A comprehensive
glossary of computer and Internet terms with easy-to-understand
definitions..
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.com
A domain name used by
commercial enterprises.
.gif
Pronounced jiff or giff (hard
g) stands for graphics interchange format, a bit-mapped
graphics file format used by the World Wide Web,
CompuServe and many BBSs.
.jpg or .jpeg
Short for Joint
Photographic Experts Group, and pronounced jay-peg. JPEG
can reduce files sizes to about 5% of their normal size,
although some detail is lost in the compression.
.zip
File name extension for files
compressed with PKZIP program or similar.
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Apache Web Server
Often referred to as simply
Apache, a public-domain open source Web server developed by a
loosely-knit group of programmers. The first version of Apache,
based on the NCSA httpd Web server, was developed in 1995. Core
development of the Apache Web server is performed by a group of
about 20 volunteer programmers, called the Apache Group.
However, because the source code is freely available, anyone can
adapt the server for specific needs, and there is a large public
library of Apache add-ons. In many respects, development of
Apache is similar to development of the Linux operating system.
Apache's major competitor is Microsoft's IIS.
Applet
A program designed to be
executed from within another application. Unlike an application,
applets cannot be executed directly from the operating system.
With the growing popularity of OLE (object linking and
embedding), applets are becoming more prevalent. A well-designed
applet can be invoked from many different applications.
ASCII
Acronym for the American
Standard Code for Information Interchange. Pronounced ask-ee,
ASCII is a code for representing English characters as numbers,
with each letter assigned a number from 0 to 127. For example,
the ASCII code for uppercase M is 77. Most computers use ASCII
codes to represent text, which makes it possible to transfer
data from one computer to another.
ASP
Active Server Pages, a
specification for a dynamically created Web page with a .ASP
extension that utilizes ActiveX scripting -- usually VB Script
or Jscript code. When a browser requests an ASP, the Web server
generates a page with HTML code and sends it back to the
browser. So ASPs are similar to CGI scripts, but they enable
Visual Basic programmers to work with familiar tools.
Authentication
Authentication is used to
confirm the identity of the other party involved in the data
transmission.
AVI
Audio/Video Interleave. Audio
file format used by Microsoft Widows.
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Backbone
Main high-speed network
connection composing the Internet. Backbones are operated
by major telecommunications companies like Sprint, MCI, or AT&T.
Internet backbone maps are here.
Bandwidth
The amount of data that can be
transmitted in a fixed amount of time.
Binary
Data represented in binary
format uses only two digits - 0 and 1.
Binary mode
FTP client mode used to
transfer binary files (multimedia files, executables and other
data files). Not suitable for transferring normal text files.
Bit
(Binary DigIT) the smallest
unit of information, comprising of either a 1 or 0.
Bit rate
The speed at which bits are
transmitted over a communication link. Expressed in bits per
second (bps).
Body
The part of an email message
that contains the actual text of the message.
Bookmark
A way of storing a frequently
visited website address. It is then easier to access the website
in the future.
Browser
Computer program that allows to
search the World Wide Web and displays the content of the
webpages. Examples are Mosaic, Netscape, Mozilla, Opera and
Internet Explorer.
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C/C++
Popular programming languages
(C++ includes objects) that can be used to create server
programs that run after compilation. C and C++ were not
designed specifically for web programming, but they can still be
useful, especially because mature compilers producing very fast
code and large code libraries already exist.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
A style-sheet determines how
the HTML document is displayed by the browser. The current
version of CSS is version 2 (CSS2).
Certificate
Digital ID used for SSL
transactions. It includes owner's public key, the name of
the owner, the issuer, hostname, and the expiration date.
Certificate Authority
A company trusted by a browser
maker that issues digital certificates that are supposed to
guarantee that the company is what it claims to be for use in
encrypted digital transactions though SSL. Verisign is the
biggest certificate authority.
CGI
Common Gateway Interface.
A standard for interfacing web servers with an executable
application. A CGI program can be written in any language
like Perl or C/C++ and it is often stored in a special directory
like /cgi-bin. CGI is often used to process data from HTML
forms.
cgi-bin
A directory on the server where
the executable CGI scripts reside.
Client
A computer program that
requests a service from the server program, usually over the
network.
Client/Server
A network architecture where a
system is divided into two parts: the client and the server.
Clustering
Connecting many computers and
making them appear as one machine. This is done to increase
reliability and performance.
Co-location (colo)
Putting a web server in a
dedicated facility that provides high-speed Internet connection,
security, environment, backup power, and technical support.
Unlike the dedicated server, the client controls both hardware
and software.
Cobalt RaQ
Server appliance made by Cobalt
specifically for hosting companies. Newest RaQs are
Linux-based and provide an easy-to-use interface. RaQs
have no features that can't be had in a regular Linux box but
they offer pre-installed programs and Cobalt's support. Here is
the discussion forum for RaQs.
ColdFusion
ColdFusion is an easy to
use server-side scripting language developed by Allaire.
It comes with ColdFusion Studio, a visual IDE. Here is
Allayer's Cold Fusion page. Other popular server-side
scripting languages are ASP. Perl, PHP, TCL, Python, and JSP.
Command-line interface
The opposite of the GUI
(Graphical User Interface). A way of interacting with a computer
system using the keyboard and a text-only display. Usually more
powerful, but less user-friendly thatn a GUI.
Control Panel
Control panel included in web
hosting packages is an online web-based application that allows
you to easily manage different aspects of your account.
Most control panels will let you upload files, add email
accounts, change contact information, set up shopping carts or
databases, view usage statistics, etc.
Cookie
A Cookie is a piece of data
that is saved in the user's browser by the web server. It is
used to customize user's browsing experience.
CPU
Central Processing Unit. The
most important part of the computer.
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Data transfer
In Web hosting, the total size of
files transferred by an account in a month. Sites with a
lots of graphics, downloads, or streaming audio or video and a
lot of visitors will require plans with more available transfer.
Database
Data in a structured format
stored on a web server. Most popular type is a relational
database. The most common query (information retrieval)
language for relational databases is SQL. Linux-based
hosts most commonly include MySQL database and Windows NT-based
hosts usually include Access or MS SQL databases.
Dedicated Server
Similar to co-location, except
that you lease or rent hardware from a Web host. The main
advantage over co-location is easier upgrade and usually better
support. Getting a dedicated server or co-locating is
necessary for sites that outgrow shared servers because they use
a lot of bandwidth and resources or they require total control
over software environment.
DHCP
(Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol). An automated way of obtaining an IP address in the
Local Area Network.
Dial up
Dialup access is a way of
connecting a computer to the Internet using a modem and the
telephone line. It is rather slow and blocks the telephone line.
DNS
Domain Name System.
Internet service that maps Internet domains into corresponding
IP addresses. DNS database is distributed and replicated
among many DNS servers, so when you change your domain's IP
address, the changes take a while to propagate.
Domain name
Domain name is an
easy-to-remember address that can be translated by DNS into
server's IP address. Domain names are hierarchical.
Domain's suffix indicates which TLD (top level domain) it
belongs to, for example .com, .gov, .org, .net, or .jp.
Recently ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers) added several new TLDs, like .biz, .pro., and .museum.
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E-Business
Using web and Internet technologies in
conducting the business activities. Also expanding end enhancing
traditional business practices by means of the Internet.
Electronic Mail (E-Mail, email)
One of the most popular
Internet services. Basically it's the transmission of text based
messages. An email message can also contain more structured
elements, like tables, images and multimedia. It can also be
used to send various data files, by means of attachments. You
have to have an email account in order to be able to use this
service.
Encryption
Encryption means encoding data using a
cryptographic cipher. Encrypted data can be read (decrypted)
only by an authorized entity.
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FAQ
(Frequently Asked Question)
Lists of frequently asked questions and answers to them are used
as a way of sharing knowledge on the web. They are a very good
way of finding solutions to different problems. Some companies
include them in their websites to minimize the number of
Customer Support inquiries.
Fibre Optic Cable
A cable used for transmitting
data as a light wave. A fiber optic cable is composed of one or
more optical fibers. It is more expensive that copper wire, but
offers higher transmission speeds and allows for communication
over larger distances.
Filename extension
Last three or four letters of a
file name that appear after the dot. Used to designate the type
of file and the format used.
Filtering
Screening network packets for
certain properties, such as the source or destination address,
protocol used or even a pattern in the data. It is used in
firewalls in order to decide if the traffic is to be forwarded
or rejected. Provides the basis for network security.
Finger
A Unix program used to display
information about users of the system. Can be used remotely.
Firewall
Firewall refers to either
software-only or separate software and hardware combination that
serves to protect an internal network or a computer from attacks
and unauthorized access by sitting between the Internet and the
internal network.
FrontPage Extensions
Microsoft's server-side
applications that lets users of FrontPage Web site creation tool
to incorporate "web-bots" that perform pre-packaged function
like full-text Web site searching or adding a hit counter.
FrontPage extensions are also available for Unix-based operating
systems but some hosts refuse to use them because of potential
security holes.
FTP
File Transfer Protocol.
The Internet protocol defining how to download and upload files
between a client and an FTP server. Popular client FTP
programs are CuteFTP and WS_FTP. Major browser also have
FTP capability.
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Gateway
A network device used to translate
between two different protocols. Used to interconnect two
networks that use incompatible protocols.
GIF
(Graphics Interchange Format) A
graphic file format invented by Compuserve. One of the most
widely used formats for internet and web. Uses a lossless
compression method, thus ensuring that the quality of the image
is not lowered.
Gigabyte (Gb)
1024 Megabytes.
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
A way of interacting with
the computer that relies on graphical symbols. Most often
requires a mouse. It is less powerful then the command-line
interface, but is more user friendly and is easier to learn for
users without technical background.
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Hit
In the WWW world "hit" is used to
describe a single request made by a web browser. The data
transmitted by the web server in response to the request is a
text file or a binary file (images, audio, video, executables
and other data).
Home Page
Main web page owned by a
company, organization or an individual. This is the page that is
initially displayed when user makes a request for a particular
domain name.
Host
A networked computer dedicated
to providing a certain kind of service. Usually refers to a
computer that stores the website files and has a web server
running on it.
HTML
(Hypertext Markup Language). It
is the language in which web pages are written. It allows the
images to be combined with text and offers wide range of
formatting capabilities. One of the most important features of
HTML is hypertext, that allows web pages to be liked one to each
other. HTML relies on tags, which have the following form: - an
opening tag, - a closing tag. HTML code is stored in a normal
text file.
HTTP
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol.
The main protocol used to transfer and receive data over the
World Wide Web. The latest version of HTTP is 1.1.
Basic HTTP transaction involves a WWW browser connecting to a
server, browser sending a request to the server specifying its
capabilities and which document is requested, server responding
with the required data, and closing of the connection. The
overview of HTTP is here.
Hub
A hub is a network device that
is used for connecting computers on a Local Are Network (LAN).
It forwards all the packets it receives to all of its ports.
Hyperlink
A part of the web page that
links to another web page. By clicking on a hyperlink user
redirects the browser to another page. The word hyperlink is
sometimes shortened to just "link".
Hypertext
A text on the web page that is
linked to another webpage. Browsers usually display hypertext as
underlined and in blue color.
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IIS
Microsoft Internet Information Server.
Microsoft's Web server that comes built-in with Windows NT
Server 4 and Windows 2000 server. Here is Microsoft's IIS
web site.
Image Map
An image displayed on the
webpage that has different areas that are hyperlinks. By
clicking on different parts of the image browser can be
redirected to another webpage, or can display modified version
of the current one.
Internet
Not to be confused with
internet (with lowercase i). The word Internet refers to all the
computer networks worldwide that are connected together. TCP/IP
is the de facto standard protocol set for Internet.
Internet
backbone
An extremely fast network that
connects major cities. Most often it utilizes T3 circuits and
provides the bandwidth of 45Mbps.
InterNIC
The organization that handles
domain name registrations. See http://www.internic.net
Intranet
A part of an organization's
network that is private. Only authorized individuals have access
to the intranet. Besides that an intranet is very similar to the
Internet in a sense that it offers the same services and uses
the same protocols.
IP
(Internet Protocol) is tha main
protocol used on the Internet.
IP Address
Internet Protocol Address.
A unique number identifying all devices connected to the
Internet. This number is usually shown in groups of
numbers from 0 to 255, separated by periods, for example
207.46.230.218.
IP packet
IP packet is the basic data
chunk that can be sent over the Internet. All the data is
partitioned into IP packets on the sending computer and
reassembled on the receiving computer.
IRC
Internet Relay Chat. Multi-user chat service. IRC
users can go into public or private channels to discuss a topic
or transfer files. IRC servers are connected into
networks. The most popular IRC client program is mIRC.
Many hosts are vary of letting customers access IRC because of a
possibility of a denial of service attack on the whole network.
ISP
Internet Service Provider.
A company that provides its subscribers with Internet access.
Customers have a username and a password and can dial-up or use
a cable or DSL line to connect to ISP's network which is
connected to the Internet. The biggest ISP is AOL.
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Java
Sun's popular programming language.
Java is a platform-independent (at least in theory),
crash-protected, object-oriented language that can be used to
write applets that run in a browser, servlets that run
server-side, or independent programs. Java's syntax is
similar to that of C++.
Java class files
The file or set of files that
contain the code for a Java applet.
Java Servlet
Servlets are programs written
in Java that run on a Web server and can produce dynamic pages.
Also see JSP.
Java Virtual Machine (JVM, Java Runtime Environment)
A set of programs that allow
for Java applets to be run on a particular computer system.
JavaScript
Simple, client-side programming
language created by Sun and Netscape. JavaScript can be
embedded in HTML pages to create interactive effects and do
tasks like validate form data. JavaScript is a separate
language from Java. All popular modern browsers support
JavaScript. A few hosts support server-side JavaScript.
JDBC
Java Database Connectivity - a
mechanism allowing Java applets to access different databases.
JPEG
(Joint Photographic Experts
Group) A image compression format designed for the Internet.
Uses lossy compression, meaning that the quality of the image
can be lowered.
JScript
Microsoft's implementation of
ECMAScript standard based on JavaScript. Limited,
object-based, interpreted scripting language. Here is the
official JScript site. JScript is comparable to VBScript.
JSP
Java Server Pages.
Extension of Java Servlet technology for combining Java
server-side programs and HTML. JSP pages have an extension .jsp.
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Kbps
Kilobits per second. 1Kbps = 1024bps.
Kilobyte (Kb)
1024 bytes.
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LAN
Local Area Network. A network of
devices (computers, printers, hubs) occupying a small area.
Usually LANs do not span more than one building. LANs are very
fast compared to WANs.
Linux
A free UNIX-like operating
system developed by Linus Torvalds. Linux and FreeBSD are very
often used by hosting companies as their operating systems.
Login
An alias for an individual that
is used for identification and authentication when accessing a
computer system. Usually it is a sequence of characters and
digits.
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MAC
Media Access Control. A network
protocol used to control the access to the network by different
devices.
MAC Address
Media Access Control address
(also hardware or physical address). Every device on the Local
Area Network has an unique MAC address. It is used to identify
devices and to control access to the network using MAC protocol.
Mailing
List
A way of having a group
discussion with list subscribers by email. Emails are sent
to all list subscribers.
Popular mailing list programs, like
Listserv and Majordomo, allow for automated subscription and
un-subscription from a mailing list. Some hosting plans
allow creation of mailing lists.
Mail server
The Internet host (together
with the appropriate software) that is used to send, receive and
forward email messages.
MBps
Megabytes (MB) per second, 1 MB
= 1,048,576 bytes.
Mbps
Megabits (Mb) per second, 1Mb =
1,048,576 bits.
Megabyte (MB)
1MB = 1024 Kilobytes =
1,048,576 bytes.
MHz
Megahertz = 1.000.000 Hertz.
Microsoft Access
Microsoft's low-end relational
database included with the MS Office suite. Here is the
official site for Microsoft Access. Cheaper NT hosting
plans sometimes include MS Access database.
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft's high-end SQL
database running on Windows systems. Here is the official
Microsoft SQL Server site.
MIME
(Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extensions) a method of including binary data and other
multimedia content within email messages.
Mirror site
An FTP site that stores the exact
content of some other site. Mirroring is done in order to
minimize the load on a particular server and also to increase
reliability.
MP3
An extremely popular lossy
audio compression format. Widely used over the Internet.
MPEG
(Motion Picture Experts Group)
video compression format for movies or animations.
mSQL (Mini SQL)
Light-weight relational
database. Here is mSQL home page.
Multicast
A message that is sent to a
specific group of hosts.
MySQL
Most popular open-source
relational database. Many Unix-based plans allow MySQL
databases. Here is MySQL home page.
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Network
A group of electronic devices
connected together that are able to communicate with each other.
Newsgroup
A virtual Internet place where
people exchange thoughts, ideas and interests, amuse themselves
and do a zillion other things, all by means of text messages.
Newsreader
An application that allows to
use newsgroups.
NIC
Network Interface Card - a part of the
computer hardware responsible for connecting a particular
machine to the local area network.
NNTP
(Network News Transfer
Protocol) An Internet protocol that describes how the newsgroups
messages are distributed, stored, posted and retrieved.
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OC-1, OC-3, OC-12, OC-24, OC-48
Optical Carrier transmission
speeds, used in fiber optic networks conforming to SONET
standard. OC-1 is 51.85 Mbps. Higher levels are
multiples of that speed.
ODBC
(Open Database Connectivity) A
standard allowing applications to access different databases in
an uniform way.
Offline
The state of the computer when
it is not connected to the network (i.e. it is not online).
Online
The state of a computer when it
is connected to the network and communicate with other machines.
Operating system
A software heart of the
computer. It is a set of programs that manage the hardware
resources of a computer, provide the environment for application
programs to run and provide the user interface. Most known
operating systems are: different flavors of Unix (SunOs, HP-UX,
Irix, FreeBSD, Linux,...), MacOS and Windows.
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Perl
Open source CGI scripting programming
language. Written in 1987. Still one of the most
popular web programming languages mostly due to its powerful
text-manipulation facilities. A huge number of Perl
scripts are available for download.
PHP
PHP is an free, open-source
server-side scripting language. PHP code can be embedded
in HTML. PHP files usually have extensions like .php or
.php3. PHP language style is similar to C and Java.
Here is the PHP group web site. Other popular server-side
scripting languages are ASP, Perl, ColdFusion, TCL, Python, and
JSP.
Plug-in
An add-on piece of software
that can extend the features of an existing application. For
example Netscape browser plug-ins allow displaying of new types
of web content, that the browser can't display on its own.
POP
Post Office Protocol.
Popular but inflexible email retrieval standard. All
messages are downloaded at the name time and can only be
manipulated on a client machine. Current version is POP3.
Port
A socket on the computer or
other network device used to connect it to the network.
Protocol
A set of rules by following
which two parties can communicate. The TCP/IP protocol suite is
the basis of today's Internet.
Python
Interpreted programming
language, sometimes offered by hosts for server-side
scripting. Here is the Python home page.
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RAID
Redundant Array of Independent (or
Inexpensive) Disks. Type of disk, often used on servers, where
several physical disks are combined into an array for better
speed and fault tolerance.
Level 0 implements data
striping where file blocks are written to separate drives. Does
not provide fault tolerance, because failure of one drive will
result in data loss.
Level 1 implements data
mirroring. Data is duplicated on two drives either through
software or hardware. Provides faster read performance
than a single drive.
Level 2 - not used in
practice. Data is split at bit level at written to multiple
drives.
Level 3 - requires at
least 3 drives. Data block is striped at byte level across
drives and error correction codes (parity info) is recorder on
another drive. Provides fault tolerance but slower writing
performance.
Level 4 - Similar to
Level 3 but provides faster performance because it uses blocks
for striping.
Level 5 - Similar to
Level 4 but improves performance but also striping parity info
across multiple drives.
Level 6 - Similar to
Level 5 but also uses second parity scheme for better fault
tolerance.
Level 7 - Proprietary
RAID design by Storage Computer Corporation. Faster than
other levels because it uses multiple levels of cache and
asynchronous I/O transfers.
In addition multiple
RAID levels can be combined to improve performance or
reliability.
Raw Logs
Raw access data updated in
real-time that can be downloaded and used by any statistics
program. Typically each line show the user's IP, date and time
of the access, what kind of request was done, which document was
requested, HTTP status code, bytes transferred, referrer, and
user agent info. If a host doesn't have statistics, you'll
need access to raw logs to identify who your site's visitors
are. Analyzing raw logs can also provide more detailed
look at site accesses than stats.
Reseller
Resellers are usually smaller
companies that still try to build their customers base. They
don't own the server with user accounts but can perform most
administrative functions.
Router
A network device (can be a
dedicated computer) that is used to connect two or more networks
together and route packets between them.
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S/MIME
Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extensions - a way of making email messages more secure. S/MIME
uses digital certificates to attest the message origin and
encryption to ensure that message could not be read while in
transit.
Scripting Language
A programming language in which
programs are the series of commands that are interpreted and
then executed one by one. Doesn't require the compilation phase,
for the price of lower performance.
Search engine
An Internet service that stores
a vast number of web pages and allows for fast searching among
them. Also, a piece of software that implements a website search
functionality.
Server
A networked computer that
handles client requests for Web pages.
Service Provider
A company that provides access
to the Internet, usually for a fee.
Session
All the data exchange between
two parties, starting when the connection is established and
ending when connection terminates.
Setup
fee
Initial fee charged by a host
to set up your hosting account. You can use our Price
Search to minimize your costs over a period of time including
the setup fee.
Shopping Cart
Software that allows users to
select products from a Web catalog, modify their choices,
calculate prices, review their choices, and order them.
Many hosts with e-commerce plans offer installed shopping carts,
but you can always get a shopping cart of your choice instead.
SHTTP
Secure HTTP. A version of HTTP
protocol that uses encryption to assure that the traffic between
the server and the browser cannot be eavesdropped on. Should be
considered mandatory for all e-commerce applications.
Signature
A few lines of text that are
automatically attached at the end of each email message by the
email client. Usually it's some personal identification or an
(un)interesting quote.
Signed applet
An applet that has a
digital signature to confirm that it originates from the
legitimate server.
SMTP
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.
Very popular protocol used to transfer email messages across the
Internet mail servers.
Spam
Unsolicited email sent in mass
quantities to multiple recipients, most often for marketing
purposes. Highly annoying and constituting one of the most
serious netiquette violations.
SQL
Structured Query Language.
Limited programming language used for updating and performing
queries on relational databases. All databases share a
common subset of SQL. Most popular SQL databases available
with hosting plans are MySQL and MS SQL.
SSH
Secure Shell. Developed
by SSH Communications Security, it is a standard for encrypted
terminal Internet connections. SSH programs provide strong
authentication and encrypted communications, replacing less
secure access methods like telnet.
SSI
Server-Side Includes.
Instructs the server to include some dynamic information in a
Web page before it is sent to a client. This dynamic
information could be current date, an opinion poll, etc.
Many hosts require that SSI pages have .shtml extension to
reduce the load on servers by not having to parse non-SSI pages.
SSL
Secure Sockets Layer.
Protocol developed by Netscape to provide encryption for
commercial transactions data that should be protected while
traveling over the Internet, like credit card numbers. SSL
uses https protocol. Before using SSL in commerce, you'll
also need to get is a certificate from a Certificate Authority.
Static (or dedicated) IP
If a host offers a static IP,
it means that your site will be assigned a unique and unchanging
IP address. See the FAQ for some possible advantages of using a
static IP.
Streaming
Playing multimedia files (audio and
video) without requiring a full download. Audio and video are
compressed but they still may require a lot of bandwidth.
Most popular streaming media formats are Real Audio/Video.
Subdomain
Subdomain is a way to divide
your site into sections with short and easy to remember names.
For example, a section of this site for new users could be at
newbies.webhostingratings.com. Other use of subdomains
might be to let somebody else use your account (but this may not
be allowed by your host's terms of use). Large websites
might make their subdomains point to another server to reduce
load on the main www site.
Surfing
Using world wide web is often
referred to as "surfing the web".
Switch
A switch is a network device
that forwards packets. Switches are more intelligent than hubs
in a sense that they forward packets only to the necessary ports
and not to all the ports.
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T1
Dedicated telecommunications line
providing 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth. Consists of 24 individual
channels 64 Kbps each, that can be configured for voice or data
transmission. T1 lines can be leased by businesses that
required a dedicated Net connection of with higher reliability
than a DSL and faster than an ISDN line but are still quite
expensive.
T3
Dedicated telecommunications
line providing 44 Mbps of bandwidth. T3 lines are often
used by ISPs to connect to the Internet backbone.
TCP
(Transmission Control Protocol)
is the most important of the network protocols used in the
Internet.
TCP/IP
(Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol). This protocol suite is the de facto
standard for the today's Internet. TCP is a higher level
protocol that runs on top of the IP protocol.
Telnet
Character-based protocol for
connecting with remote systems. Still popular among hosts,
but it is being replaced by much more secure SSH access.
Terabyte (TB)
1024 gigabytes.
Traceroute
A computer program that lists
network hosts visited by a packed on the way to its destination.
Very useful for network debugging.
Traffic
Data packets being transmitted
over a network.
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Unix
A family of multi-user operating
systems, first developed by AT&T Bell Laboratories in the 1970s
and then licensed to many universities. A basis for Linux,
a very popular operating system among web hosts.
UPS
Uninterruptible Power Supply.
UPS keeps the server running on a battery for several minutes
after a power outage, allowing for a clean shutdown without loss
of data. UPS can also shield the server from line voltage
spikes and drops.
URL
Abbreviation of Uniform
Resource Locator, the global address of documents and other
resources on the World Wide Web.
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VBScript
Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting
Edition. Interpreted scripting language (subset of MS
Visual Basic language) for creating scripts that can be embedded
in HTML pages or for creating ActiveX Controls. Meant as
an alternative to JavaScript. Here is the official
VBScript site. VBScript is comparable to JScript.
Virus
A virus is a malicious program
written to do as much harm as possible. Viruses can spread
themselves over the network.
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WAV
An audio file format. Very accurate,
but offers no compression, thus resulting in very large files.
Webmaster
A person responsible for the
maintenance of a particular website.
Whois
An Internet service allowing to
obtain the information about the domain name owner.
Wide Area Network (WAN)
A set of computers that are to
far apart to constitute a LAN. In fact, WANs are very often
composed of a number of Local Area Networks interconnected
together.
WWW
World Wide Web (or Web) is the
most popular Internet service. It allows access to the
information and services from the web servers. A web browser is
needed to use the Web.
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XML
Extensible Markup Language. A
meta-language, abbreviated version of SGML, used to specify
other document types used on the Web. Accepted as a format
in 1998 to replace dependence on HTML extensions. MSIE 5.5 and
Netscape 6 both support XML.
XML processor
A program that can XML
documents and access their content.
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