General

The lingo. Isn't it awful? Not only that, all those technical people speak it so well, so fast, and seem to assume everyone understands.

Forgive us please.

We don't mean to. It's just that since this is our work language, we do it a lot; usually with people that also know it. Each industry has its unique language. The more technical the industry, the worse it is. Most of the technical industries don't affect us the way the computer industry does. Computers are everywhere and more are going to be present each day. We notice this industry more because we don't talk about other technical industries as often. How often do you talk with a person at a refinery that "cracks" the raw oil? How often do you directly ask them for cracking services?

The Internet

What is it?

In short, it's information. That is why it was created. It was meant to reliably transmit information between locations. Today it huge, helpful, confusing, and useful. Think of it as a giant complex with hundreds of thousands of buildings. Each building may have just one or thousands of offices. Each office may be empty, or it may be filled with furniture. Each area of the office-- well, you get the idea.

It's big, and people are adding to it each day. It has a lot of information in it. Some of it is excellent, some of it is awful. It is as varied as the people that create it. Mostly, it is a good resource. One that people use, enjoy, and will turn to more and more for their needs. When it works properly, it is so convenient. It should be, it is as near as your home or office. Check out our on-line short introduction for a brief overview.

Finding your way around.

Site indexes. Before it became popular, the only indicator of what was available was the index for the site you visited (think of it as the directory for particular building you were in). A few sites had excellent indexes and search capacity. (Search capacity is a guide; you tell what you are looking for and they tell you where to look.) Some sites had, and continue to have, no directory or search capacity at all. You are expected to roam around and find whatever you were looking for-- assuming it is there at all.

Search engines. Because of the huge amount of information present, people began making indexes of what was present in the entire Internet. They gave people access to these indexes and made them searchable. The best ones grew and flourished as people used them. As indexes grew in popularity, the index creators began to accept paid advertising to reach the people that used the index for information. To get more attention than text could generate, they began to use graphic banners that show up near the search bar. Eventually, people began to realize that commerce on the Internet was not only a good idea, it was economical and effective.

Marketing on the Internet

Information, support, and gaining new business.

You can buy an entire page (a web document consisting of several typewritten sheets of information) on the Internet for the price of a printed ad less than the size of your business card. Most business choose to have a web site so they can meet customer support needs or obtain new customers through informing people about their business. Since information was how it all began, the Internet is an excellent place to inform your existing customers and support them. But it has, and will continue to change into, a complete business solution. Many products lend themselves to marketing on the Internet. In addition, like any media that people visit, it is an excellent way to let people know about your business. With the advent of the search engines, if you properly index and market your web site, you become a part of the largest library in the world. But the word "properly" is the key. There are already well over 200 million "pages" on the Internet. You need to reach people and not become lost. Realtors say that sale of a property is based upon three things: "location, location, and location." This also applies to the Internet.

Servers, Communication, and Specialization's

Servers.

Servers are a special name for computers that respond to requests for information from many sites, people, or computers. The requests may be a few feet from them, such as from the computer's own keyboard, but are usually from far way through a communication line. These requests can be from anyplace a communication transmission can reach. It does not matter whether it is a physical phone line, or a radio transmission from outer space. The computer just receives, computes a result, and "serves" the results of the requests. A server that is connected to the Internet has a special communication line that it uses to accept requests from and serve responses to. Servers are limited in their capacity due technical limitations. What we know about designing and building them, and the associated cost, tends to be less than the number of ways we end up thinking of using them. Thus, we often quickly exceed their capacity. Each server is assigned a unique name that identifies it so the information can be routed to it. The name is actually a series of numbers that identify connections. Since, people don't remember numbers well, and they don't have a lot of meaning to people, each number can be assigned an "alias" for people to remember and use. These aliases are called "domains."

Communication capacity.

The line to and from any location has a specific capacity too. It can only accept a certain amount of information within the line before the signal becomes muddled with other signals to the point that no one can understand what was being transmitted. Each time the communication line reaches a connection point, a switch is used to direct the signal to the intended reception location. These switches have capacity limits too.

Specialization.

People can only handle a certain amount of information and requests with efficiency at any one time. That is why we train in specialization's. Same thing happens for servers and communication lines. Optimally, a specific server is dedicated to specific type of task that suits its design. In some designs, several servers are present and a "router" continually checks to see how busy all the servers are. When a request come in, the request is routed to a server that is less busy than the others. In others, some servers specialize in receiving information, others in computing it, and still others in transmitting the result.

Internet Service Provider. When you gain access to the Internet it is usually through an Internet Service Provider (ISP). They give you software and a phone number to connect to their communication and server system. This system, in turn, connects to the main communication lines (think of it as the large highways) to all the other servers. The main communication lines are used to transmit all requests and replies and is called the "backbone" due to its importance in support of the Internet. All the equipment to do this communication is very expensive, technically difficult to control, and limited in capacity.

Host Providers. All servers must have a place to store the programs that it uses in its operation, and save information as it works on it. The most common way this is done is to fit the server with a "hard" disk. It is a place that will keep information even the server is turned off or loses power. Hard disk space is not tremendously expensive and the server can have almost unlimited hard disk space. Few businesses need all this space. If the server is not providing individual communication capacity, it also has excess communication capacity. The excess space can be rented out, along with access to the programs that allow communication with the Internet communication lines to take place. Servers that do this "host" space and communication capacity for others, and hence, the organizations and their servers that perform this are called host providers. Host Providers can be Internet Service Providers but they do not need to be.