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Web Hosting Terminology Guide
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Auto Responder: An automated program that acknowledges receipt of an e-mail message, and then sends back a previously prepared email to the sender, letting them know it was received or that certain actions are being taken. Most of you probably already have a basic idea of what this is when you go on vacation and you create an auto response at your work to let everyone that emails you know that you will be away for the next week. Autoresponders are frequently used to handle requests for additional information or to confirm sales or other online transactions. Once you configure your autoresponder, it sends e-mail with no further action required on your part, making your web site interactive around the clock.

Backbone: In the general sense, this means the main network connections that comprise the Internet.

Backups: Web hosts back up data on their servers. Many host packages offer backups every 24 hours. This is supposed to prevent the loss of data should something happen to the server.

Bandwidth: This is the amount of data that is sent through a connection during a set period of time. It is usually measured in bits per second. If you have a large web site, with many visitors, you will need a lot more bandwidth than someone with a one page web site that gets 2 visitors a month. Some hosting plans offer unlimited bandwidth, but most have limits or will just make you pay for extra bandwidth because if a site is clogging their servers with visitors, they want to get compensated for that.

Billing Contact: The billing contact is the person designated to receive the invoice for domain name registration and re-registration fees. The billing contact must be a reliable, trustworthy source that will pay the re-registration dues on time. If you decide to register your domain through a host where THEY fill out the information, please make sure that they specify YOU as administrative and billing contacts and not THEM.

Browser (Web Browser): It is software used to locate web pages on the WWW and then display them on your computer monitor. Once connected to the Internet, your browser fetches documents from various web servers, translates the HTML, and displays the results for you.

Catch-all Email Account: A lot of hosts offer a Catch-all Email account. This means that This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it will go to you. This way, you can have This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and so on - with all of it going to the root email account. This also helps when a user makes a typo in the email address, as long as they get the domain correct.

CGI: (Common Gateway Interface): A CGI is a program that tanslates data from a web server and then displays that data on a web page or in an email. CGI involves the transfer of data between a server and a CGI program (called a script). This allows HTML pages to interact with other programming applications. These scripts make web pages interactive. Page counters, forms, guest books, random text/images and other features can be driven by CGI scripts. Some servers have pre-installed/pre-defined CGI scripts, meaning that the scripts are already installed on the server for you to use on your site. Some servers permit user-defined or custom CGI scripts, which means the site owner creates his/her own CGI script and runs this custom made script on the web site. Not all servers allow user-defined (custom) scripts for security reasons..

Chat Server: The web host will allow you to develop a chat room or other type of chat service for your visitors. Be sure to check with the web host company about the details of the chat services offered. Some servers permit you to configure the service, and others pre-configure everything for you while others do not allow chat rooms at all.

Click Through: This term is used to describe the ratio of clicks to impressions on an advertisement, usually a banner ad. If a banner has been shown 100 times and 3 people click on it, it will have a 3% click through ratio.

Cold Fusion: An application which simplifies database queries by allowing for a simpler programming language to handle functions between the user's browser, the server, and the database.

Co-location: Basically this is just owning a server but having it at another location for the use of their internet connection. This is great for people who want to own their own server, but do not want the hassle or security risk of maintaining that server in their environment.

Control Panel: An online package of tools permitting easy site management and editing.

Cookie: A message given to a Web browser by a Web server. The browser stores the message in a text file called cookie.txt. The message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. The main purpose of cookies is to identify users and possibly prepare customized Web pages for them. When you enter a Web site using cookies, you may be asked to fill out a form providing such information as your name and interests. This information is packaged into a cookie and sent to your Web browser which stores it for later use. The next time you go to the same Web site, your browser will send the cookie to the Web server. The server can use this information to present you with custom Web pages. So, for example, instead of seeing just a generic welcome page you might see a welcome page with your name on it.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): Used to add more functionality to simple HTML pages. Internet Explorer 3.0 and up support a good portion of CSS, while Netscape 4.0 and up supports a small amount of CSS - a fully compliant browser does not exist yet.

Database Support: General way of saying the server supports various database functions. Some commonly used database programs are MySQL, Access, Oracle, and FoxPro. Databases can be very difficult to configure properly. Before you sign up with a web host, first inquire if the host can support your database needs.

Data Transfer: This is the amount of data that is transferred from an account as visitors view the pages of the web site. If you have a web site with lots of video, audio, and images that gets many visitors per day, you would have to make sure that you choose a host that will allow large amounts of data to be transferred. If you choose a host that only allows 200 MB of data transfer per month, and your site transferred 500 MB per month, then the host may stop half of your visitors from viewing your site and you could lose potential customers. Your best bet is to try to find a host that offers unlimited data transfer or at least a Gig of transfer. A gig is more than enough for most web sites. As a general rule, 500 MB of data transfer is equivalent to 20,00o page views.

Dedicated Servers: A more expensive type of account in which the web hosting company provides you with an ENTIRE set-up of server hardware for your use. This usually means a much faster loading time for your site because the entire computer is “dedicated” to running the server software. This is different from most other hosting accounts in which your web site will share space on a server with many other web sites, called a virtual server.

DNS Parking: DNS service for a domain is provided without there being a web site for that domain.

Domain Name: The unique name that identifies an Internet site. Domain Names always have 2 or more parts, separated by dots. The part on the left is the most specific, and the part on the right is the most general. A given machine may have more than one Domain Name but a given Domain Name points to only one machine. For example, the domain names:

* ausweb.com.au
* database.ausweb.com.au

can all refer to the same machine, but each domain name can refer to no more than one machine.

It is also possible for a Domain Name to exist but not be connected to an actual machine. This is often done so that a group or business can have an Internet e-mail address without having to establish a real Internet site. In these cases, some real Internet machine must handle the mail on behalf of the listed Domain Name. Also, just to note, the .com extensions are worth more in value because they are the most widely used and the most well known. It is also a smart marketing decision. If your ebusiness should ever move up to television and/or radio advertising, and even Internet advertising, most of the general Internet public remembers .com extensions. And if they don't remember the extension at all but they do remember the domain name, they will more than likely type the .com in their browser. Technically, the domain name is a name that identifies an IP address. To most of us, it simply means www.yourname.com. Because the Internet is based on IP addresses, not domain names, web servers depend on a Domain Name System (DNS) to translate domain names into IP addresses. Simply stated, domain names allow people to find your web site by name rather than by numerical address.

Domain Name System (DNS): A distributed database of information that is used to translate domain names into Internet Protocol (IP) numbers (usually looks something like 123.456.789.101). In other words, computers need numbers in order to function. The computer itself does not care whether you are ebay.com or yahoo.com. It has no idea how to find the name, it needs a number that identifies that name. So when you buy a domain, say www.yourname.com, it is nothing until you get it hosted somewhere and until that host assigns a number to your domain

E-Commerce: Seems to be an overused term. It usually refers to doing business on the WWW. E-commerce packages offered by web host companies often include a shopping cart (lets shoppers select purchases), secure server for credit card transactions, etc. Other options are often included, such as software to develop an online product catalog and marketing services.

E-Mail: Electronic mail permits the sending of primarily text-based information and html across the Internet.

E-Mail Alias: Also called a forwarding account (see below). Allows you to appear to have an e-mail address on a certain domain, yet in reality the e-mail is forwarded to your real e-mail account. It allows you to have your e-mail automatically forwarded to any e-mail address you specify. This is a great way to get your mail when you're out of town, etc.

E-Mail POP Account: An actual e-mail account on your web host's e-mail server. POP stands for Post Office Protocol.

Encrypted Password: A password that has been scrambled to protect it from being discovered and used by someone other than the person to whom it belongs.

Exposure: Term used to describe when a banner advertisement is loaded on a web page and displayed to a user. Also refered to as Impression.

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.

FP (Frontpage) Extensions: This simply refers to Microsoft Front Page server extensions. The FP2K indicates that the server supports the latest version of the program, MS Front Page 2000. These extensions can be thought of as “mini programs” that allow features of a web site created with MS Front Page to operate smoothly. It is possible to use MS Front Page to create a web site and host that site on a server that doesn't offer FP extensions, however some of the powerful features of the program cannot be used in these web sites. See Microsoft's Front Page site for more information.

Front Page: Front Page is an HTML editor made by Microsoft. It is commonly used to create web pages.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol): It is a way of uploading and downloading files across the Internet. Most web sites are uploaded to the Internet by means of an FTP program. This is how the web site you create on your computer at home is transferred (uploaded) to the Internet. Some software, such as Microsoft Front Page, does not require use of an FTP program but the use of most any other HTML editor requites the use of and FTP Program. There is a free FTP program called WS_FTP and you can download it at download.com. 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.

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