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Acceptable Use Policy (AUP): an acceptable use policy (AUP; also sometimes acceptable usage policy) is a set of rules applied by many transit networks which restrict the ways in which the network may be used. Enforcement of AUPs varies with the network.
AUPs are also used by schools, corporations, and other concerns with a large user base and multiple computers, delimiting what is and is not permitted for use of the computers. Most providers of services on the Internet include an AUP as one of the key provisions of their terms of service.
Active Server Pages: ASP is Microsoft's server-side script engine for dynamically-generated web pages. It is marketed as an add-on to Internet Information Services (IIS). Programming ASP website's is made easier by various built-in objects. Each object corresponds to a group of frequently-used functionality useful for creating dynamic web pages. In ASP 2.0 there are six such built-in objects: Application, ASPError, Request, Response, Server, and Session. Session, for example, is a cookie-based session object that maintains variables from page to page. Application Center Test is also available for load testing. Most ASP pages are written in VBScript, but any other Active Scripting engine can be selected instead by using the @Language directive or the syntax. JScript (Microsoft's implementation of ECMAScript) is the other language that is usually available. PerlScript (a derivative of Perl) and others are available as third-party installable Active Scripting engines. There are large open source communities on the WWW, such as ASPNuke, which are producing ASP scripts, components and applications to be used for free under certain licence terms. ASP.NET introduced the ability to replace in-HTML scripting with full-fledged support for .NET languages such as Visual Basic .NET and C#. In-page scripting can still be used (and is fully supported), but now pages can use VB.NET and C# classes to generate pages instead of code in HTML pages. Lunarpages Windows web hosting is great for ASP.
Adobe Shockwave: macromedia Shockwave (now Adobe Shockwave) was Macromedia's first and most successful multimedia player prior to the introduction of Macromedia Flash (now Adobe Flash). In an attempt to raise its brand profile all Macromedia players prepended Shockwave to their names in the late 1990s. Although this campaign was very successful and helped establish Shockwave Flash as a dominant multimedia plugin, Shockwave and Flash became more difficult to maintain as two separate products. In 2005, Macromedia marketed three distinct browser player plugin's under the brand names Macromedia Authorware, Macromedia Shockwave and Macromedia Flash (now Adobe Flash). Although Shockwave was designed for making a wide variety of online movies and animations, its actual use has become concentrated in the area of game development. Other features not replicated by Flash include a much faster rendering engine, including hardware-accelerated 3D, blend modes for layered display of graphic assets and support for various network protocols, including Internet Relay Chat. Furthermore Shockwave's functionality can be extended with so-called "Xtras".
ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line): asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a form of DSL, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are normally not used by a voice telephone call, in particular, frequencies higher than normal human hearing. This signal will not travel very far over normal telephone cables, so ADSL can only be used over short distances, typically less than 5 km. Once the signal reaches the telephone company's local office, the ADSL signal is stripped off and immediately routed onto a conventional internet network, while any voice-frequency signal is switched into the conventional phone network. This allows a single telephone connection to be used for both ADSL and voice calls at the same time.
Adult Hosting: the term "Adult Hosting" refers to a web hosting provider that will host website's that display adult content (pornography).
Ajax: shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a web development technique for creating interactive web applications. The intent is to make web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user requests a change. This is meant to increase the web page's interactivity, speed, and usability.
The Ajax technique uses a combination of:
•XHTML (or HTML) and CSS, for marking up and styling information.
•The DOM accessed with a client-side scripting language, especially ECMAScript implementations such as JavaScript and JScript, to dynamically display and interact with the information presented.
•The XMLHttpRequest object is used to exchange data asynchronously with the web server. In some Ajax frameworks and in certain situations, an IFrame object is used instead of the XMLHttpRequest object to exchange data with the web server, and in other implementations, dynamically added tags may be used.
•XML is sometimes used as the format for transferring data between the server and client, although any format will work, including preformatted HTML, plain text, JSON and even EBML. These files may be created dynamically by some form of server-side scripting.
Like DHTML, LAMP and SPA, Ajax is not a technology in itself, but a term that refers to the use of a group of technologies.
Anonymous FTP: many sites that run FTP servers enable so-called "anonymous ftp". Under this arrangement, users do not need an account on the server. The user name for anonymous access is typically 'anonymous' or 'ftp'. This account does not need a password. Although users are commonly asked to send their email addresses as their passwords for authentication, usually there is trivial or no verification, depending on the FTP server and its configuration.
Apache: the Apache web server is a popular, open source, public-domain Web server. It is the most widely used Web server on the Internet. Originally designed for UNIX servers, it can now also run under Windows and other platforms. The Apache Web server provides a range of features including CGI, SSL, and virtual domains. The availability of the source code makes it possible for anyone to adapt the server for specific needs.
Applet: usually performs a very narrow function that has no independent use. Hence, it is an application -let. The term was introduced in AppleScript in 1993. An applet is distinguished from a "subroutine" by several features. First, it executes only on the "client" platform environment of a system, as contrasted from "servlet." As such, an applet provides functionality or performance beyond the default capabilities of its container (the browser). Also, in contrast with a subroutine, certain capabilities are restricted by the container. An applet is written in a language that is different from the scripting or HTML language which invokes it. The applet is written in a compiled language, while the scripting language of the container is an interpreted language, hence the greater performance or functionality of the applet. Unlike a "subroutine," a complete web component can be implemented as an applet.
Application Server: an application server is a server computer on a computer network dedicated to running certain software applications (as opposed to e.g. a file server or print server). Generally, an application server is a software engine that delivers applications to client computers. Moreover, an application server should handle most, if not all, of the business logic and data access of the application. The main benefits of application server technology are ease of application development and centralization. Although the term Application server applies to all platforms, it has become heavily identified with the Sun Microsystems J2EE platform; however, it has also come to encompass servers of web-based applications, such as integrated platforms for e-commerce, content management systems, affiliate management systems and occasionally, even applied to simplistic web-site page builders. The paradigm is more similar to mainframe based applications than traditional client-server.
A Record: an A record or address record maps a servers hostname to its IP address. So when a user enters www.yourblogurl.com, they will be directed to the correct IP address for that domain.
ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network): developed by ARPA of the United States Department of Defense was the world's first operational packet switching network, and the progenitor of the global Internet. Packet switching, now the dominant basis for both data and voice communication worldwide, was a new and important concept in data communications. Previously, data communications was based on the idea of circuit switching, as in the old typical telephone circuit, where a dedicated circuit is tied up for the duration of the call and communication is only possible with the single party on the other end of the circuit. With packet switching, a system could use one communication link to communicate with more than one machine by assembling data into packets. Not only could the link be shared (much as a single mail person can be used to post letters to different destinations), but each packet could be routed independently of other packets. This was a major advance.
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange): generally pronounced ['æski], is a character encoding based on the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that work with text. Most modern character encodings—which support many more characters—have a historical basis in ASCII. ASCII was first published as a standard in 1967 and was last updated in 1986. It currently defines codes for 128 characters. 33 are non-printing, mostly obsolete control characters that affect how text is processed, and the other 95 printable characters.
ASP: Active Server Pages (ASP). ASP are HTML pages that contain embedded scripts. Internet Information Server (IIS) and third party providers offer server software that interprets Active Server code. ASP pages contain either server side or client side scripts which performs functions such as database access, page personalization, or interactive functions. Scripts act similar to CGI scripts. Pages end in .asp. Lunarpages Windows web hosting is great for ASP.
Atom Syndication Format: the name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol (APP for short) is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating Web resources.
Web feeds allow software programs to check for updates published on a web site. To provide a web feed, a site owner may use specialized software (such as a content management system) that publishes a list (or "feed") of recent articles or content in a standardized, machine-readable format. The feed can then be downloaded by web sites that syndicate content from the feed, or by feed reader programs that allow Internet users to subscribe to feeds and view their content. A feed contains entries, which may be headlines, full-text articles, excerpts, summaries, and/or links to content on a web site, along with various metadata. The development of Atom was motivated by the existence of many incompatible versions of the RSS syndication format, all of which had shortcomings, and the poor interoperability of XML-RPC-based publishing protocols. The Atom syndication format was published as an IETF "proposed standard" in RFC 4287. The Atom Publishing Protocol is still in draft form.
Auto responder: an auto responder will send a canned, previously written email message to a person when they send an email to an address or complete a process on your website. One example is the email you get confirming an order via most ecommerce websites. Another example is an immediate email you get post signing up for an email list.
Availability: often referred to as uptime, the availability of a system describes its accessibility and ability to provide a level of redundancy that works to prevent failure at any single point. For instance, if only one server is responding to HTTP requests, the server qualifies as a single point of failure. If there are two web servers in a load balancing scheme, then the load balancer itself is the single point of failure. Most high availability systems are equipped with efficient fault-tolerance mechanisms to ensure the necessary redundancies. Because 100% availability is costly and rather difficult to achieve, the industry standard in the web hosting business is at around 99.9%.
Backup: in the field of information technology, backup refers to the copying of data so that these additional copies may be restored after a data loss event. Backups are useful primarily for two purposes: to restore a computer to an operational state following a disaster (called disaster recovery) and to restore small numbers of files after they have been accidentally deleted or corrupted. Backups differ from archives in the sense that archives are the primary copy of data and backups are a secondary copy of data. Backup systems differ from fault-tolerant systems in the sense that backup systems assume that a fault will cause a data loss event and fault-tolerant systems assume a fault will not. Backups are typically that last line of defense against data loss, and consequently the least granular and the least convenient to use.
Since a backup system contains at least one copy of all data worth saving, the data storage requirements are considerable. Organizing this storage space and managing the backup process is a complicated undertaking.
Bandwidth: is the term that is used to denote the amount of data that has been transferred from your web space to the computers of your visitors. To put it simple, bandwidth is the amount of data that flows across a network wire in one month. The amount is typical miniscule in free hosting packages. It's easy now days to find affordable website hosting packages that allow unlimited bandwidth.
Bit (Binary Digit): is a digit in the binary numeral system, which consists of base 2 digits (i.e., there are only two possible values for each digit, 0 or 1). For example, the number 10010111 is 8 bits long. Binary digits are almost always used as the basic unit of information storage and communication in digital computing and digital information theory. Bandwidth is usually measured in bits-per-second.
Bitrate: in telecommunications and computing, bitrate (sometimes written bit rate, data rate or as a variable Rbit) is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time. Bit rate is often used as synonym to the terms connection speed, transfer rate, channel capacity, maximum throughput and digital bandwidth capacity of a communication system. In digital multimedia, bitrate is the number of bits used per unit of time to represent a continuous medium such as audio or video after source coding (data compression). In this sense it corresponds to the term digital bandwidth consumption, or goodput.
The bit rate is quantified using the 'bit per second' (bit/s or bps) unit, often in conjunction with a SI prefix such as kilo (kbit/s or kbps), Mega (Mbit/s or Mbps), Giga (Gbit/s or Gbps) or Tera (Tbit/s or Tbps). While often referred to as "speed", bitrate does not measure distance/time but quantity/time, and thus should be distinguished from the "propagation speed" (which depends on the transmission medium and has the usual physical meaning). Gross bitrate or raw bitrate is the total number of physically transferred bits per second, including both useful payload data and protocol overhead. The net bitrate or useful bit rate is measured at some reference point above the physical layer, and excludes lower layer protocol overhead, for example redundant channel coding (forward error correction).
Blog: a blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media. The term "blog" is derived from "Web log." "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. As of November 2006, blog search engine Technorati was tracking nearly 60 million blogs.
Blogger: a contributor to a blog or online journal. A blogger can write about any topic. Though often in the press, bloggers are meant to refer to journalists, amateur or professional, who run a blog.
Broadband Internet Access: often shortened to "broadband Internet" or just "broadband", is a high data-transmission rate internet connection. DSL and cable modem, both popular consumer broadband technologies, are typically capable of transmitting faster than dial-up modem (56 kbit/s (kilobits per second)). The real maximum download speed of a dial-up modem is only about 48 kbit/s (depending on phone-line quality and distance from the phone company), and upload speed is even slower (31.2 kbit/s for V.90, 44 kbit/s for V.92). Broadband Internet access became a rapidly developing market in many areas in the early 2000s; one study found that broadband Internet usage in the United States grew from 6% in June 2000 to over 30% in 2003. Modern consumer broadband implementations, up to 30 Mbit/s, are several hundred times faster than those available at the time of the popularization of the Internet (such as ISDN and 56 kbit/s) while costing less than ISDN and sometimes no more than 56 kbit/s, though performance and costs vary widely between countries. "Broadband" in this context refers to the relatively high available bitrate, when compared to systems such as dial-up with lower bitrates (which could be referred to as narrowband).
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): in computing, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML, but the language can be applied to any kind of XML document, including SVG and XUL. The CSS specifications are maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). CSS has various levels and profiles. Each level of CSS builds upon the last, typically adding new features and are typically denoted as CSS1, CSS2, and CSS3. Profiles are typically a subset of one or more levels of CSS built for a particular device or user interface. Currently there are profiles for mobile devices, printers, and television sets. Profiles should not be confused with media types which were added in CSS2. The use of CSS to position the content of a web page is sometimes referred to as CSS-P or CSS Positioning.
Catch All (Catch-All Email Address, Catch All Mailbox): a Catch All for email, usually refers to a default mailbox on a domain that will "catch all" of the email addressed to non existent email addresses.
CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access): is a form of multiplexing (not a modulation scheme) and a method of multiple access that does not divide up the channel by time (as in time division multiple access), or frequency (as in frequency-division multiple access), but instead encodes data with a special code associated with each channel and uses the constructive interference properties of the special codes to perform the multiplexing. CDMA also refers to digital cellular telephony systems that make use of this multiple access scheme, such as those pioneered by Qualcomm, and W-CDMA by the International Telecommunication Union or ITU. CDMA has since been used in many communications systems, including the Global Positioning System and in the OmniTRACS satellite system for transportation logistics.
Certificate Authority (CA): a certificate authority or certification authority (CA) is an entity which issues digital certificates for use by other parties. It is an example of a trusted third party.
A CA will issue a public key certificate which states that the CA attests that the public key contained in the certificate belongs to the person, organization, server, or other entity noted in the certificate. A CA's obligation in such schemes is to verify an applicant's credentials, so that users (relying parties) can trust the information in the CA's certificates. The usual idea is that if the user trusts the CA and can verify the CA's signature, then they can also verify that a certain public key does indeed belong to whomever is identified in the certificate.
CGI: Common Gateway Interface (CGI). CGI allows HTML pages to interact with programming applications.
CGI-Bin: is the directory where executable files are located. CGI (Common Gateway Interface) is a kind of program that allows for communication between a web server and a script. This enables the interaction of HTML documents and applications. The CGI-BIN is a special folder in which these scripts can execute.
Cloud Hosting: Using a number of servers hosted elsewhere to create a large pool of server capability for server resources. This is a good way to make sure resources are available as well as manage costs. Currently for big companies due to cost.
Cold Fusion: is an application server and software development framework used for the development of computer software in general, and dynamic web sites in particular. In this regard, ColdFusion is a similar product to Microsoft ASP.NET or Java Enterprise Edition. The primary feature of ColdFusion is its associated scripting language, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), which compares to JSP, C#, or PHP and resembles HTML in syntax. "ColdFusion" is often used synonymously with "CFML", but it should be noted that there are additional CFML application servers besides ColdFusion, and that ColdFusion supports programming languages other than CFML, such as server-side Actionscript. Originally a product of Allaire, in 2001 the company was purchased by Macromedia, who subsequently merged with Adobe Systems in 2005.
Colocation Hosting: also known as co-lo or co-location web hosting. In Co-location hosting, the server is owned by the site owner and it is leased at the co-lo facility, where it is installed along with other servers in the facility. A co-lo service enables site owners to make maximum use of network access points and the freedom to choose between telecom lines provided by the hosting company and other telecom lines. Co-location hosting enables site owners to utilize high bandwidth at a cost that is not significantly higher than that of a normal web hosting package. The site owner maintains the server while the hosting provider ensures smooth running by providing regular power supply and IT support.
Control Panel: a website hosting control panel is an online internet application that allows you to easily manage different aspects of your web host account. Most control panels will let you upload files, add email accounts, change contact information, set up shopping carts or databases, view usage statistics, buy domains, review website traffic, etc.
cPanel: currently the most popular control panel (see definition above) for web hosting accounts. Known for turning standalone servers into fully automated point-and-click hosting platforms.
Cookie: HTTP cookies, sometimes known as web cookies or just cookies, are parcels of text sent by a server to a web browser and then sent back unchanged by the browser each time it accesses that server. HTTP cookies are used for authenticating, tracking, and maintaining specific information about users, such as site preferences and the contents of their electronic shopping carts. The term "cookie" is derived from "magic cookie," a well-known concept in Unix computing which inspired both the idea and the name of HTTP cookies. Cookies have been of concern for Internet privacy, since they can be used for tracking browsing behavior. As a result, they have been subject to legislation in various countries such as the United States and in the European Union. Cookies have also been criticized because the identification of users they provide is not always accurate and because they could potentially be used for network attacks. Some alternatives to cookies exist, but each has its own drawbacks. Cookies are also subject to a number of misconceptions, mostly based on the erroneous notion that they are computer programs. In fact, cookies are simple pieces of data unable to perform any operation by themselves. In particular, they are neither spyware nor viruses, despite the detection of cookies from certain sites by many anti-spyware products. Most modern browsers allow users to decide whether to accept cookies, but rejection makes some websites unusable. For example, shopping baskets implemented using cookies do not work if cookies are rejected.
Cron Jobs: is a time based job scheduler in Unix-like computer operating systems. Cron enables users to schedule jobs (commands or shell scripts) to run at a certain time or date.
Custom Error Page: a custom error page is a feature of most Web server software that allows you to replace default error messages with ones you create. The default error messages tend to be fairly generic, and not particularly user-friendly, so making custom messages for a site is recommended. You can make them look more like the rest of a site, and/or provide better recovery navigation. The Not Found (404) error is the one users are most likely to encounter, so it is the most likely to be customized.
Cyberspace: a metaphoric abstraction used in philosophy and computing, is a (virtual) reality which represents the Noosphere/Popperian Cosmology (3 worlds) both "inside" computers and "on" computer networks. The term Cyberspace started to become a de facto synonym for the Internet, and later the World Wide Web, during the 1990s, especially in academic circles and activist communities.
Database: a database is a collection of information stored in a computer in a systematic way, such that a computer program can consult it to answer questions. The software used to manage and query a database is known as a database management system (DBMS).
Data Center: is a facility used to house mission critical computer systems and associated components. It generally includes environmental controls (air conditioning, fire suppression, etc.), redundant/backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections and high security. A data center can occupy one room of a building, one or more floors, or an entire building.
Database Management: a valuable, managed service most hosts now offer; it allows the customer to run a database, while the host administers the database for them.
Database Server: is a computer that is specifically configured to run database software, such as MySQL. Typically, a database server is used in combination with other servers to run complex eCommerce applications.
Data Transfer: this is the amount of data you are allowed to deliver from your web per month. For the average website, 1 GB is roughly 50,000 page views.
DBMS (Database Management System): a database management system (DBMS) is computer software designed for the purpose of managing databases.
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service Attack): a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) occurs when multiple compromised systems flood the bandwidth or resources of a targeted system, usually a web server(s). These systems are compromised by attackers using a variety of methods. When a DDos occurs, it prevents legitimate network traffic from getting through, thereby causing a denial of service.
Dedicated IP Address: an IP address that is used solely by one website.
Dedicated IP Address: a dedicated IP Address allows you to isolate yourself from other sites on the same server by assigning your site a unique, non-shared IP address. Most sites in shared hosting will share a common IP Address. Dedicated IP addresses can be sued for many things but the most common use is for provisioning of a private SSL certificate to be installed on a domain. Register.com includes a free dedicated IP Address with their web hosting package.
Dedicated Server: a server dedicated to a single customer. Dedicated servers are appropriate for users that require lots of disk space or data transfer, as well as sites that are database intensive or have specific software requirements. Most websites don't need a dedicated server, and can use cheaper shared hosting.
Dedicated Web Hosting: a server is leased to the website owner. The hosting company is responsible for the maintenance, backing up, security, and power management. The site owner manages the software-related issues. Dedicated hosting is useful for websites that need extra bandwidth and system resources because of the use of technologies such as e-commerce software, customized server applications, and heavy traffic. Such websites are often better served by a dedicated hosting provider rather than developing and running an in-house solution. Dedicated hosting is possible with Windows, Mac, and Linux servers. A dedicated server can cost upward of $100 / month.
DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol): is a set of rules used by a communications device (such as a computer, router or networking adapter) to allow the device to request and obtain an Internet address from a server which has a list of addresses available for assignment.
Diesel Generator: is the combination of a diesel engine with an electrical generator (sometimes called an alternator) to generate electricity. Diesel generators are used in places without connection to the power grid or as emergency power-supply if the grid fails.
Digerati: are the elite of the computer industry and online communities. The word is a portmanteau, derived from "digital" and "literati," and reminiscent of the earlier coinage glitterati (glitter + literati). Famous computer scientists, tech magazine writers and well-known bloggers are included among the digerati.
The word is used in several related but different ways. It can mean:
•Opinion leaders who, through their writings, promoted a vision of digital technology and the Internet as a transformational element in society;
•People regarded as celebrities within the Silicon Valley computer subculture, particularly during the dot-com boom years;
•Anyone regarded as influential within the digital technology community.
Disk Space: your website is comprised of files that are stored in the host's system. The amount of disk storage space is how much space those files take up.
DNS: Domain Name System is an essential Internet database service that translates IP addresses into domain names. This allows users to look up addresses such as www.sslcertificatereviews.net instead of long, hard-to-remember numerical IP addresses.
Domain Name: a domain name is the text name corresponding to the numeric IP address of a computer on the Internet. A domain name must be unique. Domain's extension indicates which TLD (top level domain) it belongs to, for example .com, .edu, .org, or .net. Website-Hosting-Reviews.net is an example of a domain name. You can buy domains at Register.com.
Domain Parking: is simply pointing domain "a" to domain "b". For example, if your main website was on the domain businesstravelconnection.com, you may want to "park" the domains businesstravelconnection.net and businesstravelconnection.org to businesstravelconnection.com. This may help you get additional traffic to your website. WhyPark's service is similar to domain parking.
Download: transferring data (usually a file) from a another computer to the computer you are are using. The opposite of upload.
Downtime: refers to a period of time or a percentage of a time span that a machine or system (usually a computer server) is offline or not functioning, usually as a result of either system failure (such as a crash) or routine maintenance. The opposite is uptime.
DSL (Digital Subscriber Line): a method for moving data over regular phone lines. A DSL circuit is much faster than a regular phone connection, and the wires coming into the subscriber's premises are the same (copper) wires used for regular phone service. A DSL circuit must be configured to connect two specific locations, similar to a leased line (however a DSL circuit is not a leased line. A common configuration of DSL allows downloads at speeds of up to 1.544 megabits (not megabytes) per second, and uploads at speeds of 128 kilobits per second. This arrangement is called ADSL: Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. Another common configuration is symmetrical: 384 Kilobits per second in both directions. In theory ADSL allows download speeds of up to 9 megabits per second and upload speeds of up to 640 kilobits per second. DSL is now a popular alternative to Leased Lines and ISDN, being faster than ISDN and less costly than traditional Leased Lines.
Electronic Commerce: consists primarily of the distributing, buying, selling, marketing, and servicing of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. (also referred to as EC, e-commerce, eCommerce, ecommerce, E-Commerce)
Email Autoresponder: are user-specified messages which will be sent back to whom ever sends email to that account. For example, if you were going on vacation for a week, you could setup an autoresponder for your email address which, when email is received at this address, will send a response back to the sender containing whatever message you specify. The email sent by them to you is stored in your mailbox as normal.
Email Forwarding: when email sent to one email address is automatically sent (forwarded) to another specified email address.
Enterprise Hosting: serious business hosting for very large companies specializing in scalability, uptime and customization.
Ethernet: a very common method of networking computers in a LAN.
There is more than one type of Ethernet. By 2001 the standard type was "100-BaseT" which can handle up to about 100,000,000 bits-per-second and can be used with almost any kind of computer.
Extranet: an intranet that is accessible to computers that are not physically part of a companys own private network, but that is not accessible to the general public, for example to allow vendors and business partners to access a company web site.
Often an intranet will make use of a Virtual Private Network. (VPN.)
Fantastico: it integrates with cPanel to give you the ability to automatically install popular Open Source Applications within seconds and without the need for setting up MySQL databases, importing structure, or other tasks usually associated with setting the application up.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions): are documents that list and answer the most common questions on a particular subject. There are hundreds of FAQ's on subjects as diverse as Pet Grooming and Cryptography. FAQ's are usually written by people who have tired of answering the same question over and over.
FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface): a standard for transmitting data on optical fiber cables at a rate of around 100,000,000 bits-per-second (10 times as fast as 10-Base T Ethernet, about twice as fast as T-3).
FFmpeg: is a computer program that can record, convert and stream digital audio and video in numerous formats. FFmpeg is a command line tool that is composed of a collection of free software / open source libraries. It includes libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, and libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library. The name of the project comes from the MPEG video standards group, together with "FF" for "fast forward".
FFmpeg is developed under Linux, but it can be compiled under most operating systems, including Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and AmigaOS. There are no releases. Instead, FFmpeg developers recommend using the latest Subversion snapshot as development attempts to maintain a stable trunk. Released under the GNU Lesser General Public License or GNU General Public License (depending on which sub-libraries one would include), FFmpeg is free software.
Finger: an Internet software tool for locating people on other Internet sites. Finger is also sometimes used to give access to non-personal information, but the most common use is to see if a person has an account at a particular Internet site. Many sites do not allow incoming Finger requests, but many do.
Firewall: is software, or a combination of hardware and software, designed to protect a web server from hacker attacks/unauthorized access.
Flame: originally, "flame" meant to carry forth in a passionate manner in the spirit of honorable debate. Flames most often involved the use of flowery language and flaming well was an art form. More recently flame has come to refer to any kind of derogatory comment no matter how witless or crude.
Flame War: when an online discussion degenerates into a series of personal attacks against the debators, rather than discussion of their positions. A heated exchange.
Flash (Adobe Flash): refers to both the Adobe Flash Player, and to the Adobe Flash Professional multimedia authoring program. Adobe Flash Professional is used to create content for the Adobe Engagement Platform (such as web applications, games and movies, and content for mobile phones and other embedded devices). The Flash Player, developed and distributed by Adobe Systems (which acquired Macromedia in 2005 in a merger that was finalized in December 2006), is a client application available in most common web browsers. It features support for vector and raster graphics, a scripting language called ActionScript and bi-directional streaming of audio and video. There are also versions of the Flash Player for mobile phones and other non-PC devices. Since its introduction in 1996, Flash technology has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages; several software products, systems, and devices are able to create or display Flash. Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, various web-page components, to integrate video into web pages, and more recently, to develop rich Internet applications.
FrontPage: Microsoft FrontPage (later full name Microsoft Office FrontPage) was a WYSIWYG HTML editor and website administration tool from Microsoft for the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. It was part of Microsoft Office application suite from 1997 to 2006. A Macintosh version was also released in 1998. One of the notable features of FrontPage is its built-in support for automated web templates. The main distinction between these templates and HTML templates generated by other products is that FrontPage templates include an automatic navigation system that creates animated buttons for pages that have been added by the user. It also creates a multi-level navigation system on the fly using the buttons and the structure of the web site. Microsoft FrontPage has since been replaced by Microsoft Expression Web, which was released in December 2006.
FrontPage Extensions: a set of programs and scripts that allow specific features of a Web site created with FrontPage to perform, adding dynamic functions to a Web site. Frontpage web hosting.
FTP: file Transfer Protocol (FTP). FTP allows files to be transferred from local machines to servers and vice versa. A common method of moving files between two Internet sites. FTP is a way to login to another Internet site for the purposes of retrieving and/or sending files. There are many Internet sites that have established publicly accessible repositories of material that can be obtained using FTP, by logging in using the account name "anonymous", thus these sites are called "anonymous ftp servers".
FTP Client: an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Client is software used to transfer files between two computers over the Internet. Transferring can be as easy as dragging-and-dropping files from one pane to another – one pane displaying files on your own computer, the other displaying files on the remote computer, or server. In terms of hosting, an FTP Client is used to upload Web page files onto a host's server. There are many FTP Clients available on the internet. A popular, free FTP Client is Filezilla.
Gateway: the technical meaning is a hardware or software set-up that translates between two dissimilar protocols, for example America Online 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.
GB: gigabyte. 1024 Megabytes.
GIF (Graphic Interchange Format): a common format for image files, especially suitable for images containing large areas of the same color. GIF format files of simple images are often smaller than the same file would be if stored in JPEG format, but GIF format does not store photographic images as well as JPEG.
Gigabyte (GB): a gigabyte is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one billion (short scale, meaning a thousand million) bytes. It is commonly abbreviated GB (not to be confused with Gb, which is used for gigabits).
Gopher: invented at the University of Minnesota in 1993 just before the Web, gopher was a widely successful method of making menus of material available over the Internet.
Gopher was designed to be much easier to use than FTP, while still using a text-only interface. Gopher is a Client and Server style program, which requires that the user have a Gopher Client program. Although Gopher spread rapidly across the globe in only a couple of years, it has been largely supplanted by Hypertext, also known as WWW (World Wide Web). There are still thousands of Gopher Servers on the Internet and we can expect they will remain for a while.
Green Hosting: green or Eco-friendly website hosting is a recent addition to the field of website hosting which involves a given website hosting company attempting to prove that they are not having any negative impact on the environment in an attempt to attract green consumers. This form of Green Marketing is becoming increasingly popular as concern about the environment increases. The most popular way hosting companies prove their green credentials is Carbon offsetting, others include planting trees and more day to day activities such as energy conservation and the use of energy saving appliances.
GUI (Graphical User Interface): a graphical user interface (GUI) allows for interaction with a computer which employs graphical images, special graphical element devices called widgets (a window or text box), along with text to represent the information and actions available to a user. The GUI familiar to most people today are the Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, or the X Window System interfaces.
Hit: as used in reference to the World Wide Web, "hit" means a single request from a web browser for a single item from a web server; thus in order for a web browser to display a page that contains 3 graphics, 4 "hits" would occur at the server: 1 for the HTML page, and one for each of the 3 graphics.
Home Page: originally, the web page that your browser is set to use when it starts up. The more common meaning refers to the main web page for a business, organization, person or simply the main page out of a collection of web pages, e.g. "Check out so-and-so's new Home Page."
Host: any computer on a network that is a repository for services available to other computers on the network. It is quite common to have one host machine provide several services, such as SMTP (email) and HTTP (web).
Hotlink Protection: is when another website is linking to your images or files. Web browsers do not distinguish between a HTML reference for an image or file on the same server and one on a different server, even if it is entirely located on a different website. Both links would be written with the same HTML "tag". (also called inline linking, leeching, and bandwidth theft). Hotlink protection will stop others from stealing your bandwidth. Apache servers are capable of partially protecting hosted media from inline linking by utilizing .htaccess files. On Microsoft's Internet Information Services Web servers, there are a number of third party tools available to combat inline linking and hotlinking, including LinkDeny and ColdLink.
HTML: HyperText Markup Language is a basic, cross-platform language used to create Web pages. The codes are interpreted by web browsers to format appropriately. HTML allows document authors to create hyperlinks between documents (within a website or between documents in various locations on the internet), forms, and image maps, allowing users to interact with the Web site.
HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol): the protocol for moving hypertext files across the Internet. Requires a HTTP client program on one end, and an HTTP server program (such as Apache) on the other end. HTTP is the most important protocol used in the World Wide Web (WWW).
Hypertext: generally, any text that contains links to other documents - words or phrases in the document that can be chosen by a reader and which cause another document to be retrieved and displayed.
IMAP: internet Message Access Protocol. An email protocol that provides management of received messages on a remote server.
IP Address: internet protocol numerical address assigned to each computer on the network so that its location and activities can be distinguished from other computers. IP addresses consist of four numbers ranging between 0 and 255, separated by dots (e.g., 126.96.36.199).
IIS (Internet Information Services): Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS; formerly called Server), is a set of Internet-based services for servers using Microsoft Windows. It is the world's second most popular web server in terms of overall websites. As of February 2007, it served 31% of all websites according to netcraft. The servers currently include FTP, SMTP, NNTP and HTTP/HTTPS.
ImageMagick: is an open source software image manipulation and display software suite supporting a wide variety of formats, released under the GNU General Public License. ImageMagick includes an X Window Graphical user interface for rendering images, command line utilities for image processing, and API libraries for many programming languages. The program uses magic numbers to identify image file formats which is why "Magick" appears in the name. A number of programs, such as MediaWiki and vBulletin, can use ImageMagick to create image thumbnails if it is installed.
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol): is gradually replacing POP as the main protocol used by email clients in communicating with email servers. Using IMAP an email client program can not only retrieve email but can also manipulate message stored on the server, without having to actually retrieve the messages. So messages can be deleted, have their status changed, multiple mail boxes can be managed, etc. IMAP is defined in RFC 2060.
IMHO: a shorthand appended to a comment written in an online forum, IMHO indicates that the writer is aware that they are expressing a debatable view, probably on a subject already under discussion. One of many such shorthands in common use online, especially in discussion forums.
Internet: any time you connect 2 or more networks together, you have an internet - as in inter-national or inter-state.
Internet: the vast collection of inter-connected networks that are connected using the TCP/IP protocols and that evolved from the ARPANET of the late 60's and early 70's. The Internet connects tens of thousands of independent networks into a vast global internet and is probably the largest Wide Area Network in the world.
Internet Backbone: refers to the main 'trunk' connections of the Internet. It is made up of a large collection of interconnected commercial, government, academic and other high-capacity data routes and routers that carry data across the countries, continents and oceans of the world. Part of the extreme resilience of the Internet is due to a high level of redundancy in the Internet backbone and the fact that the Internet Protocol routing decisions are made and updated in real-time during use.
Intranet: a private network inside a company or organization that uses the same kinds of software that you would find on the public Internet, but that is only for internal use. Compare with extranet.
Intrusion Detection System (IDS): generally detects unwanted manipulations to computer systems, mainly through the Internet. The manipulations may take the form of attacks by skilled malicious hackers, or script kiddies using automated tools. An intrusion detection system is used to detect many types of malicious network traffic and computer usage that can't be detected by a conventional firewall. This includes network attacks against vulnerable services, data driven attacks on applications, host based attacks such as privilege escalation, unauthorized logins and access to sensitive files, and malware (viruses, trojan horses, and worms).
IP Address (Internet Protocol Address): an IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a unique address that devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard (IP)—in simple terms, a computer address. Any participating network device—including routers, computers, time-servers, printers, Internet fax machines, and some telephones—can have their own unique address. Also, many people can find personal information through IP addresses. An IP address can also be thought of as the equivalent of a street address or a phone number (compare: VoIP (voice over (the) internet protocol)) for a computer or other network device on the Internet. Just as each street address and phone number uniquely identifies a building or telephone, an IP address can uniquely identify a specific computer or other network device on a network.
IPv4: the most widely used version of the Internet Protocol (the "IP" part of TCP/IP.) IPv4 allows for a theoretical maximum of approximately four billion IP Numbers (technically 232), but the actual number is far less due to inefficiencies in the way blocks of numbers are handled by networks. The gradual adoption of IPv6 will solve this problem.
IPv6: the successor to IPv4. Already deployed in some cases and gradually spreading, IPv6 provides a huge number of available IP Numbers - over a sextillion addresses (theoretically 2128). IPv6 allows every device on the planet to have its own IP Number.
IRC: basically a huge multi-user live chat facility. There are a number of major IRC servers around the world which are linked to each other. Anyone can create a channel and anything that anyone types in a given channel is seen by all others in the channel. Private channels can (and are) created for multi-person conference calls.
ISDN: basically a way to move more data over existing regular phone lines. ISDN is 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 56,000or 64,000 bits-per-second. Unlike DSL, ISDN can be used to connect to many different locations, one at a time, just like a regular telephone call, as long the other location also has ISDN.
ISP: is a business or organization that provides access to the Internet and related services. In the past, most ISP's were run by the phone companies. Now, ISP's can be started by just about any individual or group with sufficient money and expertise. In addition to Internet access via various technologies such as dial-up and DSL, they may provide a combination of services including Internet transit, domain name registration and hosting, web hosting, and colocation services.
IT: as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) is: "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware." In short, IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit and retrieve information.
Java: refers to a number of computer software products and specifications from Sun Microsystems (the Java™ technology) that together provide a system for developing and deploying cross-platform applications. Java is used in a wide variety of computing platforms spanning from embedded devices and cell phones on the low end to enterprise servers and super computers on the high end. Java is fairly ubiquitous in cell phones, Web servers and enterprise applications, and somewhat less common in desktop applications, though users may have come across Java applets when browsing the Web.
JDK: a software development package from Sun Microsystems that implements the basic set of tools needed to write, test and debug Java applications and applets.
JPEG: is most commonly mentioned as a format for image files. JPEG format is preferred to the GIF format for photographic images as opposed to line art or simple logo art.
JSP: is a Java technology that allows software developers to dynamically generate HTML, XML or other types of documents in response to a Web client request. The technology allows Java code and certain pre-defined actions to be embedded into static content. The JSP syntax adds additional XML-like tags, called JSP actions, to be used to invoke built-in functionality. Additionally, the technology allows for the creation of JSP tag libraries that act as extensions to the standard HTML or XML tags. Tag libraries provide a platform independent way of extending the capabilities of a Web server.
KB: kilobyte. 1,024 bytes
LAN: a computer network limited to the immediate area, usually the same building or floor of a building.
LAMP: refers to a solution stack of software programs, commonly free software programs, used together to run dynamic websites or servers:
Linux, (referring to the operating system);
Apache, the Web server;
MySQL, the database management system (or database server);
PHP (sometimes Perl or Python), the programming language.
The combination of these technologies is used primarily to define a web server infrastructure, define a programming paradigm of developing software, and establish a software distribution package.
Though the originators of these open source programs did not design them all to work specifically with each other, the combination has become popular because of its low acquisition cost and because of the ubiquity of its components (which come bundled with most current Linux distributions particularly as deployed by ISPs). When used in combination they represent a solution stack of technologies that support application servers.
Leased Line: refers to line such as a telephone line or fiber-optic cable that is rented for exclusive 24-hour, 7-days-a-week use from your location to another location. The highest speed data connections require a leased line.
Linux: a widely used Open Source Unix-like operating system. Linux was first released by its inventor Linus Torvalds in 1991. There are versions of Linux for almost every available type of computer hardware from desktop machines to IBM mainframes. The inner workings of Linux are open and available for anyone to examine and change as long as they make their changes available to the public. This has resulted in thousands of people working on various aspects of Linux and adaptation of Linux for a huge variety of purposes, from servers to TV-recording boxes.
Linux Hosting: linux is a free open-source operating system based on UNIX that is used to run Web servers.
Listserv: the most common kind of maillist, "Listserv" is a registered trademark of L-Soft international, Inc. Listservs originated on BITNET but they are now common on the Internet.
Load Balancing: is a method web hosting providers employ to more evenly distribute the system load over a group of available servers. This technology is used to ensure that all servers process their fair share of requests without being overworked and more susceptible to failing. There are many types of load balancers and these mechanisms come in both software and hardware varieties.
Login: noun or a verb. Noun: the account name used to gain access to a computer system. Not a secret (contrast with Password). Verb: the act of connecting to a computer system by giving your credentials (usually your "username" and "password").
Log Files: are text documents in which activity on a web server or web site is chronicled. Information about each visit, such as IP, time and date, and other relevant information is stored in these log files. Site stats tools are applications which analyze these log files and produce people-friendly charts and diagrams which illustrate and summarize the contents of these log files. Log files and site stats tools are both provided to our customers by default, even to the extent of providing two very different stats applications: ModLogAn and Webalizer.
Macintosh Server: is one which uses server software from Apple. Apple's latest version of server software is Mac OS X Server. Taking its place with Windows NT, Novell NetWare, and Linux, Mac OS X Server provides file and print sharing, a Web server, and multimedia content streaming services to Apple Macintosh-based networks. A Macintosh Server can perform most tasks as well as any other platform. Mac OS X includes the popular Unix web server apache enabling you to use Perl, PHP, and a range of other scripts on your website.
Mail List: a (usually automated) system that allows people to send e-mail to one address, where their message is copied and sent to all of the other subscribers to the maillist. In this way, people who have many different kinds of e-mail access can participate in discussions together.
Managed Dedicated Server: differs from a dedicated server or unmanaged dedicated server as the customer is not expected to be the full time system administrators. Managed Dedicated Server providers employ full time system administrators that maintain dedicated servers for their clients.
Managed hosting: is simply renting an entire web server from a web hosting provider who helps you manage the server. The provider can help you set up and configure web server for web sites, manage backup, administer the database and etc. The managed hosting option allows you the ability to maintain a large website while not having to be concerned about employing the staff to support it.
Mashup: a web page or site made by automatically combining content from other sources, usually by using material available via RSS feeds and/or REST interfaces.
MB: megabyte. 1,024 kilobytes
Megabit Per Second: (abbreviated as Mbps, Mbit/s, or mbps) is a unit of data transfer rates equal to 1,000,000 bits per second (this equals 1,000 kilobits per second). Because there are 8 bits in a byte, a transfer speed of 8 megabits per second (8 Mbps) is equivalent to 1,000,000 bytes per second (approximately 976 KiB/s).
Megabyte: technically speaking, a million bytes. In many cases the term means 1024 kilobytes, which is a more than an even million.
Meta Tag: a specific kind of HTML tag that contains information not normally displayed to the user. Meta tags contain information about the page itself, hence the name ("meta" means "about this subject")
Typical uses of Meta tags are to include information for search engines to help them better categorize a page. You can see the Meta tags in a page if you view the pages' source code.
Microsoft Access: is a relational database management system that can use data stored in Access/Jet, SQL Server, Oracle, or any ODBC-compliant data container.
Microsoft SQL Server: is a relational database management system (RDBMS) produced by Microsoft. Its primary query language is Transact-SQL, an implementation of the ANSI/ISO standard Structured Query Language (SQL) used by both Microsoft and Sybase. SQL Server is commonly used by businesses for small- to medium-sized databases, but the past five years have seen greater adoption of the product for larger enterprise databases.
MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions): originally a standard for defining the types of files attached to standard Internet mail messages. The MIME standard has come to be used in many situations where one computer programs needs to communicate with another program about what kind of file is being sent.
For example, HTML files have a MIME-type of text/html, JPEG files are image/jpeg, etc.
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 copies of material originated at another location, usually in order to provide more widespread access to the resource. For example, one site might create a library of software, and 5 other sites might maintain mirrors of that library.
Modem (MOdulator, DEModulator): a device that connects a computer to a phone line. A telephone for a computer. A modem allows a computer to talk to other computers through the phone system. Basically, modems do for computers what a telephone does for humans. The maximum practical bandwidth using a modem over regular telephone lines is currently around 57,000 bps.
mod_perl: an add-on for the Apache web server software, mod_perl makes it possible to use the Perl language to add new features for the Apache server, and to increase the speed of Perl applications by as much as 30 times.
Monitoring (Website Monitoring): is often used by businesses to ensure that their customers are able to access their online applications and perform actions such as searching, online shopping, checking an account balance, or simply researching. By monitoring website and web application performance, IT Departments or Network Engineers hope to avoid downtime and keep their applications running. Commonly measured metrics are response time and availability (or uptime), although both consistency and reliability metrics are starting to gain popularity.
MOO (Mud, Object Oriented): one of several kinds of multi-user role-playing environments.
Mosaic: the first WWW browser that was available for the Macintosh, Windows,and UNIX all with the same interface. Mosaic really started the popularity of the Web. The source-code to Mosaic was licensed by several companies and used to create many other web browsers.
Mosaic was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, in Illinois, USA. The first version was released in late 1993.
MUD (Multi-User Dungeon or Dimension): a (usually text-based) multi-user simulation environment. Some are purely for fun and flirting, others are used for serious software development, or education purposes and all that lies in between. A significant feature of most MUD's is that users can create things that stay after they leave and which other users can interact within their absence, thus allowing a world to be built gradually and collectively.
Multimedia: is media that uses multiple forms of information content and information processing (e.g. text, audio, graphics, animation, video, interactivity) to inform or entertain the (user) audience. Multimedia also refers to the use of (but not limited to) electronic media to store and experience multimedia content. Multimedia is similar to traditional mixed media in fine art, but with a broader scope. The term "rich media" is synonymous for interactive multimedia.
MUSE (Multi-User Simulated Environment): one kind of MUD - usually with little or no violence.
MySQL: an open source relational database management system that uses Structured Query Language (SQL). Linux hosting plans often include MySQL databases.
MX Record (Mail Exchanger Record): an MX record or Mail exchanger record is a type of resource record in the Domain Name System (DNS) specifying how Internet e-mail should be routed. MX records point to the servers that should receive an e-mail, and their priority relative to each other. An MX record must contain a host name defined by an A Record.
Name Server: is a computer server that implements a name service protocol. It will normally map a computer-usable identifier of a host to a human-usable identifier for that host. For example, a Domain Name System (DNS) server might translate the domain name en.wikipedia.org to the Internet Protocol (IP) address 184.108.40.206.
DNS is the protocol implemented by Internet name servers.
Netiquette: the etiquette on the Internet.
Netizen: derived from the term citizen, referring to a citizen of the Internet,or someone who uses networked resources. The term connotes civic responsibility and participation.
Netscape: a WWW Browser and the name of a company. The Netscape™ browser was originally based on the Mosaic program developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
Network: any time you connect 2 or more computers together so that they can share resources, you have a computer network. Connect 2 or more networks together and you have an internet.
Newsgroup: the name for discussion groups on USENET.
NIC: generally, any office that handles information for a network. The most famous of these on the Internet was the InterNIC, which was where most new domain names were registered until that process was decentralized to a number of private companies. Also means "Network Interface card", which is the card in a computer that you plug a network cable into.
NNTP: the protocol used by client and server software to carry USENET postings back and forth over a TCP/IP network. If you are using any of the more common software such as Netscape, Nuntius, Internet Explorer, etc. to participate in newsgroups then you are benefiting from an NNTP connection.
NOC: a Network Operations Center or NOC (pronounced "nock") is one or more locations from which control is exercised over a computer or telecommunications network, or part thereof. Large organizations may operate more than one NOC, either to manage different networks, or to provide geographic redundancy in the event of one site being unavailable or offline. The location housing the NOC may also contain many or all of the primary servers and other equipment essential to running the network, although it is not uncommon for a single NOC to monitor and control a number of geographically dispersed sites.
Node: any single computer connected to a network.
ODBC: in computing, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) provides a standard software application programming interface (API) method for using database management systems (DBMS). The designers of ODBC aimed to make it independent of programming languages, database systems, and operating systems.
Open Content: copyrighted information (such as this Glossary) that is made available by the copyright owner to the general public under license terms that allow reuse of the material, often with the requirement (as with this Glossary) that the re-user grant the public the same rights to the modified version that the re-user received from the copyright owner. Information that is in the Public Domain might also be considered a form of Open Content.
Open Source Software: is software for which the underlying programming code is available to the users so that they may read it, make changes to it, and build new versions of the software incorporating their changes. There are many types of Open Source Software, mainly differing in the licensing term under which (altered) copies of the source code may (or must be) redistributed.
Open PGP/GPG Encryption: the most widely used email encryption standard in the world. It is a computer program that provides a high level of cryptographic privacy. It often used with signing, encrypting and de-crypting emails.
Optical Carrier: levels describe a range of digital signals that can be carried on SONET fiber optic network. The number in the Optical Carrier level is directly proportional to the data rate of the bitstream carried by the digital signal. The general rule for calculating the speed of Optical Carrier lines is when a specification is given as OC-n, that the speed will equal n × 51.8 Mbit/s.
OC-1: is a SONET line with transmission speeds of up to 51.84 Mbit/s (payload: 50.112 Mbit/s; overhead: 1.728 Mbit/s) using optical fiber. This base rate is multiplied for use by other OC-n standards. For example, an OC-3 connection is 3 times the rate of OC-1.
OC-3 (STM-1x): is a network line with transmission speeds of up to 155.52 Mbit/s (payload: 148.608 Mbit/s; overhead: 6.912 Mbit/s, including path overhead) using fiber optics. Depending on the system OC-3 is also known as STS-3 (electrical level) and STM-1 (SDH). When OC-3 is not multiplexed by carrying the data from a single source, the letter c (standing for concatenated) is appended: OC-3c.
OC-3c: concatenates three STS-1(OC-1) frames. Concatenated STS(OC) frames carry only one column of path overhead because they cannot be divided into finer granularity signals. Hence, OC-3c can transmit more payload to accommodate a CEPT-4 139.264 Mbps signal. The payload rate is 149.76 Mbps and overhead is 5.76 Mbps.
OC-12 (STM-4x): is a network line with transmission speeds of up to 622.08 Mbit/s (payload: 601.344 Mbit/s; overhead: 20.736 Mbit/s). OC-12 lines are commonly used by ISPs as WAN connections. While a large ISP would not use an OC-12 as a backbone (main link), it would for smaller, regional or local connections. This connection speed is also often used by mid-sized (below Tier 2) internet customers, such as web hosting companies or smaller ISPs buying service from larger ones.
OC-24: is a network line with transmission speeds of up to 1243.68 Mbit/s (payload: 1202.208 Mbit/s; overhead: 41.472 Mbit/s). Implementations of OC-24 in commercial deployments are rare.
OC-48 (STM-16x): is a network line with transmission speeds of up to 2488.32 Mbit/s (payload: 2405.376 Mbit/s; overhead: 82.944 Mbit/s). OC-48 connections are some of the fastest data connections in use today. Faster than OC-3, OC-12 connections, and even surpassing gigabit Ethernet, OC-48 connections are used as the backbones of many regional ISPs. Interconnections between large ISPs for purposes of peering or transit are quite common. As of 2005, the only connections in widespread use that surpass OC-48 speeds are OC-192 and 10 gigabit Ethernet.
OC-96: is a network line with transmission speeds of up to 4976.64 Mbit/s (payload: 4810.752 Mbit/s; overhead: 165.888 Mbit/s). Implementations of OC-96 in commercial deployments are rare, if ever used at all.
OC-192 (STM-64x): is a network line with transmission speeds of up to 9953.28 Mbit/s (payload: 9621.504 Mbit/s; overhead: 331.776 Mbit/s). This is the fastest connection commonly available on the Internet. A standardized variant of 10 gigabit Ethernet (10GbE), called WAN-PHY, is designed to inter-operate with OC-192 transport equipment while the common version of 10GbE is called LAN-PHY (which is not compatible with OC-192 transport equipment in its native form). The naming is somewhat misleading, because both variants are suitable for use on a wide area network. As of 2005, OC-192 connections are the most common for use on the backbones of large ISPs.
OC-768 (STM-256x): is a network line with transmission speeds of up to 39,813.12 Mbit/s (payload: 38,486.016 Mbit/s; overhead: 1327.104 Mbit/s). As of 2006, use of OC-768 connections outside of research or testing networks is quite rare, because of the high cost as opposed to link-bundled OC-192 and sheer lack of need for such speeds. However many large multi-nationals are developing their NGN with the ability to handle speeds up to OC-768 for future converged service operation.
OC-2496: as of March 2007 testing data shows transmission speeds of 126.65365 Gbps. An experimental speed test is currently being constructed and implemented by an independent American defense R&D company which has been tasked to build 8200 miles of closed fiber to formalize a test of the speeds and test a unique sensor which is a multi-phased, multi-channel, multi-frequency device called Real-Time Active Passive Tracking: The test is being constructed via private funding sources for the United State Senate Armed Service Committee and The Department of Defense as an Independently funded (no tax-payer dollars) Advanced Technology Demonstration Project.
OS: is a set of computer programs that manage the hardware and software resources of a computer. An operating system rationally processes electronic devices in response to approved commands. At the foundation of all system software, an operating system performs basic tasks such as controlling and allocating memory, prioritizing system requests, controlling input and output devices, facilitating networking, and managing file systems. Most operating systems have a command line interpreter as a basic user interface, but they may also provide a graphical user interface (GUI) for ease of operation. The operating system forms a platform for other system software and for application software.
Packet Loss: occurs when one or more packets of data traveling across a computer network fail to reach their destination. Packet loss can be caused by a number of factors, including signal degradation over the network medium, oversaturated network links, corrupted packets rejected in-transit, faulty networking hardware, or normal routing routines. When caused by network problems, lost or dropped packets can result in highly noticeable performance issues or jitter with Streaming Technologies, Voice over IP, Online Gaming and Videoconferencing, and will affect all other network applications to a degree. However, it is important to note that packet loss does not always indicate a problem. If the latency and the packet loss at the destination hop are acceptable then the hops prior to that one don't matter.
Packet Switching: the method used to move data around on the Internet. In packet switching, all the data coming out of a machine is broken up into chunks, each chunk has the address of where it came from and where it is going. This enables chunks of data from many different sources to co-mingle on the same lines, and be sorted and directed along different routes by special machines along the way. This way many people can use the same lines at the same time.
Password: a code used to gain access (login) to a locked system. Good passwords contain letters and non-letters and are not simple combinations such as virtue7. A good password might be: Ae9iHHha3c2 (but don't use that one).
Password Protected Directories: this feature allows you to restrict access to certain directories on your website. When somebody attempts to access the protected directory, they will be prompted to enter their username and password.
PDF: a file format designed to enable printing and viewing of documents with all their formatting (typefaces, images, layout, etc.) appearing the same regardless of what operating system is used, so a PDF document should look the same on Windows, Macintosh, linux, OS/2, etc. The PDF format is based on the widely used PostScript document-description language. Both PDF and Postscript were developed by the Adobe Corporation.
Perl: a programming language that allows database interactivity and dynamic content on a web site.
Permalink: to a particular posting in a blog. A permalink is a URI that points to a specific blog posting, rather than to the page in which the posting original occurred (which may no longer contain the posting.)
PHP: hypertext Preprocessor. A server-side, cross-platform, HTML embedded scripting language that lets you create dynamic web pages. HostMonster supports PHP.
phpMyAdmin: is a free software tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the internet.
Plug-in: (usually small) piece of software that adds features to a larger piece of software. Common examples are plug-ins for the Netscape® browser and web server. Adobe Photoshop® also uses plug-ins as does Wordpress CMS.
PNG: is a graphics format specifically designed for use on the World Wide Web. PNG enable compression of images without any loss of quality, including high-resolution images. Another important feature of PNG is that anyone may create software that works with PNG images without paying any fees - the PNG standard is free of any licensing costs.
Podcasting: a form of audio broadcasting using the Internet, podcasting takes its name from a combination of "iPod" and broadcasting. iPod is the immensely popular digital audio player made by Apple computer, but podcasting does not actually require the use of an iPod. Podcasting involves making one or more audio files available as "enclosures" in an RSS feed. A pod-caster creates a list of music, and/or other sound files (such as recorded poetry, or "talk radio" material) and makes that list available in the RSS 2.0 format. The list can then be obtained by other people using various podcast "retriever" software which read the feed and makes the audio files available to digital audio devices (including, but not limited to iPod's) where users may then listen to them at their convenience.
POP: post Office Protocol (POP). A protocol used to retrieve e-mail from a mail server.
Port: 3 meanings. First and most generally, a place where information goes into or out of a computer, or both. E.g. the serial port on a personal computer is where a modem would be connected.
On the Internet port often refers to a number that is part of a URL, appearing after a colon (:) right after the domain name. Every service on an Internet server listens on a particular port number on that server. Most services have standard port numbers, e.g. Web servers normally listen on port 80. Services can also listen on non-standard ports, in which case the port number must be specified in a URL when accessing the server, so you might see a URL of the form - This shows a gopher server running on a non-standard port (the standard gopher port is 70). Finally, port also refers to translating a piece of software to bring it from one type of computer system to another, e.g. to translate a Windows program so that is will run on a Macintosh.
Portal: usually used as a marketing term to described a Web site that is or is intended to be the first place people see when using the Web. Typically a "Portal site" has a catalog of web sites, a search engine, or both. A Portal site may also offer email and other service to entice people to use that site as their main "point of entry" (hence "portal") to the Web.
Posting: a single message entered into a network communications system.
PPC: is an advertising technique used on websites, advertising networks, and search engines. Advertisers bid on "keywords" that they believe their target market (people they think would be interested in their offer) would type in the search bar when they are looking for their type of product or service. For example, if an advertiser sells red widgets, he/she would bid on the keyword "red widgets", hoping a user would type those words in the search bar, see their ad, click on it and buy. These ads are called "sponsored links" or "sponsored ads" and appear next to and sometimes above the natural or organic results on the page. The advertiser pays only when the user clicks on the ad.
PPP: The most common protocol used to connect home computers to the Internet over regular phone lines. Most well known as a protocol that allows a computer to use a regular telephone line and a modem to make TCP/IP connections and thus be really and truly on the Internet.
Protocol: on the Internet "protocol" usually refers to a set of rules that define an exact format for communication between systems. For example the HTTP protocol defines the format for communication between web browsers and web servers, the IMAP protocol defines the format for communication between IMAP email servers and clients, and the SSL protocol defines a format for encrypted communications over the Internet.
Proxy Server: sits in between a Client and the "real" Server that a Client is trying to use. Client's are sometimes configured to use a Proxy Server, usually an HTTP server. The clients makes all of it's requests from the Proxy Server, which then makes requests from the "real" server and passes the result back to the Client. Sometimes the Proxy server will store the results and give a stored result instead of making a new one (to reduce use of a Network). Proxy servers are commonly established on Local Area Networks.
PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network): the regular old-fashioned telephone system.
Python: is a high-level programming language first released by Guido van Rossum in 1991. Python is designed around a philosophy which emphasizes the importance of programmer effort over computer effort, and it rejects more arcane language features, prioritizing readability over speed or expressiveness.
RAID: redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) is a standard for connecting multiple disks to the same server for higher security, speed and performance.
Raw Logs: are the base server access logs. Programs such as Google Analytics or AW Stats take the raw logs use them to make diagrams, etc that are user friendly.
RDF: a set of rules (a sort of language) for creating descriptions of information, especially information available on the World Wide Web. RDF could be used to describe a collection of books, or artists, or a collection of web pages as in the RSS data format which uses RDF to create machine-readable summaries of web sites. RDF is also used in XPFE applications to define the relationships between different collections of elements, for example RDF could be used to define the relationship between the data in a database and the way that data is displayed to a user.
Redundancy: is the duplication of critical components of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system, usually in the case of a backup or fail-safe.
Registrar: a domain name registrar is a company accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and/or by a national ccTLD authority to register Internet domain names. ICANN has authority over gTLDs, or Generic Top Level Domains. Examples of gTLDs include .com, .net and .org. ICANN does not have authority over ccTLDs, or Country Code Top-Level Domains, though it is quite common for domain name registrars to offer ccTLD registration services as well. Most registrars provide DNS hosting service, but this is not required, and is often considered a separate service.
Reseller: is a seller of web host accounts. Being a reseller you are able to establish your own brand name and control the features, pricing and content of the packages that you offer. It means you also have full control of the marketing and sales strategy.
REST: a loosely defined specification for HTTP-based services where all of the information required to process a request is present in the initial request and where each request receives only a single response, and where the response is in a machine-readable form. An example could be a service that accepts HTTP requests for a search and returns the result as an XML document.
Response time and Transaction Load: the performance of a server is associated with the response time of a given transaction load. In regard to a website, it is measured by the time it takes to load web pages and process requests to the web server. The performance of large, high traffic websites can be greatly enhanced by upgrading hardware, residing on a dedicated server or utilizing load balancing technology. In many cases, fine tuning software packages such as MySQL and PHP can also increase response times.
RFC: the name of the result and the process for creating a standard on the Internet. New standards are proposed and published on the Internet, as a Request For Comments. The proposal is reviewed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (http://www.ietf.org/), a consensus-building body that facilitates discussion, and eventually a new standard is established, but the reference number/name for the standard retains the acronym RFC, e.g. the official standard for e-mail message formats is RFC 822.
Router: a special-purpose computer (or software package) that handles the connection between 2 or more Packet-Switched networks. Routers spend all their time looking at the source and destination addresses of the packets passing through them and deciding which route to send them on.
RSS: a commonly used protocol for syndication and sharing of content, originally developed to facilitate the syndication of news articles, now widely used to share the contents of blogs. Mashup's are often made using RSS feeds. RSS is an XML-based summary of a web site, usually used for syndication and other kinds of content-sharing. There are RSS "feeds" which are sources of RSS information about web sites, and RSS "readers" which read RSS feeds and display their content to users. RSS is being overtaken by a newer, more complex protocol called Atom.
RTSP: is an official Internet standard (RFC 2326) for delivering and receiving streams of data such as audio and video.
Ruby On Rails: is a web application framework released in 2004 that aims to increase the speed and ease of web development. Often shortened to Rails, or RoR, it is an open source project written in the Ruby programming language.
Ruby on Rails Web Hosting: provides hosting for the ruby on rails application development framework. Not all hosts offer this. A great ruby on rails web host is Hostmonster.
SAN: a storage area network (SAN) is an architecture to attach remote computer storage devices such as disk array controllers, tape libraries and CD arrays to servers in such a way that to the operating system the devices appear as locally attached devices. Although cost and complexity is dropping, as of 2007, SANs are still uncommon outside larger enterprises.
Scalability: the scalability of a system generally refers to the property that enables it to service any given load by upgrading hardware or incorporating additional services in a predetermined manner. It essentially describes an instance in which performance and throughput can still be maintained once the load increases. Scalability is a great quality to have in a web hosting solution as it can support the growth and increasing needs of your website.
Script Kiddie: in computing, a script kiddie (occasionally script bunny, script kitty, script kiddo, skidiot, skiddie, Victor Skill Deficiency (VSD), and even lamer) is a derogatory term for inexperienced hackers who use scripts and programs developed by others, without knowing what they are or how they work, for the purpose of compromising computer accounts and files, and for launching attacks on whole computer systems. In general, they do not have the ability to write these kinds of programs on their own. It is a common belief that many script kiddies also enjoy cracking any website they can, just to prove their "superiority" in the underground cracker community. Script kiddies, instead of attacking an individual system, often scan thousands of computers looking for vulnerable targets before initiating an attack. This is similar to wardialing and wardriving in which the attacker isn't looking at one specific system, but instead anything that is open and looks interesting. Script kiddies can be a potential aid to more dangerous types of crackers who can encourage and manipulate them into being more destructive.
SDSL: a version of DSL where the upload speeds and download speeds are the same.
Search Engine: a (usually web-based) system for searching the information available on the Web. Some search engines work by automatically searching the contents of other systems and creating a database of the results. Other search engines contains only material manually approved for inclusion in a database, and some combine the two approaches.
Security Certificate: a chunk of information (often stored as a text file) that is used by the SSL protocol to establish a secure connection.
SEO: the practice of designing web pages so that they rank as high as possible in search results from search engines. There is "good" SEO and "bad" SEO. Good SEO involves making the web page clearly describe its subject, making sure it contains truly useful information, including accurate information in Meta tags, and arranging for other web sites to make links to the page. Bad SEO involves attempting to deceive people into believing the page is more relevant than it truly is by doing things like adding inaccurate Meta tags to the page.
Server: a computer that handles requests for data, email, file transfers, and other network services from other computers, including requests for Web pages.
Server Log: is a file (or several files) automatically created and maintained by a server of activity performed by it. A typical example is a web server log which maintains a history of page requests. The W3C maintains a standard format for web server log files, but other proprietary formats exist. More recent entries are typically appended to the end of the file. Information about the request, including client IP address, request date/time, page requested, HTTP code, bytes served, user agent, and referer are typically added. These data can be combined into a single file, or separated into distinct logs, such as an access log, error log, or referer log. However, server logs typically do not collect user-specific information. These files are usually not accessible to general Internet users, only to the webmaster or other administrative person. A statistical analysis of the server log may be used to examine traffic patterns by time of day, day of week, referrer, or user agent. Efficient web site administration, adequate hosting resources and the fine tuning of sales efforts can be aided by analysis of the web server logs. Marketing departments of any organization that owns a website should be trained to understand these powerful tools.
Servlet: a small computer program designed to be add capabilities to a larger piece of server software. Common examples are "Java servlets", which are small programs written in the Java language and which are added to a web server. Typically a web server that uses Java servlets will have many of them, each one designed to handle a very specific situation, for example one servlet will handle adding items to a "shopping cart", while a different servlet will handle deleting items from the "shopping cart."
Session State: is often needed to maintain the connection of a client program and a given server. This typically needs to be done to accommodate a user who is logged into the system. If the topology consists of multiple servers, maintaining session state is crucial and something that must be taken care. Most load balancing software applications on the market provide facilities that enable this to done. The most common methods are implementing cookies and rewriting URLs with the server details included. load_balance.htm
SGML: developed in 1986 SGML provides a rich set of rules for defining new data formats. A well-known example of using SGML is XML, which is a subset of SGML: The definition of XML is all of SGML minus a couple of dozen items. SGML is an International Standards Organization (ISO) standard: ISO 8879:1986.
Shared Web Hosting: multiple sites hosted on a single server that share the system resources. Each web site is allotted a specific amount of resources. Shared Web hosting is the most common (and affordable) hosting option. For the beginner shared hosting is usually the way to go. You get great features for a low price; in fact you frequently can get more features with shared hosting than a much more expensive hosting plan. Register.com is the best overall deal in web hosting in our opinion. See list of best website hosting services here.
Shell Account: a shell account is a personal account that gives a user access to a Unix shell on another machine, usually through ssh (and historically telnet). With a shell account a user can log into a remote server and run commands on it.
Shopping Carts: shopping carts are special programs that run on your website that allow you to add products, descriptions and prices as well as other details from a web based administrative interface.Some examples include Zen Cart, OS Commerce, Agora, etc. InMotion is the way to go if you're looking for web hosting with shopping cart support.
Site Builder: some web hosts provide you with an easy-to-use template-based application for creating your website from scratch. Knowledge of HTML not required, and you do not need to install any software on your computer. The site builder runs on your web host's servers, and is accessed and utilized through your web browser.
Site Monitoring: the practice of making sure your site is up and notifying you if it is not. Downtime can be ruinous to a business, both in lost sales and reputation, so it can be a good safeguard to have in place.
SLA: is a formal negotiated agreement between two parties. It is a contract that exists between customers and their service provider, or between service providers. It transcripts the common understanding about services, priorities, responsibilities, guarantee, etc. with the main purpose to agree on the level of service. For example, it may specify the levels of availability, serviceability, performance, operation or other attributes of the service like billing and even penalties in the case of violation of the SLA.
SLIP: a standard that was popular in the early 1990's for using a regular telephone line (a serial line) and a modem to connect a computer as a real Internet site. SLIP has largely been replaced by PPP.
SMDS: a standard for very high-speed data transfer.
SMTP: simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is a protocol used to send and receive email.
SNMP: a set of standards for communication with devices connected to a TCP/IP network. Examples of these devices include routers, hubs, and switches. SNMP is defined in RFC 1089.
SOAP: a protocol for client-server communication that sends and receives information "on top of" HTTP. The data sent and received is in a particular XML format specifically designed for use with SOAP. SOAP is similar to the XMLRPC protocol except that SOAP provides for more sophisticated handling of complex data being sent between a client and a server. SOAP actually grew from the work that created XMLRPC. Microsoft's ".NET" system is largely based on SOAP.
Software as a Service: is a model of software deployment where an application is hosted as a service provided to customers across the Internet. By eliminating the need to install and run the application on the customer's own computer, SaaS alleviates the customer's burden of software maintenance, ongoing operation, and support. Using SaaS also can reduce the up-front expense of software purchases, through less costly, on-demand pricing. From the software vendor's standpoint, SaaS has the attraction of providing stronger protection of its intellectual property and establishing an ongoing revenue stream. The SaaS software vendor may host the application on its own web server, or this function may be handled by a third-party application service provider (ASP). This way, end users may reduce their investment on server hardware too.
SONET: is a method for communicating digital information using lasers or light-emitting diodes (LEDs) over optical fiber. The method was developed to replace the Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH) system for transporting large amounts of telephone and data traffic and to allow for interoperability between equipment from different vendors.
Spam: 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?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.
Spyware: a somewhat vague term generally referring to software that is secretly installed on a users computer and that monitors use of the computer in some way without the users' knowledge or consent. Most spyware tries to get the user to view advertising and/or particular web pages. Some spyware also sends information about the user to another machine over the Internet. Spyware is usually installed without a users' knowledge as part of the installation of other software, especially software such as music sharing software obtained via download.
SQL: structured Query Language (SQL) is a database access language used for sending queries to databases for the purpose of retrieving information.
SSH: secure shell or SSH is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a secure channel between two networked devices. Used primarily on Linux and Unix based systems to access shell accounts, SSH was designed as a replacement for Telnet and other insecure remote shells.
SSI: is an easy server-side scripting language used almost exclusively for the web. As its name implies, its primary use is including the contents of a file into another, via a Web Server. Today, SSI has largely been replaced by the more complex programming languages PHP, ASP, and JSP.
SSL: secure Sockets Layer (SSL) provides encrypted, authenticated communications over the Internet. Ecommerce web sites use SSL to process payment transactions. See - Best SSL Certificate Providers and GoDaddy SSL reviews.
Static IP Address: an IP address that is fixed and never changes. Web host with Static IP Address.
Streaming Support: the most widely used form of streaming is defined here as to begin playing a multimedia file before it has completed downloading to the client's computer. This allows site visitors to get access to the content you want to deliver to them without them having to wait for the entire file to download. other streaming uses can be applied for shoutcasting, podcasting, and live video feeds.
Sub Domain: a sub domain is a subdivision of a larger domain. Usually the sub portions comes before the main domain. For example, a sub domain of http://Website-Hosting-Review.net is http://blog.Website-Hosting-Review.net.
Sysop: anyone responsible for the physical operations of a computer system or network resource. For example, a System Administrator decides how often backups and maintenance should be performed and the System Operator performs those tasks.
T1: a leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 1,544,000 bits-per-second. At maximum theoretical capacity, a T1 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. T1 lines are commonly used to connect large LAN's to the Internet.
T3: 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.
Tag: the term "tag" can be used as a noun or verb. As a noun, a tag is a basic element of the languages used to create web pages (HTML) and similar languages such as XML. Another, more recent meaning of tag is related to reader-created tags where blogs and other content (such as photos, music, etc.) may be "tagged" which means to assign a keyword, such as "politics" or "gardening", this enables searches for "all the blog postings in the past week that are tagged 'prenatal care'".
TB: terabyte. 1,024 gigabytes
TCP/I: this is the suite of protocols that defines the Internet. Originally designed for the UNIX operating system, TCP/IP software is now included with every major kind of computer operating system. To be truly on the Internet, your computer must have TCP/IP software.
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.
Terabyte: 1000 gigabytes.
Terminal: a device that allows you to send commands to a computer somewhere else. At a minimum, this usually means a keyboard and a display screen and some simple circuitry. Usually you will use terminal software in a personal computer - the software pretends to be (emulates) a physical terminal and allows you to type commands to a computer somewhere else.
Terminal Server: a special purpose computer that has places to plug in many modems on one side, and a connection to a LAN or host machine on the other side. Thus the terminal server does the work of answering the calls and passes the connections on to the appropriate node. Most terminal servers can provide PPP or SLIP services if connected to the Internet.
Terms of Service: are rules by which one must agree to abide by in order to use a service. Usually, such terms are legally binding.
Certain website's are noted for having carefully designed terms of service, particularly eBay and PayPal which need to maintain a high level of community trust because of transactions involving money. However, to attract new members and maintain current members, the terms must be perceived as fair and must not be needlessly bureaucratic. For the sake of good public relations and effective community building, the organization should strive to form a social contract that balances the organization's interests with a set of rights granted to the membership.
Throughput: though closely tied to performance, throughput is best described as the number of concurrent transactions the server is able to process. The higher the throughput, the more processing power to the system.
TLD: a top-level domain (TLD) is the last part of an Internet domain name; that is, the letters which follow the final dot of any domain name. For example, in the domain name www.website.com, the top-level domain is com (or COM, as domain names are not case-sensitive). The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) currently classifies top-level domains into three types:
1. country code top-level domains (ccTLD): Used by a country or a dependent territory. It is two letters long, for example jp for Japan.
2. generic top-level domains (gTLD): Used (at least in theory) by a particular class of organizations (for example, com for commercial organizations). It is three or more letters long. Most gTLDs are available for use worldwide, but for historical reasons mil (military) and gov (governmental) are restricted to use by the respective U.S. authorities. gTLDs are subclassified into sponsored top-level domains (sTLD), e.g. .aero, .coop and .museum, and unsponsored top-level domains (uTLD), e.g. .biz, .info, .name and .pro.
3. infrastructure top-level domains: The top-level domain arpa is the only confirmed one. Root has been known to exist without reason.
Transfer Rate: In telecommunications, data transfer rate or just transfer rate is the average number of bits, characters, or blocks per unit time passing between equipment in a data transmission system.
Transfer rates can serve several functions. The response time can help a network administrator pinpoint where slowdowns and potential hangups exist in a network. By analyzing data transfer rates and adjusting accordingly as a preventative measure, a system can be made more efficient and will be more prepared to handle extra bandwidth constraints in times of heavy usage. Testing mechanisms such as fiber optic loopbacks can assist in measuring and conducting data transfer tests.
Trojan Horse: a computer program is either hidden inside another program or that masquerades as something it is not in order to trick potential users into running it. For example a program that appears to be a game or image file but in reality performs some other function. The term "Trojan Horse" comes from a possibly mythical ruse of war used by the Greeks sometime between 1500 and 1200 B.C.
A Trojan Horse computer program may spread itself by sending copies of itself from the host computer to other computers, but unlike a virus it will (usually) not infect other programs.
UDP: one of the protocols for data transfer that is part of the TCP/IP suite of protocols. UDP is a "stateless" protocol in that UDP makes no provision for acknowledgement of packets received.
Upload: transferring data (usually a file) from a the computer you are using to another computer. The opposite of download.
UPS: an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), uninterruptible power source or sometimes called a battery backup is a device which maintains a continuous supply of electric power to connected equipment by supplying power from a separate source when utility power is not available. A UPS is inserted between the source of power (typically commercial utility power) and the load it is protecting. When a power failure or abnormality occurs, the UPS will effectively switch from utility power to its own power source almost instantaneously.
While not limited to safeguarding any particular type of equipment, a UPS is typically used to protect computers, telecommunication equipment or other electrical equipment where an unexpected power disruption could cause injuries, fatalities, serious business disruption or data loss. UPS units come in sizes ranging from units which will back up a single computer without monitor (around 200 VA) to units which will power entire data centers or buildings (several megawatts). Larger UPS units typically work in conjunction with generators.
Uptime: the ratio of time a website is accessible and available. A good web host will have uptimes of at least greater than 99%.
Uptime Guarantee: a guarantee made by a hosting company that refers to the amount of time that a server will be available. See Service Level Agreement.
Unix Web Hosting: Unix is the operating system on which the majority of websites are built. Unix is open source, which enhances their appeal.
URI: is a compact string of characters used to identify or name a resource. The main purpose of this identification is to enable interaction with representations of the resource over a network, typically the World Wide Web, using specific protocols. URIs are defined in schemes defining a specific syntax and associated protocols.
A URI can be classified as a locator or a name or both. A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a URI that, in addition to identifying a resource, provides means of acting upon or obtaining a representation of the resource by describing its primary access mechanism or network "location". For example, the URL http://www.wikipedia.org/ is a URI that identifies a resource (Wikipedia's home page) and implies that a representation of that resource (such as the home page's current HTML code, as encoded characters) is obtainable via HTTP from a network host named www.wikipedia.org.
URL: a Universal Resource Locator is the full, unique address of a Web page. URLs are alphanumeric and replace IP numbers.
USENET: a world-wide system of discussion groups, with comments passed among hundreds of thousands of machines. Not all USENET machines are on the Internet. USENET is completely decentralized, with over 10,000 discussion areas, called newsgroups.
UUENCODE: a method for converting files from Binary to ASCII (text) so that they can be sent across the Internet via email.
Veronica: developed at the University of Nevada, Veronica was a constantly updated database of the names of almost every menu item on thousands of gopher servers. The Veronica database could be searched from most major gopher menus. Now made obsolete by web-bases search engines.
Virtual Web Hosting: also called shared hosting, is a popular and cost-effective web hosting solution. The hosting provider leases the website hosting server, services, and bandwidth to more than one website. Small and medium-sized websites, which do not have high traffic and have limited bandwidth requirements, benefit from virtual hosting. A virtual hosting offer by a service provider usually includes features such as Internet connection, domain name registration, file storage, email account, and may also include website design assistance via template type software. HostGator is a great, cheap virtual web host with free website transfers if you happen to already be at another web host.
Virtual Private Servers: the practice of partitioning a single server so that it appears as multiple servers in which each is allocated its own amount of dedicated resources. This is middle of the road hosting. It's better than shared, but not as good as dedicated hosting. The advantage to a VPS web host is that you have complete control of your web host virtual computer. Your web site will also be more reliable because the resources that you are allocated will always be available for your web site and other customers cannot take any of those resources away from your web site. A VPS will cost more than shared hosting, but will not be nearly as expensive as dedicated hosting. InMotion is great for VPS.
Virus: a chunk of computer programming code that makes copies of itself without any conscious human intervention. Some viruses do more than simply replicate themselves, they might display messages, install other software or files, delete software of files, etc. A virus requires the presence of some other program to replicate itself. Typically viruses spread by attaching themselves to programs and in some cases files, for example the file formats for Microsoft word processor and spreadsheet programs allow the inclusion of programs called "macros" which can in some cases be a breeding ground for viruses.
VOIP: a specification and various technologies used to allow making telephone calls over IP networks, especially the Internet. Just as modems allow computers to connect to the Internet over regular telephone lines, VOIP technology allows humans to talk over Internet connections. Costs for VOIP calls can be a lot lower than for traditional telephone calls. Because the IP networks are packet-switched this allows for vastly different ways of handling connections and more efficient use of network resources.
VPN: usually refers to a network in which some of the parts are connected using the public Internet, but the data sent across the Internet is encrypted, so the entire network is "virtually" private.
VPS: a virtual private server (also referred to as virtual dedicated server or virtual server, and abbreviated VPS or VDS) is a method of partitioning one physical server computer into multiple servers that each has the appearance and capabilities of running on its own dedicated machine. Each virtual server can run its own full-fledged operating system, and each server can be independently rebooted.
WAIS: developed in the early 1990s WAIS was the first truly large-scale system to allow the indexing of huge quantities of information on the Web, and to make those indices searchable across networks such as the Internet. WAIS was also pioneering in its use of ranked (scored) results where the software tries to determine how relevant each result it.
WAN: any internet or network that covers an area larger than a single building or campus.
Web Hosting: is a service that provides a physical location, space/storage, connectivity and services for Web sites so that Web site files can be accessed and viewed by anyone using the World Wide Web. Customers create Web page files locally and then upload them to their Web hosting provider's server. Web hosting services can include email addresses, databases, free site builders, and more. Find best website hosting reviews.
Web Log Analysis Software: is software that parses a log file from a web server (like Apache), and based on the values contained in the log file, derives indicators about who, when and how a web server is visited. Popular log analyzers include: Analog, AWStats, Urchin, and Webalizer.
Webmail: is a service used to access email online through a web browser instead of downloading email onto a computer via a program such as Outlook Express. Webmail allows the sending, receiving, and storing of email, and is accessible on any computer.
Web Page: a document designed for viewing in a web browser. Typically written in HTML. A website is made of one or more web pages.
WebDAV: a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol that allows multiple users to not only read but also to add, delete, and change documents residing on a web server. In order to use WebDAV you need WebDAV client software to connect to a HTTP server that has the WebDAV extensions installed. Virtually all common HTTP servers have WedDAV extensions available to them.
Web Statistics: web hosts provide reporting programs that include information about visitors to your Web site.
Wi-Fi: a popular term for a form of wireless data communication, basically Wi-Fi is "Wireless Ethernet".
Windows NT: is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was originally designed to be a powerful high-level language-based processor-independent multiprocessing multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix to complement consumer versions of Windows that were based on MS-DOS until 2001. It was the first fully 32-bit version of Windows, whereas its consumer-oriented counterparts, Windows 3.x and Windows 9x, are 16-bit/32-bit hybrids. Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003 are the latest versions of Windows based upon the original Windows NT system, although they are not branded as Windows NT releases.
Windows Hosting: web hosting on a Microsoft Windows Server platform, which allows web pages to use ASP and .NET. Lunarpages Windows web hosting is great.
Windows Server: is an operating system for server developed by Microsoft.
Worm: is a virus that does not infect other programs. It makes copies of itself, and infects additional computers (typically by making use of network connections) but does not attach itself to additional programs; however a worm might alter, install, or destroy files and programs.
XHTML: basically HTML expressed as valid XML. XHTML is intended to be used in the same places you would use HTML (creating web pages) but is much more strictly defined, which makes it a lot easier to create software that can read it, edit it, check it for errors, etc.
XML: is a W3C-recommended general-purpose markup language that supports a wide variety of applications. XML languages or 'dialects' may be designed by anyone and may be processed by conforming software. XML is also designed to be reasonably human-legible, and to this end, terseness was not considered essential in its structure. XML is a simplified subset of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). Its primary purpose is to facilitate the sharing of data across different information systems, particularly systems connected via the Internet.
XMLRPC: a protocol for client-server communication that sends and receives information "on top of" HTTP. The data sent and received is in a particular XML format specifically designed for use with XMLRPC.
XUL: a markup language similar to HTML and based on XML. XUL used to define what the user interface will look like for a particular piece of software. XUL is used to define what buttons, scrollbars, text boxes, and other user-interface items will appear, but it is not used to define how those item will look (e.g. what color they are). The most widely used example of XUL use is probably in the Firefox web browser, where the entire user interface is defined using the XUL language.
Zend Engine: is an open source scripting engine (a Virtual Machine), commonly known for the important role it plays in the web automation language PHP. It was originally developed by Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski while they were students at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. They later founded a company called Zend Technologies in Ramat Gan, Israel. The name Zend is a portmanteau of their forenames, Zeev and Andi. The first version of the Zend Engine appeared in 1999 alongside PHP version 4. It was written as a highly optimized modular back-end, which for the first time could be used in applications outside of PHP. The performance, reliability and extensibility of the engine played a significant role in increasing the popularity of PHP. The current version of the virtual machine is The Zend Engine II and is at the heart of PHP 5. The source code for the Zend Engine has been freely available under a BSD-style license since 2001; it is an open-source project, and there are now several programmers from all over the world who volunteer their time and skills to expand and improve the code base.
Zend Guard: protects commercial PHP 4 and PHP 5 applications from reverse engineering, unauthorized customization, unlicensed use and redistribution. Software vendors are increasingly writing applications in PHP with the aim of distributing them via download or CD. It is critical that the source code and intellectual property of the applications being distributed is secure, regardless of whether the applications are free, for evaluation purposes or for commercial sale.
Zend Optimizer: is a free application that runs the files encoded by the Zend Guard, while enhancing the performance of PHP applications.
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