Friday 25 January 2013

Task 2 P2 and P3

• User side factors: Download speed: Download means getting information from another computer or server. The opposite of downloading is uploading, which is sending data to another computer. Usually we do not say "download" for a single web page, for example when you open this page on your computer. When we say we downloaded something, it is normally a bigger piece of information, like data or a computer program. PC performance factors are important because the better it is, the faster your computer will run. This will make websites load quicker which will increase your browsing speed. Google chrome and Safari are usually the fastest web browsers. • Server side factors: A web server capacity is the amount of people that can view the same webpage at once without it crashing. For example, if everyone in a school was all trying to load onto the same website, it might not crash the website completely but it will take a lot longer for it to load. Each website will have a different number of people that can access the same webpage at the same time. BBC iPlayer for example is a very popular website run by the BBC so this website will have a lot of hits every few minutes. This website will then have to have a big capacity so that it can handle all these people on the same page at a time. • Hacking: When people hack into your computer they will be able to see all your personal information, e.g. bank details and passwords. They can then send harmful viruses to your computer. • Virus: Viruses are easily picked up and can do a lot of damage in a short period of time. They disrupt your work and they can corrupt your data and you lose work. The biggest impact is the loss of time they cause to everyone. If you think of time as money then loss of time means loss of money. • ID theft: ID theft is a form of fraud which involves using another person’s identity in order to access things such as their bank details. People sometimes think when they access some website they are safe, sometimes they aren’t and this is how people access your details. ID thefts have made it easier to access information over the internet in recent years. • Protection mechanisms Firewall: firewall is part of a network that is designed to block unauthorized access. It is a device that is used to deny network transmissions based on a set of rules. When owning a web company or any other business it is very important to have a hardware firewall and software firewall because it will help prevent the spread of viruses throughout your network. So if one computer has a virus, it won’t spread to the rest. • SSL (secure socket layer) SSL: this provides communications security over the internet. For websites it is very important to have a certificate showing you are a secure website as costumers are more likely to visit your website and will feel at ease giving out personal details.