What is web Hosting?
Web hosting allows your Web site to be connected to the Internet at high speed via a Web server so its information can be viewed globally through a browser. Metaphorically speaking, renting space on a server is comparable to renting an apartment. For a monthly fee, you reside in that apartment and all maintenance is the responsibility of the property. You also have access to certain amenities that would otherwise be a costly investment.
A Web hosting company houses your Web site on its own secure servers, enabling you to affordably leverage the power of a high-speed network, 24/7 expert monitoring and support, and state-of-the-art technology.
Anonymous FTP
A method for downloading and uploading files using FTP protocol without having a username or a password. “Anonymous FTP” indicates that a user may log into the remote system as user “anonymous” with an arbitrary password. A common convention is that the user’s email address is supplied as the password, e.g. “yourname@yoursite”.
Aliased Nameservers
An aliased nameserver is a nameserver that has been labeled as yours (the reseller’s) despite the fact it actually belongs to your Web hosting provider. This ensures that domains located on your server are listed as “ns.yourservername.com” instead of “ns.yourprovidersname.com”. Also see NAMESERVER below.
ASP
A proprietary Microsoft NT scripting language which may be used to enable web pages to interact with online databases. ASP files, which provide Web developers with an easier, faster, and more powerful way to build Web applications, are regular HTML pages with embedded scripts. These scripts can be written in any language and processed by the server when the file’s URL is requested.
Bandwidth
The total amount of data that can be sent through a network connection in a certain time, usually measured in bits per second (bps), megabits per second (Mbps), or gigabits per second (Gbps). The bandwidth provides for a faster loading time for your web site. It is also important because most web hosts only allow a fixed amount of bandwidth each month. Going over the limit can be costly. Be sure to know your exact bandwidth limitations.
Binary Mode
FTP client mode used to transfer binary files (multimedia files, executables and other data files). Not suitable for transferring normal text files.
Burst
In web hosting, burst is when a client suddenly uses more bandwidth than is expected under its contract. Typically, the web hosting company expects this to happen occasionally and has set fees for the client depending on the bandwidth used.
Browser
Computer program that allows searching the World Wide Web and displays the content of the WebPages. Examples are Mosaic, Netscape, Mozilla, Opera and Internet Explorer.
Browser sniffing
The process in which the web site tries to determine what kind of web browser the user is using. This is done to suit the website to the particular capabilities of the browser.
Co-location (colo)
it is a service whereby a company that owns a server houses it in another company’s data center due to the greater security, stronger backbone or other technological reasons.
Command-line interface
The opposite of the GUI (Graphical User Interface). A way of interacting with a computer system using the keyboard and a text-only display. Usually more powerful, but less user-friendly that a GUI (Graphical User Interface).
Control Panel
Control panel included in web hosting packages is an online web-based application that allows you to easily manage different aspects of your account. A Web site Control Panel provides a simple user interface for maintaining and monitoring your Web site. Features of the Control Panel vary among providers, but most include site administration, design, statistical reporting, and account maintenance tools.
Cookie
The most common meaning of ‘Cookie’ on the Internet refers to a piece of information sent by a Web Server to a Web Browser that the Browser software is expected to save and to send back to the Server whenever the browser makes additional requests from the Server. Cookies might contain information such as login or registration information, online shopping cart information, user preferences, etc.
Dedicated Server
Similar to co-location, except that you lease or rent hardware from a Web host. A dedicated server is one that a web hosting company has dedicated to a single client. In other words, only one client can access that server and that company’s site is the only one residing on that server.
DHCP
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. An automated way of obtaining an IP address in the Local Area Network.
Frame Relay
A fast packet switching protocol. Used mainly in Wide Area Networks. It differs from ATM in that packets can have variable length.
Gateway
The technical meaning is a hardware or software set-up that translates between two dissimilar protocols, for example Prodigy has a gateway that translates between its internal, proprietary e-mail format and Internet e-mail format. Another, sloppier meaning of gateway is to describe any mechanism for providing access to another system, e.g. AOL might be called a gateway to the Internet.
HTTP
The protocol for moving hypertext files across the Internet. Requires a HTTP client program on one end, and an HTTP server program on the other end. HTTP is the most important protocol used in the World Wide Web (WWW).
IMAP
Internet Message Access Protocol. A method allowing a client email program to access remote messages stored on a mail server. The protocol includes operations for creating, deleting, and renaming mailboxes, checking for new messages, message parsing, searching, and setting and clearing flags. IMAP was originally developed in 1986 at Stanford.
ISDN
(Integrated Services Digital Network) — Basically a way to move more data over existing regular phone lines. ISDN is rapidly becoming available to much of the USA and in most markets it is priced very comparably to standard analog phone circuits. It can provide speeds of roughly 128,000 bits-per-second over regular phone lines. In practice, most people will be limited to 56,000 or 64,000 bits-per-second.
Mirror
Generally speaking, ‘to mirror’ is to maintain an exact copy of something. Probably the most common use of the term on the Internet refers to ‘mirror sites’ which are web sites, or FTP sites that maintain exact copies of material originated at another location, usually in order to provide more widespread access to the resource.
Another common use of the term ‘mirror’ refers to an arrangement where information is written to more than one hard disk simultaneously, so that if one disk fails, the computer keeps on working without losing anything.
MX Record
Mail Exchange record is part of the zone file and is used to designate which mail server machine should process email for a specific domain.
Propagation
The process where name servers throughout the Internet add new domains and remove expired ones from their records. This can be a lengthy process, which is why connecting to a new domain name can often take three or four days.
Plug-in
An add-on piece of software that can extend the features of an existing application. For example Netscape browser plug-ins allows displaying of new types of web content, which the browser can’t display on its own.
Server
A computer, or a software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece of software, such as a WWW server, or to the machine on which the software is running; e.g. our mail server is down today, that’s why e-mail isn’t getting out. A single server machine could have several different server software packages running on it, thus providing many different servers to clients on the network.
Search engine
An Internet service that stores a vast number of web pages and allows for fast searching among them. Also, a piece of software that implements a website search functionality.
SHTTP
Secure HTTP. A version of HTTP protocol that uses encryption to assure that the traffic between the server and the browser cannot be eavesdropped on. Should be considered mandatory for all e-commerce applications.
SMTP
(Simple Mail Transport Protocol) — The main protocol used to send electronic mail on the Internet.
SMTP consists of a set of rules for how a program sending mail and a program receiving mail should interact.
Almost all Internet email is sent and received by clients and servers using SMTP, thus if one wanted to set up an email server on the Internet one would look for email server software that supports SMTP.
Spam (or Spamming)
An inappropriate attempt to use a mailing list, or USENET or other networked communications facility as if it was a broadcast medium (which it is not) by sending the same message to a large number of people who didn’t ask for it. The term probably comes from a famous Monty Python skit which featured the word spam repeated over and over.
The term may also have come from someone’s low opinion of the food product with the same name, which is generally perceived as a generic content-free waste of resources. (Spam is a registered trademark of Hormel Corporation, for its processed meat product.)
E.g. Mary spammed 50 USENET groups by posting the same message to each.
Shopping cart
A program designed to handle the e-commerce section of a Web site. Shopping cart software lets users browse for and purchase products online.
Static (or dedicated) IP
If a host offers a static IP, it means that your site will be assigned a unique and unchanging IP address. See the FAQ for some possible advantages of using a static IP.
Top Level Domain: (TLD)
A Top Level Domain (TLD) is the uppermost in the hierarchy of domain names. For example, 1001resources.com is our domain name. The “net” is considered the TLD and the “1001resources.com” is considered the second level domain. Together they form a domain name which is unique. There are two types of TLDs. The most common type is the Generic or Global TLDs which include .COM, .NET, .ORG, .MIL, .INT and .EDU. There is a possibility that new gTLDs will be introduced in the near future. National or ccTLDs are two letter country code domains that are managed by a registry designated and controlled by each specific country. Each registry might have differing prices, residency requirements and structure.
URL(Uniform Resource Locator)
The standard way to give the address of any resource on the Internet that is part of the World Wide Web (WWW). A URL looks like this: http://www.webcomindia.net or telnet://anywhere.you.want or news: new.newusers.questions etc.
The most common way to use a URL is to enter into a WWW browser program, such as Netscape, or Lynx.
WWW (World Wide Web)
Two meanings – First, loosely used: the whole constellation of resources that can be accessed using Gopher, FTP, HTTP, telnet, USENET, WAIS and some other tools. Second, the universe of hypertext servers (HTTP servers) which are the servers that allows text, graphics, sound files, etc. to be mixed together.
Zone file
The group of files that reside on the domain host or nameserver. The zone file designates a domain, its subdomains and mail server.
