Internet City

Internet TV IPTV stands for Internet protocol television which many people prefer to call Internet personalized television. ABC’s World News program was the very first television program to be broadcast over the Internet in 1994.

If you never heard of IPTV, you are not alone as many people do not know what it is, even though they might already have experienced a taste of what it is. In simple terms, it is a television service that users subscribe to so that they can receive television shows on their TV that is connected to an Internet protocol network via a broadband or DSL connection. Most people have digital or satellite television now and have the ability to watch videos on demand. The cable or satellite company provides a list of videos that the user can choose to watch. The movie will begin to play when the user selects it. It is called video on demand because the consumer gets to select when they want to watch the movie, unlike with regular network television where the viewer doesn’t get to decide when they will watch a program. The viewer must watch the program when the network airs it or must make provisions to video tape or TiVo the show to watch at a later date. Video on demand is a tiny taste of what internet tv is about, but it is so much more than that.
internet tv programming combines video, data and voice services and while this is not a new idea, it is finally and idea that is ready to go viral. Now that technology is moving forward with leaps and bounds, providing a service fusing all three into one service is a reality. Broadband and DSL provide a high speed pipe through which the data can be sent. In the past internet access was very slow and could not reasonably transmit audio and video in a quick enough way to be beneficial. Technological advances with broadband and DSL have changed the scope of what is possible. Subscribers to web tv would have to have a box attached to their broadband or DSL Internet connection so that the programming can be received via the television. The box is similar to those that are installed by cable companies.
The term IPTV was coined in 1995 by a company called Precept Software. The company engineered and created a software application that could transfer audio and video over the internet using an Internet Protocol. The application was designed to offer distance training solutions for businesses. Precept Software was acquired Cisco Systems in 1998. Cisco was looking to integrate streaming video with network management technology to create a network platform for delivering high-quality video over IP. Cisco still owns the rights to the IPTV trademark, and is considered a big palyer in the internet tv arena.
Audionet is an Internet radio company that began broadcasting news content from several television stations in 1998 featuring continuous live Internet feeds. Audionet claims to be the very first company broadcasting continuous web casts. Today, Audionet carries programming from over 85 television stations along with full length music current music releases and catalogs of past releases. Audionet has many users from other countries.
Shortly thereafter other companies jumped into broadcasting continuous live web casts with content from local television stations. Many of these companies offer programming from other countries which has been fairly successful. Countries such as China and India do not have the infrastructure to support cable so they are banking on the success of internet tv.

The main feature of internet tv is the interactive capabilities that will be available to subscribers. It will be different from cable programming because with cable, the subscribers are forced to accept the programming that the cable companies provide. With web tv, subscribers will be able to select the programming that they want. For example, the viewer will be able to watch programming based upon subject title or the actor’s name. The video will be overlaid with graphics, text and audio, so if the viewer chooses they will be able to look up information such as sports stats on the player or team that they are watching or can find out past acting credits of actor they are watching.

Online TV will be like TiVo because the viewer will be able to record programming and will have the ability to pause live action, fast-forward and rewind. If a subscriber can set it up so that they receive incoming e-mail and instant messages over the television. Their caller0ID can be displayed on the television too. The viewer will be able to watch Online TV as picture in picture, so they can surf the Internet or watch another channel while still watching the original programming in the small picture in picture on screen.

The possibilities of what web TV can offer subscribers are endless. If a subscriber is running late, with a cell phone or PDA he can call his I.P TV and tell it to record the baseball game that he won’t be home to see. If your are watching a cooking show, the viewer can dash off an email to the chef. Subscribers will be able to order the clothing that their favorite actors are wearing on TV, and all from the comfort of their living room sofa or recliner.

Web TV is currently in the testing phase in the United States. There are some kinks that need to be worked out as to how the delivery system works. To be a successful product, the broadband infrastructure must be in place to meet the demands of the subscriber. If a television show breaks up during transmission because the pipeline isn’t large enough to accept all of the data that needs to get through, the subscribers are not going to keep paying for the service.

The one who wants to enter in this web world and desires for a long time survival, then he/she should be familiar with each and every terminology used in this field. If user considers all the important factors before choosing a hosting plan then only he/she will be able to have a successful future in this world .User should not choose any of the plan, rather he/she should opt the best and most suitable one and this can only be made possible by fetching more and more informations and also by studying properly all the requirements. New comers should start from the basics .They should learn the meaning of each and every term used and also in addition those factors that can affect his/her selection.

Web Host

Web host refers to a computer connected to the internet. Web host can also be termed as ‘web server’. The computer that is playing the role of the web server needs to be more powerful than normal PCs and the function of this web server is to serve up websites.

The website content of the user will remain will on this computer, so as the people who are surfing on the internet can get a way to access his/her website.

There can be three main categories in which the web host can be classified based on the economic factor and common features:

1. Free Hosts:

The users who are not professional but are making website only as a hobby then for them free hosting can be a good option. In free hosting space, bandwidth and other features provided are very limited. With free web hosting one can not only make his/her website successful but is also suitable for personal websites or for temporary usage. Generally free hosting enforces pop-up, text or banner ads. Reliability, best performance and customer support lacks in case of free hosting as well. When a user registers for a free host then the word free host gets added with the user’s domain name that gives an adverse effect in the eye of the visitors.

2. Shared Hosts:

The next type of the web hosting to be discussed is shared hosting. This hosting service is used by many of the web sites .This type of hosting service is Suitable for personal, small and medium businesses. This service can be used by paying $1 to $25 per month. The features provided by this service vary from very limited space/bandwidth to semi-dedicated servers. The users host their website by this type of hosting service and it has its own top level domain facility. No doubt that shared web hosting is quite better than free hosting but still it does not provide 100% satisfactory services. In case of shared hosting one server is shared by the number of websites so its performance and availability gets affected. More websites usually means less performance. If less number of websites are hosted by one server then it will be more expensive, but in this case there are more chances of reliability. There are many companies allowing customers to host multiple websites with different domains under a single account.

3. Dedicated Hosts:

The next type of hosting is dedicated hosting. This type of hosting is most reliable hosting. In this type of hosting a full server is dedicated to a single customer. Generally this type of hosting is used by large businesses, professionals and very active websites dealing with thousands of visitors daily. The customers having dedicated hosting can have their total control over the server as well as able to create as many websites as they like. Customers can run their own hosting company on a rented dedicated server. Payment module is mentioned according to specifications and services provided with the server, which varies from $100 up to about $800 dollars per month.

4. Collocated Hosts:

Now the other type of hosting service to be discussed is collocated hosting. This service is very much similar to dedicated hosting. The difference between collocated hosting and dedicated hosting is that in collocated hosting the customer owns the server hardware instead of renting it. In this service the server will be placed in provider’s data center. This service is more expensive than dedicated hosting.

5. Reseller Hosts:

In reseller hosting the providers offers web server storage to their customers, and resells the web server storage to them. Generally providers offer resellers a discount price.

6. Other Hosts:

Including the above type of hosts there are also many other hosts such as email hosts, media hosts, data hosts, etc but these hosts will not be discussed in this article.

Domain Name

Domain name is the name which shows the place where one’s website is located. The actual address of the website is a set of numbers. Each and every web server has its own unique address. Domain name indicates the real addresses of every websites. One can easily remember the domain name of any of the website. Remembering domain name is easier than recalling the IP addresses.

Space / Storage

Space is one of the services provided by the web host. It plays a very important role in the website development. It happens many times that the customer requires more space but the host fails to provide it, so customer should be very careful while choosing the web host. Storage is the amount of web server’s disk space available for customer’s website files, images and databases. Space can be according to the requirement; it can be as small as 5MB in some free hosts and as big as 300GB for some dedicated servers. Earlier prices of the space were very high but prices reduced significantly during the last few years. The hosting plans offering 3GB of space for less than $10 a month can be easily available.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth can be defined as the amount of data transferred from web server to clients’ internet browsers. When ever a person outlook a page the data is transmitted from the server to that person’ PC. If any one is having audio, video and images in his/her website then the bandwidth consumed is more in comparison of the website having only text contents. The bandwidth available in free hosting can be as low as 100MB per month where as in some dedicated servers the bandwidth available is as high as 2000GB a month. The customers who don’t want to pay more for bandwidth can easily find hosting plans offering 75GB of monthly data transfer for less than $10.

Server Type

Generally server means the operating system than runs the web server. Some common types are Windows, Linux and UNIX. Server type refers the server side scripting and database types. The difference between Windows server and Linux/UNIX is that Windows runs ASP and ASP.NET with Access or SQL Server databases where as Linux/UNIX servers usually runs CGI, PHP or JSP with MySQL or Oracle databases. The other difference is that Windows servers are more expensive than Linux/UNIX servers.

Databases

As server type is discussed earlier also, we are able to know that there are different types of databases available. The mostly used is MySQL as it is open source GPL (free) software and can serve a lot of online applications’ requirements such as forums, content management, mailing lists, etc. MySQL, rather its features are limited. MySQL is sufficient for small concern but it is not powerful for the complicated large business sites. Large business requires more powerful databases such as Oracle or SQL Server.

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Server Side Scripting

Usually the new comers prefer to use PHP as server side scripting. The reason behind this is that there are hundreds of open source (GPL) PHP scripts that are able to fulfill the webmaster’s requirements. However PHP also has some limitations in features required by advanced websites same as in the case of MySQL, due to this limitation some professional web developers prefer to use ASP.NET or JSP. Some other developers still prefer to use Cold Fusion, CGI, ASP or PERL.

Email

Now the next very important aspect to be talked about is Email. At present no one can move further in this computer world with having his/her Email account. The one who is planning to do any kind of activity through computer such as to run a business or to provide any kind of service, then the first thing he/she need to do is to open an Email account. There are many hosting plans that include the feature of having some email accounts with customer’s domain. The availability of number and size of email accounts totally depends on the hosting plan one opted. Generally this feature is not included in free hosting. Small plans provide only about 10 accounts where as big plans do not have the limited number. Usually those email accounts are web based and accessible through POP3 clients as well.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

The other service is FTP. File Transfer Protocol is a usual way of transferring files across the Internet. Most of the webmasters used to upload and download their websites contents through FTP. The process of uploading or downloading is performed by using FTP client software. Webmasters require FTP username and password so as to access their web server. There are any hosts who use to provide more than one FTP account to their customers as per their requirement. Rather FTP is unspecified; it is not advisable as per the security reasons.

Control Panel

Control panel is the service available by many of the web hosting companies to their customers. It is a web based application that helps in managing websites. Some important functions performed by the control panel are that it used to manage email accounts, providing statistics, managing FTP accounts, managing domains and sub-domains and managing databases. The control panel application that is mostly used by the user is cPanel. There are many companies who use to develop their own control panel application.

Uptime

Now after having all the services, the thing of concern which remains is how the user keeps his/her website uptime most of the time. If anyone is having a website with excellent features but it remains down most of the time it will be of no use, as when ever the visitors visit his/her website and found it down then later on they will think twice before visiting it. In result he/she will suffer the loss of visitors. Uptime is very important feature of web hosts and that is usually measured in percentage. If a server remains down near about 30 minutes a day will have an uptime percentage of about 99.98%, which is acceptable for most small to medium business websites. If any of the business website is not having at least this percentage of uptime then that website is not suitable for a business website. Mission critical sites cannot tolerate frequent outages, thus they may use web monitoring services to notify web administrators immediately when an outage happens.

Price

Finally the factor left is price. In this option also there is a great variability found like for example customer is having option to choose between the prices ranging from 0 to $1000 per month. For most personal, small and medium websites the total amount of cost involved is just $15 per month. Thus its not at all advisable for business website owners to select very cheap plans let say less than $5 because this price can lead to huge cost indirectly afterwards.