Computer Network

Computer network is an interconnection of various computers to share software, hardware and data through a communication medium between them. There is no limit to the distance between two computers in a network. Technically defining, a computer network is an interconnect collection of autonomus computers. Two Computers are said to be interconnected if they are able to exchange information through transmission media like coaxial cables, fibre optic, copper write, microwaves, satellites etc. The term autonomous means that no one computer can forcibly start or stop the other computer. Any type of data i.e. text, picture, audio and video can be transmitted by using network.

Need for Networking :A common question comes in the mined, what is the need of a computer network? Due to limited resources, we always want to share the resources with others. Also, everyone want to communicate network due to the following reasons.

1. To share computer files: Network enables users to share files with others. For i.e. in an organization one file is to be shared by different departments. Once we place this file on network system, all the department can use this file. 2. To share computer equipment : Laser printers and large hard-disk drives can be expensive. Network enable users to share such equipment by networking microcomputer or workstations together. 3. To improve communication speed and accuracy: Sending messages through network is virtually instantaneous, and there is also less chance of a message being lost. 4. To reduce cost of data transfer: The cost of transfer of documents using computers connected on networks is cheaper than other conventional means like telegrams.

5. Group Working: The time taken to transmit the messages is very small. Hence different computers on a network can be connected together and the users can work together as a group. Software packages have been developed for group working in Data Base Management System (DBMS) and graphic works. 6. Verify Data Transfer: Fluctuations of prices in foreign exchange and share/equities can be communicated instantaneously using the medium of computer communications. The transfer can be accelerated and verified at any instant of time. 7. To increase Productivity: Computer can have fax system integrated with networking. The correspondents working for a particular news paper agency can send their messages in ready to print condition to the central office from were they are further edited and complied for final print in the newspaper. A newspaper correspondent can even send picture along with the text.

e-Business
Introduction : Consumer internet e-commerce uses a single set of technologies. The infrastructure for an e-Shop selling books is essentially the same as is used for the online sale of airline tickets. The important differences between e-Commerce applications are how they fit into the consumer market, how they are supported by the supply chain and their potential alter to alter the role of players in that supply chain. Consumer internet e-Commerce facilities, an e-shop, may be set up by: A new entrant to an existing market; An existing player in the market using the internet to develop a new sales channel. The e-Commerce applications also need an effective supply infrastructure; the online purchaser is not going to be impressed by lines that are out-of-stock or goods that take forever to arrive. An existing retailer has supply chain arrangements that have been built up and tuned over time. The new entrant to his market has to match this efficiency by quickly setting up similar arrangements or

developing an alternative infrastructure that better meets the needs of its way of conducting business. These sectors exemplify the range of consumer e-Commerce services that are available.

Application of e-commerce: Bookshops; Grocery Supplies; Software Supplies and Support; Electronic Newspapers; Banking; Auctions; Gambling.

Internet Bookshops

General Description: One of the first applications of e-Commerce on the net was the internet Bookshop. The story is that Bezos, when he decided to set up an online business, sat down to work out what he could sell online and decided it was books-the result was amazon.com. Books, as an item of merchandise, have four significant advantages for the online retailer: They can, in most cases, be adequately described online. They are not like clothes that the customer might wish to try on or bananas where the customer could want to check the size and ripeness. They are moderately priced-expensive enough to make the transaction worthwhile but transaction payments. Many customers are prepared to wait for the goods to arrive (and there is often a similar wait for books ordered through a conventional bookshop). exacerbates not so expensive that the fears about online customer

 Delivery is manageable. Postal/small packet services can be used at reasonable prices and the customer does not have to be at home to receive the goods; they can be posted through the customers letter box. The facilities of the online bookshop may include: A large database of books. The details available for display include a picture of the cover, description of the book, price and possible customer review; A search engine for author, title, subject, etc.; Details of stock and hence an accurate picture of delivery times (this is, for example, provided by Blackwells which also has a wholesale function and thus has access to this data); Software to record the readers interest and to suggest other titles that might also appeal; Integration into the supply chain, e.g. facilities to send EDI orders to the publisher (again this is a feature of the design on the Blackwells online bookstore).

Grocery Supplies

General Description: Going to the supermarket for many people is just a chore, often the time they can go is the time everyone else can go. The car park is crowded, the aisles are jammed, the queues at the checkout stretch out for miles and then the goods have to be unloaded onto the checkout, reloaded into bags , loaded into the car, taken into the house and loaded yet again into the refrigerator and the cupboards. How much easier if one could call up the home page of the friendly local supermarket, a few clicks of the mouse and the weekly shop is done. The online supermarket is set up to meet the needs of those who cannot get to the supermarket or those who do not want to go. It is an update version of the many home deliver services that existed 40 years ago and have been in gradual decline ever since. The online supermarket works much like any other shop. The customer logs in and selects the groceries that are required. The staff picks the goods, pack and dispatches them. That said, the logistics are a bit different from other online stores:

 Selecting Goods: The typical food supermarket carries a product range of several thousand items and a customer may well select (say) 60 of them on a weekly shopping trip. This is a task that can take some time and the online supermarket tries to help with facilities such as an online shopping list. Delivering Goods: Groceries are both bulky and leaving them outside the back door is not necessarily appropriate. Common practice for home delivery is to arrange a delivery slot with the customer, delivery within a specified two hour period and to make a small charge for delivery. After Sales: If something is wrong, an incorrect product, something is missing or there is fresh produce that is not of acceptable quality, what then? Rectifying these mistakes is not convenient for the customer and, as indicated by Reid, not very easy for the store.

Software Supplies and Support

General Description: Software supplies are both a business to business market and a business to consumer market. The topic of software supplies (for the business to business market ) it is also a consumer market and as it contrasts with the other trade sectors discussed in this description. The internet as a channel for software sales, including computer games, has two distinct advantages: The customers are presumably computer literate and will be able to operate the medium. The product is electronic and can be delivered via the net. The supply chain for software delivered over the net is therefore very simple. It is a straight transaction between the customer and the supplier without the need for any agent or retailer. The supply chain is shown at figure 1.2.

Supplier

Customer

Fig.1.2 Online Software Supply Chain.` Comment For the larger software companies sales (if used) are just one sales channel and it is additional to software supplied through agents/dealers and the local computer store. For these larger companies, the real advantage in the use of the internet is for aftersales with information, support and bug fixes being available online. Online support is used by organizations such as Microsoft, Sun and also by software suppliers for mainframe system.

Electronic Newspapers
General Descriptions: The web, it is suggested, provides a new channel for news distribution that overcomes the shortcoming of both the printed newspaper and of broadcast news on redio and television. The web can give news coverage that is as up-to-date as broadcast news but has the in-depth coverage available from a serious newspaper. The browser could be set to select the news of interest to the reader and to leave out the rest. Newspapers are read on the train or in the park and then may be shared with someone else. The newspaper gives the reader the chance to be selective. The supply chain of the online newspaper is also much simpler than that of the paper version. No need for a midnight deadline before the papers are lode onto lorries, delivered to wholesalers in each major town, re-packaged for delivery to newsagents and then possibly to the door by a paper boy or girl. The supply chain of the online newspaper is direct from company to the readers screen; see figure1.3.

Supplier

Customer

Fig.1.3. Online Newspaper Supply Chain.

Internet Banking
General Description: There are times when the bank customer want to know their bank balance or make an urgent payment and a visit to a branch is not convenient; Internet banking (and telephone banking) can solve these problems. The use of the telephone or the internet also has advantages for the bank; it reduces the cost of processing each transaction (by a factor of between 10 and 100 depending on which report you read) and has the potential to enable the bank to reduce the overhead of the branch network. Online banking allows the customer to check their balance or pay a bill at any time of the day or night. The services offered by online banks typically include:

 Online balance and statement giving up-to-the-minute information. The statement can be used to check that any specific debit or credit has gone through; Credit transfers so that bills can be paid online. Included, is the facility to set up a transaction now for the bill to be paid at a later date; Maintenance of standing orders and direct debits. The supply chain of the banks, using e-banking, reduces usage of the branch network (although a branch or shown in figure 1.4. ATM machine will still be required). The supply chain of the online bank is

Supplier

Branch/ATM

Customer

Fig.1.4 Internet Bank Supply Chain.

The co-operative Bank is clearly out to capture new business. The Smiles banking service includes: A full range of account: current, saving, loans and credit cards; Online money transfer to and any account that provide for electronic funds transfer; Flexible paying in arrangement, for example cash can be paid in at post office branches; Online payment of bill with the system maintaining a list of account to which bills are pay; Online maintains of standing orders and direct debits; Use of ATM machines in the link network for cash withdraws; Conventional cheques;

Virtual Auctions
General Description: Second hand goods, collectables and antiques are sold in shop, auctions, and car boot sales and now on the internet. For online sales the internet is used to put the seller in touch with

the buyer, a bit like small adverts in the local newspaper or a collectors magazine but, using the interactive capabilities of the net, the method of sale is the online auction. The way the virtual auction works is that: The person with something to sell puts a description up online, set a minimum price and a deadline for the auction to end. Other people looking for collectable (or whatever) browse the auction catalogue and can bid for any item they require; the prices will go up. As the deadline approaches bidders may return to place a second and a third bid. The online auction differs from most other e-Commerce implementations. The operator does not have any merchandise to sell; unlike a conventional auction the items are not even at the auction site. The online auction site is providing a virtual meeting place where people with thingh to sell can tie up with people who may want to by-it is like a marriage bureau but there are safeguards built in to try and avoid any breach of promise between the two people that the auction eventually beings together.

The supply chain of the online market is something new. It matches that of the advert in the local newspaper but misses out a stage if compared to selling and buying via some variety of second hand shop. The supply chain is shown at figure 1.5

Seller

Online Auction

Buyer

Fig.1.5. Virtual Auction Supply Chain.

Gambling on the Net

General Description: Gambling takes many forms, forms the simple scratch card, through betting on various sports events to casino type games (often played for high stakes). All these forms of gambling can be replicated on the web.

Internet gambling can be dated back 1995 with the establishment of the first online casino. Form that start the industry has mushroomed with, four years later, over a thousand casino sites online. The way internet gambling works is much like any other eCommerce site; the punter chooses the service and pays with a credit card. Gambling sites can be sophisticated with the facilities of the web used to display the odds, report on the result of the event or simulate the playing of the game. The gambling supply chain is very simple, the transaction is between the bookmaker or casino and the punter, that applies both online and offline. The supply chain is represented in Figure1.6

Bookmaker/ Casino

Punter

Fig.1.6 Online Gambling Supply Chain.

Overall it is difficult to see what can be done about these issues. The problems are compounded by the very different legislative frameworks that operate in different countries. Any attempts that are made to tighten up legal controls in one country may well be evaded by the operators simply moving activities to another location with a less restrictive regime.