(Aug 23): You've heard about it, and if you're a business owner, you might have considered using it: Electronic Commerce, or, as it is more commonly referred to these days, E-Commerce.

That name brings on a debate of its own. Some people now say that buying goods over the Internet should be referred to as I-Commerce. Those same industry leaders say that E-Commerce has been around longer than the Internet and refers to the point-of-sale systems that have been in place for a long time. Whatever term is finally decided on, we're talking about buying products over the Internet.

I buy just about everything on the Internet for three major reasons: it's fast, it's usually cheaper, and it is much more convenient.

I have an issue with sitting on hold for some ungodly amount of time waiting to talk to someone to order a product or standing in line with people crowding me at a store. That's why I turned to buying things on the Internet.

Most of my books and music come from Amazon.com and cdnow.com. Their prices are very good and I especially turn to Amazon.com's reviews when deciding whether I want to make a particular purchase.

True, you can't read the back of a book or flip through the pages, but on the Internet, you can read what other people have to say about it. I buy CDs on the Internet because with 99 percent of the titles, you can preview some of the songs with the RealAudio plug-in, which is free. If you don't have it installed, the tutorials provided by Amazon.com and CDNow can help out quite a bit.

When I talk to people about buying things, they usually have one major concern: security.

As someone who runs an E-Commerce site and provides security for a bank on the Internet, I have a pretty good understanding of how the information you send back and forth is secured.

First, let's look at giving out your credit card information. When you're in a restaurant, you hand your credit card to a waiter or waitress to pay your bill. What stops this waiter or waitress from writing down your credit card number and expiration date and using that information later? What stops people from picking through that restaurant's trash looking for credit card receipts? What stops that telephone representative at Company X from writing down your card information before they enter it into their processing system?

My point is that using a credit card over the Internet is at least as secure -- and probably more so -- than using it in person.

On the Internet, when you are going to use a credit card, the site you are using will move into a secure session. You can tell this is happening when you see a locked padlock on the bottom bar of your Internet browser.

In Netscape, the unlocked padlock you usually see in the lower left-hand corner will become locked. In Internet Explorer, a gold-colored locked padlock will appear on the right-hand side on the bottom. This tells you that the information you are about to send back and forth is encrypted.

Encryption is not an easy thing to explain, but in simple terms it means that the information you send from your computer is scrambled and locked. This information can only be unlocked and unscrambled by the computer you are sending the information to, such as one of Amazon.com's many servers.

With the newest types of encryption being widely used now, it wouldn't be worth a cracker's (a particularly evil kind of hacker) time to try and get that information. With the type of encryption many use, 128-bit, it would take the brains of the crackers and the most powerful computers in the world a long, long time to ever unscramble and unlock that information. In addition, many online stores now guarantee that if you are subject to credit card fraud from shopping at their site, they will pay the $50 maximum liability your bank can charge you.

I've been ordering online for quite a while, both for business and for personal items, and have never had a fraudulent charge on a credit card. I check my statement every month -- online of course -- and just verify that all the charges that appear were made by me. I do this because it always helps to be proactive rather than reactive.

Let's take a look at an order I recently placed at my favorite online bookstore. I'm an avid Tom Clancy reader and was looking for a few of his books. I brought up the book web site and searched for the author Tom Clancy. I then narrowed that search down by putting in the titles I was looking for.

I brought up one of the books, "Every Man a Tiger" and read the reviews. For the most part the reviews were favorable and I decided to buy the book. It's only out in hardcover, and online store's price was $14. I clicked on the "Add to Basket" icon and was transported to my shopping basket showing the book I had just put in it.

I then went on to search for the second book, one of his non-fiction pieces, and added that to my basket. Then, for good measure, I added a music CD.

I then clicked "Checkout." I was taken to a login page (you must register to purchase anything) and put in my e-mail address and password. Before you enter that information you are taken to a secure (encrypted) session. Remember the locked padlock?

I was then given the option of where I wanted my purchases sent and what credit card I wanted to use. (My favorite online store accepts checks and money orders, or you can phone in your credit card information, but it takes longer to process your order.) After I gave that information, I chose the type of shipping I wanted.

I was then taken to a page showing my order total with shipping included. After I verified that information, I clicked "Process Order" and my order was complete. It probably took less than five minutes to complete that order, much less than more traditional methods.

I received an e-mail confirming my order and explaining I could check the status of it or cancel it at anytime. Five days later (because I chose the standard shipping method) I had my order and I hadn't had to deal with any lines or ear-piercing hold music. I also saved more than $65 from what I would have paid at a traditional bookstore.

If I had a question or concern, I knew an answer was only an e-mail or phone call away. Let me say from previous experience, my online store answers their e-mail faster than anybody I've ever dealt with.

To sum it all up; it's secure, it's fast, it's cheap, and it's really convenient. If you haven't tried out ordering on the web, I suggest giving online shopping a spin, it's a great experience for first time Internet shoppers -- even my parents thought it was easy!

Rest assured that there are lots of tekkies making sure that the information you send back and forth is secure and that we're working to make everyone's online shopping experience a pleasant one.

Ryan Connon is the Systems Administrator for Ligature.Com in Camden; his columns will be a regular feature at Ligature.Com. Please feel free to email him with any questions, comments, and ideas for future columns.