WEB HOSTING GLOSSARY
Anonymous File Transfer Protocol : Allows the public to log into an FTP server with a common login, avoiding the need to assign passwords to anyone who wants to download files from your Web site. This is unnecessary unless you plan on providing downloadable files to the public.
Apache : A webserver program that runs on your web hosting server that recognizes your request and gets pages from the web server. eg. when you type in www.mydomain.com, the request is ultimately directed to the web hosting server where the web server program (eg Apached)decides where to direct your request.
ASP: Active Server Pages. Microsoft product for producing dynamic web pages. Products like Microsoft Visual Interdev is used to write pages for ASP.
Auto responder: An email address automatically responds to the sender with a pre written email message. An example where this is used : Send a thank you message to people who submit a form on your website.
Bandwidth (Data Transfer):
The amount of Data (usually in Megabytes or Gigabytes) that the web hosting company allows you to transfer from your webhosting account.
Data can be a combination of the text, images, video files, etc that is transferred to the user's web browser when they surf through
your site. If your business is small (just a few pages), you probably don't need too much bandwidth.
CGI: Common Gateway Interface. A program that translates data from a web server and then displays that data on
a web page or in an email. CGI scripting can add numerous interactive elements to a Web site. This is usually and advanced feature
and not needed to host small business sites.
CGI Library: Most webhosting companies nowadays provide a collection of pre-built CGI scripts (mini programs) that can be used to add numerous interactive elements to your Web site. An example would be a form-mail processor, where you want to send a specific reply back to sender based on the data they submitted to your site on a form.
Control Panel: An online interface often used to facilitate Web site management and editing. Control panels
often allow hosting customers to perform most functions through a website itself. This can include setting up new domains,
add/change email accounts, Upload small changes to your website files.
Database: A collection organized records of information that can facilitate searching, sorting, and recombination of data. Most web hosts these days provide atleast one database system (eg. MySQL) for you. This is an advanced feature and would require that you do some programming to extract and present the data from the database on your website.
Data Transfer (Bandwidth): The amount of data that you are allowed to transfer (usually monthly). Data = images, text, audio files, video files and everything else that a server transfers to a user's web browser. Approximately 40,000 page views = 1 GB of data transfer. Web sites that get a lot of visitors (and page views) need larger amounts of data transfer (or bandwidth). Also, graphics-heavy sites will need more data transfer than more basic sites.
Dedicated Servers (Dedicated Hosting): Dedicated servers are rented out by Web hosting companies exclusively for your use.
No other websites are hosted on the server. This is different from Shared Web hosting. Most medium to large companies use
dedicated web hosting. Shared Web hosting is more than sufficient for small business users.
Disk Space (Storage Space): Web hosts usually limite the the amount of data you can store on their servers based on the type of service you choose. The Storage space is the sum total of the sizes of all the files - be it web pages, pictures, video files or backup files.
Domain Name: Domain name is the website address that you would type into a web browser. eg.if you type in www.gosmallbiz.org, the "gosmallbiz.org" is called the domain name. The letters after the dot eg. ".org" is also called the domain suffix, or top level domain. Domain names are english words to represent a unique IP address. The IP address is the unique series of numbers that are assigned to you. For an analogy think about a telephone directory that lists your name and telephone number - the telephone number is equivalent to your ip address and your name would be the domain name. Certain domain names are reserved for government (.gov) or educational institutions (.edu).
Domain Pointer: Using a redirection feature on the website to temporarily or permanently point a url to another site. eg. the url www.test1.com is setup to point to www.test2.com.
E-Commerce: Electronic Commerce. The process of transacting goods or services through the Internet.
Email Forwarding: When email sent to different email addresses is automatically sent (forwarded) to another specified email address. For example, you could have multiple email addresses (i.e. info@domain.com, support@domain.com, webmaster@domain.com) that would all be forwarded to one address (i.e. whatever@domain.com) for easy checking and responding.
Fantastico : A collection of programs that do a whole range of stuff - from building content driven websites to page hit counters.
Firewall: Software and/or hardware combination that protects a computer or network from unauthorized access by humans or automated programs.
FrontPage: This is a microsoft product and is an easy to use website building program. When you use Frontpage, it is required that your web host also support Frontpage, or your website will not function. The server needs to support what are called "Front Page extensions".
FrontPage Extensions: A set of programs that allow specific features of a Web site created with Microsoft FrontPage.
FTP: File Transfer Protocol. FTP allows you to transfer large number of files from your computer to your server.
If you just have a few files to transfer, you can use the web based file transfer that comes in your control panel.
GB: Gigabyte. 1024 Megabytes or 1024 x 1024 Kilo bytes
IMAP: Internet Message Access Protocol. A protocol that allows an email program to access remote messages stored on a mail server.
IP Address: Internet Protocol Address. A unique number identifying all devices connected to the Internet. An IP address is typically expressed as a set of four numbers that are three digits each separated by a period. eg. 192.168.1.1.
KB: Kilobyte. 1024 bytes.
Linux: An operating system that is very similar to UNIX used by Web servers.
Managed Hosting: A dedicated server supplemented with technical support and maintenance services. This is an enhancement from standard dedicated Web hosting. Unlike dedicated web hosting, where you still have to perform the maintenance tasks, with managed hosting all the support services are provided by the hosting company.
MB: Megabyte. A million bytes. A thousand kilobytes.
Merchant Account: Gives you the ability to process credit cards online. This ususally requires an approval process from a financial institution that will process your transactions.
Microsoft Access: Microsoft's PC based relational database system. Usually this is not supported on commercial web servers.
Miva Empressa: An XML-based server-side scripting language. Miva Empresa installs on most Unix and Windows web servers and enables the server with XML based Miva Script, commerce processing and database.
Miva Merchant: A dynamic browser based storefront development and management system that allows merchants to create and administrate multiple online stores from anywhere in the world.
MS SQL: Microsoft SQL Server. A relational database management system that is used for larger applications. Windows hosting plans often include support for SQL Server.
MySQL: A popular open-source relational database. UNIX/Linux hosting plans often include MySQL database support. MySQL is typically
used with a programming lanugage called PHP.
Page counter: A small software script that counts the number of times someone visited a web page.
Payment Gateway: Allows the authorization, processing and managing of online transactions.
Perl: A programming language that facilitates data management and processing.
PHP: A scripting language. PHP commands are embedded within the HTML of a Web page. PHP programming can add numerous interactive elements to a Web site. It can be used to present data that is stored inside a datbase on to your web pages.
POP: Post Office Protocol. The protocol used to get e-mail messages from a mail server.
POP3 Email Account: POP3 email allows all emails addressed to your domain to go to one place. If a host allows multiple POP3 email boxes, you can have multiple email addresses eg. joe@mywebsite.com and tommy@mywbesite.com will both have the same POP3 server name but different usernames and passwords.
Server: A computer or device attached to a network used to store files (web pages, images, video) and maintain network resources.
Differece between a Server and a Web Server - A Web Server is a server that runs a special program to serve web pages.
In the hosting industry, a server and a webserver means the same thing.
Setup Fee: Initial fee charged by a host to create your hosting account.
Shared Web Hosting: The opposite of Dedicated Web hosting. Multiple sites hosted on a single server. Multiple Web sites share the system resources of a single server, with each single Web site being allotted specific amounts of resources. Shared Web hosting is the most common (and cheapest) hosting option.
Shopping Cart Software: Software that allows users (customers) of a Web site to add and delete items into an online "shopping cart" and then proceed to purchase the item(s). A shopping cart is an essential component for most e-commerce Web sites, as it allows users to browse for and purchase products online. Some Web hosts provide free (usually more basic) shopping carts, while others provide a shopping cart for an additional fee. Different shopping cart programs range greatly in usability, functionality and features, so choose wisely before creating your online store.
SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. A protocol for sending email.
SQL: Structured Query Language. A database query and programming language used for accessing, updating, and managing data in a relational database system.
SSI: Server Side Incudes. Often used by Web developers in order to facilitate in updating content on Web sites. An SSI is a variable value that a web server can dynamically add to an otherwise static Web page. SSI-enabled Web pages will often be found with .shtml extensions.
SSL: Secure Sockets Layer. Allows encrypted, authenticated communications over the Web. SSL provides security in online commerce. URL's starting with "https://" indicate the utilization of SSL.
Static (Dedicated) IP Address: A unique and unchanging IP address. The opposite of dynamic IP addressing, in which a Web site's IP address is different with each connection to the server. With dynamic IP addressing, several domains can use 1 IP address. With static IP addressing, your Web site gets an unchanging IP address that is not shared with other sites and can be called up in place of your usual www.domain.com.
Storage Space (Disk Space): The storage capacity for images, HTML files, audio files, video files, graphics, etc. A Web site planning to have a large amount of pages and/or planning to use a lot of images (or other large files) will need a greater amount of storage space.
Subdomain: Subdomains are used to divide a Web site. eg. news.yahoo.com is a subdomain of yahoo.com.
Uptime: A statistical indicator which tells you how long a web server was accessible to ussers. This is usually given in percentage. eg. A server with 99% uptime tells you that the server was operational 99% of the time within the period that you choose. By the way 99% is a pretty good number. Ocassionally servers have to be shut down for maintenance etc. Its a machine after all.
UNIX: The most common operating system among Web servers. Unix is a text-based, multitasking operating system that is designed to be used by many people at the same time. Unlike Windows Unix works on the command line. (Although you get third party applications that look like windows that run on the windows platforms).
Virtual Private Servers: Shared hosting servers in which each hosting space is divided amongst several accounts. Different from Dedicated hosting where the server itself is reserved for an individual customer. Virtual Web Hosting: Also known as shared Web hosting. Multiple sites hosted on a single server.
WAP: Wireless Application Protocol. A set of protocols that standardize the way that wireless devices can be used for Internet access.
Web-based Email: Allows a user to access email from any computer that has an Internet connection and a Web browser.
Web Statistics: This is a listing of how many users visited your wesbite, what key phrases they used to get there, their origin country etc. Very useful to fine tune your website.
Windows Hosting: Hosting on a web server that uses Microsoft Windows server software as it's operating platform. Windows hosting plans are useful in the arena of dynamic content generation and database functionality. Windows is a graphic-based, multitasking operating system.
Web Server : Interchangeably used with server in the hosting industry. A webserver is same as a server running a website serving application (eg. Apache)
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