Glossary of the web
Shared Host
A shared host, is where many companies share one server/computer, the host's computer's hard disc drives are shared by many other companies that are also hosted by the hosting company. This is the cheapest, least expensive way to have a website.
Dedicated Server
In the Web hosting business, a dedicated server is typically a leased service. The user leases the server, software and an Internet connection from the Web host. The leaser is the only one that is utilizing that computer and its hard disc drives (which can be many) by the leasing company from the host. It is also the most expensive way to have a web site hosted. All administration is done by the company leasing the server. The reason for the high cost is because the hosting company is giving up a precious commodity, a whole server/computer to one company as opposed to many on one computer (shared host servers).
DNS
Short for Domain Name System (or Service), an Internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses. Because domain names are alphabetic, it is easier for the human mind to remember. The Internet however, is really based on IP addresses. Every time you use a domain name, therefore, a DNS service must translate the name into the corresponding IP address. For example, the domain name www.rickswebfactory.com might translate to 198.105.232.4. The DNS system is, in fact, its own network. If one DNS server doesn't know how to translate a particular domain name, it asks another one, and so on, until the correct IP address is returned. This is the way that an individuals find your web site.
URL
Universal Resource Locator, this is also referred to as a web address/domain. This is were you type in the site URL in the browser "Address" in text window, it usually starts with the "http:". It tells the browser where the particular "resource" is located at within the site.
SOHO
Small Office/Home Office, a lot of office equipment, not just computer equipment has this SOHO designation. It just signifies the office equipment is suitable for use in a one or more types of office environments.
Network
This term is used to indicate that electronic equipment is able to communicate with one another, either via a special cable or wireless transmission. Via wireless there are special transceiver cards put into each piece of electronic equipment. The usual protocol is a standard called Ethernet.
ISP
Short for Internet Service Provider, a company that provides access to the Internet. For a monthly fee. Internet Service Provider, this is how one is connects to the internet. There are many service providers out there. Comcast, Wide Open West, Road Runner, Time Warner are one of many high speed cable providers of the internet. SBC, Telcom, Convant and Covad are DLS connection providers, these are medium speed connections. EarthLink, Juno and NetZero are a few of the dial-up's, were one's modem must dial via telephone a phone number that connects with another modem to connect to the internet.
Domain name
Is what is often referred to as the "address" to connect to a site. A name that identifies one or more IP addresses. For example, the domain name microsoft.com represents about a dozen IP addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages. For example, in the URL http://www.rickswebfactory.com/index.html, the domain name is rickswebfactory.com.
Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top level domain (TLD) it belongs to. There are only a limited number of such domains. For example:
gov - Government agencies
edu - Educational institutions
org - Organizations (nonprofit)
mil - Military
com - commercial business
net - Network organizations
ca - Canada
th - Thailand
tw - Twain
Because the Internet is based on IP addresses, not domain names, every Web server requires a Domain Name System (DNS) server to translate domain names into IP addresses.
Host
To provide the infrastructure for a computer service. For example, there are many companies that host Web servers. This means that they provide the hardware, software, and communications lines required by the server, but the content on the server may be controlled by someone else.
CGI
Common Gateway Interface, A set of rules that describe how a Web Server communicates with another piece of software on the same computer, and how the other piece of software (the "CGI program") talks to the web server. Any piece of software can be a CGI program if it handles input and output according to the CGI standard.
DSL
Digital Subscriber Line, A method for moving data over regular phone lines. A DSL circuit is much faster than a regular phone connection, and the wires coming into the subscriber's premises are the same (copper) wires used for regular phone service. A DSL circuit must be configured to connect two specific locations, similar to a leased line (however a DSL circuit is not a leased line. A common configuration of DSL allows downloads at speeds of up to 1.54 megabits (not megabytes) per second, and uploads at speeds of 128 kilobits per second. DSL is now a popular alternative to Leased Lines and ISDN, being faster than ISDN and less costly than traditional Leased Lines.
PGP
Pretty Good Privacy, A technique for encrypting messages developed by Philip Zimmerman. PGP is one of the most common ways to protect messages on the Internet because it is effective, easy to use, and free. PGP is based on the public-key method, which uses two keys -- one is a public key that you disseminate to anyone from whom you want to receive a message. The other is a private key that you use to decrypt messages that you receive. To encrypt a message using PGP, you need the PGP encryption package, which is available for free from a number of sources. The official repository is at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. PGP is such an effective encryption tool that the U.S. government actually brought a lawsuit against Zimmerman for putting it in the public domain and hence making it available to enemies of the U.S.. After a public outcry, the U.S. lawsuit was dropped, but it is still illegal to use PGP in many other countries.
PHP
Self-referentially short for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, an open source, server-side, HTML embedded scripting language used to create dynamic Web pages. In an HTML document, PHP script (similar syntax to that of Perl or C ) is enclosed within special PHP tags. Because PHP is embedded within tags, the author can jump between HTML and PHP (similar to ASP and Cold Fusion) instead of having to rely on heavy amounts of code to output HTML. And, because PHP is executed on the server, the client cannot view the PHP code. PHP can perform any task that any CGI program can do, but its strength lies in its compatibility with many types of databases. Also, PHP can talk across networks using IMAP, SNMP, NNTP, POP3, or HTTP. PHP was created sometime in 1994 by Rasmus Lerdorf. During mid 1997, PHP development entered the hands of other contributors. Two of them, Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans, rewrote the parser from scratch to create PHP version 3 (PHP3).
subdomain
In DNS hierarchy, a subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain name. DNS hierarchy consists of the root-level domain at the top, underneath which are the top-level domains, followed by second-level domains and finally subdomains. For example, in the domain name glossary.rickswebfactory.com, "glossary" is a subdomain of the larger second-level domain "rickswebfactory.com."
router
A device that forwards data packets along networks. A router is connected to at least two networks, commonly two LANs or WANs or a LAN and its ISP’s network. Routers are located at gateways, the places where two or more networks connect. Routers use headers and forwarding tables to determine the best path for forwarding the packets, and they use protocols such as ICMP to communicate with each other and configure the best route between any two hosts. Very little filtering of data is done through routers.
gateway
(1) A node on a network that serves as an entrance to another network. In enterprises, the gateway is the computer that routes the traffic from a workstation to the outside network that is serving the Web pages. In homes, the gateway is the ISP that connects the user to the internet. In enterprises, the gateway node often acts as a proxy server and a firewall. The gateway is also associated with both a router, which use headers and forwarding tables to determine where packets are sent, and a switch, which provides the actual path for the packet in and out of the gateway.
(2) A computer system located on earth that switches data signals and voice signals between satellites and terrestrial networks.
(3) An earlier term for router, though now obsolete in this sense as router is commonly used.
IP
Abbreviation of Internet Protocol, pronounced as two separate letters. IP specifies the format of packets, also called datagrams, and the addressing scheme. Most networks combine IP with a higher-level protocol called Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which establishes a virtual connection between a destination and a source. IP by itself is something like the postal system. It allows you to address a package and drop it in the system, but there's no direct link between you and the recipient. TCP/IP, on the other hand, establishes a connection between two hosts so that they can send messages back and forth for a period of time.
SMTP
Short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, a protocol for sending e-mail messages between servers. Most e-mail systems that send mail over the Internet use SMTP to send messages from one server to another; the messages can then be retrieved with an e-mail client using either POP or IMAP. In addition, SMTP is generally used to send messages from a mail client to a mail server. This is why you need to specify both the POP or IMAP server and the SMTP server when you configure your e-mail application.
POP
Point of Presence, also Post Office Protocol
Two commonly used meanings:
Point of Presence and Post Office Protocol.(1) A Point of Presence usually means a city or location where a network can be connected to, often with dial up phone lines. So if an Internet company says they will soon have a POP in Belgrade, it means that they will soon have a local phone number in Belgrade and/or a place where leased lines can connect to their network. An access point to the Internet. ISPs have typically multiple POPs. A point of presence is a physical location, either part of the facilities of a telecommunications provider that the ISP rents or a separate location from the telecommunications provider, that houses servers, routers, ATM switches and digital/analog call aggregators.
(2) Post Office Protocol refers to a way that e-mail client software such as Eudora gets mail from a mail server. When you obtain an account from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) you almost always get a POP account with it, and it is this POP account that you tell your e-mail software to use to get your mail. Another protocol called IMAP is replacing POP for email. A protocol used to retrieve e-mail from a mail server. Most e-mail applications (sometimes called an e-mail client) use the POP protocol, although some can use the newer IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). There are two versions of POP. The first, called POP2, became a standard in the mid-80's and requires SMTP to send messages. The newer version, POP3, can be used with or without SMTP.
IMAP
Short for Internet Message Access Protocol, a protocol for retrieving e-mail messages. The latest version, IMAP4, is similar to POP3 but supports some additional features. For example, with IMAP4, you can search through your e-mail messages for keywords while the messages are still on mail server. You can then choose which messages to download to your machine.
IMAP was developed at Stanford University in 1986.
FTP
Short for File Transfer Protocol, the protocol used on the Internet for exchanging files. File Transfer Protocol, A very common method of moving files between two Internet sites. FTP is a way to login to another Internet site for the purposes of retrieving and/or sending files. 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".
FTP was invented and in wide use long before the advent of the World Wide Web and originally was always used from a text-only interface. FTP works in the same way as HTTP for transferring Web pages from a server to a user's browser and SMTP for transferring electronic mail across the Internet in that, like these technologies, FTP uses the Internet's TCP/IP protocols to enable data transfer. FTP is most commonly used to download a file from a server using the Internet or to upload a file to a server (e.g., uploading a Web page file to a server).
NIC
Network interface card, an expansion board you insert into a computer so the computer can be connected to a network. Most NICs are designed for a particular type of network, protocol, and media, although some can serve multiple networks.
Ethernet
A local-area network (LAN) architecture developed by Xerox Corporation in cooperation with DEC and Intel in 1976. Ethernet uses a bus or star topology and supports data transfer rates of 10 Mbps. The Ethernet specification served as the basis for the IEEE 802.3 standard, which specifies the physical and lower software layers. Ethernet uses the CSMA/CD access method to handle simultaneous demands. It is one of the most widely implemented LAN standards.
A newer version of Ethernet, called 100Base-T (or Fast Ethernet), supports data transfer rates of 100 Mbps (bits per second). And the newest version, Gigabit Ethernet supports data rates of 1 gigabit (1,000 megabits) per second.
Cascading Style Sheet
Or what is known by the initials CSS, a new feature being added to HTML that gives both Web site developers and users more control over how pages are displayed. With CSS, designers and users can create style sheets that define how different elements, such as headers and links, appear. These style sheets can then be applied to any Web page.
The term cascading derives from the fact that multiple style sheets can be applied to the same Web page. CSS was developed by the W3C.
This page and the other pages are being controlled by a cascading style Sheets.
Spider/Bot
A program used by search engines to visit and index websites. Search engines regularly send these spiders to the sites in their database and new sites that were submitted to verify accuracy of the index. Unfortunately evil email address harvesters also use this method and don't play by the rules of the "robots.txt" that a lot of websites have in their main part of their web sites.
robots.txt
This is a text file that tells the search sites spiders/ bots what they can and can not index in their databases. Most sites, even the federal government uses robots.txt to tell the search sites spiders/bots what to index. One reason a web master might want to keep a part of their site from being indexed, is that they are working on a part of their site that is not ready to be seen and therefore indexed because it would be full of broken links unfinished pages and such
Ranking
When a user types in a keyword in a search engine, the response usually contains a list of websites which the search engine determines to be most relevant. The list of sites appears in the order of their relevance (ranking). There could be thousands of matching choices, so to generate any traffic, your site should be in at least the top 30.
Page Title
The single most important line of text at the top of each web page identifying the name of the page or the entire site. The page title often determines how search engines index and rank a website. The page title should be short and to the point.
Meta Tags
Meta tags are embedded into web pages and are invisible to users. They are only visible to search engine spiders and assist them in determining the relevant nature of a website's content. Each page of a website that you want listed on search engines must have meta tags.
Description Tag
A meta tag listing the description of a web page. The description tag should be no more than two sentences long, and describe the exact purpose of the website.