Establishing An Internet Presence Report

Written By Mark Brady

(1). The available website tools:

The most simple interfaced tool available for the creation of websites is notepad, or any similar text editor. Notepad itself is available to use on any PC that has Microsoft Windows, PC’s with other operating systems, such as Linux and Apple Macintosh’s would have an equivalent text editor. Text editors can be used to create html too, as long as the files are saved as .htm or .html, which can prove somewhat problematic if you happen to forget. To create pages, they need to be written manually using html which itself is essential for those who wish to use Text editors for this purpose. The html interface can be advantageous for some users, for example those using an old PC, text editors take up little memory and are not graphical. Some users may not wish to spend money on a more expensive option, others may prefer the use of text editors because you are typing the html directly, you can type it exactly how you want it. When a web page that is more than “simple” is required notepad starts to show its limitations. Producing a webpage with frames or tables in can prove to be tricky, for example with tables you have to get the dimensions totally correct. The limitations of simple text editors such as Notepad is the main disadvantage of using this method, especially the fact that you have to get the html correct for it to work right, no error detection means that you could make a small error and not find out until some time later. However, there are other third party html editors that overcome the problems of notepad, for example DiDaPro HTML Editor 5.5 has “an instant built-in pre-viewer”, it is far easier to implement tables and frames as it has “easy-to-use table and form and frame editor” for such a function. However this program is free to try for 100 days but afterwards it costs $30 to buy. NoteTab Light 4.95 is another such program. NoteTab light seems to be less advanced than DiDaPro but has many useful features such as a “Paste Board file” you can set up “to save text clips automatically”. The program appears to be very popular, with a 98% positive rating and it is also free of charge to use.

Many hosting websites on the internet provide their own wizards for creating websites for example, UK.Geocities.com, www.tripod.lycos.co.uk, Angelfire.co.uk and www.0catch.com. Such wizards are very simple to use. They are generally ideal for a simple personal website. The wizards are advantageous mainly because the speed of which you can make a website. Once you have joined the site you can make a simple site in just a few minutes. They are ideal as an initial page while a more advanced webpage or website is being created. Their main disadvantage is the poor quality look they generally have, a site/page made in this fashion would only probably appeal to someone in the long term who is just after a simple webpage and doesn’t require much and/or has little computer skills. There are more advanced website wizards available, for example, the Expage.com site (which no longer exists), used to provide fairly advanced webpages, the user didn’t need any knowledge of html as you could just input the data you wished, you could also do things like have background music and insert images. In all/almost all cases, website/page wizards are free

As well as the above two methods, most people however these days generally use website editors such as Microsoft’s FrontPage and Macromedia’s Dreamweaver. Both of these programs use a graphical interface but they both include html editors too, which are handy for editing manually certain parts of the page. The user can perform actions such as changing the background colour, font, inserting images, tables, etc. Without having to type any code. FrontPage is more user friendly, as its interface is typical of a Microsoft product, however most people would need a little instruction as to fully use the features available. Dreamweaver on the other hand, can appear to be somewhat confusing as it has a Macintosh style appearance, consisting of several windows for different purposes. Whereas FrontPage has the main advantage of ease of use, web design professionals generally prefer Dreamweaver as you can preview design changes before they are implemented, it also has far better features for using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Dreamweaver takes up much less hard disk space (approximately 25Mb) while FrontPage 2000 takes up almost ten times as much space. FrontPage, until recently was only generally available through Microsoft Office, however, Microsoft office has ceased to include FrontPage in versions after Office 2000 Premium. Office 2000 appears to be somewhat hard to acquire, Kelkoo.co.uk does not stock the product, while Amazon doesn’t have any in stock. Spell software on the other hand has the product in stock and charges £398.33. FrontPage, as a standalone program is available to buy for £143.99 from Amazon.co.uk and £151.58 from Spell Software. Spell Software has various versions of Dreamweaver available, which are considerably more expensive, ranging from almost £300 to over £750. Amazon, while it appears to have less advanced versions of Dreamweaver has them on sale for £351.28, it also has the earlier version, Dreamweaver 3, both the Mac and the PC versions cost £150. One issue with the software however, is that if it is needed to run on more than one PC a licence is needed for the number of PC’s required, which increases the cost of the software substantially. Overall, in my opinion, I would consider FrontPage to be the better of the two, but that is mostly because I have more FrontPage experience, the superiority of one over the other depends greatly on the users own opinion.

(2). The range of services available on the internet: how users might effect the design and layout of websites

There are many services available to users on the Internet, from shopping, to banking, current affairs and news, Government information, entertainment, as well as many other subjects. Sites generally attract either one type of audience or multiple types of user. Search Engines such as UK.Yahoo.com or www.google.co.uk, both have a look that can be best described as neutral, designed so, while they won’t particularly appeal to anyone, they won’t “offend” anyone or be particularly disliked. Both Google and Yahoo both have a very different design, Yahoo being aimed at users who are looking for news, entertainment, chat room and email facilities etc. Google on the other hand has a very simplistic design; there are little non-search based features. As well as differences based on the type of information the users are after, the age group(s) of the audience is another major factor. Websites that would generally attract a young audience are typically a lot more graphical that websites for a more older age group. Amongst younger users there are still a great deal of difference of what pages would be appealing depending on their age and sex. For example, the site www.residentevilfan.com, generally attracts an audience of 15-30 year olds, mostly male but quite a few female. The children’s BBC website, www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/, on the other hand would attract an audience, both male and female of, perhaps 6-14 year olds, with or without a parent. Advanced features can also be included to website to help improve their aesthetic appearance. Such features include, hitcounters; these inform the user of the number of times that the page has been accessed, guestbooks allow the user to leave feedback, a message to the webmaster etc. Message boards can also be useful for such a purpose. Chat rooms can be useful to allow communication between the site users, background music can be useful on a light-hearted site, although it can become quite annoying to some internet browsers, especially if the user is listening to his own music at the same time as both will be played simultaneously. A search engine can allow the user to search the site or the net itself for a specific term. Most of these features can be coded manually in java, VB script or JavaScript. A much simpler way however is through the use of sites such as Bravenet.com. Bravenet provides free website tools such as the ones mentioned above and more, you choose the ones you wish to have and the site provides the JavaScript code that is required, then you just need to copy and paste the code into the source code of your site. There would be come copyright problems however if the webmaster were to take a “short cut” and acquire the code for such features from the source code of other sites, unless the website gave permission for such action to take place.

(3). The main methods of Internet connectivity

The main methods of connecting to the Internet are through the use of dial up, ISDN, Broadband and other high-speed connections. The standard for dialup these days is through a 56 kilobytes per second (kb/s) modem, ISDN on the other hand has a speed of 144 kb/s. Neither ISDN nor dial up these days are generally suitable for most businesses. The high-speed connections available, which are often called broadband or cable are, DSL that has a speed of 1MB/s, T-1 that has a speed of 1.54MB/s, ADSL that has a speed of 7.1MB/s, T-3 that has a speed of 44.7MB/s and OC-1/786 that has a speed of up to 40GB/s. (The Essential Guide to Telecommunications - Third Edition). For a company the size of SDMP, ASDL would perhaps be the best form of connection available, such an option, as well as being proficient for the current computer system would also allow for future growth. There are many Internet Service Provider’s (ISP’s) which SDMP could take advantage of, one example of such a company is Celcoms.com. Celcoms offer business prices per month such as, £29.99 for a 512 KB/s, £39.99 for a 1 MB/s connection while a 2 MB/s connection costs £54.99. A one off activation fee of £55 is required, however, you can also opt for free activation, although you need to pay a higher monthly fee for each option. Celcoms appears to provide a good quality service from the list of their features, which include unlimited bandwidth, technical support available all the time, a dedicated IP address as well as a back up dial up connection. Another option SDMP could consider is AOL Broadband. AOL costs, per month; £17.99 for their Silver 256 KB/s connection, £24.99 for their 512 KB/s connection and £29.99 for their 1 MB/s connection. They offer benefits such as, free technical support, no set up costs, a powerful firewall and a free broadband modem. However, a BT phone line is required. Tiscali Business also appear to offer a good quality broadband service which includes features like a free antivirus, spam and junk mail filter, technical support and a 30% discount for Norton Internet Security 2005. One of the main benefits of Tiscali, is that it comes with free webspace, a domain name and 20 email accounts, each address personalised to the business’ domain name. Tiscali charges per month; £15.99 for their Business 250 option which is a 256 KB/s connection, £19.99 for their Business 500 option which has a 512 KB/s connection, while for their Business 1000 option which has a 1 MB/s connection they charge £29.99 per month. However a modem/router is required to be purchased, £20 for a single modem and £60 for a router for up to 4 PC’s, however up to 32 network devices can be connected if an Ethernet hub and router/switch is purchased. Although, personally I have no experience of any of the companies, I would suggest Tiscali Business 1000 option, the main reason why is because it also provides a free domain name and webspace, which make the service better value for money than the opposition.

(4). Hosting Provisions

In order for a site to appear and to be fully accessed on the internet then it needs to be stored on a web server, also known as a host. Sites such as Geocities.com and lycos.com, as mentioned earlier, provide a free hosting service. The qualities of such sites, from a professional point of view could best be described as poor, they are generally unsuitable for anything more than a very small, homerun business. For a business such as SDMP, a more professional host would be required. A domain name is also considerably desirable, otherwise the site would have an address such as SDMP.websitehost.com, such a name would be unprofessional for obvious reasons. Domain names can be purchased from various sites but most companies sell both hosting and a domain name, very few offer just one or the other.

The top three hosting provisions that are available, according to the site www.top10cheapwebhosting.com are, Lunar Pages, Pow Web and Globat. Tiscali, as I mentioned earlier, is also an option as their Broadband service also includes a web hosting service and a free domain name. Lunar Pages offers two hosting packages, their shuttle plan costs $7.95 per month while their Voyager plan costs $22.95 per month, both of which provide excellent services. They offer features such as free technical support, Dreamweaver and FrontPage support, no restrictions on file sizes, shopping cart support, and a 30 day money back guarantee. The two packages have a few differences, for example, Voyager has 80 GB bandwidth, while Shuttle has half that amount at 40 GB, Voyager has 1,500 MB of storage space while Shuttle only has 1,000 MB, Voyager has 25 FTP accounts compared to Shuttles’, one, also only the voyager package comes with a secure certificate. Pow Web offers a similar price per month as Luna Pages Shuttle plan, at $7.77 per month. This site offers a daily bandwidth limit of 5 GB per day, which as you can obviously work out, offers better value for money bandwidth wise than even the Voyager plan of Lunar Pages. Pow Web doesn’t particularly support Dreamweaver, but it has significant support for FrontPage. The general features are generally mostly the same as Lunar Pages, for example FTP accounts, storage space of 2,000 MB and 24 hour technical support, through email, instant chat and telephone (which is charge free). This hosting site however offers a professional website builder with thousands of templates, tutorials and access to a forum with 14,000 + members, for example. Globat also offers two deals, their Commerce Starter and Commerce Pro deals. The Starter deal charges a set up fee of $39.95, the price per month depends on how long you wish to have the service for, quarterly the price is $29.95 per month, $24.95 for the annual option and $22.95 for biannually. The starter deal comes with 3,500 MB of webspace, 3,500 POP email accounts and 100 GB of bandwidth transfer, as well as features like FrontPage support, tutorials, live chat room technical support and the hosting seems to be specifically designed for e commerce. The Pro deal charges a setup fee of $49.95, but it charges the same prices per month. The pro deal however comes with 5,000 MB of space, 5,000 POP email accounts and 150 GB of bandwidth. The features offered are almost exactly the same as the starter deal, except with the pro option it seems that the hosting is specifically designed for applications as well as e commerce.

Out of the options mentioned above, overall, I would suggest that Pow Web offers overall the best value of money. However, there is another hosting option that I believe would be ideal for a company such as SDMP, I mentioned the company above, Tiscali Broadband. As I said, Tiscali are a supplier of Business Broadband, so the company, in effect, can kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Tiscali are more than adequate as a broadband service provider for SDMP, they offer a free domain name, although they only offer 100 MB of webspace. However, for now 100 MB would be sufficient webspace, as SDMP grows in size, the webhost could easily be changed to a more suitable one.

(5). Formats of Graphical Files

Graphics are used extremely frequently on the Internet to “brighten up” WebPages and sites. Images are generally the most common of these files, although music and video files are used to some effect.

The most common types of images on the Internet are .jpg, .gif and .png files. Jpg’s are generally the most common image type used on the Internet, these files offer a high quality picture, ideal for photos, the file size however is relatively small due to the file being compressed, when the file is saved in an image program the user can choose the compression level. However, if too much compression is used, the image file will have inadequate detail and will appear to the viewer as being, “grainy”.

Gif files also use compression, however, the file sizes are much smaller than jpg. Gif’s are unsuitable for images as they can only display 256 colours from a selection of 16 million. Gif’s mainly compress the file size by reducing the amount of colours in the image, whole areas that are the same colour have the same information for the whole area, rather than for each pixel of the colour. Gif’s are useful however, for images that are of mostly one colour, or only have a few different colours in them, for example a black and white image or a cartoon. Gif’s can be animated too, for example, to create the illusion of a moving picture.

Png files have been made recently as an alternative to gif files, partly due to the fact that a certain company, by way of a legal “fluke” owns the .gif format. Png is quite similar to gif, however the image quality is superior, it uses a similar form of compression but it supports 16 million colours, the file sizes are often smaller too. Png files are good for images that have large areas of similar colour, but use more colours than the gif format allows. Png files are also good for reproducing images exactly.

Music is generally less commonly used. Some amateur websites, for example a Star Trek fan site may have the Star Trek theme tune playing on the site as background music in .midi format. Music in this format is low quality (generally the same as a polyphonic ringtone for a mobile phone) and nothing like the original version, a lot of people can find it irritating too, especially if they happen to be listening to music of their own at the same time. The positive aspect of midi files is that they take up very little file space. Music can also come into play on entertainment websites, for example, that offer streaming media, video files are also used to a similar effect. For example, the user may wish to hear the latest single from Velvet Revolver, or watch their latest video, or the trailer for the new Star Wars film for example. The user would click the link for the media, choose the level of detail, the data would be sent to the user, typically in Mpeg format (mpeg for video and normally mpeg 3 (aka mp3) format for music). The file is played in the user’s default media player, often as it is downloaded.

Ultimately the users Internet connection can greatly affect their satisfaction. As the number of broadband Internet users increases, the less consideration there is, among website designers, for 56k users. Popular websites that offer streaming media, such as AOL music and MSN music are clearly aimed at those with broadband connections. The problem with using a 56k connection for such a purpose is the amount of time it takes the media file to load, an increasing number of file formats do not support less than broadband speed connections. In most cases, there are different file size options, 56k users will generally end up with having to wait the best part of 10 minutes to watch the movie file with a very small picture. 56k however is generally fine for listening to online radio stations, provided the sound is in lofi format.

Loading times are a similar, although generally less problematic issue when it comes to images. Due to the compression used in image files, it is much less of a problem, a site can be loaded pretty quickly as long as the site doesn’t have an excessive amount of images, or if it manages them well, for example through thumbnails, which let the user see a small preview of the image and click it to see a bigger version. If a webpage has too many images, the user might not have enough space in their temporary Internet files and their browser might stop loading one or more of the images half way through loading. As I mentioned earlier, depending on the type of user, a page that is heavily image-laden may appear extremely unappealing, whereas a page that is mostly text may appear dull and “boring” to a different user.

(6). Internet Browsers

In order to visit websites and WebPages on the Internet, a browser program is required. The two most commonly used browsers are Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape. These two programs are mostly the same, the current versions anyway. Most computer users would generally be more familiar with Internet Explorer than Netscape, although a minority of people prefer Internet Explorer based often on negative feelings towards Microsoft. The two browsers operate in the same way, although they both have different buttons.

Mosaic is another popular browser although it is only generally widely used in North America. However, no new versions of the Mosaic browser have been produced since January 1997 when the National Centre for Supercomputing Applications, which produced the browser, announced that they were halting development in order to focus on other projects. Mosaic is still quite popular amongst users with Unix workstations. Both Internet Explorer and Netscape are based on the code and the interface of this browser, as well as most other smaller browsers that are in existence.

Another alternative is the Opera browser, this is a unique browser in a way because unlike most of the opposition it was coded from scratch rather than based on Mosaic. It was created in 1994 by 2 employees at Telenor (the Norwegian phone company) for the companies own Intranet, they were later allowed to develop the browser for the public. Because Opera is not based on earlier browsers, it allows it to have some interesting features, for example, pages have a "zoom function" and a "multi document interface". The browser was designed to be ideal for computers that are lacking in resources, despite this factor it offers fast browsing and "great support for HTML, XML, WML, CSS, JavaScript, DOM and Java". Opera is also a popular browser amongst those accessing the Internet through other methods. Because of these reasons and the fact that most users tend to be "loyal" "Opera's market share is starting to make a bit of a dent" and is becoming a "popular alternative to the big two".

With the current generation of Internet browsers, almost all features of a website should appear pretty much the same regardless of which version you were to use. However, if the user is using an older browser, the page would be unlikely to appear as the web designer intended it to. For example, if the webpage includes Dynamic html (Dhtml) or JavaScript, and the user is using a browser such as Internet Explorer Version 3, or if they have some advanced features turned off, the code will not work, often the actual code will appear on the webpage. Another problem web designers face is the user's screen resolution. If a page is designed with a screen size of 1024x768 in mind, it will stretch the page so to speak and the user will have to scroll horizontally in order to view all the text, making large amounts of text somewhat annoying to read. If a page is designed with a lower resolution in mind, it will prove to be generally less of a problem, although the page will appear smaller in the users browser. These problems can be overcome in most cases through the use of JavaScript, except with early browsers, although these are rarely used. JavaScript can be used to detect what version of browser the user has, it can also be used to detect their screen resolution. With this information, the site can redirect the user to a page that is specifically designed for the users screen resolution and browser. If the users information is outside the known range, they can receive a page telling them so, perhaps giving them an option of which hyperlink to click or access to a more simple webpage.

(7). Publishing websites and the use of search engines.

When a website has been “completed” or finished to a level sufficiently functional enough to be viewed by the user, it is required, in order to be accessed, to be uploaded onto a server. In order to physically upload the data, a file transfer protocol (FTP) client is required to be used.

There are many different options for FTP. Most/all web hosts have their own on site FTP option where you can click a button then browse through files on your computer for the one that you want. This option is most useful for uploading just a few files, but it can become a bit tedious if you are uploading a big site.

However, there are large amounts of FTP client programs available. These work a little differently, they often have an interface similar to windows explorer, you can upload folders too, allowing you to upload the whole website at once. Almost all hosting sites, even the free ones, will provide you with an FTP web address. The address is used in the FTP client so it knows the location to upload the files to.

As I said, there are a wide range of FTP programs available; they all seem to have basic system requirements. The programs don’t particularly require powerful computers and can generally be run on any windows operating system. Most FTP programs appear to offer free trials but are “required” to be purchased, or they are free but come with malicious adware and spyware. However, Leech FTP appears to be good quality according to the users on download.com, but the program has ceased to be updated and there are a few issues (although the program is still very useable) with Windows XP. Core FTP is another such free program, this however is much more recent compared to the aforementioned Leech program as it was available for download from the 18^th of January 2004. Core includes many useful features such as a drag and drop interface, browser integration, auto reconnect options and it retries/resumes failed/paused downloads. Its commercial/business use however is restricted a little by the terms in its help file.

For a business, a free ftp program would generally be in most cases unsuitable. A fee-charging program would generally be more reliable and have improved technical support etc. Another advantage is that almost all the programs offer a free trial period, which would most likely be ample opportunity for SDMP to acquire a “feel” for the program. FTP Scheduler pro 6.7E is one such example of a useful FTP program. Scheduler is free for 180 transfers, however afterwards a fee of $50 is required. Scheduler “was engineered with automation in mind”, “for businesses that require ftping of files on a regular basis”, this would make the program most useful for a company such as SDMP. Other excellent features of Scheduler include “email notification of transfers” “private/public key inscription” and the software is designed to be used as middleware. Overall, one of the most popular FTP programs is called Cute FTP, it is generally regarded as highly reliable and useful. Cute is also free to try, for a period of 30 days and it costs $49.99 thereafter. The current version of Cute is relatively new as it has been available since the 4^th of August 2004. One disadvantage of Cute however is that the program is designed for the home user, so it would not specifically be too useful for SDMP. Although I don’t have too much personal experience with different FTP programs, in my opinion I would suggest that FTP Scheduler would be the most ideal choice for SDMP.

When a companies website is “live” on the Internet, it of course needs people to view it, commonly called traffic. In the business world especially, the volume of traffic a site receives can make or break the company. Most Internet users would search for a website they wish to find through the use of a Search Engine. Search Engines are very simple to use, the user inputs information, for example, "surfing in Siberia", and the Search Engine gives a list of relevant websites and pages. In order to appear on a relevant search, a site’s address needs to be part of the Search Engine’s database. There are generally three ways to submit a website to a search engine; some like Yahoo for example you manually submit the websites address to the search engine, most Search Engines offer sponsored results, where sites have paid the Search Engine a fee in order to appear at the top of the results. The main way is through the use of meta tags. Meta tags are located at the top of the html code, between these tags, the web designer would put "keywords" that are relative to the site. For example a website on rock music may include such words as "rock", "headbanging", "heavy metal" "Metallica" and so fourth. Whereas a cookery website may have keywords that include "cakes", "cooking", "omelettes" and "meals". Search engines send out their own "robots" commonly called "spiders" to find the information stored in meta tags of web pages, the spiders carry out this through a process called "web crawling". A spider begins this activity by "visiting" web servers, and viewing its websites "following every link found within the site" and begin "indexing the words" found in the meta tags. For a search engine to be successful the site needs to take advantage of extensive use of spider programs. Most spider programs compile through all the words on the webpage, rather than just the words in the meta tags, however the meta tags words are given "special consideration".

(8). Stages involved in developing and maintaining a website

It is all very well deciding to produce a website but there are important procedures which are necessary in the site's development process.

The first stage in development is of course a definition of what the site is to be. Without which "people are often unsure of what they are trying to achieve". The "team" need to state their "aims and objectives" of what they hope the new website to achieve and what advantages they hope the website will bring, for example "cost reductions" or a "better service to customers" etc.

The second stage in development is a feasibility study. It is essential for the team "to determine whether [the website] is technically and economically feasible. Considerations should be taken into account such as; is the technology currently available or not. Will it prove to be "cost effective", taking into account such costs as those for the development as well as the running costs, balanced against benefits "such as reduced costs, better customer service". It should be also considered if the website will be "socially feasible", if it would cause a "shake up", for example due to redundancies, or requiring existing employees to alter their job or receive training. A written report is often presented to the companies management to decide whether to proceed or not.

The third stage in development is a requirements analysis, this involves study of the present equivalent system that is in use and a collection of information. Both of these tasks can be achieved through the use of several methods. Questionnaires are one such method, these can be given sent to staff, management and perhaps in SDMP's case some potential users of the website. Questionnaires are useful for asking large amounts of people their preferences, however, over a small range of people the results are at best, somewhat limited, questions that have "open answers" can often be problematic, with a large amount of unique responses in most cases. Interviewing is another such method. Interviews are advantageous over a relatively small field of people, they are also good for finding more specific information and opinions. However they can cause manpower problems, in an office environment they can disrupt employees work for example. Interviewee's can in some cases be misunderstood, often what would be interpreted by the interviewer would be completely different to what they meant. Observation is another main way of acquiring information, in SDMP's case this would involve observing how the current system operates and studying the companies documents. One disadvantage of observation is that if observing members of staff is required, the subjects would most likely be on their "best behaviour" and perform more professionally than they would normally.

After the website has been created, testing and "debugging" is required to be carried out. This would often happen before the system is "live", by a team who would simulate typical users, with a range of typical inquiries and data. Any errors would of course be rectified, when the website appears to be working correctly, then the decision would be made to take the website live.

It is greatly important that detailed documentation, from the beginning of the development of the website, is performed. Especially with regard to the site design. If there is a problem and the website is threatened, then without sufficient documentation the website could be "down" for a lot longer. The web designers need to know how the site works and in what way it is performed, this is specially true today with the advent of JavaScript and DHTML where the web designer can create their own scripts. Also, if the web designer(s) leave their employment, others would be needed to take over their tasks, they would be required to familiarise themselves with how the website operates.

Procedures concerning the website's maintenance should be carried out in a highly standardised manner. It is of the utmost importance for a website to have a "tidy" and organized source code. This is considerably important for when a web designer, especially one who is not the original designer, needs to locate and fix a problem or update a section. User created Script's should generally be given names that are more "standard", ones that are easier to pinpoint their purpose. The intervals of website maintenance and in some cases the frequency of updates, should be at standard regular intervals. This is especially true in the case of maintenance, a small error can quickly escalate into a large problem and cause much financial trouble for the company in question. "Code" should also be regularly updated or it too could become obsolete, whereas "broken links" and non-working images should also be promptly repaired or removed.

Overall, I would say to you, SDMP, that although there are some, mostly initial disadvantages of having an Internet presence, the benefits would far outweigh them. The disadvantages would be of course, costs as well as the manpower required and the amount of time required, however development of a website would be unlikely to significantly disrupt the "day to day" operation of SDMP, regular maintenance of the site and updates may require initial employees to be taken on. There is of course the danger of hackers and computer virus', but these days firewalls and antivirus software are significantly advanced to relatively protect businesses. The police and international authorities are also much more proficient at catching criminals who use the Internet for malicious activities. The advantages would obviously be mostly financial, it would help SDMP to gain more customers and in the long run it could allow the company to become quite a well known software supplier. Today it is becoming more financially unsound for even small businesses not to have an internet presence, indeed in recent years many companies have gone out of business due to not being "webwise".