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Alias
Aliases can be used to identify different e-mail accounts
and can redirect mail to other POP3 accounts or to another
folder within the same address. A catch-all alias can be
used to process e-mail from unknown senders, and is often
known as a “junk-mail” sorter.
Auto responder
Auto responders are not true email accounts, but they do
have an e-mail address and reply to anyone who sends them an
e-mail. This is a handy tool if you want to send out the
same information to anyone who asks for it. The
pre-formatted e-mail is automatically sent as a reply,
guaranteeing that every response is identical.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is a term used to describe the amount of data that
can pass through a communications channel (such as an
Internet connection) in a given period of time. Bandwidth is
often measured monthly.
Browser
A browser is a program that allows access to the web
visually by allowing requests from special files known as
HyperText Markup Language, The language of websites. There
are many web browsers out there to choose from. Microsoft’s
Internet Explorer program is one of the most popular.
Client
A client is a computer program that can download files for
editing, run applications, or request application based
services from a file server. An FTP client is a common
software package used for uploading and maintaining
websites.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated Hosting is a service that Web hosting companies
provide to their customers whose websites generate a lot of
traffic. Essentially, and entire server is used for a single
customer, ensuring that all of the server’s resources are
used to that customer’s needs. This is important for
companies that do business online, as heavy traffic tends to
eat up bandwidth and make sluggish websites.
DNS
DNS stands for “Domain Name System”, and it is a way for
institutions differentiate themselves from each other. The
most famous domain is the “dot com” (.com) domain, which
denotes a commercial website. Other domains include the name
of the host country (.us, .ca) or a specific sector of
society (.mil for military).
Domain Parking
Domain Parking refers to when individuals or companies by up
domain names before they are ready to use them. A simple web
page describing the future content or advertising the new
owners of the website is then “parked” on the address in
order to generate interest before the website actually goes
online.
Download
Simply put, when you download data or programs you are
transferring data from a server or host computer to your own
computer.
E-mail
Created by Roy Tomlinson for ARPANET in 1971, e-mail is a
system for sending and receiving messages electronically
over a computer network. E-mail has revolutionized personal
communications in the 21st century.
Forwarding Account
Forwarding accounts are special e-mail accounts that allow
e-mail to be redirected to another account as soon as they
come in. This can be helpful when you have several accounts
running at once and would like to consolidate your email to
a single address.
FTP
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It is a
communications protocol that governs the transfer of files
from one computer to another over a network.
Gigabyte
A gigabyte is a unit of computer memory or data storage
capacity equal to 1,024 megabytes. One Gigabyte (Gb) is
equal to about one billion bytes (230 bytes).
HTML
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. HTML is a special
computer language used to structure the text and multimedia
documents of a website. It also is used to create hypertext
links between electronic documents. HTML was invented in
1991 by Tim Berner-Lee, and makes use of specifications made
by URLs (Uniform Resource Locators).
HTTP
HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. HTTP is mostly
used to request and transmit web pages and web page
components over the Internet or other computer networks.
Internet
The Internet is an interconnected system of networks that
connects computers around the world. The Internet was
developed by many different minds, but most agree that the
real birth of the modern Internet was the ARPANET program in
the 1960’s. The Internet connects networks together using
the TCP/IP protocol.
ISP
ISP stands for Internet Service Provider.
Managed Hosting
Managed hosting is when a web hosting company provides
services for their dedicated servers. Managed hosting can be
thought of as having the space and freedom of a dedicated
server, but with the perks and services that are provided to
shared-server packages. As businesses continue to grow
online, so has the need for managed security, storage, and
database monitoring.
Megabyte
A megabyte is a unit of computer memory or data storage
capacity equal to 1,048,576 bytes of information. A single
keystroke is equal to a single byte of information.
Packet Switching
Packet Switching is essentially a method of data
transmission where small blocks of data are transmitted
rapidly over a channel (such as a phone line) that is
dedicated to the connection only for the duration of the
packet's transmission. Packet switching is one of the
fundamental concepts responsible for computer networking and
the Internet. It was developed in the 1960’s by Paul Baran,
and was designed to help the military build a communications
network capable of withstanding a nuclear attack.
POP3 Account
A POP3 account is a standard e-mail inbox, a place on the
server used for storing incoming e-mail messages. E-mail
accounts usually come as “POP3” accounts. A specific amount
of space is often allotted to a POP3 account, and going over
can cause incoming mail to “bounce”, or return to sender.
Server
A server is a computer that processes requests for HTML and
other documents that are components of a webpage. All
website hosting takes place on a server of some type. A
server can be as small as a personal computer or span
thousands of Gigabytes in the case of large
telecommunication companies.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting refers to the practice of splitting up server
resources among many customers in order to defer the cost to
many different customers. This means that the shared host
accounts are more affordable. Additionally, shared servers
are often run by the ISP itself, meaning that they handle
security issues and technical operations as they arise in a
“managed” environment.
Storage
Storage on a server is simply the memory space available to
hold files.
TCP/IP
TCP/IP stands for Transmissions Control Protocol and
Internet Protocol. TCP is the host to host connection used
by computers to govern networking and IP passes the
individual packets of information between computers. TCP/IP
is responsible for the interconnecting of all the smaller
networks that make up the entire Internet.
Traffic
Traffic on a website refers to the amount of people who
visit the site on a given moment. Traffic also describes all
of the interaction that visitors take part in, such as
surfing or using e-mail while on that site. Companies pay
particular attention to the amount of traffic on their sites
because it gives them an indicator of how successful their
website is.
Transfer Rate
Transfer rate and bandwidth is essentially the same thing,
referring to the amount of data that can flow through a
communications channel over a given time.
Upload
Uploading refers to transferring files from a client, such
as your home computer, to a host, such as your web hosting
company. Uploading is usually accomplished with the help of
an FTP client. Think of it as the opposite of downloading.
URL
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is an
Internet address (for example, http//:www.domainname.com/example).In
this instance, the URL consists of an access protocol
(HTTP), the domain name (www.domainname.com) and optionally
the path of a file or resource residing on the server
(/example). Traditionally, the domain portion (.com) of the
URL denotes what sector of society the website belongs to.
(.com) denotes a commercial site.
Web Server
A web server is a computer that stores websites and their
related files for viewing on the Internet. Visitors wishing
to access the sites and files simply type in the
corresponding URL to the site they wish to view. Web hosting
is big business in the age of electronic commerce.
“WWW”
“WWW” stands for World Wide Web. The World Wide Web is the
collection of networks that make up the Internet. The World
Wide Web incorporates HTML files that can be viewed by any
web browser connected to the Internet. The World Wide Web
was created by the folks at CERN in 1991 in order to create
a global network out of the many networks operating in
various parts around the world.
Shared Hosting- is also known as "Virtual
Hosting". In this multiple websites share the system
resources of a single server. In other words, it provides a
customer with a limited amount of server space to create
their web site. Bandwidth and storage space is distributed
among many clients, who all "share" the same physical
server. Hosting companies provide this service by
maintaining several large servers, and on those large
servers they maintain a number of virtual web hosts.
Shared hosting is generally aimed at beginners and
intermediate users .
Dedicated Hosting-Shared web hosting, no matter how
well managed, cannot be 100% reliable and stable. However if
you have your own dedicated server you can manage to avoid
most of the variables affecting the reliability and
stability of a server, commonly experienced by shared
hosting accounts; variables such as: overload, bad codes and
scripts from other users (especially beginners); and, too
many applications and components uploaded, and so on.
Advantages
On a dedicated server you will install only software and
applications you want to use, while on a shared hosting
server you will find a host of other software and
applications installed for other users.
With dedicated server hosting you can provide instant
support to your own clients whenever required, which is not
possible if you are on a shared server.
Virtual private Hosting- To overcome the bridge
between shared hosting and dedicated hosting, comes the
concept of virtual private hosting. It still shares a
machine or disk, but the web server software and indeed the
entire operating system environment is usually isolated for
each site in a virtual hosting environment. So, you might
have a computer or disk with 20 sites on it, 20 different
web servers for those sites, and 20 isolated operating
environments.
Advantages- There is a better control of resource
allocation and more enforceable distribution.
IP Address (Internet Protocol Address)
Often called a dotted quad, it is a a unique number
consisting of 4 or 6 parts (octets) separated by periods (or
dots), and which designates a hexadecimal address used to
identify server locations on the world wide web. It may
appear like this: 65.33.42.110 in its most common form, but
could also be expressed hex decimally. Note that IPv4
addresses have four octets, but the soon-to-be-in-use IPv6
IP addresses will have six octets, and will appear as
follows: 33.110.42.66.240.155. (whew!) Note that In
general, each domain name must resolve to an IP address
registered to the web server which is hosting the domain.
More commonly explained, an IP address is a number analogous
to a street address on the Web. When the internet was first
created in the 1960's as part of the Department of Defense,
IP addressing provided a means to identify unique locations
on the internet, much as street addresses are unique and
identify houses and buildings in a given city.
IP addresses may be dedicated, in which case they are
hard-assigned to a given computer or internet connection, so
that other computers may reach a given computer at an IP
address simply by using the IP address and without a
(canonical) domain name. Each web server has a dedicated IP
address or addresses, and individual domain names can have
dedicated IP addresses.
IPP (Internet Presence Provider)
This is another name for a hosting provider.
ISP (Internet Service Provider)
An ISP is an organization which creates connections from its
customers to the internet, thus allowing the customer to
access the internet. ISP's have come a long way in the last
10 years, from a patchwork of local providers with a few
dominant nationwide players (such as AOL, Earthlink,
Mindspring, Juno, NetZero, MSN and Compuserve) to a
consolidated few national providers and few remaining local
providers, with new competition now arising around low-price
point (sub $5 monthly) dial-up access, and greater
competition among multiple large providers of high speed
(broadband) connections based on DSL (via telephone line)
and cable (via TV cable provider) service.
ISP's are sometimes also hosting providers, but have a very
poor record as such. In general, companies such as
realwebhost.net which specialize in domain name and hosting
services provide far better value, price, and telephone
technical support to assist customers with hosting needs.
Megabyte (MB)
Approximately a million bytes of data, or 8.3 million data
bits. 1024 of these will constitute one gigabyte. One
million of these will constitute one terabyte, and one
billion of these will make a petabyte.
NOC (Network Operation Center)
Sometimes called a Datacenter. This is the term for a
secure, managed network environment which may house tens or
thousands of Web servers with power backup and high-speed
connections to the Internet Backbone. NOCs usually have a
mixture of OC-3 and DS-3 connections, or higher (i.e.,
OC12).
OC-3
Ultra-fast connectivity for mission-critical Internet needs,
typically connecting large ISPs and Hosting Providers to
internet backbones. An OC-3 ring or OC-3 link has
approximately 3 times the bandwidth capability of a T-3
connection.
POP3 / POP Email (E-Mail)
Post Office Protocol (POP) is used to retrieve e-mail from a
mail server, usually from a user's individual e-mail client
software such as Outlook Express or other applications,
which are often referred to as an "e-mail client." Note
that some newer software uses IMAP (Internet Message Access
Protocol) or APOP. Post Office Protocol requires a
username and password to access mail on a server. There are
three versions of POP, with the latest being POP3, which has
now become virtually the only POP version in use.
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol
A secure transmission protocol whereby data transmitted
between server and client is encoded using an encryption key
(usually 128-bit) in such a way that it virtually cannot be
"cracked" and read by any party which may intercept the
information in between the server and client.
SSL protocol is used on virtually all websites which feature
e-commerce purchasing and transmission of payment data, as
well as most websites which require the exchange of
sensitive information in between the client and the server,
such as medical information, personal data, even name and
address data.
To use SSL, you must have a dedicated IP address for the
server, and a Secure SSL Certificate such as those sold at
realwebhost.net at the lowest price on the internet for the
highest level of security and the best compatibility with
the widest range of browsers of any certificate on the
market.
Note that a Secure Socket Layer only provides for secure
transmission of data and does not perform credit card
validation, verification, or merchant processing, although
those tasks are all performed from clients entering
information onto secure pages.
Server
This is a broad term which generally refers to any computer
which provides data to another computer (client) or
clients across a wide variety of networks. Servers can be
simple file servers located on local area networks (LAN)
within an office or computing environment, or they can be
vast internet servers sending out web pages to computers
which query those pages for their content and data.
The term server is almost always used in conjunction
with the term "client" and frequently referred to as the
"client-server" relationship. While not common in early
computing for individual home users, client-server
relationships now are very pervasive as nearly every
computer in home use has some type of connection to the
internet, and utilizes client-server relationships to handle
everything from online gaming software to updates of
antivirus and utility software to simple web surfing!
The server functions not only as the computer which provides
data and is the central repository of information, but also
as gatekeeper between multiple "client" computers. A server
can also be called a "host" because it hosts the data
"served" to "clients." This is increasingly common with
regard to internet web hosting.
SSI (Server Side Includes)
Server Side Includes (SSI) is a practice whereby a set of
tags are embedded in the HTML code of a web page and which
are populated (replaced by something else) when the web page
is actually viewed by the user. The content which the
server provides to these tags is determined by many factors,
and can be programmed by the web designer to provide
specific and unique information to different types of web
visitors (persons viewing the web page). This is often
done in situations where the server makes a determination as
to which user is logged in an provides specific information
to that user relative to that user's account with with web
host. SSI is run by a Perl script on UNIX/Linux servers.
Shell Account
A UNIX or Linux server can offer varying degrees of access
to use of the computer by the creation of a shell account
allowing the user to log in and browse, change, modify,
update, and delete files from a given set of files and
folders to which the user has permissions established.
Access to shell accounts by users is typically done by
Telnet (not secure) or by more secure means such as SSH, the
popular software for which is called SecureCRT.
Shell accounts are considered very dangerous from a security
point of view when the server is a shared web server (has
multiple client users) because crackers can often use
unscrupulous means to gain full (root) access to servers
from within shell accounts without full access. This allows
for mischief to occur. UNIX/Linux servers are generally
viewed as far more safe .
T-1
A dedicated line connection capable of carrying data at
1,544,000 bits-per-second. At maximum theoretical capacity,
a T-1 line can move a megabyte in less than 10 seconds.
Although once considered to be a very substantial bandwidth,
T-1 is now eclipsed by even the download speed of many cable
modems which operate at up to 15,000,000 bits-per-second.
To get an idea of what this speed can do, note that this
high transmission rate is still not fast enough for
full-screen, high-resolution, full-motion, uncompressed
television video, for which is needed at least 10,000,000
bits-per-second.
T-3
A high bandwidth, dedicated line connection capable of
carrying data at 44,736,000 bits-per-second, or
approximately 30 times the speed of a T-1 line.
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. Note that Telnet is not
considered secure as it is not encrypted. For secure
communications and exchange of passwords, users should
always use the SSH protocol rather than Telnet. SSH1 and
SSH2 protocols provide the needed security. The software
SecureCRT is capable of all of these methods of
communication and is the most popular software in use.
Terabyte
Approximately a trillion bytes of data, or 1000 million
gigabytes or 1,000,000 MB, or 8 million data bits. One
thousand of these will constitute one gigabyte. One million
of these will constitute one terabyte.
Transfer
Total amount of data which is sent from from a web site to
client computers accessing the sit. Transfer measurements
include all all HTML code from all displayed web pages, as
well as all images, sounds, video, and downloaded data. See
also Data Transfer for more information.
UNIX
An operating system developed by Bell Laboratories (Bell
Labs) back in the 1960s (yes!) which is designed to be
secure, simple, and powerful. UNIX operating systems are
used typically on business-class computers typically used as
"servers" which provide information to client computers for
databases, websites, or other corporate applications. UNIX
has numerous variants including IRIX (SGI), Solaris (Sun),
and the most popular which was developed by Berkeley Systems
Division and known as BSD Unix. The version of BSD Unix
which has been compiled and offered under a free GNU license
is called "FreeBSD UNIX" and is available to the general
public at no cost. It can be downloaded from a number of
websites. Berkeley Systems Division BSD UNIX has spawned
many derivative operating systems including including
Apple's OSX, and the now extremely popular Linux operating
system, an open-source operating system invented by (and
named after) Finland's Linus Torvalds and developed into the
world's most popular UNIX variant, with root kernels free to
all users under GNU public license.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
This is the standard way to give the address of any resource
on the internet whether or not is part of the World Wide Web
(www), but as long as it can be accessed with an hyper-text
transfer protocol or file transfer protocol address call,
and is a part of a server listed on the canonical domain
name registration tables to resolve to an IP address. The
term "resource" here is used to refer to any web page,
graphic, sound file, or any other resource which one can
call from a URL. A URL will begin with http:// (hypertext
transfer protocol) or https:// (hypertext transfer protocol
secure) or ftp:// (file transfer protocol) with few
or no other variants. Note that a URL can refer directly
to an Internet Protocol address (IP address) such as this:
http://192.168.1.1.
Virtual Hosting
Virtual hosting is a type of hosting where you are given
control of your own "server" with your hosting service.
However, this "virtual server" is not an entire computer
server. This server is called "virtual" because it is one
of multiple "virtual" servers located on a single physical
server computer. There can be anywhere from two "virtual
servers" on an actual server, up to 400 or even 500 virtual
servers on an actual server. The virtual servers are almost
always UNIX or Linux, and each have assigned to them a
portion of a hard drive using a UNIX "jail" partitioning
software so that no virtual server can access the partitions
assigned to a different virtual server. Virtual servers
have separate IP addresses assigned to each server, and each
virtual server functions much like a dedicated server, able
to do almost everything that a dedicated server can do in
terms of serving as an internet host.
Web Server
A computer or a software package, that provides a specific
kind of service to client software running on other
computers. The term can also refer to a particular piece of
software, such as Apache for UNIX/Linux, which provides
actual web server functionality to a server computer. For
more information, see "Server" defined above.
Web Site / Website
A web site is a collection of web pages that reside together
on the World Wide Web and are connected with a common theme,
and usually a common domain name. Websites can exist across
multiple servers, and multiple IP addresses, and even
multiple domain names, but have a common theme, and are
inter-connected by hyperlinks in such a way that they
function together as a complete site.
Web Site Traffic Reporting
Software which reports the amount of activity on a website,
and can also provide more specifics, including important
information such as traffic broken down by day, hour,
minute, source of traffic, pages accesses, server which
referred the pages, and even the search term which was used
to find the given page. Information is divided by hits
(number of items accessed including pages, graphics, etc.),
page views (html pages viewed), and actual bandwidth used in
the access of these items. Popular reporting tools include
Analog, Webalizer, and Awstats.
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