ASP / .ASP
(Active Server Pages)
ASP has come to have numerous meanings in the
technology/computing/internet world. ASP is a term for application service
provider, and is a new term meaning to provide a hosted application. An
application might be to run a virus application from a website which in
turn scours your local hard drive. The application is never installed on
your machine. Another might be to provide accounting or billing or
warehouse software from a remote location.
".asp" can also refer to active server
pages, an outgrowth of server side includes and tag-based HTML extensions
created by Microsoft and used almost exclusively on Windows NT machines. A
scripting language which allows you to design Web pages that can make
displaying, manipulating and editing databases simpler.
Backbone
A high-speed line or series of connections that forms a major pathway
within a network. On the Internet there are several major backbone
providers like BBN Internet , MCI/SprintLink, and US West.
Bandwidth
Amount of data you can send through a connection. Usually measured in
bits-per-second (bps). A 56K modem transfers data up to 53Kbps, or 53,000
bits-per-second. Terms is also sometimes used in place of "data transfer."
CGI (Common Gateway
Interface)
A set of rules that describe how a Web Server communicates with another
piece of software on the same machine
CGI-Bin Access
Ability for the customer to write custom programs to manipulate data on
their Web site.
Client
Any software application (and sometimes used to describe the computer
itself) connected to the server and run to send/retrieve data to a server
is called a client, such as a web browser. This relationship between the
"client" and the "server" is often referred to as a "client server
relationship."
Co-location
Refers to having a server that belongs to one group physically located on
an Internet-connected network that belongs to another group. Usually done
because the server owner wants their machine to be on a high-speed
Internet connection and/or they do not want the security risks of having
the server on thier own network.
Custom Error Messages
Refers to the ability to create custom pages on a hosting account to
replace default 404 and other error pages.
Datacenter
See NOC.
Data Transfer
This is the amount of data that you are allowed to transfer with your
account. Data is this case usually referrs to images and text. Typically
refers to a data transfer allotment, most often in GB (gigabytes). Thus, a
hosting plan might come with, "3GB of data transfer." 500 MB of data
transfer is equivilant to about 25,000 page views.
Dial-up Account
To access and update a Web site, hosting customers need dial-up access to
the Internet (see ISP). Techically, xDSL would still be considered a
dial-up account since you don't have a dedicated wire for data transfer.
Disk Space (Storage Space)
Amount of hard disk space available for storage of all Web pages, HTML,
CGI-bin programs, e-mail, log files, images, sound clips, audio, video
clips, etc. 1MB equals one megabyte, or approximately milllion bytes. A
100K file would be 100,000 bytes.
Domain Name
The unique name that identifies an Internet site. Domain Names always have
2 or more parts, separated by dots. The part on the left is the most
specific, and the part on the right is the most general.
Domain Name Registration
Refers to registering a name which can be used for hosting a domain name,
such as www.yourname.com.
DS-3
Connection to Internet Backbone favored by most medium-size Web hosting
providers. More than 28 times the bandwidth of a T-1 connection.
Electronic Commerce
(E-Commerce)
Allows Website customers to sell products and services online and accept
payment at the same time, usually through a cgi-script of some kind.
E-Mail Aliases/Forwarders
E-mail forwarders and aliases are e-mail addresses such as billing@yourdomain.com
which do not have a username/password as a "POP" account would. Instead,
you would set up billing@yourdomain.com to forward to a real POP account
such as customerservice@yourdomain.com. The only real distinction between
an alias and a forward, is than an alias will likely forward to another
existing account at the same domain, whereas a forward might be sent to
another e-mail account with an ISP: such as cs@yourdomain.com being
forwarded to cs@gte.net or similar.
E-Mail Autoresponders/Vacation
Messages
Allow customers to set up an automatic message to respond to anyone who
sends email to the customer.
File Extensions
In the DOS/Windows computer world, and UNIX as well, almost every file
(anything on your computer that isn't a folder is a file in this context)
must have some kind of extension. Example: index.htm would be a filename,
where ".htm" is the file extension. On a PC in particular the operating
system needs an extesion in order to determine what kind of file it is,
and what to do with it when it is activated. With the internet, you may
see extensions like .exe, .cgi, .asp, .htm, .jsp, .cfm, .tam, .php, .shtml,
.pl, and many others. It is important to note that in some cases you have
to be aware of the proper extension to use for a file depending on the
environment in which the file will be used.
File Transfer Protocol
(FTP)
Short for "file transfer protocol," FTP is a method for transferring data
to/from web servers via a slightly different method than used by web
browsers (which use the http method). FTP software is used to upload files
to your virtual, shared, or dedicated web server site. FTP can also be
used for direct downloads of files and images from a web server without
being served from the public html directory (anonymous FTP). FTP access to
a web server requires a password and username in order to gain access to
the file/folder directories of a virtual domain.
FrontPage2000
Microsoft's FrontPage 2000 software is a Web site development software
package. It uses unique Microsoft file types (often referred to as
"Microsoft extensions"). A Web server and virtual domain must be
configured to accept these extensions.
FTP Client
Software needed by the customer to upload content files to their Web site.
FTP Site/Anonymous FTP
Anonymous FTP is a dedicated area on a virtual or dedicated hosting domain
for download of files, and even upload of files to an "incoming" folder.
FTP is a special way to login to another Internet site for the purposes of
retrieving and/or sending files.
Home Page
The first page in the public directory of a domain, usually index.php.
Called the home page because it's the first page that loads from a Website.
Hosting Provider
An institution that provides Web space to companies or individuals,
usually for money.
HTML
Hyper-Text Markup Language. The basic page instruction language used to
create web pages. Far easier for basic pages to use than some might think
because many commands are simple such as "" for bold text. It can be more
complex as you get into newer versions which allow for floating layers,
tables, style sheets, and features which don't work across all web
browsers.
HyperText
Text which links to other content by being an in-context link. The basis
of the original text-only internet page structure. Any word can be a link
to another page, idea, image or internet site, thus the "hyper" in the
term. The actual link is called a "hyper link."
IP Address
Internet Protocol address. A number analagous to a street address on the
Web. See IP Number. When the internet was invented many years ago, there
needed to be a way to identify one computer from another. The "IP" or
"internet protocol" address has been used since then. In fact many
corporate networks assign IPs to desktop computers without the employee
knowing that they've been using Internet related technology for years,
whether connected to the internet or not. When a Web server is setup, it
has its own IP address to identify itself on the local network. Each
virtual server is given its own static (non-changing) IP address as if it
were its own machine.
IP Number (Internet
Protocol Number)
Sometimes called a dotted quad. A unique number consisting of 4 parts
separated by dots, e.g. 64.65.58.113
IPP
Internet Presence Provider. Another name for a hosting provider.
ISP
Internet Service Provider (see Dial-Up access). An ISP is a service
provider who creates the connection from your home or office to the
Internet. It's how you connect. Your ISP does not need to be your hosting
provider, or vice versa. This generally refers to how you access the
internet with your computer. Specifically, it is the company you signed up
with and where you "dial in" to connect to the web. If you have an account
with Earthlink, then your ISP will be Earthlink.
Majordomo
An open-source server-based mailing list system, sometimes called a
"reflector" or "list server" (ListServ is actually a similar product)
because any message sent by a member to the list is re-sent ("reflected")
to all the other list subscribers.
Megabyte (MB)
A million bytes. (Technically, actually 1024 kilobytes).
NOC (Network Operation
Center)
Sometimes called a Datacenter. This is the term for a secure, managed
network environment which may house tens or thousands of Web servers with
power backup and high-speed connections to the Internet Backbone. NOCs
usually have a mixture of OC-3 and DS-3 connections, or higher (i.e.,
OC12).
NT/WINDOWS NT
The name used by Microsoft for its business class operating system, called
Windows NT (for "new technology"). Windows NT includes a rudimentary web
server system, and other tools used to create local networks. Windows NT
is useful for creating low-cost websites because NT will run on
inexpensive hardware and has familiar tools to Windows 95/98 users.
However, in practice, it has been found to be about as buggy as Windows
itself, and is shunned by many web hosting purists because of its unreliablity relative to the more expensive UNIX hardware/software
platform.
OC-3
Ultra-fast connectivity for their mission-critical Internet needs, ranging
from 60- 155 Mbps of service. Up to 3 times more bandwidth capability than
a T-3.
POP (E-MAIL)
A protocol used to retrieve e-mail from a mail server. Most e-mail
applications (sometimes called an e-mail client) use the POP protocol,
although some can use the newer IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) or
APOP. POP stands for "post office protocol" not your dear old dad. A "pop"
account is any real e-mail account which uses a password and username to
retrieve mail from a virtual server. The username would be yourname@yourdomain.com
and the password would usually be a mixture of letters and numbers.
Primary DNS
The Primary Domain Name Server for the customer's domain. These are the
DNS IP numbers, usually preceeded by "ns.name.com" and "ns2.name.com" and
a domain must point at a DNS for it to "resolve" to a local virtual
location.
Secure Server (SSL)
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. Requires use of a certificate for
secure access. A Secure Socket Layer does not provide for credit card
clearing or any other form of payment processing. It only provides a
facility for secure transactions across the Internet. Some hosting
providers allow use of a "shared" certificate.
Server
In a modern computing environment there are usually two kinds of computer
classifications when more than one is connected together to create a
network. The server is the computer which provides data and is the central
repository, and/or gatekeeper between multiple "client" computers. A
server can also be called a "host" because it hosts the data "served" to
"clients."
Server Side Includes
Server side includes (or SSI) is a set of tags which can be used within
HTML pages to be replaced by something else, added ("included") by the
server. An example might be that you have one file with copyright
information which goes on the bottom of every page. By using a SSI tag,
you could tell the server to replace every tag on every page with the
copyright information. The benefit is that you could have one file
containing the copyright information that gets placed on hundreds of pages
on your site. By updating the single page, all the others are instantly
updated when loaded by the server. On most servers you must use a filename
extension of ".shtml" in order for SSI tags to operate.
Shell Account
A UNIX shell account to their shared server Web site, allows a customers
to update their Web site content using Telnet.
T-1
A leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 1,544,000
bits-per-second. At maximum theoretical capacity, a T-1 line could move a
megabyte in less than 10 seconds. That is still not fast enough for
full-screen, full-motion video, for which you need at least 10,000,000
bits-per-second.
T-3
A leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 44,736,000
bits-per-second. This is more than enough to do full-screen, full-motion
video.
Telnet
The command and program used to login from one Internet site to another.
The telnet command/program gets you to the login: prompt of another host.
Transfer
Total amount of data transferred from the customer's Web site to clients.
Includes all HTML, Web pages, images, sounds, videos, etc. See Data
Transfer.
UNIX
An operating system used on business-class computers typically used as
"servers" which serve databases, websites, or other corporate
applications. UNIX has numerous variants including IRIX (SGI), Solaris
(Sun), and derivitives including Linux, Apple OSX, and others.
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.10bestecommercehosting.com/index.htm
Virtual Hosting
Virtual hosting describes a remote web server which is "host" to numerous
domain names, where each domain name owner has all of the features of
having a dedicated (on site) server. Virtual hosting provides for most of
the same features of a dedicated server but is located in a high speed
dedicated data center costing millions of dollars. The cost to maintain a
virtual server for each site owner is a fraction of the cost of a
dedicated server, with most of the benefits.
Web 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 Apache or WebStar) or to the
machine on which the software is running.
Web Site
A Web site is a collection of Web pages that reside together on the World
Wide Web and are connected. Web site also refers to the server space
allocated to a specific customer in a shared "virtual" server environment.
10bestecommercehosting.com would be a "Web site," while the page you are reading
now would be a "Web page."
Web Site Traffic Reporting
Reporting software to provide information such as the frequency of hits,
page views, amount of data transfer, and total transfer sizes. Popular
reporting tools include Analog, Webalizer, and WebTrends.
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