Internet Services

 

What is Internet Services?

Internet Services allows us to access huge amount of information such as text, graphics, sound and software over the internet. Some of the internet services are E-Mail, WWW, FTP, Chatting, Internet Conferencing, Electronic Newspaper and Online Shopping.

E-MAIL

E-mail is defined as the transmission of messages on the Internet. It is one of the most commonly used features over communications networks that may contain text, files, images, or other attachments. Generally, it is information that is stored on a computer sent through a network to a specified individual or group of individuals.

Also known as webmail, online email service providers enable users to send, receive and review e-mail from their Web browsers. Email services offer easy access and storage of e-mail messages for users who are not connected to the Internet from their usual location.

When logging into an email service, users simply enter the Webmail Web site URL in their browser’s address or location field, and use their Webmail account by typing in a username and password. Instead of the e-mail being downloaded to the computer used for checking the e-mail account from, the messages will stay on the provider’s server, allowing the user to access all their e-mail messages regardless of what system or ISP is being used.

Email services offer many of the same features and functionality for managing e-mail as desktop email software counterparts like Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird. Some of the more popular online email services are Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail and AOL Mail.

WWW

World Wide Web, which is also known as a Web, is a collection of websites or web pages stored in web servers and connected to local computers through the internet. These websites contain text pages, digital images, audios, videos, etc. Users can access the content of these sites from any part of the world over the internet using their devices such as computers, laptops, cell phones, etc. The WWW, along with internet, enables the retrieval and display of text and media to your device.

The building blocks of the Web are web pages which are formatted in HTML and connected by links called "hypertext" or hyperlinks and accessed by HTTP. These links are electronic connections that link related pieces of information so that users can access the desired information quickly. Hypertext offers the advantage to select a word or phrase from text and thus to access other pages that provide additional information related to that word or phrase.

A web page is given an online address called a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A particular collection of web pages that belong to a specific URL is called a website, e.g., www.facebook.com, www.google.com, etc. So, the World Wide Web is like a huge electronic book whose pages are stored on multiple servers across the world.

Small websites store all of their WebPages on a single server, but big websites or organizations place their WebPages on different servers in different countries so that when users of a country search their site they could get the information quickly from the nearest server.

So, the web provides a communication platform for users to retrieve and exchange information over the internet. Unlike a book, where we move from one page to another in a sequence, on World Wide Web we follow a web of hypertext links to visit a web page and from that web page to move to other web pages. You need a browser, which is installed on your computer, to access the Web.

FTP

The primary purpose of an FTP server is to allow users to upload and download files. An FTP server is a computer that has a file transfer protocol (FTP) address and is dedicated to receiving an FTP connection. FTP is a protocol used to transfer files via the internet between a server (sender) and a client (receiver). An FTP server is a computer that offers files available for download via an FTP protocol, and it is a common solution used to facilitate remote data sharing between computers.

An FTP server is an important component in FTP architecture and helps in exchanging files over the internet. The files are generally uploaded to the server from a personal computer or other removable hard drives (such as a USB flash drive) and then sent from the server to a remote client via the FTP protocol.

An FTP server needs a TCP/IP network to function and is dependent on the use of dedicated servers with one or more FTP clients. In order to ensure that connections can be established at all times from the clients, an FTP server is usually switched on; up and running 24/7.

An FTP server is also known as an FTP site or FTP host.

CHATTING

Internet nowadays is very common and available to all at cheap rates and can be used as a good means of communication. Using the internet we can make text conversations with anyone. Send your message to anyone and will get a reply, it’s known as instant messaging. You can talk over the internet with anyone, which is known as voice chatting, and even with the help of a webcam, we can also have video calls or video chatting.

Chatting refers to the kind of communication done with the help of the internet which present live transmission of text messages from sender to receiver. Online chatting can be termed as the point-to-point, one sender-to-one receiver, or one sender-to-many receiver. It also features voice, video, and also web conferencing services. Chatting can be done as a chat-based as well as video-based (using webcams). Chatting nowadays has evolved uniquely. In today’s world, we have a lot of applications and websites which are widely used across the world. Chatting over the internet has made it a lot easier to have a conversation with anyone. People from any corner of the world are now able to contact the person on the other edge.

INTERNET CONFERENCING

Web Conferencing is an online service by which you can hold live meetings, conferencing, presentations and trainings via the internet particularly on TCP/IP connections. You can connect to the conference either by telephone or using your computer’s speakers and microphone through a VoIP connection.

As with a video conference, connecting to a web conference requires a webcam, a microphone, a monitor and a sound system and a web browser. On a basic level, it also requires an internet connection and a codec for audio/video compression.

Broadly, web conferencing provides a web meeting, webcast and webinar solution. It can also be a platform to host online events. A web conferencing platform can have built-in advanced features. These include screen sharing, instant messaging, desktop sharing, remote control, file sharing and an interactive whiteboard. Some will also allow users to schedule meetings and send automatic invitations to attendees. Web conferencing platforms also need to include security features.

Web conferencing software can be part of a unified communication system. Typically, businesses will save more on integrated web conferencing tools.

ELECTRONIC NEWSPAPER

Newspapers collect, organize, and periodically disseminate information to a community in the form of news articles and other features. They are complex information resources which generally must also be economically viable. Electronic newspapers can provide many of the same types of services as traditional newspapers but they have many additional advantages for the readers. The electronic newspaper can be updated with the latest bulletins, tailored to the reader’s interest, and take advantage of multimedia. However, increasingly, news and related services are being disaggregated and provided by separate suppliers so that in some cases, the electronic newspaper can sometimes be just a personalized web portal.

ONLINE SHOPPING

Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser. Alternative names are: e-web-store, e-shop, e-store, Internet shop, web-shop, web-store, online store, online storefront and virtual store. Mobile commerce describes purchasing from an online retailer's mobile optimized online site or app. An online shop evokes the physical analogy of buying products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or shopping center; the process is called business-to-consumer online shopping. In the case where a business buys from another business, the process is called business-to-business online shopping. The largest of these online retailing corporations are Flipkart, Amazon.com, and eBay.