Internet and Interanet Engineering Notes
Internet and Interanet Engineering Notes
Similarities
1. Both uses Internet protocol like TCP/IP and FTP.
2. Both can be accessed via a web browser.
Differences
1. Internet is general to computers all over the world while Intranet is for
specific computers only.
2. Internet has a lot of vulnerabilities while Intranet can be safely privatized
as per the need.
3. Internet has public space while Intranet is designed to be a private
space.
4. Visitor’s traffic is unlimited in Internet while traffic allowed is limited in
Intranet.
Internet Ecosystem
Policy Development:
1. IP address policy:
- The process by which allocation policy is proposed and agreed is driven
through bottom-up and open consultation.
- It is mainly handled by Number Resource Organization(NRO) and ICANN
Address Supporting Organization.
- Any individual and organization can participate in policy proposal, which
starts at Regional IP address allocation policy development body.
- The policy that may have global import will be submitted through RIR
policy forum.
- To be declared global, the policy should affect all the five RIR and IANA.
- Global policy are discussed within each of the RIR and a common
position is sought that can then be forwarded to ASO.
- The ASO then communicates the proposal to the ICANN board and once
it is accepted, it is announced global and published on NRO and ICANN
websites.
2. gTLD Policy:
- gTLD policy discussion is initiated by or within ICANN’s GNSO following
inputs from its stakeholders i.e. CBUC, ISPCP, NCUC, gTLD Registries,
Registrars and Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC).
- Each of the stakeholder has their own policy process to allow positions to
be submitted to the GNSO Council for review.
- GNSO has the policy development process under ICANN.
- GNSO will meet the advisory committee for encouraging discussions.
- Once the proposal has passed through GNSO’s policy development
process, it is submitted to ICANN for approval.
Users
- Users the people who makes use of the developed technologies and
Internet following the standard policies and protocols.
- Domain Name System helps to resolve the domain name into an address.
- The DNS consists of Domain names, Domain name space and Name
servers.
- Domain name is the symbolic string associated with an IP address.
- Domain name space refers to a hierarchy in the Internet naming structure.
- The hierarchy has multiple levels, with the root at the top.
- Name server contains the DNS database, which includes names and their
corresponding IP addresses.
- The information is distributed over multiple DNS servers.
- Zone is collection of sub domains under the main domain.
- The server is responsible to maintain a database called zone file for each
zone.
- Name Servers are of 3 types:
a) Root Server (Contains entire DNS tree)
b) Primary Server (Stores a file about its zone)
c) Secondary Server (Transfer information about the zone from another
server)
Teleports:
- Teleport is a satellite ground station with multiple parabolic antennas that
functions as a hub connecting a satellite with a terrestrial
telecommunication network.
- It may provide broadcasting services among other telecommunication
functions, such as uploading a computer program or issuing commands
over an uplink to a satellite.
IP Layer:
- It is responsible for addressing, routing and packaging functions.
- It uses the protocols like IP, ARP, ICMP and IGMP.
- IP is a routable protocol responsible for IP addressing, routing and
fragmentation plus reassembly of the packets.
- This layer helps the packets to travel independently to the destination.
- The order in which the packets are received in the destination is different
from the order they are sent.
Limitations of IPv4
- Due to address class allocation practices, public IPv4 addresses are
becoming scarce. Because of this, it forces deployment of network address
translator to share a public IPv4 address among several private addresses.
But, NAT adds complexity and also becomes barrier for applications.
- IPv4 works with flat routing infrastructure in which individual address
prefixes were assigned and each prefix became a new route in the routing
table.
- IPv4 must be configured either manually or through DHCP.
- It do not have built-in security and rely upon Ipsec for security.
- Due to lack of infrastructure, communication with IPv4 mobile node are
inefficient.
IPv4 Header:
- The IPv4 header consists of following:
1. Version : Version number of Internet Protocol used.
2. Internet Header Length (IHL) : Length of entire IP header.
3. Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) : It is a type of service.
4. Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) : Carries information about
congestion seen in the route.
5. Total Length : Length of entire IP packet.
6. Identification : It helps fragments to identify original IP packet they
belong to.
7. Flags : It tells whether to fragment or not.
8. Fragment Offset : It tells exact position of the fragment in the original IP
packet.
9. Time to live : It tells how many hops a packet can cross.
10. Protocol : Tells network layer in destination about to which protocol the
packet belongs to.
11. Header Checksum : Keeps checksum of the entire header.
12. Source Address : 32 bit address of the sender.
13. Destination Address : 32 bit address of the receiver.
14. Options : It is optional field which is used if the value of IHL is greater
than 5.
- The header structure is shown in given figure:
IPv4 Address:
- IPv4 address is a 32 bit address composed of 4 octets, each of 8 bit;
separated by ‘.’
- IPv4 uses hierarchical addressing scheme.
- A single IP address can contain information about the network, its sub-
networks and also the hosts.
- It is hierarchical because a network can have many sub-networks, which
in turns have many hosts.
- The general addressing scheme is shown below:
| Network(8) | Network(8) | Sub-Network(8) | Host(8) |
- Example : 192.168.0.1
IPv4 Fragmentation:
- The process of fragmentation in IPv4 is managed by a 32 bit field of the
IPv4 header present at 4th octet.
- Identification, flag and fragment offset are responsible for fragmentation.
- A 16 bit identifier allows fragments to share a common value so that they
can be identified as fragments from the same original packet in the
destination.
- A 3 bit flags provides the status. The first bit is unused. The second bit if
set, the packet can not be fragmented and must be discarded if it can not
be forwarded. The third bit is More-fragments-bit, which is set for all the
fragments except the last one.
Example: Suppose a router is attempting to pass 1320 octets of IP packet
into a network whose maximum packet size is 532 octet. So fragmentation
is needed. Here, the original packet is divided into three fragments. The
first fragment with 532 octet (IP payload of 512 octet), second with 532
octet (IP payload of 512 octet) and third one with 296 octets (IP payload of
376 octet).
The demonstration is shown in given figure:
IPv6: Address Format, Header Structure
IPv6 Header:
- IPv6 has one fixed header and zero or more optional extension headers.
- The extension headers consists of information that helps routers to handle
packet flow.
- IPv6 fixed header is of 40 bytes long with following information:
1. Version : Version of Internet Protocol used.
2. Traffic Class : The 6 MSB are used to indicate type of service and the 2
LSB are used for Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN).
3. Flow Label : It maintains the sequential flow of packets belonging to a
communication. It avoids reordering of data packets in the destination.
4. Payload Length : It tells routers how much information a particular packet
contains in its payload.
5. Next Header : It indicates types of extension header or if extension
header is not present, it indicates upper layer PDU.
6. Hop Limit : It tells how many hops a packet can cross.
7. Source Address : 128 bit address of the sender.
8. Destination Address : 128 bit address of the receiver.
The extension headers are as follows:
1. Hop-by-hop Options Header
2. Destination Options Header
3. Routing Header
4. Fragment Header
5. Authentication Header
6. Encapsulating Security Payload Header
IPv6 Address:
- IPv6 address is made of 128 bits divided into eight 18 bits blocks.
- Each block is separated by colon ‘:’
- Example: 2001:0000:3238:DFE3:0063:0000:0000:AB4F
- Some rules are specified to shorten this length. They are as follows:
1. Discard leading zeros. In block 5, 0063 can be written as 63.
2. If two or more blocks contain consecutive zero, omit them all and replace
with double colon ‘::’. Block 6 and 7 can be replace with ::
3. Consecutive zero blocks can be replaced by :: only one. So if zeros still
prevails, they should be shrunk down to a single zero. In second block,
0000 can be written as 0
- After shortening, the IPv6 address is : 2001:0:3238:DFE3:63::AB4F
IPv6 Fragmentation:
- Fragmentation is handled by fragment header.
- It consists of only one flag bit (More-fragment bit) and other two bits are
reserved.
- The packet identifier field is of 32 bits.
- IPv6 router is not able to fragment IPv6 packets. So IPv6 sender is
responsible for fragmenting the IPv6 packet at the source.
Internet RFCs
Internet RFC
- RFC stands for Request for Comments.
- RFC documents is the documents that is used by the Internet community
as a way to define new standards and share technical information.
- It is published by the researchers from universities and corporations to
offer best practices and solicit feedback on Internet technologies.
- RFC is managed by an organization known as Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF).
- RFC should be in plain text format.
- RFC can also be used as the reference to study the glimpse of the early
days of computer networking.
- Some of the early stages of computer networking technologies are
documented in RFC including:
1. Internet domain name concepts (RFC 1034)
2. Address allocation for private intranets (RFC 1918)
3. HTTP (RFC 1945)
4. IPv6 (RFC 2460)
- Comments on RFC are given through the RFC Editor site (rfc-editor.org)
- Each RFC gets a serial number.
- The RFC is static. If it is changed, then it gets a new serial number.
RFC Streams:
- There are four streams of RFC. They are as follows:
1. IETF
2. IRTF
3. IAB
4. Independent Submission
- Only IETF can create Best Current Practice (BCP) and RFC on standard
track.
- An independent submission is checked by IESG for conflicts with IETF
work. The quality is assessed by the independent submission editorial
board.
- IRTF and independent submission are supposed to be experiments for
the Internet without any conflicts with IETF.
RFC Status:
- Each RFC is assigned a designation with regard to status within the
Internet standardization process.
- The status may be:
1. Informational
2. Experimental
3. Best Current Practice
4. Standard Track
5. Historic
- Only IETF approves the standard tracks RFC.
- Standard track is again divided into proposed standard, draft standard
and Internet standard.
- Once RFC is approved as Internet standard, it is provided with a STD
number.
- Informational RFC can be anything that provides information about the
Internet.
- Experimental RFC can be IETF document or individual submission. A
draft is assigned experimental if it is unclear whether the proposal will work
or widely accepted.
- BCP covers technical documents for how to practice Internet standards.
- Historic RFC are the RFC with the technologies that are no longer
recommended for use.
4. IMAP:
- IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol.
- It is the standard protocol for receiving emails in which the stored
messages on the mail server can be viewed and manipulated by the end
users as though they are stored locally.
- Users can organize messages into folders on the server.
- It is a kind of remote file server.
- It also supports multiple logins.
5. PGP:
- PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy.
- It helps to secure e-mails.
- It is a program used to encrypt and decrypt email over the Internet as well
as authenticate messages with digital signatures.
- Each user has encryption key and private key.
- Message is encrypted and send to someone using their encryption key.
- It uses faster encryption algorithm to encrypt message.
- The receiver private key is used to decrypt to short key; which is the key
used to decrypt the message.
6. HTTP:
- HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol.
- HTTP is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative and
hypermedia information system used for data communication in WWW.
- It acts as a request-response protocol in client-server computing model.
- A request message consists of request line, request header field, empty
line and optional message body.
- A response message consists of status line, response header field, empty
line and optional message body.
Example Communication over HTTP
Consider that a http client be web browser which requests
www.egnitenotes.com
Client request:
- A client sends a request in request message as:
GET / HTTP/1.1 (Request line)
Host: www.egnitenotes.com (Request header field)
(Empty line)
Server response:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Mon, 23 May 2016 22:38:45 GMT
Content-Type: text/html; charset = UTF-8
Content-Encoding: UTF-8
Content-Length: 138
Last Modified: Wed, 11 April 2015 11:22:32 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.3.7(Unix)
Etag: “3f80f-1b6-3e1cb03b”
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Connection: close
7. FTP:
- FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol.
- FTP is a standard network protocol used for transfer of files from a server
to a client using client-server architecture on a network.
Communication in FTP
- FTP may run in active or passive mode, which determines how data
connection is established.
- In active mode, client starts listening for incoming data connections from
server on port M. It sends FTP command PORT M to inform server on
which port it is listening. The server then initiates data channel to the client
from its port 20.
- In passive mode, the client uses control connection to send PASV
command to the server and recieves server IP address and server port no
from the server. The client then uses to open a data connection from an
arbitary client port to server IP address and server port no received.
Multiprotocol Support
Operation of MPLS:
- MPLS works by prefixing packets with the MPLS header, containing one
or more labels.
- Each label consists of four fields:
1. 20 bit label value
2. 3 bit Traffic class field for QoS priority and ECN.
3. 1 bit bottom of stack flag (When set, represents current label is last entry
in the stack)
4. 8 bit TTL field.
- MPLS router is required that helps MPLS labeled packets to be switched
after a label lookup.
Path Setup:
- Labeled switched path is established before routing and delivery of
packets.
- QoS parameters are established along the path.
Packet Handling:
- Packet enters into the domain through edge label switching router (LSR).
- Label Switching Router assigns packet to Forward Equivalence Class
(FEC) and then Label Switched Path (LSP).
- Label is appended to the packet and then it is forwarded.
- Within the domain, the Label Switching Router gets the packet, remove
the incoming label, attach the outgoing label and then forwarded to next
label switching router.
- The final LSR within the domain strips the label, reads the IP and
forwards the packet.
- MPLS packet forwarding is explained in given figure:
HTTP Message
- HTTP messages are categorized into two types. They are as follows:
1. HTTP Request message
2. HTTP Response message.
- Both type of messages consist of following parts:
1. Start line
2. Zero or more header fields followed by CRLF
3. An empty line
4. Optional message body
HTTP Request
1. Request Line
- It is a start line used by the HTTP request message.
- It is of given format:
HTTP Response
1. Status Line or Start Line
- It consists of the protocol version followed by a numeric code and its
associated text phrase.
- The protocol version indicates the version of HTTP supported.
- Status code indicates the status of the response.
2. Response Header Field
- It allows the server to pass some additional information about the
response to the web client.
Example
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date : Mon, 21 Aug 2017 12:30:24 GMT
Server : Apache/2.2.14
Content-Length : 88
Content-Type : text/html
Connection : Closed
HTTP Methods
1. GET
- It is used to retrieve information from the server using a URI.
- It has no effect on the data except data retrieval.
- The server response contains status line, header, empty line and
message body.
2. HEAD
- It is also used to retrieve information from the server using a URI.
- The server response contains status line and header only.
3. POST
- It is used to send some data to the server.
- The data includes form data, file upload and so on.
- The server response contains status line, header, empty line and
message body.
- The message body contains the page that is to be redirected after the
data update.
4. PUT
- It is used to request the server to store the included entity body at a
location specified by the given URI.
5. DELETE
- It is used to request the server to delete a file at a location specified by
the given URI.
- It deletes the specified URL.
6. CONNECT
- It is used by the client to establish a network connection to a web server
over HTTP.
7. TRACE
- It is used to provide the content of the request message to the web client.
- It is used as a debugging tool.
8. OPTIONS
- It is used to find out the HTTP Methods and other options supported by
the web server.
HTML
- HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language.
- It is the standard language that is used to create the web pages.
- It is the core of web page development.
- Just as the skeleton of human shapes the human body, HTML helps to
shapes the web page.
- The structure of the web page is defined in HTML using the markups.
- In HTML, the elements are represented as tags.
- Some examples of the HTML tags are as follows:
p = paragraph
br = line break
h1 = heading 1
DHTML
- A proper user interface is the way to lure the customers to use the web
pages. For this, static web pages provided by pure HTML is not enough.
- In other to make the web pages dynamic, the concept of DHTML
emerges.
- DHTML stands for Dynamic HTML.
- It is the concept of making the web pages more interactive to the users
through the combined effect of HTML, client side scripting language (Java
Script), style definition language (CSS), and Document Object Model
(DOM).
- DHTML is purely request/reload based dynamic web page development
concept. It means that no any interaction between client and server takes
place once the page is loaded. The dynamic property is solely the action of
client side scripting language. All the dynamic processing is done by the
client, not the server.
- DOM API leads to the foundation of the DHTML. DOM provides the
representation of the contents of the document as objects, which can be
accessed and manipulated through a structured interface.
WML
- WML stands for Wireless Markup Language.
- It is a markup language that is intended for the devices that uses Wireless
Application Protocol (WAP) specifications like mobiles.
- It provides navigational support, data inputs, hyperlinks, image and so on
similar to HTML.
- A WML document is called deck.
- Deck is arranged into one or more cards.
- Each card represents single interaction with the user.
Example:
XML
- XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language.
- It is the hardware and software independent tool to store and
communicate data.
- It is designed in such a way that it is readable by both human and
machine easily.
- XML is just the information wrapped up within the tags.
- XML tags are not predefined.
- In web development, XML is used to separate data from presentation.
This helps to display same XML data with different presentations as
required.
Example:
Dreamweaver
NVU
Working of AJAX
Web Hosting
RADIUS
- RADIUS stands for Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service.
- It is a networking protocol providing the centralization of Authentication,
Authorization and Accounting for remote access.
- It is a client-server protocol that works in application layer of OSI
reference model.
1. Authentication and Authorization
- The user sends the Network Access Server to access a particular
resource using its identification.
- The NAS forwards the identification credentials to the RADIUS server in
the form of Radius Access Request message. This request consists of
credential information along with the user information such as network
address, account status and so on.
- The server then verifies whether the credentials are true or not using
authentication schemes.
- The server then returns one of the following responses to NAS:
a) Access Reject (Indicates that the user is denied for resource access)
b) Access Challenge (Requests for additional information from the users
such as second password, tokens, and so on.)
c) Access Accept (Grants access to the user)
2. Accounting
- After the user gets access for the resource from NAS, the NAS sends the
RADIUS server Accounting Start that indicates the user has started to use
the resource.
- It generally contains user identification, network address, and session
identifier.
- The Interim Update Record can be sent by the NAS to RADIUS to update
the status of an active session.
- When the user closes the network access, NAS sends RADIUS
Accounting Stop Record.
DHCP Server
- DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.
- It is a network protocol that enables the server to automatically assigns an
IP address to a host from a defined range configured for a network.
Working of DHCP
Example 1:
NITC building had 4 research labs each having 24 computers. All the labs
are located at the first floor. Each computer is to be connected in the
network from NCR located at 2nd floor. Prepare a bill of quality (BoQ) with
the necessary network resources required for complete networking.
Additional Assumptions
1. A NCR room located at second floor consists of 3 servers (DHCP server,
FTP server and Mail server). It also have 1 printer and 1 IP Phone.
2. Each research lab located at first floor consists of 1 printer.
Resources Required
1. Router
2. Switch
3. PC
4. Server
5. Printer
6. IP Phone
7. Cat 6 cable
8. RS 232 cable
Specification Sheet
no of network bits = 8 - 5 = 3
The subnet in first floor becomes:
Lab 1 = 202.10.5.0/27 - 30 hosts
Lab 2 = 202.10.5.32/27 - 30 hosts
Lab 3 = 202.10.5.64/27 - 30 hosts
Lab 4 = 202.10.5.96/27 - 30 hosts
no of network bits = 8 - 3 = 5
Intranet:
---------------
1. Intranet is a private network designed for a large organization to share re
sources within that organization.
2. It makes use of Internet technologies but is isolated from the global Inter
net.
3. It provides easy, economical and fast way of communication within an or
ganization.
4. It restricts the use of resources for the people outside the network, which
provides higher security to the available shared resources within an organiz
ation.
5. If proper security measures like firewalls or gateway are not applied, ther
e is risk of loss of privacy or alteration of sensitive organizational data, that
may put the organization at risk.
Internet
-------------
1. Internet is a public network that is accessible by all the people in the worl
d with Internet access.
2. It uses Internet protocols to link resources across the globe.
3. It enables the user to access information from anywhere in the world with
out any need of geographical constraints.
4. It also helps in online shopping, messaging, easy sharing and communic
ation.
5. The drawbacks of Internet are spams, malwares, leakage of private infor
mation, addiction and non-relevant contents exposure.
Extranet
-------------
1. Extranet is the Intranet that is accessible to some authorized personnel o
utside the network.
2. It is a network that is shared by two or more orgnizations.
3. It helps the organization by effectively collaborating with the clients and c
ustomers.
4. The major problem of an extranet is the security.
5. It decreases physical communication with the customers.
Content
Content is the information that resides within a web site. It may include text,
image, video, animation and so on. The quality of the web page is
determined by the quality of the content it contains and the way of
presenting the content within the page.
Content Filtering
- Content filtering is the process of controlling what content is permitted to
the user.
- It is generally used to restrict the material delivered over the Internet via
web or mail.
- It determines what content to make available and what content to block.
Methods of Content Filtering
Refer to http://www.egnitenotes.com/note/information-system/control-audit-
and-security-of-information-system/#Content Control / Content Filtering for
more information on methods of content filtering.
Packet Filtering vs Content Filtering
1. Packet filtering is a security mechanism at network layer. Content
filtering is a security mechanism at transport and application layer.
2. Packet filtering is done by firewalls. Content filtering is performed by
applications such as browsers.
3. Packet filtering only checks address and port for authorization. Content
filtering checks the content in addition.
JOOMLA
- Joomla is a free open source content management system for publishing
web contents.
- It is built on a MVC web application framework.
- The features of Joomla for intranet web application design are as follows:
1. It is mobile friendly.
2. It provides templates for user interface design.
3. It is flexible and fully extensible.
4. It provides support for multi-user permission levels.
DRUPAL
- Drupal is a free and open source content management system that helps
to organize, manage and publish the web contents.
Tunneling
- Tunnelling is the process by which user can access or provide a network
service that the underlying network does not support directly.
- It allows a foreign protocol to run over a network which is not supported
directly.
- For eg: running IPv4 over IPv6.
VPN
- Virtual Private Network is a technology that creates a encrypted
connection over a less secure network like Internet.
- It allows remote users and branch offices to securely access corporate
applications and other resources securely.
- A secure tunnel is used to transmit data.
- The user must use authentication method via passwords or other tokens
to gain access to VPN.
- It ensures appropriate level of security to the connected components.
- The performance of VPN is affected by the Internet connection of client,
protocol used by ISP and encryption type used by VPN.
- The security protocols used by VPN are as follows:
1. IPSec
2. SSL
3. Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol
4. Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol
VoIP
- VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol.
- It is the process of transmitting voice communications and multimedia
sessions over IP network.
- The transmission is done in the form of IP packets via a packet switched
network over Internet.
- It does not ensure the transmission of all data packets and sequential
order of delivery of data packets.
Methods for VoIP setup
1. ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter)
2. IP Phones
3. Computer-to-Computer
Working of VoIP
1. A signal is sent to ATA.
2. ATA reveives a signal and sends a dial tone confirming Internet
connection.
3. Phone number is dialed. ATA converts tones into digital data.
4. The data is sent to VoIP service provider.
5. The call processor maps the receiver by converting phone number into
IP address.
6. A signal is sent to receiver ATA.
7. When the receiver picks the phone, session is established.
8. The system implements two channels, for two directions.
9. During the conversation, transmission of packets take place.
10. When receiver is put down, the session is closed.
Data Center
- Data center is the facility that centralizes all the IT operations and
equipment along with the storage, management and retrieval of the data of
an organization.
- Security and reliability of the data center must be managed by the
organization.
- Data center is the critical system of the network.
- It is classified as follows:
1. Internet-facing data center
2. Internal data center
Elements of data center
1. Facility (location or space)
2. Support Infrastructure (Sustain security and reliability - biometrics for
security, UPS)
3. IT Equipment (Actual equipment for IT operation and data storage)
4. Operation Staff (Monitor IT operation and maintain infrastructure)
- Unified messaging system is the system that handles voice, fax and
regular text messages as objects in a single mailbox that a user can access
with a regular e-mail client or by telephone.
- It integrates and delivers the group of messaging services through a
single platform.
- It only manages the non-real time messaging.
Features of UMS:
1. Single platform for all messaging services
2. Easy interface
3. Management of non-real time messaging
Fundamentals of e-Commerce
What is e-Commerce?
- E-Commerce is the process of buying and selling goods or services online
through the use of electronic network such as Internet.
- It allows the customer to deal with the producer remotely and more
efficiently.
Benefits of e-Commerce
1. Available at all time
2. Speed of access
3. Availability of goods and services for the customer
4. Easy Access
5. Reach from any geographic location
Types of e-Commerce
1. Business to business
2. Business to consumer
3. Consumer to consumer
4. Consumer to business
Components of e-Commerce
The components of e-Commerce are as follows:
1. Website
2. Shopping cart software
3. Ecommerce payment methods
4. Payment gateway
5. Merchant Bank
6. SSL
Merchant Bank
Merchant banks are financial institutions. Whenever a person clicks on the
checkout
page and puts in the credit card payment details, the merchant bank
processes and
verifies the credit card details and gives instant notification to the customer
as well as to
the merchant.
This component is inbuilt within the Payment Gateway. Merchants need to
open a
Merchant Account to avail this service.
Thorough knowledge of Merchant Bank and Merchant Account is thus
needed to
make your ecommerce a success.
Merchant Account
In the simplest of terms, a merchant account is a specialized account
provided by
a bank or other financial institution to enable real time e-commerce
transactions. It allows
businesses to accept payment online through credit/debit card and e-
check. The account
is set up under a contractual agreement between business/merchant and
the bank.
Broadly, under this agreement the bank agrees to pay the merchant for all
valid
online business transactions, including credit card, debit card and e-check
and processes
the payment made.
Payment Gateway
Payment Gateway is the connector between the buyers and the financial
network.
It helps to process the online payments and credit card processing made
by the customer,
with utmost speed and accuracy. A third party like Verisign or Paypal often
provide this
service.
The correct choice of payment gateway that suits your ecommerce needs
is crucial
and this is where the role of an authentic ecommerce service provider
comes in.
SSL
Secure Socket Layer provides the security factor in payment transaction.
With the
help of a private key for data encryption, SSL transmits confidential user
data, like credit
card information, over the Internet.
Use of SSL in your site assures the customer that their credit card and
other
personal information are NOT being made public or being misused by the
merchant.