business firm.
- Four generic strategies
1. Differentiation
2. Cost
3. Scope
4. Focus
Internet
“it is a collection of interconnected networks” “ it is a Network of networks”
An interconnected network of thousands of networks and millions of computers linking business,
educational institutions, government agencies and individuals together.
Internet is a group of two or more networks that are:
• interconnected physically
• capable of communicating and sharing data with each other
• able to act together as a single network
• virtually all of today’s computers are connected via Internet
The Internet is a large group of computers that are connected to each other. The Internet is used
to send information quickly between computers around the world. It has millions of
smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks and websites, which together
carry many different kinds of information and services.
How the Internet Works
1. A user types in a web address in the URl field.
2. The browser sends the address to a router connected to the computer.
3. The router reads the address and sends a signal through a network.
4. The network directs the signal to a larger system that checks to see if the address truly exists
based on its domain name.
5. If the address exists, the system retrieves the files sequenced in the webpage.
6. The files and information are sent back through the entire system to your computer.
7. The computer puts the files onto your browser, and the browser refabricates the file to show
up on screen.
Internet Timeline
1969 ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) goes online in December, connecting
four major U.S. universities. Designed for research, education, and government
organizations, it provides a communications network linking the country in the event that
a military attack destroys conventional communications systems.
1972 Electronic mail is introduced by Ray Tomlinson, a Cambridge, Mass., computer
scientist. He uses the @ to distinguish between the sender's name and network name in the
email address.
1973 Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is designed and in 1983 it
becomes the standard for communicating between computers over the Internet. One of
these protocols, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), allows users to log onto a remote computer,
list the files on that computer, and download files from that computer.
1976 Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter and running mate Walter Mondale use email to
plan campaign events.
Queen Elizabeth sends her first email. She's the first state leader to do so.
1982 The word “Internet” is used for the first time.
1984 Domain Name System (DNS) is established, with network addresses identified by
extensions such as .com, .org, and .edu.
Writer William Gibson coins the term “cyberspace.”
1985 Quantum Computer Services, which later changes its name to America Online,
debuts. It offers email, electronic bulletin boards, news, and other information.
1988 A virus called the Internet Worm temporarily shuts down about 10% of the world's
Internet servers.
1989 The World (world.std.com) debuts as the first provider of dial-up Internet access for
consumers.
1990 The first effort to index the Internet is created by Peter Deutsch at McGill University
in Montreal, who devises Archie, an archive of FTP sites.
1991 Gopher, which provides point-and-click navigation, is created at the University of
Minnesota and named after the school mascot. Gopher becomes the most popular interface
for several years.
Another indexing system, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server), is developed by
Brewster Kahle of Thinking Machines Corp.
1993 Mosaic is developed by Marc Andreeson at the National Center for Supercomputing
Applications (NCSA). It becomes the dominant navigating system for the World Wide
Web, which at this time accounts for merely 1% of all Internet traffic.
1994 The White House launches its website, www.whitehouse.gov.
Initial commerce sites are established and mass marketing campaigns are launched via
email, introducing the term “spamming” to the Internet vocabulary.
Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark start Netscape Communications. They introduce the
Navigator browser.
1995 CompuServe, America Online, and Prodigy start providing dial-up Internet access.
Sun Microsystems releases the Internet programming language called Java.
The Vatican launches its own website, www.vatican.va.
1996 Approximately 45 million people are using the Internet, with roughly 30 million of
those in North America (United States and Canada), 9 million in Europe, and 6 million in
Asia/Pacific (Australia, Japan, etc.). 43.2 million (44%) U.S. households own a personal
computer, and 14 million of them are online.
1997 On July 8, 1997, Internet traffic records are broken as the NASA website broadcasts
images taken by Pathfinder on Mars. The broadcast generates 46 million hits in one day.
The term “weblog” is coined. It’s later shortened to “blog.”
1998 Google opens its first office, in California.
1999 College student Shawn Fanning invents Napster, a computer application that allows
users to swap music over the Internet.
2000 To the chagrin of the Internet population, deviant computer programmers begin
designing and circulating viruses with greater frequency. America Online buys Time
Warner for $16 billion. It’s the biggest merger of all time.
2001 Napster is dealt a potentially fatal blow when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
in San Francisco rules that the company is violating copyright laws and orders it to stop
distributing copyrighted music. The file-swapping company says it is developing a
subscription-based service.
Wikipedia is created.
2002 As of January, 58.5% of the U.S. population (164.14 million people) uses the Internet.
Worldwide there are 544.2 million users.
2003 It's estimated that Internet users illegally download about 2.6 billion music files each
month.
Apple Computer introduces Apple iTunes Music Store, which allows people to download
songs for 99 cents each.
2004 Internet Worm, called MyDoom or Novarg, spreads through Internet servers. About
1 in 12 email messages are infected.
Online spending reaches a record high—$117 billion in 2004, a 26% increase over 2003.
2005 YouTube.com is launched.
2006 There are more than 92 million websites online.
2007 Legal online music downloads triple to 6.7 million downloads per week.
Colorado Rockies' computer system crashes when it receives 8.5 million hits within the
first 90 minutes of World Series ticket sales.
The online game, World of Warcraft, hits a milestone when it surpasses 9 million
subscribers worldwide in July.
2008 In a move to challenge Google's dominance of search and advertising on the Internet,
software giant Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion.
2012 A major protest online in January shakes up Congressional support for anti-Web
piracy measures. The protest, including a 24-hour shutdown of the English-language
Wikipedia site, is over two bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect
IP Act in the Senate. The main goal of both bills is to stop illegal downloading and
streaming of TV shows and movies online. The tech industry is concerned that the bills
will give media companies too much power to shut down websites.
2014 A coding error discovered in April in OpenSSL, encryption software that makes
transactions between a computer and a remote secure, makes users vulnerable to having
their usernames, passwords, and personal information stolen. Millions of banks, Internet
commerce companies, email services, government sites, and social media sites rely on
OpenSSL to conduct secure transactions. The coding error was made in 2012. Computer
security experts encourage computer users to change their passwords.
There are three main way to connect to the internet
1. Dial-Up : using telecommunication technologies such as telephone receiver and cables.
2. High speed/ DSL : using integrated technologies such as ISDN Modem and fiber optic
cables.
3. Wireless connection: using WiFi technologies such as wifi router and switches and
modem.
Uses of Internet
1. Email Communication
2. Research
3. Education
4. Entertainment
5. Financial Transaction
6. Real Time Updates
7. Online booking
8. Job search
9. Blogging
10. Shopping
11. Social networks
Advantages of the Internet
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Faster Communication
Abundant Information Resources
Inexhaustible Education
Entertainment for Everyone
Social Networking and Staying Connected
Online Services and E-commerce
E-mail: E-mail is an online correspondence system. With e-mail you can send and receive
instant electronic messages, which works like writing letters. Your messages are delivered
instantly to people anywhere in the world, unlike traditional mail that takes a lot of time.
Access Information: The Internet is a virtual treasure trove of information. Any kind of
information on any topic under the sun is available on the Internet. The ‘search engines’
on the Internet can help you to find data on any subject that you need.
Shopping: Along with getting information on the Internet, you can also shop online. There
are many online stores and sites that can be used to look for products as well as buy them
using your credit card. You do not need to leave your house and can do all your shopping
from the convenience of your home.
Online Chat: There are many ‘chat rooms’ on the web that can be accessed to meet new
people, make new friends, as well as to stay in touch with old friends.
Downloading Software: This is one of the most happening and fun things to do via the
Internet. You can download innumerable, games, music, videos, movies, and a host of other
entertainment software from the Internet, most of which are free.
Disadvantages of the Internet
Personal Information: If you use the Internet, your personal information such as your
name, address, etc. can be accessed by other people. If you use a credit card to shop online,
then your credit card information can also be ‘stolen’ which could be akin to giving
someone a blank check.
Pornography: This is a very serious issue concerning the Internet, especially when it
comes to young children. There are thousands of pornographic sites on the Internet that can
be easily found and can be a detriment to letting children use the Internet.
Spamming: This refers to sending unsolicited e-mails in bulk, which serve no purpose and
unnecessarily clog up the entire system.
Internet: The technology background
INTERNET
TECHNOLOGY
1. PACKET
SWITCHING
2. TCP/IP
3. DNS / URL
4. CLIENT
SERVER
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
HTTP
SMTP,POP,IMAP: Sending Mail
FTP : Transferring File
SSL : for security (Secure Socket Layer)
Telnet: Running remote connectivity
Finger : command for finding people on
internet
7. Ping : command for testing address
8. Tracert: for checking routes
TCP/IP
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the basic communication language or
protocol of the Internet. It can also be used as a communications protocol in a private network
(either an intranet or an extranet). When you are set up with direct access to the Internet, your
computer is provided with a copy of the TCP/IP program just as every other computer that you
may send messages to or get information from also has a copy of TCP/IP.
DNS / URL
DNS (Domain Name System) translates URLs (Uniform Resource Locator) into IP(Internet
Protocol) addresses (and vice versa). For example, if you type http://www.microsoft.com into the
address bar in your web browser, your computer sends a request to a DNS server. The DNS
server translates the URL into an IP address so that your computer can find the Microsoft
web server.
Client Server computing
client/server computing is a software engineering technique often used within distributed
computing that allows two independent processes to exchange information, through a dedicated
connection, following an established protocol.
Client/server computing generally refers to a computing model where two or more computers
interact in such a way that one provides services to the other. This model allows customers to
access information resources and services located anywhere within the customers information
network. Customers are very interested in client/server computing because it allows them to be
more responsive, as well as to effectively utilize all computing resources within their network.
Client/server computing has two basic components, a client and a server. The client requests a
service to be performed. This service might be to run an application, query a data base, print a
document, or even perform a backup or recovery procedure. The server is the resource that handles
the client's request. Clients are typically thought of as personal computers but a client can be a
midrange system or even a mainframe. Servers are typically thought of as a midrange or mainframe
system, however a server can be another personal computer on the network. Client/server networks
are like our restaurant example where specific computers provide one or more services to other
computers within a network. Today's networks have computers for file serving, data base serving,
application serving, and communications serving. Each of these servers are dedicated devices
which provide a specific service to all authorized users within a network. These servers also allow
some of the processing to be handled on each user’s PC and some on a centralized server.
HTTP
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative,
hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World
Wide Web. Hypertext is structured text that uses logical links (hyperlinks) between nodes
containing text.
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the set of rules for transferring files (text, graphic images,
sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the World Wide Web. As soon as a Web user opens
their Web browser, the user is indirectly making use of HTTP. HTTP is an application protocol that
runs on top of the TCP/IP suite of protocols (the foundation protocols for the Internet).
Major facts on HTTP.
The term HTTP was coined by Ted Nelson.
HTTP commonly utilizes port 80, 8008, or 8080.
HTTP/0.9 was the first version of the HTTP and was introduced in 1991.
HTTP/1.0 is specified in RFC 1945 and introduced in 1996.
HTTP/1.1 is specified in RFC 2616 and officially released in January 1997.
HTTPS
Short for Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure, HTTPS is a secure method of accessing or
sending information across a web page. All data sent over HTTPS is encrypted before it is sent,
this prevents anyone from understanding that information if intercepted. Because data is encrypted
over HTTPS, it is slower than HTTP, which is why HTTPS is only used when requiring login
information or with pages that contain sensitive information such as an online bank web page.
HTTPS uses port 443 to transfer its information.
HTTPS is first used in HTTP/1.1 and is defined in RFC 2616.
Sending Mail
SMTP, POP3 and IMAP are TCP/IP protocols used for mail delivery. If you plan to set up an email
server such as hMailServer, you must know what they are used for. Each protocol is just a specific
set of communication rules between computers.
SMTP
SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. SMTP is used when email is delivered from an
email client, such as Outlook Express, to an email server or when email is delivered from one
email server to another. SMTP uses port 25.
POP3
POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol. POP3 allows an email client to download an email from an
email server. The POP3 protocol is simple and does not offer many features except for download.
Its design assumes that the email client downloads all available email from the server, deletes them
from the server and then disconnects. POP3 normally uses port 110.
IMAP
IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. IMAP shares many similar features with
POP3. It, too, is a protocol that an email client can use to download email from an email server.
However, IMAP includes many more features than POP3. The IMAP protocol is designed to let
users keep their email on the server. IMAP requires more disk space on the server and more CPU
resources than POP3, as all emails are stored on the server. IMAP normally uses port 143.
Examples
Suppose you use hMailServer as your email server to send an email to [email protected].
1. You click Send in your email client, say, Outlook Express.
2. Outlook Express delivers the email to hMailServer using the SMTP protocol.
3. hMailServer delivers the email to Microsoft's mail server, mail.microsoft.com, using
SMTP.
4. Bill's Mozilla Mail client downloads the email from mail.microsoft.com to his laptop using
the POP3 protocol (or IMAP).
FTP
The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard network protocol used to transfer computer files
from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a
client-server architecture and uses separate control and data connections between the client and
the server.
File Transfer Protocol, is a protocol through which internet users can upload files from their
computers to a website or download files from a website to their PCs. FTP is the easiest way to
transfer files between computers via the internet, and utilizes TCP, transmission control protocol,
and IP, internet protocol, systems to perform uploading and downloading tasks.
SSL
The Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) is the most widely deployed
security protocol used today. It is essentially a protocol that provides a secure channel between
two machines operating over the Internet or an internal network. In today’s Internet focused world,
the SSL protocol is typically used when a web browser needs to securely connect to a web server
over the inherently insecure Internet.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link
between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server
and browsers remain private and integral.
WWW
Affectionately called “The Web”
It is a collection of information stored on the networked computers over the world.
A way to provide and access information resources on the Internet
The WWW was proposed in 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN.
The Web is a collection of documents that are interconnected by hyper-links.
–
These documents are accessed by web browsers and provided by web servers.
The WWW works by establishing hypertext/hypermedia links between documents
anywhere on the network.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF WWW
Advantages
– Availability of mainly free information
– Low cost of initial connection
– Reduces the costs of divulgation
– The same protocol of communication can be used for all the services
– Facilitates rapid interactive communication
– Facilitates the exchange of huge volumes of data
– Facilitates the establishment of professional contact
– No barriers to divulgation
– Facilitates access to different sources of information, which is continuously up-dated
– Facilitates management of companies information system
– lt is accessible from anywhere
– It has become the global media
Disadvantages
– Danger of overload and excess information
– It requires an efficient information search strategy
– The search can be slow
– It is difficult to filter and prioritize information
– No guarantee of finding what one is looking for
– There is a lot of apparently unconnected information
– Net becomes overloaded because of large number of users
– No regulation
– No quality control over available data
– The ease with which information can be constantly up-dated can cause problems of
referencing.
Today’s Web has the following technology:
HTML: HyperText Markup Language. The publishing format for the Web, including the
ability to format documents and link to other documents and resources.
URI: Uniform Resource Identifier. A kind of “address” that is unique to each resource on
the Web.
HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Allows for the retrieval of linked resources from
across the Web.
WEB CLIENT/SERVER: Web server software (e.g. Apache, IIS, NGINX, Lighttpd)
usually is used to deliver content and most of times it runs on servers located in data
centers. Web client is an application (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari,
Opera) running on a local device (desktop, notebook, cell phone) used to interact mainly
with Web servers even though you can use your Web client to access servers running
protocols others than HTTP and HTTPS.
