Web Hosting Glossary
Access - See MS Access.
Active Server Page (ASP) - Short for Active Server Pages. ASP
is a server-side scripting environment (not a scripting language)
developed by Microsoft that allows embedding of scripting commands
in HTML documents to create dynamic web pages. ASP is particularly
useful for reading from and writing to databases in the background,
and displaying the results on web pages. ASP comes with VBScript and
JScript scripting engines, but third-party engines for Perl, REXX,
and Python are also available.
ActiveX - ActiveX controls are software modules based on
Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) architecture. They add
functionality to software applications by seamlessly incorporating
pre-made modules with the basic software package. Modules can be
interchanged but still appear as parts of the original software.
ActiveX controls turn Web pages into software pages that perform
like any other program launched from a server.
Apache - Apache is a freely available Unix based web server
program, which was built by a group of open source programmers. It
is currently the most commonly used web server program on Internet
connected sites. Visit the
official Apache web
site for more details.
Bandwidth - The amount of data that can be transmitted at a
given moment to a server. The higher your bandwidth, the larger
amount of traffic your site can handle at one time. Measured in bits
per second (bps).
CGI - Short for Common Gateway Interface. The CGI standard
lays down the rules for running external programs in a Web HTTP
server. CGI programs or scripts can be written in several
programming languages including C, C++, Java and Perl.
Cgi-bin - The directory on a Web server where CGI scripts are
stored. The name of the CGI directory can be changed by the
webmaster or system adminstrator.
Co-location hosting - This hosting option gives webmasters
more freedom over their servers. Webmaster have to provide the
hardware and network administration and the hosting company will
provide the rack space and Internet connection.
Cold Fusion - Coldfusion is a Macromedia technology which
allows the programmer to a proprietary scripting language directly
within an html document on the server. The server runs the code to
generate the final page which is returned to the client's browser.
This style of embedding a server parsed languaged directly within an
html file is very similar to PHP, ASP and JSP.
Cookie - Cookies are blocks of text placed in a file on your
computer's hard disk. Web sites use cookies to identify users who
revisit the site.
Cron Jobs - Cron jobs (aka Crontabs) are commands for running
certain UNIX processes that need to be executed at a specific time,
either on a regular or continuous basis.
CSS - Cascading Style Sheets are a big
breakthrough in Web design because they allow developers to control
the style and layout of multiple Web pages all at once. With CSS,
when you want to make a change, you simply change the style, and
that element is updated automatically wherever it appears within the
site.
Data Center - This is where all the servers are
located. Technicians are in the same building for administration and
technical support.
Dedicated Hosting - aka as dedicated server.
This type of hosting allows a webmaster to rent an entire server.
This server is not shared with anybody. This is more flexible than
shared hosting (see below), as webmasters have full control over the
server, including choice of operating system, hardware, etc.
Administration, however, is still handled by the hosting company.
Disk Space - Refers to an amount of space on a web server's
hard drive. If for example a web hosting customer was given a disk
space allocation of 100 MB on a web server, the customer would be
able to store a total of 100 MB of data. This can be html, php, asp,
images, or other files.
Diesel Generator - In the event of a power outage, a
diesel-powered generator is used by web hosting companies as a
back-up source to generate electricity for the web servers in the
datacenter.
Domain names - Domain names are the word sequences users enter in their address bar of an internet navigator to visit a specific web site. Each domain name is assigned to an IP address. The DNS ( Domain Name System ) is used to translate the IP addresses into words.
Domain Parking - See Glossary of Domain Name Terms.
Firewall - Software that acts as a security
filter that can restrict types of network communication. Most often
used between a LAN and Internet.
Flash - A plug-in that plays Flash movies, which usually
include animation, sound and even video clips, right in your
browser. Flash was developed by
Macromedia.
FrontPage - See MS FrontPage.
FTP - Short for File Transfer Protocol. Webmasters can easily manage all their files by connected to their FTP.
HTML - Short for the HyperText Markup Language, the language by which Web servers and client browsers communicate. HTML files are plain text files, so they can be composed and edited in different types of operating systems.
HTTP - Short for HyperText Transfer Protocol,
the protocol by which HTML files move across the Internet. Hypertext
Markup Language. HTML allows text to include codes that define
fonts, layout, embedded graphics, and hypertext links.
HTTPS - See SSL.
IIS - Short for Internet Information Server, Microsoft's
server software for Windows NT / 2000 / 2003 .
IP - Short for Internet Protocol. An IP
address is a unique 32-bit number, which identifies a computer in an
IP network. An example of a dedicated IP address is HostLead's IP
address,
http://216.157.135.128.
About shared and static IP addresses
IRC - Internet
Relay Chat. A system that enables Internet users to talk with
each other in real time over the Internet. Most web hosts don't
allow webmasters to host an IRC server on their network.
Java - A programming platform developed by
Sun Microsystems commonly used for web applications on web servers.
JSP - Short forJava Server Page. Regular HTML webpages with
embedded scripts that deliver dynamic content. Mostly used on Linux,
Unix and Solaris platforms.
Load Balancing - Load balancing is dividing the amount of
work that a server has to do between two or more servers so that
more work gets done in the same amount of time.
Managed hosting - A dedicated server that comes with a full
suite of technical support and maintenance services. This differs
from unmanaged dedicated web hosting, where customers are provided
with their own servers but are still responsible for all maintenance
duties.
MIME - MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension) is an Internet protocol that allows other information such as word processing documents, graphics, sound and video to be sent as attachments to E-mail messages.
MS Access - Microsoft's database software.
Most developers however prefer MySQL or MS SQL.
MS FrontPage - A popular site design and management tool
developed by Microsoft.
Official Web site.
Name server - A server responsible for translating IP
addresses and domain names.
NOC - Short for Network Operations Center. This is where all the servers are located. Technicians are in the same building for administration and technical support.
Parking - See Glossary of Domain Name Terms.
POP - Short for Post Office Protocol. It allows e-mail
messages to be downloaded and stored locally through a local email
client like Outlook, Eudora, and Netscape Messenger. Also see SMTP.
Propagation Period - See Glossary of Domain
Name Terms.
Protocol - Defines rules for the transmission of data.
Root - The top of the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy.
Shared hosting - The most basic type of web hosting. A web
server is shared for numerous web sites.
Shell Access - Shell access allows
a user to connect to a server using a SSH client.
SMTP - Short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, a protocol for
sending e-mail messages between servers. Also see POP.
SQL - Short for Structured Query Language. A standard
protocol used to communicate with databases. Servers which can
handle SQL are known as SQL servers.
SSH - SSH Telnet is a secure form of Telnet. It is
a more powerful means of access than FTP, as it allows running
scripts. SSH also allows more possibilities for unwanted actions
which may harm the web server. A very popular (and free) SSH client
is
Putty.
SSI - Short for Server Side Include - A way for a web server
to include variable values and information from an external source
into a web page as it is requested by the browser. Uses include
automatic display of data like the Last Modified date of the page,
or storing common page elements in their own files, enabling
site-wide updates by modifying a single file.
Introduction to Server Side Includes
SSL - A protocol created by Netscape Communications
Corporation for general communication authentication and encryption
over TCP/IP networks. The most popular usage is HTTPS, i.e. the
HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) over SSL.
Subdomain - See Glossary of Domain Name Terms.
Telnet - Telnet is the main Internet protocol
for creating a connection to a remote server.
TCP - Short for Transmission Control Protocol. TCP allows two
web hosts to exchange data, and ensures that not data packets are
lost during the transfer.
TLD - See Glossary of Domain Name Terms.
UNIX - Unix is an open source operating system that was
created created by Linus Torvalds in the late 1960s. The UNIX
operating system comprises three parts: the kernel, the standard
utility programs, and the system configuration files. Unix has
spawned various popular spin-offs, like
FreeBSD and
Linux.
USENET - Usenet is a world-wide network of discussion groups (or news groups).
Virtual hosting - See shared hosting.
Virtual Private Server (VPS) - Almost the same as a managed
server. The main difference is that several Virtual Private Servers
are on one server. Customers therefore get hosting services that are
similar to that of dedicated Web hosting but without sacrificing
performance or privacy. Vps' are the ideal solution for webmasters
who are not ready for a dedicated server but need to upgrade from
their shared hosting account.
Web Space - See disk space.
WHOIS - A central database which tracks all domain name and
IP registrations.
Whois.sc
Windows NT / 2000 / 2003 - These are graphic-based, multitasking Operating Systems developed over the past few years by Microsoft. Both can act as standalone OS for personal computers/workstations, or can serve as an OS for a Web site/network. Most Web hosting companies and resellers offer Windows-based hosting in some capacity or other.
XML - Short for Extensible Markup Language, which allows you to define the tags (markup) that you need to identify the data and text in XML documents. XML Introduction