Target Audience, Hosting and Business Issues

ISP’s

Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) telecommunications companies that provide

home or business users with a connection to the Internet.

Organisations that provide Internet Services Must have a local Point of Presence (PoP) Charges and service vary considerably

Application Service Providers (ASP’s) Application Service providers (ASP’s) offer a

more complete service support than ISP’s.

ISP / ASP

Two reasons to have one Dial up to connect to the internet Web space, email, domain name etc.

Home users these are usually the same ISP Usually free (

http://uk-bargains.co.uk/free-internet.html)Business Users may not be the same

Different services, different rates

What services?

Connection to The InternetEmail accounts (how many)Web Space (how much)Technical Help(free?)Fixed / varied IP AddressOther Items?

ISP Services

Charges Most are free these days, except for the cost of phone calls.

There are still a few like ClaraNET and Demon charging for a premium service or unmetred access

Performance Paid-for ISP’s generally okay Unmetred services can be variable depending on time of day

and number of users connected. Unmetred services failing to cope with large numbers of users

shortly after startup (BT, RedHotAnt) Others having to restrict the rate at which users sign up

(NTLworld staggered release of sign-up CD’s)

ISP Services (Cont)

User Support Support web pages are becoming more common

and more detailed, to answer the most frequently-asked questions.

Services charging monthly fees tend to offer local-rate/freephone support numbers (Demon, Clara, etc)

Free/unmetred services are using premium-rate numbers to subsidise the service (e.g. 50p a minute)

The quality of tech support can vary widely BT have been slated with BT Anytime

Internet Services (Cont)

Other facilities they offer such as web page space and support Most offer web space Basic services (restricted /cgi-bin access,

and logging if you’re very lucky). Dedicated games servers Web filtering for family usage (LineOne,

AOL etc) Anti-spam protection Portal-type home pages etc.

What about ISP’s for businesses?

All of the above plus…Web Design ServicesChoice of Hosting Services – (Unix, Linux

or NT)E-commerceSecure SitesDomain Names

Which ISP should business use?

Decide what is neededDecide how much you can spendSurf and find one / Ask peoples

opinionsGet the most for your money

http://www.cheapest-isp.co.uk http://www.uk-isp-directory.co.uk

Servers

Server and Client Side

Web Servers are used to store, manage and supply the information on the World Wide – Server Side

The front-end experience - workstation/phone/PDA/kiosk from which a user accesses a server is described as a client

How to set up a web server A server / Server Software / Operating system

http://www.serverwatch.com Any computer can be a server (the spec

depends on the software you will use) http://www.howstuffworks.com/web-server.htm

Connection to the internet IP Address / Domain Name Entry in Domain Name Server Or…Some ISP that will do the lot for you

Operating System..

WindowsUnixLinuxThe difference????..the price and what

you run on them….

Domain Name

Something that tells the person reading who or what you are

Range From £1 to £5 million Usually done through an ISP Fee paid to ISP (varies) The ISP pay a fee to registering agency

www.easily.co.uk http://www.domainnameshop.co.uk/ http://www.names.co.uk/ http://www.dotcom.com/

Web Addresses for registries and related sites

Nominet UK (www.nic.uk) Internic - http://www.internic.org Asia/Pacific Region (APNIC - www.apnic.net) Americas and Southern Africa Region (ARIN -

www.arin.net ) Europe and surrounding areas (RIPE -

www.ripe.net ) http://www.norid.no/domreg.html http://www.netnames.co.uk

Technical Issues For A Web Server Security

Web servers are a shop-front to any organisation, and very high-profile systems.

Web site defacement is a major problem, as is unauthorised access to data or misuse of the server itself.

http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/ http://www.cert.org/

Reliability the machine will be public-facing, so you cannot afford to

be down for long, if at all. Backups

Technical Issues For A Web Server Bandwidth

Have you got enough to cope with expected traffic, can you buy more if it’s needed, and if it’s capped in any way, how much is excess usage bandwidth going to cost ?

Performance Are the machine and the software man enough for the

job in hand ? Can they be easily scaled up to cope with increased workloads ?

Management Issues For A Web Server Purchase Cost Running Cost Content Management

There’s no point having a web site if you’re not going to bother keeping it up to date.

Maintenance is neglected all too often, leading to “cobweb sites”.

Internet Ethics Is the material likely to cause offence in some jurisdictions

(remember, you may be targeting your material at one country, but be visible globally)

Yahoo French Auction selling Nazi memorabilia

Management Issues For A Web Server

Legal issues Copyright, intellectual property, libel, data protection,

privacy policies, security policies

Information leakage can you afford to risk certain data being exposed via

your web server ? This is especially a problem for sites wanting to run web site and intranet from a single machine – NOT recommended.

Staff Cost

Management Issues For A Web Server (Cont)

Especially Ownership Raising a web site can turn a political “turf war”

into a bloodbath unless handled properly. Responsibility for individual aspects of the site

(content management, page editing, provision of material etc) needs to be sorted out from day one.

This issue kills more web sites than any other management issue.

Where to Start for a business?

Start with a web page… Dreamweaver Frontpage A builder supplied by an ISP

Its an e-commerce presenceA good and cheap option to get a business

on lineVia an ISP

What will an ISP do for business??

Charges Most will charge extra for their business

services. British ISP’s are generally more expensive than American ones

Performance Business customers generally expect, and

get, better performance as they’re paying more.

ISP For Business (Cont)

Web page hosting, facilities and web page design Full cgi-bin access better logging higher-performance web servers with more

bandwidth database services improved security

ISP For Business (Cont)

What else? leased line services domain hosting Consultancy e-commerce services SSL-enabled space

User Support higher-quality support direct access to supervisors/network engineers call-outs for rented equipment.

E-Commerce Options – where next??

You have your little site… Decisions to make before the project grows! Do

you…... Go In-house - grow your own team without any help? Go In-house with some help from an organisation like

an ISP or web design company? Link a shopping cart package to your existing web

pages?

Target audience You have a global audience

- Business and use comes from many countries

- Designers therefore must address an international

community with many cultures Community population on the Internet

- 1997 USA & Canada 80% of the population

- 1999 USA & Canada drop to 55%

- 2000 50% USA & Canada, and 50% Overseas

- 2005 projection 80% of users will be non

America

- 2010 projected figures world wide are: 200m USA,

200m European, 500m Asia, 100m rest of the world

(Source: Designing Web Usability - Nielsen 2000)