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| Glossary |
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| Account Control Panel Account Control Panel is
a set of services that lets you view and control any aspects of your account.
Each web host company comes equipped with a differently featured web site
control panel. Some allow you to set up and maintain your web site's features
as well as review disk and web site usage statistics.
Some can be accessed from anywhere in the world via the Internet and allows you to control your web site 24 hours a day. [ top]
ASP (Active Server Page) ASP is an HTML
page that includes one or more scripts that are processed on a Microsoft
Web Server before the page is sent to the user. ASP itself is not a scripting
language. It is designed to tie your web pages into data stored in databases
on your own and other systems. ASP will work with any database with an
available Open DataBase Connectivity ( ODBC) compliant
driver such as Microsoft Access. [ top]
Backup Backup is the activity of
copying files or databases so that they will be preserved in case of equipment
failure or other catastrophe. Backup is usually a routine part of the
operation of large businesses with a mainframe as well as the administrators
of smaller business computers. For personal computer users, backup is
also necessary but often neglected. The retrieval of files you backed
up is called restoring them. [ top]
Bandwidth Bandwidth (the width of a
band of electromagnetic frequencies) means
1) how fast data flows on a given transmission
path, and Any digital or analog signal has a bandwidth.Generally speaking, bandwidth is directly proportional to the amount of data transmitted or received per unit time. In a qualitative sense, bandwidth is proportional to the complexity of the data for a given level of system performance. [ top] Catch-all Email Account A lot of hosts offer a "Catch-all"
Email account. This means that when someone sends an email to anyone@yourdomain.com,
it will go to you by default. This way, you can have, for example, sales@yourdomain.com,
support@yourdomain.com, webmaster@yourdomain.com, and so on - with all
of it going to the email account you specify in your Account (or domain)
control panel. This is especially useful when a user makes a typo (or
error) in the email address - as long as they get the domain name correct,
you will get the email. [ top]
CGI (Common Gateway Interface) CGI, which everyone uses
for short, stands for "Common Gateway Interface." It provides a common
method of running an executable program, usually written in Perl
or C/C++, from a web site in order to generate dynamic content. [ top]
Click Through This term is used to describe
the ratio of clicks (by users) to impressions
(or exposures) on a web site advertisement, usually
one of the banner ads seen on many sites. If a banner has been displayed
on a web site 100 times, for example, and 3 people click on it, it will
have a 3% click-through ratio. [ top]
Co-location Co-location is the term used
for when you purchase a server, and lease space and access to it. A lot
of hosts offer co-location plans, usually with a monthly fee as well as
fees for the amount of bandwidth used. [ top]
ColdFusion ColdFusion, made by Allaire,
is a popular and sophisticated set of products for building Web sites
and serving pages to users. With ColdFusion, a company can build a content
database using input templates and combine these with application programs
to create a Web site in which pages are developed dynamically as they
are served. ColdFusion provides a visual interface for building Web pages
directly or for building the "piece parts." For example, a newspaper
with a Web site can have a reporter enter a story, dateline, author, and
other information, using a text entry form free of all Web page formatting
and structure details or language tags. The content entered by the reporter
is later gathered and formatted into a Web page when it is requested.
The reporter is free from having to understand HTML
and other details. ColdFusion is also a popular tool for building e-commerce
sites.
Applications can access databases using Microsoft's OLE DB, ODBC, or drivers that access Oracle and Sybase databases. [ top] CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) Cascading Style Sheets are
used to add more functionality to simple HTML pages,
and contain styles and other information that can be passed on to other
HTML pages in a web site. Internet Explorer 3.0 and up support a good
portion of CSS, while Netscape 4.0 and up supports a small amount of CSS.
Unfortunately, a fully compliant browser does not yet exist for CSSs.
[ top]
Dedicated Server A dedicated server is a web
server you purchase or lease for your use only. Typically, this gives
you root access to install anything you like on that server, as though
it were your own PC. More and more companies are purchasing their own
dedicated servers in order to control their IT requirements with their
own in-house specialist. [ top]
Domain Control Panel Domain Name A domain name locates an
organization or other entity on the Internet. For example, the domain
name "www.hostsearch.com"
locates an Internet address for "hostsearch.com"
at Internet point 199.0.0.2 and a particular host server named "www".
The "com" part of the domain name reflects the purpose of the organization
or entity (in this example, "commercial") and is called the top-level
domain name. The "hostsearch" part of the domain name defines the
organization or entity and together with the top-level is called the second-level
domain name. The second-level domain name maps to and can be thought
of as the "readable" version of the Internet address.
A third level can be defined to identify a particular host server at the Internet address. In our example, "www" is the name of the server that handles Internet requests. (A second server might be called "www2".) A third level of domain name is not required. For example, the fully-qualified domain name could have been "hostsearch.com" and the server assumed. Subdomain levels can be used. For example, you could have "www.customer.hostsearch.com". Together, "www.hostsearch.com" constitutes a fully-qualified domain name. On the Web, the domain name is that part of the Uniform Resource Locator(URL) that tells a domain name server using the domain name system (DNS) whether and where to forward a request for a Web page. The domain name is mapped to an IP address (which represents a physical point on the Internet). [ top] Domain Name System (DNS) The domain name system (DNS)
is the way that Internet domain name are located
and translated into Internet Protocol addresses. A domain
name is a meaningful and easy-to-remember "handle" for an Internet address.
Because maintaining a central list of domain name/IP address correspondences would be impractical, the lists of domain names and IP addresses are distributed throughout the Internet in a hierarchy of authority. There is probably a DNS server within close geographic proximity to your access provider that maps the domain names in your Internet requests or forwards them to other servers in the Internet. [ top] Exposure The term used to describe
when a banner advertisement is loaded on a web page and displayed to users
or surfers. This is also refered to as an " impression."
An advertiser usually pays a web site per number of exposures to display
their ad or banner. [ top]
FileMaker Pro FileMaker Pro allows individuals
to focus on their work, not on the software's underlying technology. With
built-in application templates and instant translation from Excel spreadsheets,
FileMaker Pro delivers immediate, out-of-the-box value. Going forward,
the product will provide even tighter integration and compatibility with
Microsoft Office and other popular programs. Its design philosophy will
continue to focus on streamlining common tasks, from database creation
to report writing. FileMaker Pro is also positioned to help your business
take advantage of the Web by having built-in web publishing of your databases.
[ top]
Front Page Front Page is a popular HTML
editor and web design program made by Microsoft. It is commonly used to
create web pages for servers equipped and enabled to handle it. [ top]
Front Page Extentions Front Page Server Extentions
are server side programs that are used to enable users of Front Page to
use its special components, or "Web Bots." Although the extentions can
be installed on a Unix server, they are generally found on Windows NT
servers. [ top]
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) FTP is a method of transferring
files between one computer and another in a different location. FTP access
is usually necessary to be able to upload files to your web server. An
FTP client program (such as CuteFTP or WS-FTP) is required to access an
FTP server. [ top]
HTML HTML stands for Hypertext
Markup Language. It is not a programming language but rather a group of
specific commands that enable you to add markup to your text, such as
font faces and colors, inline images, and other features for displaying
a web page. Its most common use is for web pages. [ top]
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
- the protocol used to transfer hypertext, or HTML
web pages, on the World Wide Web (WWW). [ top]
Impression The term used to describe
when a banner advertisement is loaded on a web page and displayed (or
exposed) to a user. See Exposure. [ top]
IP Address The Internet Protocol (IP)
is the method or protocol by which data is sent from one computer to another
on the Internet. Each computer (known as a host) on the Internet has at
least one IP address that uniquely identifies it from all other computers
on the Internet.
In the most widely installed level of the Internet Protocol (Internet Protocol) today, an IP address is a 32-binary digit number that identifies each sender or receiver of information that is sent in packet across the Internet. When you request an HTML page or send e-mail, the Internet Protocol part of TCP/IP includes your IP address in the message (actually, in each of the packets if more than one is required) and sends it to the IP address that is obtained by looking up the domain name in the Uniform Resource Locator you requested or in the e-mail address you're sending a note to. At the other end, the recipient can see the IP address of the Web page requestor or the e-mail sender and can respond by sending another message using the IP address it received. [ top] Java Servlets A Java servlet is a Java
program that executes on the Web or HTTP server in
response to requests from a Web browser. The Web server software uses
Java Virtual Machine to run the servlet and generate an HTML
page. The servlet takes input from a HTML page containing HTML input tags,
processes it, and returns a HTML page with the results.
Java Servlets can be thought of as CGI programs in some respects. Both servlets and CGI execute on the server in response to HTML input. Thus both are limited to HTML and JavaScript's capabilities. However, Java servlets are much more powerful that CGI programs for these reasons.
JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) Similar to ODBC,
this set of application programming interfaces (APIs) provides a standard
mechanism to allow Java applets access to a database. It is a standard
SQL database access interface, providing uniform access to a wide range
of relational databases. It also provides a common base on which higher
level tools and interfaces can be built. This comes with an "ODBC
Bridge". The Bridge is a library which implements JDBC in terms of
the ODBC standard C API. [ top]
JSP (JavaServer Pages) JSP (JavaServer Pages) technology
from Sun enable Web developers and designers to rapidly develop and easily maintain
information-rich, dynamic Web pages that leverage existing business systems.
This technology leverages the Java architecture and enables web developers to
rapidly create Web-based applications. JSP is completely platform independent.
JSP provides excellent server side scripting support for creating database driven
web applications. JSP enables the developers to directly insert java code into jsp
file, this makes the development process very simple and its maintenance also becomes
very easy. JSP pages are efficient, it loads into the web servers memory on receiving
the request very first time and the subsequent calls are served within a very short period
of time. [ top]
mSQL Mini SQL, or mSQL, is a lightweight
database engine designed to provide fast access to stored data with low
memory requirements. The mSQL language offers a significant subset of
the features provided by ANSI SQL. It allows a program or user to store,
manipulate and retrieve data in table structures. It does not support
relational capabilities such as table joins, views or nested queries.
Although it does not support all the relational operations defined in
the ANSI specification, it does provide the capability of "joins"
between multiple tables. [ top]
MySQL MySQL is a true multi-user,
multi-threaded SQL database server. SQL, Structured Query Language, is
a standardized language that makes it easy to store, update and access
information. For example, you can use SQL to retrieve product information
and store customer information for a web site. MySQL is also fast and
flexible enough to allow you to store logs and pictures in it.
The main goals of MySQL are speed, robustness and ease of use. MySQL was originally developed because we needed a SQL server that could handle very large databases an order of magnitude faster than what any database vendor could offer to us on inexpensive hardware. We have now been using MySQL since 1996 in an environment with more than 40 databases containing 10,000 tables, of which more than 500 have more than 7 million rows. This is about 100 gigabytes of mission-critical data. [ top] NetCloak NetCloak gives you dozens
of HTML extension commands that make it easy to build dynamic, compelling
Web pages. Add dynamic information like date and time to your pages, as
well as headers, footers, counters, and more. All with no programming
required. [ top]
NetForms NetForms makes it easy to
create interactive Web sites. NetForms makes your users an active part
of your Web site, but keeps you in complete control. With NetForms on
your Web server, you can turn data from HTML forms into text files, e-mail
messages, even new Web pages. Create mailing list maintentance pages,
guestbooks, surveys and online discussion forums with no programming required.
[ top]
ODBC Open Database Connectivity
(ODBC) is a standard or open application programming interface (API) for
accessing a database. By using ODBC statements in a program, you can access
files in a number of different databases, including Access, dBase, DB2,
Excel, and Text. In addition to the ODBC software, a separate module or
driver is needed for each database to be accessed. The main proponent
and supplier of ODBC programming support is Microsoft. [ top]
Perl (Practical Extraction and Report Language) Perl is an interpreter and
a script programming language that is similar in syntax to the C language
and that includes a number of popular UNIX elements, such as Borne shell,
csh, awk, sed, grep, tr, and C. Perl is considered as a good choice for
developing Common Gateway Interface ( CGI) programs
because it has good text manipulation facilities.
Perl, in short, is a popular scripting -programming language that is commonly used for writing CGI programs that are to be run from a web site. [top] PHP (Personal Home Page Tools) PHP is another scripting
language and interpreter, similar to JavaScript and Microsoft's VB Script.
It is a cross-platform alternative to Microsoft's Active Server Page ( ASP)
which runs only on Microsoft's Windows NT servers. PHP is freely available
and used primarily on Linux Web Servers. Like ASP, its commands are embeded
within the HTML of a web page. The commands are later
executed on the web server, making it browser independant. The web browser
only sees the resulting HTML output of the PHP code, and does not need
to do any real work itself, fortunately, since different browsers display
data differently, at least for the time being. [top]
PostgreSQL PostgreSQL is a powerful
relational database management system (rdbms) that is similar to Ingres.
It is an enhancement of the original POSTGRES database management system,
a next-generation DBMS research prototype. While PostgreSQL retains the
powerful data model and rich data types of POSTGRES, it replaces the PostQuel
query language with an extended subset of SQL. [top]
Python Python is an interpreted,
object-oriented programming language similar to Tcl
and Perl that has gained adherents for its clear syntax
and readability. It has modules, classes, exceptions, very high level
dynamic data types, and dynamic typing. Python is said to be relatively
easy to learn and portable, meaning its statements can be interpreted
in a number of operating systems, including UNIX-based systems, Mac OS,
MS-DOS, OS/2, and various versions of Microsoft Windows. [top]
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) RAID (redundant array of
independent disks) is a way of storing the same data in different places
(thus, redundantly) on multiple hard disk. By placing data on multiple
disks, I/O operations can overlap in a balanced way, improving performance.
Since multiple disks increases the mean time between failure (MTBF), storing
data redundantly also increases fault-tolerance.
A RAID appears to the operating system to be a single logical hard disk. RAID employs the technique of striping, which involves partitioning each drive's storage space into units ranging from a sector (512 bytes) up to several megabytes. The stripes of all the disks are interleaved and addressed in order. [ top] SCSI SCSI (pronounced SKUH-zee
and sometimes colloquially known as "scuzzy"), the Small Computer System
Interface, is a set of evolving ANSI standard electronic interfaces that
allow personal computers to communicate with peripheral hardware such
as disk drives, tape drives, CD-ROM drives, printers, and scanners faster
and more flexibly than previous interfaces. Developed at Apple Computer
and still used in the Macintosh, the present set of SCSIs are parallel
interfaces. SCSI ports are built into most personal computers today and
supported by all major operating systems. [top]
Second level domain name A second-level domain (SLD)
is the portion of a Uniform Resource Locator (Uniform
Resource Locator) that identifies the specific and unique administative
owner associated with an Internet Protocol address ( IP address).
The second-level domain name includes the top-level
domain (top-level domain) name. For example, in: hostsearch.com, "hostsearch"
is a second-level domain. "hostsearch.com" is a second-level domain name
(and includes the top-level domain name of "com"). Second-level domains
can be divided into further domain levels. These subdomains sometimes
represent different computer servers within different departments. [top]
SSH (Secure Shell) SSH is a UNIX-based command
interface and protocol for securely getting access to a remote computer.
It is a program to log into another computer over a network, to execute
commands in a remote machine, and to move files from one machine to another.
It is widely used by network administrators to control Web and other kinds
of servers remotely. [top]
SSI ( Server-Side Include ) A server-side include is
a variable value (for example, a file "Last modified" date)
that a server can include in an HTML file before it
sends it to the requestor. Then, the server will obtain the last-modified
date for the file and insert it before the HTML file is sent to requestors.
A Web file that contains server-side include statements (such as the "echo"
statement above) is usually defined by the administrator to be a file
with an ".shtml" suffix. [top]
SSL (Secure Socket Layer) This is a term used to describe
a secure server. SSL is commonly used on sites that see products, allow
online ordering, and accept credit card information, keeping it secure,
encrypted, and private. [top]
Statistics, or Stats Web site statistics provided
by a web host can tell you a lot about the visitors to your site. Graphical
statistics will give you charts and graphs detailing your visitors' browser,
where they came from, how long they spent at your site, and more, depending
on the stats program the host provides. [top]
Tcl (Tool Command Language) Tcl is an interpreted script
language that has become widely accepted in the industry. It is similar
to C and other procedural-based languages. Tcl is actually two things:
a language and a library. First, Tcl is a simple textual language, intended
primarily for issuing commands to interactive programs such as text editors,
debuggers, illustrators, and shells. Second, Tcl is a library package
that can be embedded in application programs. The Tcl library consists
of a parser for the Tcl language, routines to implement the Tcl built-in
commands, and procedures that allow each application to extend Tcl with
additional commands specific to that application. The application program
generates Tcl commands and passes them to the Tcl parser for execution.
Tcl is comparable to
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol (TCP/IP) is the basic communication language or protocol of the
Internet. When you are set up with direct access to the Internet, your
computer is provided with a copy of the TCP/IP program just as every other
computer that you may send messages to or get information from also has
a copy of TCP/IP.
TCP/IP is a two-layer program. The higher layer, Transmission Control Protocol, manages the assembling of a message or file into smaller packets (see packet) that are transmitted over the Internet and received by a TCP layer that reassembles the packets into the original message. The lower layer, Internet Protocol, handles the address part of each packet so that it gets to the right destination. Each gateway computer on the network checks this address to see where to forward the message. Even though some packets from the same message are routed differently than others, they'll be reassembled at the destination. TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is a method (protocol) used along with the Internet Protocol (Internet Protocol) to send data in the form of message units between computers over the Internet. While IP takes care of handling the actual delivery of the data, TCP takes care of keeping track of the individual units of data (called packet) that a message is divided into for efficient routing through the Internet. [top] Telnet Telnet is used to connect
one computer to another computer. It is a program that lets you log into
a remote computer directly through the Internet and use it as if you were
there. Examples of telnet programs are EWAN (for Windows) and NCSA (for
Macintosh). More technically, Telnet is a user command and an underlying
TCP/IP protocol for accessing remote computers. [top]
Top level domain name A top-level domain (TLD)
is the portion of a Uniform Resource Locator (Uniform
Resource Locator) or IP address that identifies the
general type of Internet domain, such as "com" for "commercial," "edu"
for "educational," and so forth. [top]
Uniform Resource Locator A URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
is the address of a file (resource) accessible on the Internet. The type
of resource depends on the Internet application protocol. Using the World
Wide Web's protocol, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (Hypertext Transfer
Protocol) , the resource can be an HTML page (like
the one you're reading), an image file, a program such as a common
gateway interface application or Java applet, or any other file supported
by HTTP. The URL contains the name of the protocol
required to access the resource, a domain name that identifies a specific
computer on the Internet, and a hierarchical description of a file location
on the computer. [top]
WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) WAP (Wireless Application
Protocol) is a specification for a set of communication protocol to standardize
the way that wireless devices, such as cellular telephones and radio transceivers,
can be used for Internet access, including e-mail, the World Wide Web,
newsgroups, and Internet Relay Chat (Internet Relay Chat). While Internet
access has been possible in the past, different manufacturers have used
different technologies. In the future, devices and service systems that
use WAP will be able to interoperate. [top]
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