BETHUEL K.

OKELO 1
e-mail: bethuel.okello@maseno.ac.ke
Phone: 0700279478

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE by Bethuel K. Okelo

LESSON 2:

Network
▪ A set of computers connected to each other, mainly for sharing
information, data, programs and resources.

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Networking and internetworking
• Networking: connecting of a computer or device (station, host, end-system,
end-node) to another.
• Internetworking: Connecting of a network to another.

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• Protocols: a set of rules that controls how communications take place
• Local Area Network (LAN): in general connecting stations geographically
close to each other e.g. within a building.
• Wide Area Network (WAN): connecting multiple LANs.

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 INTRANETS AND EXTRANETS
▪ Intranets:
• An intranet is an internal organizational network that provides access to
data across a business firm.

▪ Extranets:
• Allow authorized vendors and customers to have limited access to its
internal intranet

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The physical topology of a network refers to the configuration of cables,
computers and other peripherals.
Physical topology should not be confused with logical topology which is
the method used to pass information between workstations.
The logical topology defines how the data should transfer.

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Main types of physical topologies are:
▪ Linear Bus
▪ Star
▪ Tree

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▪A linear bus consists of a main run of cable with a terminator
at each end.
▪All nodes (file server, workstation and peripherals) are connected
to the linear cable.

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Advantages of Linear bus topology
▪ Easy to connect a computer or peripheral to a linear bus.
▪ Requires less cable length than a star
Disadvantages
The entire network shuts down if there is a break in the main cable
Terminator are required at the ends of both backbone cable

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▪ A star topology is designed with each node (file server, workstations and
peripherals) connected directly to a central network hub or concentrator.
▪ Data on a star network passes through the hub or concentrator before
continuing to its destination.
▪ The hub or concentrator manages and controls all functions of the network.
It also acts as a repeater for data flow.

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Advantages
▪ Easy to install and wire.
▪ No disruptions to the network when connecting or removing devices.
▪ Easy to detect faults and to remove parts

Disadvantages
➢Requires more cable length than a linear topology.
➢If the hub/concentrator fails, nodes attached are disabled.
➢More expensive than linear bus.

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▪ Tree topology combines the characteristics of linear bus and star
topologies.
▪ It consists of groups of star-configured workstations connected to a
linear bus backbone cable.

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 VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORKS
A virtual private network based on the Internet Protocol provides a secure
connection between two points across the Internet, enabling private
communications to travel securely over the public infrastructure
It is an encrypted connection over the Internet from a device to a network.
The encrypted connection helps ensure that sensitive data is safely transmitted.
It prevents unauthorized people from eavesdropping on the traffic and allows
the user to conduct work remotely.

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 COMPONENTS OF A NETWORK
▪ The computers are connected to the medium with the help of Network Interface Cards
(NIC)
▪ A network interface card (NIC) is a hardware component without which a computer
cannot be connected over a network. It is a circuit board installed in a computer that
provides a dedicated network connection to the computer. It is also called network
interface controller, network adapter or LAN adapter.
▪ Purpose
▪ NIC allows both wired and wireless communications.
▪ NIC allows communications between computers connected via local area network (LAN)
as well as communications over large-scale network through Internet Protocol (IP).

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▪ NIC is both a physical layer and a data link layer device, i.e. it provides the
necessary hardware circuitry so that the physical layer processes and some data link
layer processes can run on it.
▪ One of the computers on the network is designed as a controller usually called a
server.
▪ Server usually maintains vital information about the network.
▪ It holds shared software and services.
▪ It monitors facilities so that problems on the network can be detected and corrected.
▪ It acts as an intelligent device which routes the messages to the appropriate path.

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▪ A network device is a device that receives a message from one resource on a network
and determines how to pass the message along the network.
▪ Switch: a device that allocates traffic from one network segment to certain lines (intended
destination(s)) which connect the segment to another network segment. The network switch
passes an incoming message onto a single resource. The switch uses the message’s
destination address to determine the device to which the message should be passed.
▪ Hub: Connects multiple Ethernet segments together making them act as a single segment.
When using a hub, every attached device shares the same broadcast and collision domain.
Therefore only one computer connected to the hub is able to transmit at a time. It
operates by receiving a message and passing it on to all the resources it connects to. The
hub is sometimes referred to as a multiport repeater, because its job is to repeat the
incoming message across all its ports (connections).

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 (OPEN SYSTEMS INTERCONNECTION-OSI)

▪ Router: A specialized network device that determines the next network

point to which to forward a data packet towards its destination. Unlike a
gateway, it cannot interface different protocols. Works on OSI layer 3.
▪ Gateway: is a router that connects different types of networks together.
More specifically, the gateway has the ability to translate a message from
one protocol into another. A device sitting at a network node for
interfacing with another network that uses a different protocol. Works on
OSI layers 4 to 7.

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▪ Note that the terms switch, router, and gateway are sometimes used interchangeably.
For instance, switches that also utilize IP addresses are sometimes referred to as
layer 3 switches, even though they are operating like routers. Routers are sometimes
referred to as gateways whether they are translating protocols or not.

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE by Bethuel K. Okelo 19

▪ Bridge: a device that connects multiple network segments along the data
link layer. Works on OSI layer 2.
▪ NB: Routing allows multiple networks to communicate independently and yet
remain separate, whereas bridging connects two separate networks as if
they were a single network.
▪ Repeater: A device that amplifies or regenerate digital signals received
while sending them from one part of a network into another. Works on OSI
layer 1.

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▪ The typical form of communication over a network is a unicast. This form of
communication allows a message to be sent from one source device to one destination
device. The source and destination will typically open a communication channel
(session) where communication may be onedirectional or bi-directional (in which case, it
is known as a duplex mode). However, there are times when communication is a one-to-
many or many-to-many situation. This occurs when one or more devices are
communicating with multiple devices. That is, there are multiple destination devices that
a message is intended for. Such a communication is known as a multicast. A hub
performs a limited form of multicast. A more specific reason for a multicast occurs
when a server is streaming content to many destinations. Rather than duplicating the
message at the server end, the message is sent out onto the network where routers are
responsible not just for forwarding the content but also duplicating the content to be
sent to multiple destinations.

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE by Bethuel K. Okelo 21

Another example for a multicast is with a multiplayer networked computer game. When one player
performs an operation from within the software, all other players must see that move. The player’s
computer does not have to duplicate messages to send to all other players. Instead, the routers take
care of this by duplicating the message, resulting in a multicast. Two other forms of communication
are broadcast and anycast. A broadcast is a message sent from one device to all others on its local
subnetwork. The hub is a network broadcast device in that its job is to broadcast to all devices on
its local network. Although this is like a multicast in that a message is duplicated, it is a multicast
within a very limited setting. In other words, a multicast is a broadcast where destinations are not
restricted to the local subnetwork. Finally, an anycast is somewhat of a compromise between a unicast
and a multicast. With an anycast, there are several destinations that share the same IP address. A
message is sent that could conceivably go to any of these destinations but is always routed to the
nearest destination. In this way, an anycast will reach its destination in the shortest amount of time.

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE by Bethuel K. Okelo 22

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE by Bethuel K. Okelo 23
The server is a combination of the physical device designated to handle the service
request and the server software package. By referring to the physical device as a
server, we are implying that the device is not used for any other purpose. This may or
may not be true. For instance, a computer may be set up as a web server but may also
be someone’s personal computer that he or she uses for ordinary computing. On the
other hand, the server software is essential, because without it, the hardware device is
merely a computing device. Therefore, we need to install, configure, and run the server
software on the computer. In most cases, we will refer to servers as the software, as
we are mostly interested in exploring how the server software works.

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▪ We need to connect the components of a computer network together. The connection can
come in two different forms: wired and wireless. We refer to these connections as
the media. We can rate the efficiency of a medium by its bandwidth, which is the
amount of data that can be carried over the medium in a unit of time, such as bits
per second.
▪ The wired forms of network connectivity are twisted-wire pair (or just twisted pair),
coaxial cable, and fiber optic cable. The earliest form of twisted-wire pair was used in
telephone lines, and it is the oldest and most primitive form. It has also been the
cheapest. Although enhancements have been made with twisted-wire technology to
improve its bandwidth, it still has the lowest bandwidth among the wired forms. In
many cases, use of both coaxial cable and fiber optic cable have replaced the twisted-
wire cable for longer-distance computer networks.

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE by Bethuel K. Okelo 27

▪ A cable is the medium through which information moves from one network
device to another.
▪ There are several types of cable which are commonly used in LANs. In some
cases a network will utilize only one type of cable while other networks will
use a variety of cable types.
▪ The type of cable chosen for a network is related to the network’s topology,
protocol and size.

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Twisted Pair (UTP) cable
▪ Twisted pair cabling comes in two
varieties: shielded and unshielded. UTP
is the most popular and is generally
the best option for school networks.
▪ Shielded Twisted pair has a foil jacket
that helps prevent crosstalk. Crosstalk
is interference from an adjacent wire.

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Coaxial Cable
▪ It has a single copper conductor at its center. A plastic layer provides insulation
between the center conductor and a braided metal shield. The metal shield helps
to block any outside interference from fluorescent lights, motors and other
computers.

▪ Both twisted-wire pair and coaxial cable contain a piece of wire over which
electrical current can be carried. For the wire to carry current, the wire must be
both whole and connect to something at the other end. That is, the wire makes up
a closed circuit.
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Fiber Optic Cable
▪ It consists of a center glass core surrounded
by several layers of protective materials.
▪ It transmits light rather than electronic
signals eliminating the problem of electrical
interference.
▪ Fiber optic cable does not rely on electrical current
at all, but instead, it is a piece of glass. Information
is sent over fiber optic cable by transmitting pulses
of light.

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE by Bethuel K. Okelo 31

The fiber optic cable has numerous advantages over copper wire. These are listed as
follows:
• Far greater bandwidth in that a single optical fiber can carry as much as 111
gigabits per second with a typical bandwidth of 10 to 40 gigabits per second.
• Far greater distance at which signals can travel without loss or need of repeaters.
• Far less susceptibility to outside influences such as radio noise or lightning strikes.
Fiber optic cable is not affected by electromagnetic radiation unlike copper wire
(whether shielded and insulated or not).
• Optical cable is lighter in weight and is safer because it is nonconducting.
• There is less risk of theft. This last point is an odd one to make. However, there are
many copper thieves in society today, looking to steal sources of copper and sell them.
As fiber optic cable is not made of copper, it poses a far less risk of being stolen
despite the fiber being a more expensive item to produce.
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE by Bethuel K. Okelo 32
The main drawback of fiber optic cable is that it is far more expensive than copper
cable. An even greater expense is that of replacing millions of miles of twisted-wire
pair of our public telephone network with fiber optic cable.
However, this cost is one that is being shared among all users (for instance, this is
part of the price that you pay to receive Internet access at home, whether your
household previously had twisted-wire pair or not). Fiber optic cable is more brittle
than copper wire and more difficult to repair if the length of cable is cut.

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE by Bethuel K. Okelo 33

Unlike copper wire, which transmits analog information (e.g., sounds), optical fiber directly
transmits digital information (1s and 0s sent as pulses of light). Thus, there is less work
required at either end of the transmission to send or receive computer data.
For copper wire, information might first need to be modulated (converted from a digital
form to an analog form) for transmission and then demodulated (converted from an
analog form back to a digital form) on receipt. The MODEM is a device that performs
these two tasks.

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE by Bethuel K. Okelo 34

 LAN is a computer network is relatively smaller and
privately owned network with the maximum span of 10km.
To provide local connectivity with in a home, office or
group of buildings. For example, a network in an
organization can be a LAN.
 Owned controlled and managed by a single person and
organization.
 Error rate is LAN is lowest.
 Data transmission speed in LAN is high.
 LAN’s have a small geographical range and thus do not
need any leased telecommunication lines.
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 MAN is defined for less than 50 km. and provides regional connectivity
typically with in a campus small geographical area.
 MAN is a computer network covering area large than LAN.
 Cable TV network is the best example of MAN.
 Owned, controlled and managed by one or more organizations.
 Error rate of MAN is moderate.
 Data transmission speed in MAN is lowest as compared to LAN.
 In MAN, the technologies used for this purpose are ATM, FDDI and SMDS
(switched multimegabit data service).
 MAN’s have a large geographical range and thus need leased
telecommunication lines.

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 WAN provides no limit of distance. A WAN provides long
distance transmission of data, voice, images and video
information over large geographical area that may comprise a
country, a continent or even the whole world.
 For example of WAN is the internet, a collection of networks
linking millions of computer users on every continent.
 Data transmission speed is low. WAN is not easy to design and
maintain.
 WAN operates on the principle of switching.
 WANs are not owned by any one organization but rather exist
under collective or distributed ownership and management.
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 A peer-to-peer network is a network where the computers
act as both workstations and servers.
 great for small, simple, and inexpensive networks.
 In a strict peer-to-peer networking setup, every computer
is an equal, a peer in the network.
 Each machine can have resources that are shared with
any other machine.
 There is no assigned role for any particular device, and
each of the devices usually runs similar software. Any
device can and will send requests to any other.

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 In this design, a small number of computers are designated as centralized servers and given the task
of providing services to a larger number of user machines called clients.

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▪ The other form of media is wireless communication. As its name implies, this form of
communication does not involve any form of cable. Instead, information is converted
into a waveform and broadcast through the air. Usually, the waveform is a radio
frequency (RF) or high-frequency wave (microwave); however, it could also be an
infrared signal. Wireless communication is far more limited in the distance at which a
message can travel, and so, there needs to be a nearby Wireless Access Point.

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE by Bethuel K. Okelo 40

WIRELESS NETWORKING TECHNOLOGIES
Types of wireless networks,
• Wireless Personal Area Networks(WPANs)
• Wireless Local Area Networks(WLANs)
• Wireless mesh network
• Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks(WMANs)
• Wireless Wide Area Networks(WWANs)
• Cellular network
• Global Area Network(GAN)
• Space network

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WIRELESS PERSONAL AREA NETWORKS(WPANS)

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WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORKS(WLANS)
The primary change from a wired LAN to a
wireless LAN (WLAN), or one that allows both,
is the inclusion of WAPs. We also must adapt
our NICs from within our devices to be
wireless NICs (WNICs). Both NICs and WNICs
are similar types of devices, but the WNIC
communicates via high-frequency radio waves
rather than over cable.

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A WAP provides access to the LAN by offering what is called a hotspot. The
WAP receives radio signals from a nearby wireless device and passes those
signals onto a router. The WAP and router are connected together by some
form of cable (usually). When a message is intended for a wireless device, the
process is reversed in that the router passes the message on to the
appropriate WAP, which then broadcasts the message as radio waves for the
device to receive.

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE by Bethuel K. Okelo 44

▪ A WAP has limited shared bandwidth. That is, a WAP’s bandwidth is a
fixed amount. The greater the number of devices sharing the single WAP,
the less bandwidth each device can utilize. Therefore, performance can
degrade as more devices share the same WAP.

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There are three forms of WLAN topologies. The first two topologies utilize WAPs,
forming what is sometimes referred to as infrastructure mode. The idea is that
the access to the network is made by having a preestablished infrastructure.
The third topology does not use WAPs and so is referred to as an ad hoc mode.
▪ 1. A small WLAN, as found in a home or small office (known as a SOHO
network) may have a single WAP. Such a WLAN is classified as a Basic
Service Set (BSS) topology where all wireless devices communicate with the
single WAP and the WAP reaches the wired network via a single router.

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE by Bethuel K. Okelo 46

▪ 2. A network with more than one WAP is referred to as an Extended Service Set (ESS)
topology. In this topology, each WAP may connect to its own router or all the WAPs may
connect to a single router. In the former case, the individual routers connect to each
other to form a wired LAN. If several WAPs share one router, they may make this
connection through any of the network topologies (e.g., bus, ring, and star).
▪ 3. The third topology is the wireless ad hoc LAN. This type of WLAN has no WAPs, and
instead, devices communicate directly with each other in a peer-to-peer format. This
form of topology is sometimes referred to as an Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS).
There are many variations of wireless ad hoc networks (WANETs).

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE by Bethuel K. Okelo 47

▪ These three topologies differ in how devices communicate with each other. The ad
hoc WLAN has no WAPs, and so, all communication is from device to device, with
no intermediary WAPs. The BSS has a single WAP whereby all messages use one
WAP as an intermediary. The ESS has multiple WAPs, and so messages are passed
through one or more WAPs.

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE by Bethuel K. Okelo 48

➢ Wi-Fi
 Is a local area wireless technology that allows an
electronic device to exchange data or connect to the
internet using 2.4 GHz UHF and 5 GHz SHF radio waves.

➢ Types of wireless LANs..

Peer-to-peer
Bridge
Wireless distribution system

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FUNCTIONS OF THE MODEM

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 WIRELESS MESH NETWORK
➢ Wireless network made up of radio nodes organized in a
mesh topology.
➢ Each node forwards messages on behalf of the other
nodes.
➢ Mesh networks can "self heal", automatically re-routing
around a node that has lost power.
➢ Wireless mesh networking could allow people living in
remote areas and small businesses operating in rural
neighborhoods to connect their networks together for
affordable Internet connections.

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 WIRELESS METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORKS(WMANS)
➢ Officially known as IEEE 802.16, complement other
wireless technologies like Wi-Fi.
➢ Use in large, city-sized wireless networks that can
deliver broadband Internet access and compete against
wired technologies like Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
and cable modems.
➢ Wireless MAN standards form the basis for WiMAX and
several other wireless broadband technologies.
➢ Known as a point to multipoint setup.
➢ The maximum distance for this type of network is about
30 miles (48 km)
➢ A WiMax Internet is a broadband connection providing high-speed
bandwidth delivered wirelessly from the service provider to a
location. All WiMax Internet services come with a service level
agreement with guarantees on speed, performance, uptime, and
repair. 52
 WIRELESS WIDE AREA NETWORKS(WWANS)
➢Typically cover large areas, such as between
neighboring towns and cities, or city and suburb.
➢Also called "wireless broadband" or
"broadband wireless”.
➢Wireless WANs use cell towers to transmit a
radio signal within a range of several miles to a
moving or stationary device.
➢There are 3 major wireless WAN technologies,
GSM
CDMA
WiMAX - newer
The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) 2G network
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 CELLULAR NETWORK
➢ Radio network distributed over land areas
called cells.
➢ In a cellular network, each cell
characteristically uses a different set of
radio frequencies from all their immediate
neighboring cells to avoid any
interference.
➢ When joined together these cells provide
radio coverage over a wide geographic
area.
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 GLOBAL AREA NETWORK(GAN)
➢A network used for supporting mobile
across an arbitrary number of
wireless LANs, satellite coverage
areas, etc.

➢The key challenge in mobile

communications is handing of user
communications from one local
coverage area to the next.

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 SPACE NETWORK
➢ Established in the early 1980s to replace NASA's worldwide
network of ground tracking stations
➢ Used for communication between spacecraft.
➢ Space Network is operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week,
365 days per year.
➢ The Space Network consist of:
A constellation of geosynchronous (Earth orbiting) satellites
named the Tracking Data Relay Satellite (TDRS)
 Ground systems that operate as a relay system between
satellites.
 Satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) above 73 km
 Ground facilities
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▪ Once the physical connection between computers are established, computers can
send messages to each other.
▪ A computer wishing to communicate with another needs to do what is known as a
“hand Shake” a signal between two devices or programs, used to, e.g., authenticate,
coordinate.
▪ All these rules for communication are called protocols
▪ There are various protocols at various levels of software
▪ In practice there are different layers of software each performing different
functions
▪ There is a well known international model defined by International Standards
Organization

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 INTERNET
▪ The Internet is a physical network. By itself, it does not provide services.
Instead, the services are made available through servers that run applications
and the protocols developed so that the services can be made available, no
matter what type of computer or network you are using to communicate with
those servers. The Internet is the mechanism by which the communications
are carried from one location to another, from the requesting computer to the
server, and back to the requesting computer
▪ The Internet is the worldwide, publicly accessible network of interconnected
computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard
Internet Protocol (IP).

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• A network where network devices are able to support communications
using TCP/IP or other compatible protocols

• Links hundreds of thousands of individual networks all over the world

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▪IP (Internet Protocol), are packets or datagrams that carry blocks
of data from one node to another.

Figure 8-5
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▪ The vast majority of todays internet uses version four of the IP
protocol (i.e. IPv4) although IPv6 is standardized, it only exists as
“islands” of connectivity and there are many ISPs without any IPv6
connectivity.

▪ After IPv4 IPv6

▪ Why?
Limited addressing capacity of IPv4

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▪ Preferences?
IPv6 uses 128-bit number for addresses instead IPv4 uses 32-bit number
Available addresses in IPv6 is 2^128 addresses while IPv4 is 2^32 addresses

• Differences?
Eliminate unnecessary fields and adds security fields and other optional information

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE by Bethuel K. Okelo 62

▪ TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), UDP (User Datagram Protocol) and ICMP (Internet
Control Message Protocol) the protocols by which data is transmitted.
▪ TCP makes a virtual “connection”, which gives some level of guarantee of reliability.
UDP is a best-effort, connectionless transport in which data packets that are lost in
transit will not be re-sent. ICMP is connectionless, it is used for control and signaling
purposes.

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▪ On top comes the application protocol. This defines the specific messages and
data formats sent and understood by the applications running at each end of
the communication.

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▪ A computer that is responsible for accepting HTTP request from clients, which are
known as web browsers and serving them HTTP responses along with optional
data contents, which are usually Web pages such as HTML documents and linked
objects (images etc.)
▪ It’s a Software for locating & managing stored web pages.

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▪ The computer does not read information the same way we do. Instead of understanding
the symbols we are used to, computers read numbers and letters using a special code of
1's and 0's. Each letter takes a specific combination of around eight 1's and 0's to
make. In order for us to create data on computers, whether it be software or a web-
page, we have developed a type of computer language called HTML.

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▪ HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
HTML is a set of codes that a website author inserts into a plain text file
to format the content. The author inserts HTML tags, commands, before and
after words and phrases to indicate their format and location on the page.
HTML tags are also used to add tables, lists, images, music, and other
elements to a webpage.

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▪ Hypertext Preprocessor, is a server-side open source scripting language that is used
to help improve and facilitate web development. Currently, Most of websites use
PHP as their server-side scripting language.

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▪ MYSQL is currently the world’s most popular and widely used open source
database technology and data storage system. MYSQL offers great reliability and
ease of use. It is free and comes with free documentation as well as thousands of
programmers that share their code that relates to communicating with a MYSQL
database.

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▪ A database is a collection of information organized to provide efficient retrieval.
The collected information could be in any number of formats. There are physical
and electronic databases.
▪ A database could be as simple as an alphabetical arrangement of names in an
address book as complex as a database that provides information in a combination
of formats. It stores the information which supply using application at the same
time dynamically display for application as well.

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▪ FTP: (FILE TRASFER PROTOCOL)
▪ FTP was developed long before the internet as a way to share files between
computers in closed networks. The very first version of FTP was released in 1971,
and was called RFC 114.

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▪ The set of rules for delivering Web page files over the Internet.
▪ It is full form Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the underlying protocol used by the
World Wide Web. HTTP defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what
actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. When you
enter a URL in your browser, this actually sends an HTTP command to the Web server
directing it to fetch and transmit the requested web page. The other main standard that
controls how the World Wide Web works is HTML, which covers how Web pages are
formatted and displayed.

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▪ The main purpose of cookies is to identify users and possibly prepare customized
Web pages for them.
▪ When you enter a Web site using cookies, you may be asked to fill out a form
providing such information as your name and interests.

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▪ This information is packaged into a cookie and sent to your web browser which
stores it for later use.
▪ The next time you go to the same website, your browser will send the cookie to the
Web server.
▪ The server can use this information to present you with custom Web pages.

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▪ A website (or Web site) is a collection of web pages, images, video and
other digital assets and hosted on a particular domain or subdomain
on the World Wide Web.
▪ A web page is a document, typically written in HTML, that is almost
always accessible via HTTP, a protocol that transfers information from
the website’s server to display in the user web browser.
▪ The combination of the protocol name and the domain name is called
a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

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▪ An e-mail message has always been nothing more than a simple text message –a
piece of text sent to a recipient.

▪ The Real E-mail System

▪ The real email system consists of two different servers running on a server machine.
One is the SMTP server, where SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. The
SMTP handles outgoing mail.

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▪ The other is either POP3 server or an IMAP server both which handle incoming
mail. POP stands for Post Office Protocol, and IMAP stands for Internet Mail Access
Protocol.

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▪ The term “spam” is Internet slang that refers to unsolicited commercial email
(UCE) or unsolicited bulk email (UBE). Some people refer to this kind of
communication as junk mailto equate it with paper junk mail.

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▪ Websites can use links to direct customers to pages on the company’s web server.
▪ The way links lead customers through pages can affect the usefulness of the site
and can play a major role in shaping customers impressions of the company.

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Companies began to eCommerce, so….
▪ Present large amounts of data
▪ Large lists of inventory items
▪ Great lists of sales invoices
▪ Lots of purchase orders
▪ Other business data
▪ Keep these lists updated

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