RAR (file format) and PayPoint: Difference between pages

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{{Infobox Company
{{redirect|RAR}}
| company_name = PayPoint plc
{{Infobox file format
| company_logo = [[Image:PayPoint logo.jpg]]
| name = RAR
| company_type = [[Public company|Public]] ({{lse|PAY}})
| extension = <tt>.rar</tt>, <tt>.rev</tt>, formerly <tt>.r00</tt>, <tt>.r01</tt>, etc.
| foundation = 1996
| mime = <code>application/x-rar-compressed</code>
| location = [[Welwyn Garden City]], [[United Kingdom|UK]]
<code>application/octet-stream</code>
| key_people = David Newlands, ([[Chairman]])<br>Dominic Taylor, ([[CEO]])
| owner = Eugene Roshal
| industry = Payment systems
| creatorcode =
| products =
| genre = [[Archive format]]
| revenue = [[Pound sterling|£]]212.1 million ([[2008]])
| containerfor =
| operating_income = [[Pound sterling|£]]29.2 million ([[2008]])
| containedby =
| net_income = [[Pound sterling|£]]21.0 million ([[2008]])
| extendedfrom =
| extendedto =
| num_employees =
| parent =
}}{{unreferenced}}
| subsid =
In [[computing]], '''RAR''' is a patented [[archive file format]] that supports [[data compression]], [[error recovery]], and [[file spanning]]. It was developed by [[Eugene Roshal]] (hence the name RAR: '''R'''oshal '''AR'''chive) and currently licensed by ''Win.RAR GmbH''[http://www.win-rar.com/contact.html]
| homepage = [http://www.paypoint.com www.paypoint.com]
| footnotes =
}}


'''PayPoint plc''' ({{lse|PAY}}) is a leading [[United Kingdom|British]] business offering a system for paying [[Invoice|bills]] in the [[United Kingdom]] and [[Republic of Ireland]]. The network is installed at over 20,000 [[Convenience store]]s and [[Petrol station]]s. Generally, payments are made in cash but other forms of payment such as [[Credit card|credit]]/[[debit card]]s and [[cheque]]s may be used dependent upon PayPoint and/or the retailer. The Company is listed on the [[London Stock Exchange]] and is a constituent of the [[FTSE 250 Index]].
The [[filename extension]] used by RAR is <tt>.rar</tt> for the data volume set and <tt>.rev</tt> for the recovery volume set. In previous versions, if a RAR-archive was broken into many smaller files (a "multi-volume archive"), then the smaller files used the extensions <tt>.rar</tt>, <tt>.r00</tt>, <tt>.r01</tt>, <tt>.r02</tt> etc.


==History==
Version 1 and 2 archive files were often used in conjunction with a [[parchive]] [[file archiver]] to create [[parity file]]s for [[error recovery]] when using less-than-perfect file transmission and storage media such as newsgroups, satellite transmission, and [[optical disc]]s. Version 3 has eliminated the need for 3rd party post-processing.
The PayPoint network was set-up in 1996 providing a convenient place for customers to pay towards a limited range of [[Public utility|utility companies']] payment schemes: it was first tested in [[Northern Ireland]]<ref name=history>[http://www.paypoint.com/companyhistory.htm PayPoint: History]</ref> The Company launched its system to the [[media]] in 1997.<ref name=history/> In 1998 the system was first offered to [[British Gas]] customers wanting to pay their bills; in 2000 it was also offered to [[Vodafone]] customers and in 2001 it was extended to [[Scottish Power]], Manweb and [[Orange (company)|Orange]] customers.<ref name=history/> The Company was first listed on the [[London Stock Exchange]] in 2004.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6602/is_/ai_n26014447 PayPoint IPO fits the bill]</ref> The system was first extended to [[TV Licence]]s in 2006.<ref name=history/>


==Versions==
==Operations==
There are now 19,000 retailers offering PayPoint.<ref name=what>[http://www.paypoint.co.uk/whatcanipay.htm PayPoint: What can I pay?]</ref> Some retailers have integrated the PayPoint system into their own [[EPoS]] systems. However, the vast majority use a small counter-top terminal provided by PayPoint. The service offers customers the opportunity to top-up their [[mobile phone]]s, pay for services such as [[gas]], [[electricity]] and [[TV Licence]]s at the same time as their [[shopping]].<ref name=what/> This is extremely useful for those who do not have a [[bank account]] and may not even have a regular income as they can choose when and how much to pay. The customer does not pay a surcharge for using the service; the costs are recouped from the organisation whose bills they are paying.
Several versions of the RAR format have been noted by 3rd party developers:[http://www.unrarlib.org/]
* RAR (original)
* RAR2
* RAR3 (current) – implemented by developers of Rarlab WinRAR version 2.9 and released in WinRAR version 3.00.[http://www.buyrar.com/WinRARVersions.asp#3.20] Many changes including:
** File extensions changed from ''{volume name}.rar, {volume name}.r00, {volume name}.r01, etc.'' to ''{volume name}.part001.rar, {volume name}.part002.rar, etc.''
** Encryption algorithm is changed to AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) with 128 bit key length.
** Encryption of both file data and file headers.
** Improved compression algorithm using 4MB dictionary size, Dmitry Shkarin's PPMII algorithm for text data, selective preprocessing algorithms based on platform and source file type.
** Option of creation of "recovery volumes" (.rev files) with redundancy data which can be used to reconstruct missing files in a volume set.
** Support for archive files larger than 4 GB and Unicode names.


Payments using PayPoint can be loosely grouped into two broad types:
==RAR File Archiver Software==
*Those which either pay off an existing debt or add "credit" to an account
The following is an example of file archiver software by [[Platform (computing)|platforms]]. For a comprehensive list see [[Comparison of file archivers]]
*Those which "charge" (in the same sense as one charges a [[battery (electricity)|battery]]) a "smart" token which then contains the credit.
[[Image:London electricity keymeter key.jpg|thumb|right|265px|Electricity key]]
In the first category is the ability to pay [[Council Tax]] and traditional utility bills, possibly in irregular instalments which would not normally be accepted.<ref name=what/> More recently, PayPoint terminals have been able to offer [[Electronic money|E top-up]] including [[ezetop]]'s international phone top-up remittance service, and print vouchers, for [[prepaid mobile phone|pay-as-you-go]] [[mobile phone]]s, as well as the [[London congestion charge]]. The second category includes [[Quantum (payment system)|Quantum]] [[smart card]]s and similar electricity "smart keys" which are now widely used in place of coin-based [[electricity meter]]s.<ref>[http://www.paypoint.com/energyandwater.htm PayPoint: Serving the energy & water sectors]</ref> The company has also branched out to provide retailers with a credit/debit card processing facility as well as in-store [[Automatic teller machine|ATMs]] connected to the [[Link (UK)|LINK]] network.


Rivals to PayPoint include the [[Post Office Ltd]] (in the [[United Kingdom|UK]]), Payzone and [[An Post]]'s PostPoint network (in Ireland) all of which offer similar services.
===[[Microsoft Windows|Windows]]===
* Read/Write: [[WinRAR]]
* Read-only: [[7-Zip]], [[BitZipper]], [[IZArc]], [[PeaZip]], [[RarZilla]], [[Zipeg]]


==References==
===[[Linux]]===
{{reflist}}
* Read/Write: [[WinRAR|RAR]]
* Read-only: [[unrar]]

===[[Mac OS X]]===
* Read/Write: [[WinRAR|RAR]] (command line), [[SimplyRAR]]
* Read-only: [[RAR Expander]], [[Stuffit Expander]], [[UnRarX]], [[Zipeg]]

===[[DOS]]===
* [[WinRAR|RAR]]
===[[OS/2]]===
* [[WinRAR|RAR]]
===[[FreeBSD]]===
* [[WinRAR|RAR]]

== WinRAR ==
Roshal created the RAR file format and developed programs for packing and unpacking RAR files, originally for [[DOS]]<!--when?-->,{{fact}} which were later [[porting|ported]] to other [[Platform (computing)|platforms]]. The main [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] version of the [[File archiver|archiver]], known as [[WinRAR]], is distributed as trialware, requiring payment after 40 days (although it can still be used after this period, albeit with nags); [[shareware]] versions of this program are also available for [[Linux]], [[Mac OS X]], [[DOS]], [[OS/2]], and [[FreeBSD]], though they are all called simply "RAR".

RARLAB once distributed the source code and binaries for a gratis<!-- to eliminate all confusion with free software --> command-line "unrar" program,{{fact}} although it is not under a [[free software]] license. There is a free software decompression library called "[http://www.unrarlib.org/ unrarlib]", licensed under the [[GNU General Public License|GPL]], based on an old version of unrar with permission from the author Eugene Roshal, but it can only decompress archives created by RAR versions up to 2.x. Archives created by RAR 2.9 and later (which are most RAR archives found today) use a different format which is not supported by the free library.

The mostly free software archiver [[7-Zip]] uses a proprietary plugin under the non-free "unRAR license" for decompression of newer RAR files.

==Comparison to other compression algorithms==
:''Note that compression performance is hard to compare, as it heavily depends on the kind of data being compressed. The statements in this paragraph apply to "typical" data (text, software binaries, productivity software files). See also the section on efficiency in [[Comparison of file archivers]].''

RAR compression operations are typically much slower than compressing the same data with early compression algorithms like [[ZIP (file format)|ZIP]] and [[gzip]], but with a much better rate of compression.

[[7z]]'s [[LZMA]] algorithm is quite similar to RAR in providing extremely high compression efficiency at the cost of computing time to compress and decompress. Both provide among the highest compression efficiency of any popular scheme, with the question of which algorithm is the more efficient compression scheme strongly depending on the files being compressed. Both formats are still being actively developed.

==Features==
Apart from the rate of compression, RAR has several other original features:
* It is able to handle efficiently split [[Volume (compression)|volumes]]. Before the advent of RAR the most notable such format was [[ARJ]]. It is unnecessary to use split volumes for this purpose alone since just binary splitting the files will work fine, and they can be reassembled with [[Cat (Unix)|cat]] or binary copy. Multi-volume files have wide use though, mainly because they are generally easier to handle, especially when the file is spanning multiple disks. Built-in support for multi-volume files enable the unpacking program to simply prompt the user for the next disk, without the need to manually copy and then rejoin the pieces, or for extracting a file from a single piece without needing all pieces. Unfortunately, RAR does not support tapes, as it uses seek and rename operations on its files.
* Variable amounts of [[redundancy (information theory)|redundancy]] (“recovery record”) can be added to an archive, making it more resistant to [[Data corruption|corruption]]. Even if parts of an archive are damaged, it is possible to fully recover the stored data if a large enough recovery record exists.
* RAR archives can be of a [[solid compression|solid]] format, in which all of the compressed files are treated as a single data block. Most currently used compression formats (with the exception of the older ZIP) allow solid structuring.
* It features strong [[encryption]] capabilities. Older versions of the file format used a proprietary algorithm; newer versions use the [[Advanced Encryption Standard|AES]] encryption algorithm, a block cipher adopted as an encryption standard by the U.S. government. The only known ways to recover an encrypted file are via [[Dictionary attack|dictionary]] or [[Brute force attack|brute force]] attacks, which are usually infeasible with non-dictionary [[passphrase]]s starting from 8 characters.
* In newer versions password protection can optionally protect filenames too, so that the files contained within the archive will not be displayed without the right password.
* In Windows environments, it has the capability of storing [[NTFS]] streams and security information within the archive – information that is usually lost on compression.
* In [[OS/2]] environments, RAR can handle [[extended attribute]]s.
* RAR files can be embedded in other file types, probably the most common being [[JPEG]]. Image handling programs, browsers, and other utilities usually ignore any additional data after the end of the image, while RAR ignores anything before the RAR header. The procedure to create such a file is to append a RAR file to a JPEG. (e.g.: in DOS/Windows command-line: <tt>copy /b image1.jpg+something.rar image2.jpg</tt>, in UNIX: <tt>cat image1.jpg something.rar >> image2.jpg</tt>). [http://www.thetechtray.net/articles/rar.php]{{Dead link|date=February 2008}}

==MIME Type==

[[Apache HTTP Server|Apache]] lists the default [[Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions|MIME]]-type for RAR files as <tt>application/x-rar-compressed</tt>.

==See also==
* [[List of archive formats]]
* [[Comparison of file archivers]]


==External links==
==External links==
*[http://www.rarlab.com/ Official RAR site], containing archivers for several platforms
*[http://www.paypoint.com PayPoint]
*[http://www.paypoint.ie PayPoint Ireland]

*[http://www.postoffice.co.uk Post Office]
{{Archive formats}}
*[http://www.payzoneplc.com Payzone plc]
{{Compression Software Implementations}}
*[http://www.payzone.ie Payzone Ireland]
*[http://www.postpoint.ie PostPoint]
*[http://www.ezetop.com ezetop]


[[Category:Archive formats]]
[[Category:Financial services companies of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Payment systems]]


{{FTSE 250 Index constituents}}
[[cs:RAR]]
{{finance-company-stub}}
[[de:RAR (Dateiformat)]]
[[es:RAR]]
[[fr:RAR (format de fichier)]]
[[it:RAR (formato di file)]]
[[he:RAR]]
[[nl:RAR]]
[[ja:RAR]]
[[ko:RAR (파일 포맷)]]
[[pl:RAR]]
[[pt:RAR]]
[[ru:RAR]]
[[sl:Datotečni format RAR]]
[[sr:RAR]]
[[fi:RAR]]
[[sv:RAR]]
[[uk:RAR]]
[[vec:RAR]]
[[zh:RAR]]

Revision as of 18:17, 11 October 2008

PayPoint plc
Company typePublic (LSE: PAY)
IndustryPayment systems
Founded1996
HeadquartersWelwyn Garden City, UK
Key people
David Newlands, (Chairman)
Dominic Taylor, (CEO)
Revenue£212.1 million (2008)
£29.2 million (2008)
£21.0 million (2008)
Websitewww.paypoint.com

PayPoint plc (LSE: PAY) is a leading British business offering a system for paying bills in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The network is installed at over 20,000 Convenience stores and Petrol stations. Generally, payments are made in cash but other forms of payment such as credit/debit cards and cheques may be used dependent upon PayPoint and/or the retailer. The Company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

History

The PayPoint network was set-up in 1996 providing a convenient place for customers to pay towards a limited range of utility companies' payment schemes: it was first tested in Northern Ireland[1] The Company launched its system to the media in 1997.[1] In 1998 the system was first offered to British Gas customers wanting to pay their bills; in 2000 it was also offered to Vodafone customers and in 2001 it was extended to Scottish Power, Manweb and Orange customers.[1] The Company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2004.[2] The system was first extended to TV Licences in 2006.[1]

Operations

There are now 19,000 retailers offering PayPoint.[3] Some retailers have integrated the PayPoint system into their own EPoS systems. However, the vast majority use a small counter-top terminal provided by PayPoint. The service offers customers the opportunity to top-up their mobile phones, pay for services such as gas, electricity and TV Licences at the same time as their shopping.[3] This is extremely useful for those who do not have a bank account and may not even have a regular income as they can choose when and how much to pay. The customer does not pay a surcharge for using the service; the costs are recouped from the organisation whose bills they are paying.

Payments using PayPoint can be loosely grouped into two broad types:

  • Those which either pay off an existing debt or add "credit" to an account
  • Those which "charge" (in the same sense as one charges a battery) a "smart" token which then contains the credit.
Electricity key

In the first category is the ability to pay Council Tax and traditional utility bills, possibly in irregular instalments which would not normally be accepted.[3] More recently, PayPoint terminals have been able to offer E top-up including ezetop's international phone top-up remittance service, and print vouchers, for pay-as-you-go mobile phones, as well as the London congestion charge. The second category includes Quantum smart cards and similar electricity "smart keys" which are now widely used in place of coin-based electricity meters.[4] The company has also branched out to provide retailers with a credit/debit card processing facility as well as in-store ATMs connected to the LINK network.

Rivals to PayPoint include the Post Office Ltd (in the UK), Payzone and An Post's PostPoint network (in Ireland) all of which offer similar services.

References

  1. ^ a b c d PayPoint: History
  2. ^ PayPoint IPO fits the bill
  3. ^ a b c PayPoint: What can I pay?
  4. ^ PayPoint: Serving the energy & water sectors

External links

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