Glossary
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Glossary
Alias
This is a name that points to resource with a different name. In the context of email, an alias is an email address which, when it receives email, directs that mail to an email account on the same domain with a different address.
Apache
Apache is open source HTTP web software that is both stable and powerful. The Apache HTTP Server powers your website, and serves pages up to viewers on the internet.
Bandwidth
An amount of data which can be transmitted in a time period over a network connection. Usually expressed in kilobits per second (kbps), or megabits per second (Mbps).
Billing Frequency
This is the period for which payment of services is made, usually in advance of the services. For instance, if you were to pay for 1 year of hosting, on a recurring basis, then you have a billing frequency of 1 year. (If you pay for your web hosting on a yearly frequency, you get 1 month free.
Control Panel
An online interface often used to facilitate Web site or account management and editing.
Database
A collection organized records of information that can facilitate searching, sorting, and recombination of data.
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 disk space.
DNS
DNS (Domain Name System) is a distributed directory system which allows for the resolution of hostnames/domain names to IP addresses. Correct DNS settings are necessary for services dependant on hostnames on the internet to function.
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Domain Name
A domain name is the identifying URL title and address of a Web site, such as www.ramsu.co.nz. Domain names are attached to a DNS (Domain Naming System), which is used to translate numeric addresses (IP addresses) into words. Every Web site has a numeric IP address behind its name.
E-Commerce
Electronic Commerce. The buying/selling (or exchange) of goods and services through the Internet.
Email Forwarding
Email forwarding (or email alias) is when email sent to email addresses is automatically sent (forwarded) to another specified email address. For example, you could have multiple email addresses (i.e. info@domain.co.nz, support@domain.co.nz, webmaster@domain.co.nz) that would all be forwarded to one address (i.e. me@domain.co.nz) for easy checking and responding.
Firewall
Software and/or hardware combination that protects a computer or network from unauthorized access.
FTP
File Transfer Protocol. The most common method for uploading files to servers. FTP allows files to be uploaded from local machines to servers, where the files can be.
GB
Gigabyte. Equals 1024 Megabytes.
Hosting
The provision of infrastructure necessary to make services available to remote users on the internet. This includes web hosting for websites, email hosting for email, database hosting for databases, and hosting of other services online.
HTML
HyperText Markup Language. This is the standard markup language used in web pages. HTML contains the text of a web page, as well as an extensive range of code which instructs the browser as to how the web page should be displayed, such as the color of the text, the background image to be used, tables, hyperlinks, and the like.
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HTTP
HyperText Transport Protocol. HTTP is the standard protocol used to transfer documents, particularly HTML documents, on the world-wide-web. This is the protocol used to access and, thus view, web pages in your browser, for instance.
IMAP
Internet Message Access Protocol. A method allowing 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.
ISP
Internet Service Provider. ISPs are entities who provide points of access to the internet. The means of connecting to an ISP include dial-up through a modem, broadband access via cable or DSL, or corporate networks with internet connectivity.
JavaScript
This is a scripting language that draws influence from C programming language, and is commonly used to incorporate advanced client-side functionality into web pages, such as animations, forms, and roll-over effects.
Linux
A UNIX-like operating system used by Web servers.
MB
Megabyte. Equal 1024 kilobytes.
MySQL
A popular open-source relational database. Linux hosting plans often include MySQL databases
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PHP
A scripting language. PHP commands are embedded within the HTML of a Web page and is useful in the arena of dynamically generated pages. PHP scripting can add numerous interactive elements to a Web site.
POP
Post Office Protocol. This is the standard protocol used by mail clients to connect to and retrieve mail from mail servers. The current version is 3, and is sometimes referred to as POP3.
POP3
As above
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.
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.
Subdomain
A subdomain is a division of a Web site, a section set apart with a different sub-domain name. For example, subdomains of the web site "ramsu.co.nz" are www.ramsu.co.nz, mail.ramsu.co.nz, webmail.ramsu.co.nz, etc.
Traffic
Traffic (or Data Transfer) is 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.
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Web Hosting
This is the service whereby the infrastructure and connectivity necessary for a website to be available on the internet is leased to customers by a hosting company.
Web Server
This is a server which is setup to serve documents, usually built in HTML or server side scripting languages (such as PHP), over HTTP connections. This may refer either to the machine itself, or to the web server software, such as IIS or Apache, that is running on the machine for this purpose.
Web Site
This is a structured collection of documents and associated files which contain everything necessary to instruct a web browser on how to render a site and what content it contains. These are usually written in HTML, but commonly also use CSS, scripts, Flash, and other components that expand the capabilities of the site beyond that provided by HTML alone. Web sites are hosted with web hosts on web servers, usually housed in a data center.
Weblog
Also known informally as a "blog", this is a kind of website or component within a website whereby an individual may post journal entries which are then viewable by visitors to the site, ordered from the most recent to the eldest entries.
Webmail
Allows a user to access email from any computer that has an Internet connection and a Web browser.