5.1 Critique Your Competitor’s E-Commerce Website

Web Site: washingtonpost.com

Rule 1: The Website should offer something unique   Rating: 4.5

I gave washingtonpost.com this rating because it offers more than news it also offers move listing, comics, and clips from sport games. According to alexa.com washingtonpost.com is ranked 325 globally.

Rule 2: The Website should be aesthetically pleasing   Rating: 4.5

I gave washingtonpost.com this rating because it has a lot of movement and people could get distracted and just find another news oriented site to check the news. Also a lot of the articles are bunched together making it hard to click on the one the person wants.

Rule 3: The Website must be easy to use and fast    Rating: 5

I gave washingtonpost.com this rating because if a user uses the tabs at the top of the page or types in a subject they will be able to find articles on that subject.

Rule 4: The Website must motivate people to visit   Rating: 4

I gave washingtonpost.com this rating because even though it has news that might interest some people the way the web site is presented it was not motivating people to stay on the site.

Rule 5: You must advertise your presence on the web  Rating: 4.5

This web site advertises sports and other businesses. I would have given it a 5 if they advertised the newspaper a little bit more.

Rule 6: You should learn from your website      Rating: 5

The user learns about the different events that are happening around the world. According to alexa.com this web site is ranked 325 globally and 72 in the US.

5.3-B2E Electronic Commerce

In the following diagram an employee is requesting information from the Ferrum Times server which makes the employee a client. The employee is using the internet to connect over a VPN to our firewall. After the client connects to the server they will be able to access their files from where ever they are. This diagram is an example of intranet because it is used by an employee to gain access to private files using a password that the company gives them.

5.2-B2B Electronic Commerce

Ferrum Times will use an extranet to do business with Dunder Mifflin. In the following extranet diagram both networks are connected over the internet using a VPN. We would be considered the client because we are requesting information from the Dunder Mifflin server. Both have a firewall to protect information from unauthorized people.

4.4 Entity Relationship Diagram

The following picture is an example of an entity relationship diagram or ERD for short. In the ERD the entities are the invoice, company, customer, and product in the tables listed. Each of these entities are divided attributes which are stored in the columns a database table and records which are stored in the row of the database table. At the top of each row in the database table are the attribute types that are used to help identify the information about the entity. Data types are used to organize and sort data for attributes. Data types usually contain text, numbers, or dates. This diagram is used to show the relationship between the entities.

4.2 Packet Switching Technology

In the picture computer a wants to send a message to computer b while computer c wants to send a message to computer d.This is how computers use Packet Switching Technology. Concurrent data transmission is used to send information through a server. As this information is sent over the server a client can access the information by requesting the information that they need. These computers are connected through a router which gives them an IP address. This is possible because a data packet has been conformed to IP specification. TCP/IP is the protocol used to help all this become possible. The TCP or Transmission Control Protocol breaks down the information into packets and transfers the data from computer to computer. TCP also helps to identify if there is any information that has been sent more than once or missing. If any information is missing the TCP will send to receive it. IP or Internet Protocol defines the data and tells the router which IP address to send the information to.

4.1 IFS H/W Infrastructure

In the following picture a user uses some type of input technology such as a keyboard. The computer then starts processing the information. The processing technology used for processing the information is called the CPU or Central Processing Unit. The CPU is divided into two parts which are called the Control Unit and the Arithmetic Logic Unit. The part of the CPU used in this picture would be the Control Unit because the Arithmetic Logic Unit deals with mathematical functions. The CPU transforms the letters into machine language. Machine language consists of binary code. In America, we use the ASCII method based on the English alphabet. The binary code consists of bits and bytes. Bits are the individual 1s and 0s in the code. Bytes are a collection of bits used to form a character such as the H in hello. The system unit then stores the information binary code in the physical box that houses all of the electrical components of thee computer. After the information is stored it is then displayed using output technologies such as a monitor or projector.