Glossary
Internet Service Provider
- Access to the Internet; "www" and email.
The choice of ISPs can be grouped as follows, where the level of service and facilities available decreases as you go down the list
Pay for access
This type of service is aimed at business users, where hosting of your own domain name for your email address and (optional) web site is normal. Additional facilities such as hosting e-commerce sites may be available.
Normally, the ISP's capacity to accept incoming calls is maintained at a level which gives a good service; no engaged tones, no slow connections, fast response to the user and to other users viewing your web pages.
A poll of your business acquaintances' experiences is well worth while before you commit to an ISP.
The ISP I use is Quik Internet because of the good service levels. Check out Quik's web site - www.quik.co.uk - for more information or call 01270 212199.
Pay as you go
This service is targetted at home users since the ISP's name is part of your email and web site address. If you are a business user with a free ISP, do you think it is a good idea to market your business on the web with a "free" ISP name in the address? Most ISPs do offer to host a domain name but again this is aimed at the "familyname.co.uk".
For lower usage home users this type of ISP is likely to be the best choice. The call cost is normally an "0845 lo-call" connection. The ISPs' revenue is from a small fraction of the call cost, recovered from your telephone company and from the advertising on their web site. There are many well known ISPs competing for your attention with free CD-ROMs in the post and from well known retail outlets.
Installation using these CD-ROMs will put their brand name on your PC's copy of Internet Explorer and any difficulties during installation should be put right with the assistance of their telephone help lines @ 50p or more per minute.
Monthly charges with "Unlimited" access
Many of the "Pay as you go" ISPs also offer package deals where you get "unlimited" access using a freephone number. Check the conditions carefully, some deals are not unlimited use but restrict the time of day or the total time per month. Most ISP's disconnect you after one or two hours but immediate re-connection is allowed .
www - world wide web
The world wide web is a huge array of computers situated all over the world. There are literally millions of web pages on these computers. You do not need to know where the page you want to view is located. Just type in the URL (web address, usually www.name) and the page will be found and downloaded to your PC for you to view.
Because URLs can be difficult to find, there are Search Engines which will give a list of possible "matches" to the criteria you give them. Also every advert on TV, magazines, hoardings etc. display their web address.
Links - having found a web site (usually its Home page) a good site will have clear links to the other pages that make up the whole site. Links can be either part of the text - normally in a different colour and underlined and/or combined with graphical images in navigation bars at the side / top / bottom of the window.
If you follow a link and want to return, use the Back button in the browser Toolbar.
Domain names
Have you got your own domain name?
If you are a business and you still don't have one, the world is passing you by. By the time you decide to act, all the best ones which could relate or briefly describe your business will have been taken!
Domain name endings - The international ones include:
.com, .org, .net, .gov, .edu and have recently been extended (the www is running short of possible names)
.co is normally used with a country code
Most American firms use the international codes only (no comment!)
The country code comes after the type code, e.g.
uk = United Kingdom
de = Germany
tw = Taiwan
You should only use the type of code that is applicable to your business. In the UK, .co.uk is used by most companies. Your ISP will advise.
email
Included in every internet provider's package are one or more email addresses. These take the form of: yourname@ispname.co.uk, or yourname@yoursubdomain.ispname.co.uk where subdomains are allowed. If you have your own domain name hosted by the ISP it will be yourchoice@yourdomain.co.uk.
You can send an email to anyone (who has an email address). The advantages to business users are obvious. Home users can send emails to friends and relatives anywhere in the world for the cost of a local call.
The basic form of an email is simple text. You can "attach" one or more files to this text. The files can be word processed documents, spreadsheets, scanned photos etc. The only practical limitation is file size. Do not expect to be successful in attaching and sending a 5MB file, the recipient's ISP may limit the space allowed to store emails and delete it.
emails, in their normal form, do not have any security. Never put anything in an email that you would not write on a postcard.
There is a recent trend to send emails in "HTML" format. This is encouraged by Outlook and Outlook Express's default installation settings. Whilst "pretty" results can be obtained, it depends on the recipient's email application as to whether the result is what the sender expected. More importantly malicious code can be unwittingly concealed in HTML coding, unlike a simple text file.
AntiVirus software to protect your PC is now essential.
Web sites
A web site (as mentioned above in the www section) is a page or pages arranged in a structured way to present what you wish to show to the rest of the world. Family web sites normally consist of some information about each member and scanned or digital camera photos which would be of interest to family and friends.
A business web site is a shop window to potential customers and its creation and presentation should not be undertaken lightly.
As with all advertising;
What message are you going to get across?
Who is your target audience?
How are you going to let them know your site exists?
When (if) they see your site, are they enticed to see the other pages?
Is it quick to download? / Is it over-elaborate and slow?
These are only the inital questions for a basic site. The in requirement now is for e-commerce which is far too large a topic for this brief information page.
Modem / ISDN / ADSL / cable modems
I will try to keep this non-technical. All these devices are hardware to connect your PC to the "telephone line" and may be a card fitted inside the PC or an external box.
A modem is used to connect to a standard (analogue) phone line and works by making "sounds" down the line. The current (fastest) type is "V90" and was available from April 1998. The full potential of a fast modem will not be realised if you do not have a good quality "noise free" connection to your local exchange.
The V90 "56K" is a theoretical maximum for data transfers down to you (33.6K max. upload). Actual attainable download speeds are typically 50.6K down to 45K depending on line condition.
If you have a modem that is pre-mid'98 it likely to be either the earlier V34 standard (28.8 or 33.6K) or the interim 56K (K56flex/x2). Since most ISPs have stopped supporting K56flex and x2, these modem types now operate at V34 speed (33.6K). If you want to upgrade your modem, contact us. The cost of an internal card plus fitting is less than an external modem.
A recent introduction is V92. This has the same transmission speeds as V90 but allows faster initialisation times. As yet, very few ISP's support it.
ISDN uses a Terminal Adapter to communicate digitally on a special, more expensive type of line which (until early 2002) was strongly marketed to SME's by BT and other Telcos. Again, a good quality connection to the exchange is required. The basic ISDN package has two 64K data lines which can be combined to give 128K. Combining the two lines normally means the call charge is doubled.
The single line speed of 64K is not greatly faster than a good V90 modem but ISDN, being digital, does not have the 20 seconds or more analogue handshake time when connecting.
"Broadband" or ADSL is a newer, faster type of line, where you can be continuously on-line. It is now claimed to be less expensive than ISDN. The roll out has been slow during 2002, initially coverage has concentrated on the more densely populated areas. The "A" in ADSL means the download speed is faster than the upload speed which is fine for most users. Costs vary depending on the maximum download speed allowed. The actual speed depends on the other users in your area (you are all sharing on a virtual network).
The alternative "local loop" to BT is cable. The only technical difference is the "cable modem". For Home users, the cable modem is included in the "TV set top box". All that is needed is a LAN (Ethernet) cable to the PC and a LAN to USB converter if a LAN card is not already fitted. Business users need a dedicated cable modem.
With the "always connected" type of line, you pay for the speed advantage as opposed to the connection time as most users do at the moment. It will also mean that all users in an area are part of a network. PC protection (Firewall and antivirus) will need to be the norm.
This web page is intended to be a brief overview of this topic and will be updated as /when required.
Comments for inclusion or amendment are welcome.
