The following list is designed to help ease some of the confusion about
web hosting terminology. Underlined terms can be clicked for more detailed
explanations
24/7: Abbreviation for 24
hours a day, 7 days a week.
Access Logs: Are used to
track your site traffic in a specific format which can then be analyzed.
Anonymous FTP: Anonymous
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a method by which your guests can upload
content (files) to an incoming directory, without having to create a
secured FTP account for them.
CGI-Bin: If you plan on
running CGI scripts from your site you'll need access to your CGI-Bin or
get them remotely hosted.
Counter: Although somewhat
outdated counters can be used to track visitors to your web site.
Custom Error Messages: If your
visitor hits a broken links or stumbles on a page you have deleted they
will get the standard error message. By editing your .htaccess file you
can create custom pages for each error message.
Directory Protection:
Although you can use scripts to protect your site, using the .htaccess
file is much more secure.
Disk Space: This is the amount of hard disk space allotted to
your web site. For example you have 5 MB, 100 MB, etc... of space to host
your site.
Email Accounts: This is the
number of email accounts you are able to set up on your domain. Make sure
you get enough with your package as purchasing them separately later can
get expensive depending on your hosting company.
Forms: Allow you to collect
data submitted by visitors on your site.
FrontPage Extensions: To use
many of the features offered by Microsoft FrontPage you need to have the
extensions installed on your domain.
FTP: File Transfer Protocol is
the preferred method of uploading information to the Internet. There are a
variety of programs that will allow you to do this.
HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language, the language used to create
web sites.
HTTP: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is another way to upload
information to the Internet.
Mailing List: Running your
own mailing list or newsletter can be time consuming, there is software
available to help automate this task.
PGP: PGP stands for Pretty
Good Privacy and is a form of encryption you can apply to scripts run from
your site and email you send through it.
PHP: PHP is a server-side
HTML-embedded scripting language. Basically PHP can do anything any
CGI script can do like receive and store cookies, collect form data or
generate dynamic pages. Its strongest feature is its ability to be using
in conjunction with a database.
Real Audio/Video: When
Real Audio/Video first came out, it required an audio/video server to be
installed on the web server. This was because Real Audio/Video wanted to
charge for each "stream'" or visitor. But soon people started
writing competitive audio/video streaming technology that didn't require a
special server. So, to compete, Real Audio/Video now does not require a
server, and you can even use their free tools to create streaming audio
over the Internet.
Redirect URL:
A redirect allows you to move your visitors from one page to another
automatically. (i.e. transport them from old.htm to new.htm). This can get
you in trouble with the search engines as they consider it as tricking
them.
Shopping Cart:
A shopping cart allows your visitors to collect your products together and
purchase them in a easy manner. This is vital for any site with more than
a few products.
Site Search: A handy tool for
making it easy to explore your site is a search box.
SSL (Secure Socket Layer): SSL is
used to allow secure exchanges of information online. It allows two
computers (or clients) to recognize each other and allows the transmission
of encrypted data between those machine.
SSI (Server Side Include): A
server side include, or SSI, is a piece of code that is embedded into an
HTML page and interpreted by the server before the page is sent to the
client's browser. SSIs allow you to include information in your HTML files
like a file's date of last modification, or even another HTML file.
Traffic
Statistics: Measuring your site traffic is vital if you want to
track your marketing effectiveness or sell advertising on your site. Click
the link for details on Hits, Pageviews, Unique Sessions and more terms
used.
WYSIWYG:
Refers to the numerous What You See Is What
You Get Editors used in web site development. Avoids the
need to understand HTML completely.
Compare
our hosting packages here
