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Hosting Glossary

Anonymous FTP: Anonymous File Transfer Protocol - allows anyone access to a host, usually not requiring an FTP account.
ASP: Active Server Pages - A Microsoft developed server-side script engine for dynamically generated web pages.
Auto responder: A system set in place to auto reply to someone who emails the desired email address.
CGI: Common Gateway Interface - A protocol for communicating between the HTTP server and external server based applications
CGI-BIN: As above, cgi-bin is often the directory name on a web server where CGI based applications reside
Control Panel: A web based user interface for controlling the website, database, domain name, web hosting details, account details and more
Database: A collection of records in organized tables which resides on the web server. A database is used in conjunction with dynamically scripted web pages in order to return results in the database.
Dedicated Servers (Dedicated Hosting): A server that provides web servers for only one account or one domain name
Disk Space (Storage Space): The amount of space on a web server's hard drive allocated to an account or domain name
Domain Name: A unique name that identifies a website such as www.google.com or www.justhost.com. Essentially a domain name is a signpost within the internet which points toward a web server.
E-Commerce: Any online transaction of buying or selling via a website
Email Forwarding: Having an email automatically sent, or forwarded, from one email address to another.
Firewall: A firewall is a hardware or software solution to enforce security policies
FrontPage: FrontPage is a WYSIWYG HTML editor developed by Microsoft
FrontPage Extensions: A set of applications and scripts on a web server to allow specific features of websites created using Frontpage
FTP: File Transfer Protocol - the most widely used method of accessing a web server remotely.
GB: Gigabyte - a measurement of space or memory which is equal to 1024Mb (Megabytes)
IMAP: Instant Message Access Protocol - A method of allowing users to access email stored on a web server
IP Address: Internet Protocol Address - A unique combination of four numbers between 0 and 255, separated by periods, assigned to every server and computer connected to the internet that specifies the location of the TCP/IP protocol
KB: Kilobyte - a measurement of space or memory which is equal to 1024 bytes
Linux: A widely used Open Source Unix-like operating system
Managed Hosting: A type of hosting whereby the web hosting company manages the server for you
MB: Megabyte - a measurement of space or memory which is equal to 1024Kb (Kilobytes)
Merchant Account: A type of bank account established with a payment processor for the settlement of credit card transactions online
Microsoft Access: Database software developed and provided by Microsoft
Miva Empressa: Miva's XML based server-side scripting language
Miva Merchant: A client-side, browser-based storefront development and management system for merchants
MS SQL: A relational database management system produced by Microsoft
MySQL: An Open Source, multithreaded, multi-user database management system which is available for both Unix and Windows
Payment Gateway: A company that provides an interface between a merchants point-of-sale, acquirer payment systems, and issuer payment
Perl: An Open Source CGI based scripting language
PHP: PHP Hypertext Preprocessor - an Open Source server-side based programming language
POP: Post Office Protocol - A method of allowing users to download email messages from a server to the own computers
POP3 Email Account: An email account based on the POP technology as described above.
Server: A type of computer that handles requests for data, email, file transfers, web hosting and many more. A server is usually not accessed directly, but rather remotely via specialist software or web-based control panels
Setup Fee: A one-off fee charged by the web hosting company in order to set up your new server
Shared Web Hosting: The most basic of web hosting types. With shared hosting, a number of different websites are shared on the same server
Shopping Cart Software: Software used in e-commerce to assist people making perchases online
SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol - SMTP is used to transfer email between computers
SQL: Structured Query Language - A widely used standardized query langauge used for querying databses
SSI: Server Side Includes - The ability to tell a server to include information in a document before it gets sent to the browser
SSL: Secure Socket Layer - A security protocol that provides privacy over HTTP
Static (Dedicated) IP Address: A static, fixed, IP addresss which does not change that is persitent between reboots
Subdomain: A sub-division of a master domain used to devide websites into different sections, for example images.google.com
Uptime: The term used to indentify how long a system, server or service is operational
UNIX: An operating system developed in the early 1970s which was designed to be used by many people at the same time
VPS: Virtual Private Server - A web server setup so that it is administered by a customer as though it were a single dedicated web server
WAP: Wireless Application Protocol - A technology that linkes mobile devices with the inernet
Web-based Email: An Email service, often free, which makes it possible to send and recieve emails using a browser