Ecommerce

What is a Domain Name?

(Domain name, ip address, URL)

New computer users often confuse domain names with
universal resource locators, or URLs, and Internet
Protocol, or IP addresses.
The universal resource locator, or URL, is an entire set of
directions, and it contains extremely detailed information.
The domain name is one of the pieces inside of a URL.
An Internet Protocol, or IP, address is different than a
domain name
 For example, in the URL
http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html, the domain
name is pcwebopedia.com.

Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which

top level domain (TLD) it belongs to. There are only a
limited number of such domains.
Characteristics of Domain Name
Domain names are restricted to
only the ASCII letters 'a' through 'z' (in a case-
insensitive manner).
the digits '0' through '9.
and the hyphen ('-').
 Domain Name Level
Top Level Domain - A top-level domain (TLD) is the part of the
domain name located to the right of the dot. The most common
top-level domains are .COM, .NET, and .ORG. Some other
popular top-level domains are .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME and .IN etc.
Generic top level maintained by IANA and country code top level
reserved for a country.
Second Level Domain - . The second-level domain name is the
part of the domain name located to the left of the dot.
Third level domain name:-which are written immediately to
the left of a second level Domain.
Each level is separated by a dot or period symbol.
 What is a Subdomain?
A subdomain is a domain name that is a part of the
main domain.
It is used to organize a website with regard to various
functions, sections, topics, etc.
For example www.google.com is the main domain
name.
They have separated Gmail, that handles their mail
section of the website as mail.gmail.com.
Similarly they have other subdomains too which are
other sections of their main website.
like maps.google.com, news.google.com,
Characteristics of Domain Name
Domain names are restricted to
only the ASCII letters 'a' through 'z' (in a case-
insensitive manner).
the digits '0' through '9.
and the hyphen ('-').
 What is a Subdomain?
A subdomain is a domain name that is a part of the
main domain.
It is used to organize a website with regard to various
functions, sections, topics, etc.
For example www.google.com is the main domain
name.
They have separated Gmail, that handles their mail
section of the website as mail.gmail.com.
Similarly they have other subdomains too which are
other sections of their main website.
like maps.google.com, news.google.com,
 Digital Certificate
An attachment to an electronic message used for security purposes
It is trusted ID card in electronic form that binds a websites public
encryption key to their identity for the purpose of public trust.
Digital certificates are issued by an CA(certification authority).
Two example of highly Trusted CAs are Verisign(
www.verisign.com),Thawte.
If your browser does not recognize a certificate Authority, it will alert
you.
The most common use of a digital certificate is to verify that a user
sending a message is who he or she claims to be, and to provide the
receiver with the means to encode a reply.
.
 The digital certificate contains an entitys name, address, public key,
expiration date.
When a web browser make a secure connection, the digital certificate
is automatically turned over for review.
The browser check it for andy problem and pops up an alert if any
found.

An individual wishing to send an encrypted message applies for a

digital certificate from a Certificate Authority (CA).
The CA issues an encrypted digital certificate containing the
applicant's public key and a variety of other identification information
 In the physical world, you protect your written
correspondence by putting it in an envelope before
posting. In the online world, sending an email message
is like sending a postcard.
it is easy to intercept and read as it travels across the
Internet. Instead of risking disclosure of your private
email message,
one option for safeguarding them is to use a digital
certificate
 Merchant Account
Understanding e-commerce is actually quite easy.
There are 3 things that make up an e-commerce
transaction.

A shopping cart

A payment gateway

A merchant account
 The Shopping Cart
The shopping cart is a software
what keeps track of the products your customers want to
purchase.
It is the software that powers the "Add to Cart" buttons that
you have probably seen on many e-commerce websites.
There are hundreds of popular shopping cart programs to
choose from.
Think of the shopping cart as the cashier.
It is their job to figure out how much money you are
supposed to pay
 The Payment Gateway
When you go to a gas station and pay with your credit
card,
The attendant swipes your card through a payment
terminal.
The payment gateway does the same job as that little
electronic device,
except because it's an online transaction the credit card
is not physically swiped through a terminal.
 The payment gateway will electronically contact the
customers card issuing bank and check to see if they
have sufficient credit to pay for the sale.
If so, the card issuing bank will return an authorization
and the funds will be debited from the customers credit
card balance.
When those funds are captured from the customers
credit card account, then this money must go
somewhere.
This will go to the merchant account.
 Payment Gateways:

And another main function is encryption.

A payment gateway uses SSL 128-bit encoding technology to
encrypt and decrypt all the data being sent through it.
Safety and security in online credit card processing is a very vital
point.
Without encryption all the credit card holders data could be
stolen and used illegally.
 how a payment gateway works

A cardholder/customer orders a product or service at an e-

Commerce merchants website by clicking the Order or Send to
Shopping Cart buttons.

The cardholder is taken to an automatically generated (by an

integrated shopping cart script) order form,

where he/she is asked to provide the credit card details and the
shipping details.
After clicking the Submit Form button at the bottom of the
form(s) all the data is encrypted (SSL 128-bit) by the
cardholders web-browser,
A key is generated and passed on, along with the details,
to the e-Commerce merchants payment gateway.

The payment gateway (if function available and switched

on) decrypts some of the information (only for statistical
usage, no credit card details are held), re-encrypts it

and forwards it to the e-Commerce merchants acquiring

bank.
The acquiring bank forwards the data to the credit card
issuing bank for verification and authorization.
The issuing bank sends a so-called response code back
to merchant bank,
and the latter sends it to the payment gateway.
This response code is used to denote any error that
might have had occurred during the verification
or transaction process.
 The Merchant Account

When the payment gateway processes the transaction

and the customers credit card is charged for the sale,
that money has to go somewhere.
Specifically, it needs to deposited into a bank account.
Funds from credit card sales are deposited into a
special type of bank account -- called a "merchant
account".

That really is all a merchant account is - a bank

account that is used to hold funds captured from
your credit card sales.
 Types of Merchant Account

There are two main category types when it comes to credit card
processing.
They are "swiped" and "keyed."
Under these categories, you have several different methods or ways of
processing that information.
Swiped is referred to as when you have the customer in person and
swipe their credit card.
Keyed is referring to when you take the information over the phone,
Internet or by fax.

 "Swiped"

Retail Merchants - typically conduct transactions face to face in a retail environment.

The customer's card is swiped through a credit card machine and their signature is
captured on the terminal or on paper.
Wireless / Mobile - typically conduct transactions face to face but in a wireless
environment as there is not a physical store. A wireless terminal machine is used
instead of the traditional standalone unit. An example merchant would be a limo driver
or a pizza delivery.
Restaurant - typically conduct their transactions face to face in a retail store. The
difference is they may require the ability to add tips to their charges. This is done by
using the tip function which settles the transaction for the larger amount that includes
the tip.
Lodging - typically processes their transactions like retail merchants except they may
adjust the settlement amount depending on the customer's length of stay or include
any additional charges they incurred while staying at the merchant. Example merchants
would be hotels, motels and bed & breakfasts.
 "Keyed"

Internet / Ecommerce Merchants - conducts business through a web site by

utilizing a shopping cart and an Internet payment gateway service. The
shopping cart allows the customer to browse, add items to their cart and
checkout like at the grocery store. The payment gateway then collects the credit
card information and processes it in real time.
Mail & Telephone Order (MOTO) - typically take the customer's credit card
information over the phone, by mail or through the Internet. They then manually
process the transaction by keying it into either a credit card machine or through
a virtual terminal such as Authorize.net.
Face to Face (mobile) - this type of merchant is typically on the go, such as a
vendor at a trade show. Instead of investing a lot of money into a wireless
solution that allows you to swipe a credit card, you can use a service like touch
tone that allows you to take the information in person, but key it in over the
phone.
 Because there is a higher rate of fraud over the internet
than at brick and mortar stores, the fees is higher in
internet merchant account.
Many bank dont offer an Internet merchant account to
a first time online entrepreneur.
So new e-business owners get their merchant account
through an ISO
ISO(independent Service Organization) are middleman
who work with banks.
The ISOs are more tolerant of risk
So fees is also high of ISO.
 Fees for Merchant Account
Whether you get your merchant account from a bank or
an ISOs you will face an array of fees.
Setup fees
Monthly Fees
Per-transaction Fees
Termination fees:- when you terminate your
account before time.
Extra fees.
 Role of Merchant Account in
Electronic Transaction

Order Placed
Authorization Request
Authorization Response
Order fulfilled
Settlement request
Settlement Deposited
 Payments on Internet

Most of online purchases are paid for by a credit card.

Merchants like credit card payments because an instant
authorization guarantees that the card is valid .
Credit card information submitted by the customer is
sent to the bank which has issued the credit card to
verify.
If the transaction is approved, the merchant notifies the
customer that the order has been placed.
The actual transfer of money from the credit card bank
to the merchant may happen in a few hours, or even in
a few days.
 Merchants who accept credit card payments pay fee
(between 1 and 7 percent of the card charge) for each
card charge.
In addition, in some cases merchants pay authorization
fee for each credit card authorization attempt, as well
as other fees related to credit card processing
Technical issues in credit card
payment
Quick check for typos. Since the merchant may be
charged for each credit card authorization,
it is convenient to check that the credit card number
makes sense before sending it to the issuing bank to
authorize.
There is an easy algorithm to verify a credit card
number: the last digit of the credit card number is
computed from the other digits using a simple
procedure.
The algorithm is public, and therefore can be used only
to catch typos and disallow random data, but not to
check the validity of a credit card number.
 In online transactions the user is usually asked to
provide additional information, such as their address
and phone number, and the card's billing address,
in a telephone transaction an this information can be
easily mistyped.
Another way of verifying a card number is to ask the
user to provide the additional digits on the card (the
digits which do not appear on the magnetic strip or on a
carbon paper when the print of the card is taken).
However, online customers may be reluctant to provide
this information because of fear of merchant's fraud
 Protecting card numbers in transmission. Since information
transmitted in an online transaction .The most common way of
doing it is to encrypt data in transmission. This is done via SSL.
However, many online businesses do not use SSL when
transmitting credit card numbers and other customer information,
or do not make SSL the default for such transmissions.
Protecting card numbers on the merchant's site. In practice,
the dealing with credit card numbers is not the transmission, but
the storage.
Security experts agree that storing credit card numbers at the
merchant's site is a risky practice, and should be avoided.
 Protecting from merchant fraud The other side of
protecting a merchant from a customer's fraud is
protection of a customer against a merchant's fraud.
If the merchant knows enough of the customer's credit
card information to be able to authorize a transaction,
then the merchant (including many of the merchant's
employees) know enough to be able to use the credit
card themselves.
An online customer has to be careful not to be a victim
of a merchant's fraud.
Credit Cards
The most expensive ePayment mechanism
Currently the most convenient method
Advantage: allows credit
People can buy more than they can afford
Disadvantages:
doesnt work for small amounts (too
expensive)
doesnt work for large amounts (too
expensive)

20-751 ECOMMERCE TECHNOLOGY

SUMMER 2002
COPYRIGHT 2002 MICHAEL I. SHAMOS
 Electronic Payment Systems
Electronic payment systems are non-credit-card online
payment systems.
The goal of their development is to create analogs of checks
and cash on the Internet, i.e. to implement all or some of the
following features:
Protecting customers from merchant's fraud by keeping
credit card numbers unknown to merchants.
Allowing people without credit cards to engage in online
transactions.
Protecting confidentiality of customers.
 Virtual Pin
Below we look at examples of online payment systems. Most of
these products are no longer used, but the ideas developed by their
authors are used in other products.
Virtual PIN, started in 1994 by a company called First Virtual
Holding, was a system for making credit card payments over the
Internet without exposing the credit card number to the merchant.
. It required no special software for a customer to make a purchase.
To enroll, a customer gives their credit card information and their e-
mail address to the First Virtual (this was done by phone).
After the credit card information has been verified, the customer
receives their PIN by e-mail.
The procedure for purchasing an item using Virtual PIN is as follows:
The customer gives the merchant their Virtual PIN.
The merchant sends the Virtual PIN and the amount of transaction
to First Virtual.
First Virtual sends an e-mail to the customer asking to confirm the
purchase.
The customer answered "Yes", "No", or "Fraud".
If the answer is "Yes", the merchant is informed that the charge
has been accepted. If "No", the charge is declined. If the answer is
"Fraud", the charge is investigated.
 Even though no encryption was involved, anybody could
not use a virtual PIN without being able to intercept and
answer the e-mail message to confirm the purchase.
Unlike credit cards which carry the customer's name,
Virtual PIN provided a customer's anonymity from the
merchant.
The e-mail confirmation of the transaction served as a
protection against merchant's fraud.
Unfortunately, while the system has been created for all
kinds of online business, the main use of Virtual PIN at
the time was for buying and selling pornography.
 . Virtual PIN tried to disassociate itself from this market.
Eventually the company abandoned the Virtual PIN and
became specialized in sending promotional e-mail.
 DigiCash (or E-cash)

DigiCash (also known as E-cash) is an electronic payment

system developed by Dr. David Chaum.
The system was based on digital tokens called digital coins..
The customer needs to download and install a software
called electronic wallet.
To obtain DigiCash, the customer uses the electronic wallet
to create digital coins.
The coins are sent to the bank to sign. When the coins are
signed, the equivalent amount of money is withdrawn from
the customer's account.
 When the customer wants to make a purchase, he/she
sends signed digital coins to the merchant.
The merchant verifies the bank's signature and deposits
the coins to the bank, where they are credited to the
merchant's account.
The DigiCash (or E-cash), produced by the company
DigiCash BV based in Amsterdam, has never created a
market.
The company eventually declared bankruptcy.
However, the algorithms used in DigiCash are
considered fundamental in development of digital
 CyberCash/CyberCoin

CyberCash is a system that allows customers to pay by

a credit card without revealing the credit card number
to the merchant.
To achieve this, a credit card number is sent to the
merchant in an encrypted form.
To enroll, a customer installs a software called
CyberCash wallet on their computer.
At the time of the instalment the wallet generated a pair
of a public and a private key
 A purchase was conducted the following way:
When the purchase was initiated, the CyberCash wallet displayed
the amount, the merchant's name, and other information.
After the customer approved the transaction, an encrypted
payment order was sent to the merchant.
The merchant could decrypt some of the information in the order,
such as the product list, the address, etc., but not the other (such
as the credit card information).
The merchant's software would add its own payment information
to the order, digitally sign it, and then send it to the CyberCash
gateway.
 The CyberCash gateway would decrypt the information.
The order would be checked for duplicate requests. The gateway
would verify that the customer's and the merchant's order information
match (i.e. no fraud was committed on either side).
Then it would perform the money transfer and send the approval
message to the merchant.
The main point of this scheme was to prevent merchant's fraud.
However, CyberCash and CyberCoin were not able to find the market.
The main reasons for the failure were the large size of customer's
software and
The fact that very few merchants would accept CyberCash payment.
The company was eventually bought by VeriSign.
 PayPal

PayPal is an electronic payment system which can transfer

money between its accounts.
In order to use PayPal, one has to obtain a PayPal account,
which is associated either with the customer's credit card or
with their regular bank account.
The validity of a checking account is checked as follows: the
customer gives PayPal their account number, PayPal makes
two small-amount (less than $1) deposits to the account.
If the customer is able to tell PayPal the value of these
deposits, then the customer is assumed to be a legitimate
user of the account.
 In order for the person to retrieve the money, they must
have a PayPal account.
To avoid fraud, PayPal sends an e-mail message to both
the initiator and the recipient of the transaction.
PayPal is used to settle online auctions, such as eBay
auctions.
The ease of use and the fact that no credit card is
required to use it makes PayPal increasingly popular.
 With PayPal, you can send money to anyone with an email address.

Heres how to send money:

Log in to your PayPal account.
Click Send Money.
Enter the recipients email address and the amount you want to
send.
Select Purchase or Personal, then choose the reason for the
payment.
Click Continue.
 Review the amount, the payment method, and shipping address.

Add a message (if you want to), then click Send Money.

Paypal will send the recipient an email to let them know that you sent them money. If they
dont have a PayPal account, we explain how to sign up for one. PayPal members must confirm
their email address before the money will be credited to their PayPal account.
When you send money, Paypal use your PayPal balance first. If you dont have enough money
in your PayPal balance, paypal will use the payment method you select.
PayPal acts as the middleman holder of money.
How will the person who paid know that I got theirpayment?
A notification of payment will go to the email address
 PayPal Requirements

You need no special technology nor a business license to send/receive money

through Paypal. The only requirements are:

a valid email address.

a valid credit card or bank account
When you open a PayPal account, you register an email address with PayPal
that you will use for all transactions through PayPal,
Select a password, and provide your bank account information and credit card
information to be used as "funding sources" for PayPal transactions.
PayPal will then make a "test" withdrawal of one cent from your bank account
to complete/confirm the link.
 How does PayPal make money?

As a middleman financial broker, PayPal makes its profit by charging a

percentage of the money it transfers for you.

PayPal is Free for Buyers and for Sending Money to Someone Else.
Once a buyer sets up a Paypal account, then it costs nothing to send money to
a vendor. The funds are withdrawn from the user's credit card or bank account,
or both. PayPal does not charge buyers to send money.

PayPal Commonly Charges Money from Receivers (Sellers) :PayPal will
only charge you to receive funds(money is received by the seller so paypal only
charge from seller not the buyer but for using paypal buyer
If you are sending money to a friend or family member (someone who is not a
registered seller), you can opt to pay for the PayPal surcharge yourself.
Secure Electronic Transaction (SET)
Developed by Visa and MasterCard
Designed to protect credit card transactions
Confidentiality: all messages encrypted
Trust: all parties must have digital certificates
Privacy: information made available only when and
where necessary

SMU CSE 5349/7349

 Participants in the SET System

SMU CSE 5349/7349

SET Business Requirements
Provide confidentiality of payment and ordering
information
Ensure the integrity of all transmitted data
Provide authentication that a cardholder is a legitimate
user of a credit card account
Provide authentication that a merchant can accept
credit card transactions through its relationship with a
financial institution

SMU CSE 5349/7349

SET Business Requirements (contd)

Ensure the use of the best security

practices and system design techniques
to protect all legitimate parties in an
electronic commerce transaction
Create a protocol that neither depends
on transport security mechanisms nor
prevents their use
Facilitate and encourage interoperability
among software and network providers

SMU CSE 5349/7349

 SET Transactions

SMU CSE 5349/7349

 SET Transactions

The customer opens an account with a card issuer.

MasterCard, Visa, etc.

The customer receives a X.509 V3 certificate signed by a bank.

X.509 V3

A merchant who accepts a certain brand of card must possess two X.509 V3 certificates.
One for signing & one for key exchange

The customer places an order for a product or service with a merchant.

The merchant sends a copy of its certificate for verification.

SMU CSE 5349/7349

 SET Transactions

The customer sends order and payment

information to the merchant.
The merchant requests payment
authorization from the payment gateway
prior to shipment.
The merchant confirms order to the
customer.
The merchant provides the goods or service
to the customer.
The merchant requests payment from the
payment gateway.

SMU CSE 5349/7349

Secure Electronic Transaction
An application-layer security mechanism, consisting
of a set of protocols.
Protect credit card transaction on the Internet.
Companies involved: MasterCard, Visa, IBM,
Microsoft, Netscape, RSA, CyberCash, NetBill
Not an ordinary payment system.
It has a complex technical specification
SET Business
Requirements
Provide confidentiality of payment and
ordering information.
Ensure the integrity of all transmitted data.
Provide authentication that a cardholder is
a ultimate user of a credit card account
Provide authentication that a merchant can
accept credit card transactions through its
relationship with a financial institution
Secure Electronic Transaction (SET): Protocol

Confidentiality: All messages are encrypted

Trust: All parties must have digital certificates
Privacy: information made available only
when and where necessary
Developed by Visa and MasterCard
Designed to protect credit card transactions
 Micro-Payment Protocol: Millicent

Millicent payment protocol is designed for low-amount

transactions over the Internet.

Support low-cost, secured transactions (less than one

cent)

Use non-expensive symmetric crytographic algorithms

Use scrip as digital cash for customers to make

purchases from vendors.

Business market: electronic publishing, software and

game industries.

Jerry Gao Ph.D. 5/2000

 Micro-Payment Protocol: MilliCent

MilliCent protocols use a form of electronic currency

called Scrip to connect three involved parties:

Vendors,

Customers,

and Brokers.

Scrip is vendor specific.

Jerry Gao Ph.D. 5/2000

 A Millicent broker:

--> medicate between vendors and customers to simplify the tasks they
perform.

--> aggregate micro-payments

--> sell vendor Scrip to customers

--> handle the real money in the Millicent system.

--> buy and produce large chunks of vendor Scrips (for licensed vendors)
 Vendors: --> are merchants selling low-value services or
information to customers.

Customers: --> buy broker Scrip with real money from

selected brokers.

use the vendor Scrips to make purchases.

 Micro-Payment Protocol: MilliCent

Customer Dealer

3
1. Customer sends broker-scripts.
Internet
1 2. Customer gets dealer-script.
2
3. Customer send dealer-scripts.

Broker

Jerry Gao Ph.D. 5/2000

 Topic: Micro-Payment Protocols and Systems

Micro-Payment Protocol: MilliCent

Customer make
purchases with vendor
Scrips
Customer Vendor

Vendor sell low-value

information and
services
Broker sell vendor Brokers buy/produce
Scrip large chunks of
Broker vendor Scrip for
licensed vendors
Basic Operation of E-cash
system Customer Bank VBS (Merchant)
Send the blinded coins to the
bank
Generate the blinded coins Debit the account and sign
the blinded coins
Return the signed blinded coins
Unblind the coins

Pay by the coins

Check the validity of the

coins and whether they have Deposit the coins
been spent and credit the
account accordingly

Confirm the deposit

Ship goods or perform the service

Basic Operation of Millicent
Protocol Broker Merchant
Customer

Buy the scrips of different

vendors

Send the aggregated scrips

Pay by the scrips Check for the

validity of the scrips
and whether they
have been spent from
Confirm the payment the database
 Brokers take care of account management, billing,
connection maintenance, and establishing accounts with
vendors.
Scrip is digital cash that is only valid for a specific
vendor.
Scrip has following features:
it has value only at a specific vendor;
it can be spent only once;
The vendor locally validates the scrip to prevent customer
fraud, such as double spending.
 Millicent protocol
Millicent is a lightweight and secure protocol for electronic commerce
over the Internet.
It is designed to support purchases costing less than a cent.
It is based on decentralized validation of electronic cash at the vendor's
server without any additional communication, expensive encryption, or
off-line processing.
The key innovations of Millicent are its use of brokers and of scrip.
Brokers take care of account management, billing, connection
maintenance, and establishing accounts with vendors.
Scrip is digital cash that is only valid for a specific vendor.
The vendor locally validates the scrip to prevent customer fraud, such as
double spending.
 Website vs Webportal

A Webportal is also a type of website but it differs in content and

services from a typical website that provides only specialized
information.
A website is a general term for any collection of pages on the same
domain or sub-domain.
A web portal is generally used for a 'gateway' site or set of pages - ie,
they are principally links signposting other sites.
A web portal is the entrance (gate) to the Web. One can enter the web
from many different portals (gates) and either dive into the portal inner
web or move to other portals in the web. Yahoo is an good example for
web portal.
It's also important to note that a "Web Portal" is also a website.
 SET protocol

With the SET protocol, a transaction has three players:

the customer,
the merchant and
the merchant's bank.
Not only are orders and card numbers sent from the
customer to the merchant over the Internet, but also
the authorization request sent from the merchant to
merchant's credit card bank is sent over the Internet.
 Ecash
E-cash is cash in an electronic form which is usually
stored on a smart card
or in software, known as a digital wallet(software
require for ecash on your computer is called
digital wallet). It is basically money that is
represented, held and exchanged in electronic form, and
is used for transactions over the Internet.
The user first must have an ecash software program
and an ecash bank account from which ecash can be
withdrawn or deposited.
 The user downloads electronic money from his bank
account using special software .
and stores the E-cash on his local hard drive.
To pay the E-cash user goes through the software to pay
the desired amount from the E-cash "wallet" to the
merchants local hard drive ("wallet") after passing the
transaction through an E-cash bank for authenticity
verification.
E-cash off-line, all that is necessary is smart card
technology. The money is loaded onto the smartcard.
 Branding

The process involved in creating a unique name and
image for a product in the consumers' mind, mainly
through advertising campaigns with a consistent
theme. Branding aims to establish a significant and
differentiated presence in the market that attracts and
retains loyal customers.

A personal brand is how you market yourself to

others, whereas an eBrand is a digital representation
of yourself online.
 E-Branding
Your online business website may prove that youre
knowledgeable on the latest technology but on the
reverse side, it can damage your business image if your
site does not provide a good user experience and is
difficult to load or navigate around.
Few things to consider for your online business when
determining your e-Branding are
 E-Branding
How quickly your customers can load your website,
How easy it is to navigate around and understand your
website,
How easily they can purchase or contact you,
How effective are your e-letters,
where else they found your website links, etc.
The general rule of thumb is that you have less than 5
seconds to capture the attention of a visitor
 Web Hosting
'Hosting' is a service provided by a
vendor which offers a physical location
for the storage of web pages and files.
Think of a Web Hosting Company as a
type of landlord, they rent physical
space on their servers allowing
webpages to be viewed on the Internet.
 What is a Web Server?

Generally used in reference to the

computer hardware that provides
World Wide Web services on the
Internet, a Web server includes the
hardware, operating system, server
software, TCP/IP protocols and the Web
site content. Web servers process
requests from Browsers for web pages
and serves them up via HTTP.
 Hosting server

A server dedicated to hosting a service or

services for users. Hosting servers are
most often used for hosting Web sites but
can also be used for hosting files, images,
games and similar content. Hosting
servers can be shared among many clients
(shared hosting servers) or dedicated to a
single client (dedicated servers).
 Hosting account or Hosting service
Free Web hosting

Shared Hosting

Dedicated server

Clustered hosting

Colocation web hosting service

Free Web hosting

Free services work best for private

Web pages, small-audience blogs
and static websites because you
have limited control. Your choices
of monetization strategies will be
restricted because free services will
run their own ads to earn money.
 Shared Hosting

These services share dedicated server

resources with multiple users. Sharing a
server results in some security risks, smaller
processing capacity and fewer software- and
database-support options. Prices are more
affordable for smaller needs, and you do get
better administrative control and more
monetization options.
 Dedicated server

A dedicated server provides robust features, full

administrative access and unlimited use of
software and applications, but you are responsible
for your own security and maintenance. This is
the best option if you plan on generating lots of
traffic or use special software. Basically,
dedicated server hosting is like running a branch
office where you are responsible for security and
maintenance issues.
 Clustered hosting

Clustered hosting offers redundant servers to take

over when one server goes off-line.
This solution can be expensive, but it might be the
best choice for high-traffic websites that target
global customers.
Highly scalable, the option provides high
availability for multiple website applications.
.
You can easily shut down one server for
maintenance while assigning its load to
other servers.
A cluster can be assemble from a
bunch of dedicated servers, cloud
servers or even an hybrid of both. This
is a very robust solution
 Colocation hosting
Colocation allows you to place your server machine in someone
else's rack and share their bandwidth as your own.
It generally costs more than standard Web hosting, but less than
a comparable amount of bandwidth into your place of business.
Once you have a machine set up, you take it physically to the
location of the colocation provider and install it in their rack or
you rent a server machine from the colocation provider.
That company then provides an IP, bandwidth, and power to
your server. Once it's up and running, you access it much like you
would access a Web site on a hosting provider. The difference
being that you own the hardware.
 Information Superhighway (I-
Way)
Any successful E-Commerce application will require the
I-way infrastructure
In the same way that regular commerce needs the
interstate highway network to carry goods from point to
point.
In commerce to carry goods highway is required in the
same way in E-commerce Iway is required for sending
data in digital form
You must travel across this highway, whether you are an
organization
purchasing supplies or a consumer ordering a movie on
 I-way will be a mesh of interconnected data highways of many forms
Telephone wires, cable TV wire
Radio-based wireless-cellular & satellite.
In the electronic highway system multimedia content is stores in
the form of electronic documents, these are often digitized
I-way is a high-capacity, interactive electronic pipeline used to
transfer content in case of e-commerce.
I-way can transfer any type of context like, text, graphics, audio,
video.
In other words, multimedia contents are easily transported through
I-way.
 I-Way
Information Superhighway:-
The global information and communications network
that includes
The Internet
Telephone networks,
cable television networks,
and satellite communication networks.
the concept of a worldwide network of computers
capable of transferring all types of digital information at
high speed
 information superhighway - an extensive electronic network
(such as the internet) used for the rapid transfer of sound and video
and graphics in digital form.
Any successful E-commerce application will require the I-Way
infrastructure in the same way that regular commerce needs the
interstate highway network to carry goods from point to point.
A integration of computers, communications networks, and
communication software forms the Information Superhighway (I-
Way).
The I-Way will be a mesh of interconnected data highways of many
forms: telephone wires, cable TV wires, radio-based wireless-
cellular and satellite
 Components of I-way:
I-way can transfer any type of context like, text,
graphics, audio, video. In other words, multimedia
contents are easily transported through I-way.

1:- Consumer access equipment.

2:- Local on-ramps
3:-Global information distribution networks.
 1. Consumer Access Equipment
It is often ignored component of I-way but represent
critical category.
This segment of I-way includes hardware and
software vendors who provide physical devices such
as computer software platforms such as browsers and
operating system.
 Ramps
The providers of access ramps can be differentiated into
four categories
Telecom based ,
Cable tv based,
wireless based &
computer based.
Online information services. The backbone access
provides links and uses e-commerce application
providers
Global Information Distribution
Networks:
The development of new communication
technologies and continued employment of fiber
optic facilities has resulted in higher transmission
speeds at significantly low cost.
The end result is a seamless web called the I-way
of communication network,
. The two major technologies under pinning high
speed global information distribution networks are
a) long distance networks
b) satellite networks.
 Long distance network:

Long distance connectivity is available through

cable ( coaxial ) or (fiber) owned by long distance
interchange carriers.
Fibre optics have emerged as technology of choice
because it is capable of providing higher bandwidth
than satellite
also it is immuned to electro magnetic interference.
Long distance network infrastructure is now been
deployed under seas to carry international traffic.
 Satellite network
Satellite networks are accessible from any point on the
globe.
Satellite networks can provide broadband digital
services including voice, data and video to many
points without the cost of wide installation.
Wide range of services include broadcast radio, video
and overseas telephone links.
Thus communication satellites are the crucial part of the
global communication and infrastructure
 Commerce Server

It is software that runs some of the main functions of an

online storefront such as
Product display,
Online ordering,
and Inventory management.
The software works in conjunction with online payment
systems to process payments.
 Commerce servers also manage and maintain
accounting and inventory data, also called back-
end data.

A commerce server is a product intended for e-

commerce websites or e-commerce applications.
 Microsoft Commerce Server

Microsoft is one of the providers of commerce servers.

Microsoft Commerce Server was first released in 2000

and was used to create e-commerce systems.

Microsoft Commerce Server ,It uses Microsoft's .NET

technology.
The main features of Microsoft Commerce Server include:

Multichannel functionality
What-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editing
Catalog, order and inventory management
Management of ads and set rules for ads
Data integration with third party systems
64-bit support
 Commerce Server 2007
Microsoft Commerce Server (CS) is a framework
(collection of e-commerce specific APIs) to build an e-
commerce site around.
It offering faster and lower cost e-commerce Web site
design and deployments.
Commerce Server 2007 provides a set of tools for the
Web site developer, the IT professional, and the
business user to help develop, deploy, and manage e-
commerce applications
Commerce Server Architecture
 Customers
Customers use their browser to access a Commerce
Server Web application.
Customer use this server as follows:
When purchasing or otherwise ordering products that
are browsed online, added to a basket, and ultimately
acquired by completing the check-out process. It is done
in commerce server os customer use this part of
commerce server. Another parts are used by many
different users like business users, developers and it
professtionals .
 Business users
Business users use the various smart client applications
provided with Commerce Server to manage the Data.
They use Catalog Manager and catalog inventaory
Schema manager(tools available in commerce server)
to manage product catalogs .
Business user also use Customer and Orders Manager
application to manage the orders that are placed and
the customers who place them.
 The IT professionals
They use Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 to monitor
both events that are logged by various Commerce
Server systems and to track performance using the
counters maintained by those systems.
Commerce Server systems, such as the Profiles System
and the Orders System, maintain performance counters
and log events during operation.
Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 is one of the
recommended ways in which this kind of information
can be monitored and acted upon to maintain Web
application performance
 IT professionals use Commerce Server Staging (CSS) to manage the
deployment of various Commerce Server resources, and related
resources, between different system environments.
These resources include database information from SQL Server,
metabase information from Internet Information Services (IIS).
Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in is used to maintain a
wide variety of Commerce Server configuration information.
Commerce Server uses SQL Server in several different capacities.
much of the functionality of the Data Warehouse and Analytics
feature of Commerce Server is actually provided by SQL Server.