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Hosting Glossary

1. Anonymous FTP: Anonymous File Transfer Protocol - allows anyone access to a host, usually not requiring an FTP account.
2. ASP: Active Server Pages - A Microsoft developed server-side script engine for dynamically generated web pages.
3. Auto responder: A system set in place to auto reply to someone who emails the desired email address.
4. CGI: Common Gateway Interface - A protocol for communicating between the HTTP server and external server based applications
5. CGI-BIN: As above, cgi-bin is often the directory name on a web server where CGI based applications reside
6. Control Panel: A web based user interface for controlling the website, database, domain name, web hosting details, account details and more
7. 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.
8. Dedicated Servers (Dedicated Hosting): A server that provides web servers for only one account or one domain name
9. Disk Space (Storage Space): The amount of space on a web server's hard drive allocated to an account or domain name
10. 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.
11. E-Commerce: Any online transaction of buying or selling via a website
12. Email Forwarding: Having an email automatically sent, or forwarded, from one email address to another.
13. Firewall: A firewall is a hardware or software solution to enforce security policies
14. FrontPage: FrontPage is a WYSIWYG HTML editor developed by Microsoft
15. FrontPage Extensions: A set of applications and scripts on a web server to allow specific features of websites created using Frontpage
16. FTP: File Transfer Protocol - the most widely used method of accessing a web server remotely.
17. GB: Gigabyte - a measurement of space or memory which is equal to 1024Mb (Megabytes)
18. IMAP: Instant Message Access Protocol - A method of allowing users to access email stored on a web server
19. 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
20. KB: Kilobyte - a measurement of space or memory which is equal to 1024 bytes
21. Linux: A widely used Open Source Unix-like operating system
22. Managed Hosting: A type of hosting whereby the web hosting company manages the server for you
23. MB: Megabyte - a measurement of space or memory which is equal to 1024Kb (Kilobytes)
24. Merchant Account: A type of bank account established with a payment processor for the settlement of credit card transactions online
25. Microsoft Access: Database software developed and provided by Microsoft
26. Miva Empressa: Miva's XML based server-side scripting language
27. Miva Merchant: A client-side, browser-based storefront development and management system for merchants
28. MS SQL: A relational database management system produced by Microsoft
29. MySQL: An Open Source, multithreaded, multi-user database management system which is available for both Unix and Windows
30. Payment Gateway: A company that provides an interface between a merchants point-of-sale, acquirer payment systems, and issuer payment
31. Perl: An Open Source CGI based scripting language
32. PHP: PHP Hypertext Preprocessor - an Open Source server-side based programming language
33. POP: Post Office Protocol - A method of allowing users to download email messages from a server to the own computers
34. POP3 Email Account: An email account based on the POP technology as described above.
35. 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
36. Setup Fee: A one-off fee charged by the web hosting company in order to set up your new server
37. Shared Web Hosting: The most basic of web hosting types. With shared hosting, a number of different websites are shared on the same server
38. Shopping Cart Software: Software used in e-commerce to assist people making perchases online
39. SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol - SMTP is used to transfer email between computers
40. SQL: Structured Query Language - A widely used standardized query langauge used for querying databses
41. SSI: Server Side Includes - The ability to tell a server to include information in a document before it gets sent to the browser
42. SSL: Secure Socket Layer - A security protocol that provides privacy over HTTP
43. Static (Dedicated) IP Address: A static, fixed, IP addresss which does not change that is persitent between reboots
44. Subdomain: A sub-division of a master domain used to devide websites into different sections, for example images.google.com
45. Uptime: The term used to indentify how long a system, server or service is operational
46. UNIX: An operating system developed in the early 1970s which was designed to be used by many people at the same time
47. 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
48. WAP: Wireless Application Protocol - A technology that linkes mobile devices with the inernet
49. Web-based Email: An Email service, often free, which makes it possible to send and recieve emails using a browser