Knowledgebase

Apache: A popular brand of Open Source Web server originally created from a set of patches written for another server operating system.

Auto Responder: Software that acknowledges receipt of an e-mail message by sending a predefined email to the sender. A sequential auto responder is one that acknowledges an email and then continues to send messages at intervals defined by the owner of the auto responder address.

Bandwidth: Usually a measurement to indicate the total amount of data processed by your site. This can include page views, downloads, email and uploads. Bandwidth is usually measured in megabytes or gigabytes.

Billing Contact: The person designated to receive invoices in relation to domain name/hosting services and responsible for ensuring payment of those invoices.

Cgi-Bin: A folder where common gateway interface (CGI) scripts are stored. As some scripts can create security risks, the CGI BIN is kept outside of the main documents (web page) folders. The CGI-BIN gives the webmaster greater control over access to the applications.

Data Transfer: Same as bandwidth.

Dedicated IP Address: In traditional shared hosting,each domain shares the IP address of the server that domain is stored on. A dedicated IP address is a unique set of identifying numbers for a web site.

Disk/Server/HD Space: The amount of space provided by a web host for the storage of web pages, files and email accounts. Usually measured in Megabytes or Gigabytes.

Domain Alias: A domain that points to the same website as another. For instance, you could have domain.com with domain.net as an alias to domain.com - that way, people accessing domain.net would see the same contact as those viewing domain.com.

Domain Name: A name that identifies a web site. Domain Names always have 2 or more components, separated by dots. While site names may share a common component, no two sites on the Internet may have the same primary nameandtail extension.

Domain Name System (DNS): A database that is used to translate domain names into Internet Protocol (IP) numbers.

E-Mail Alias: An email forwarding account that allows your to direct email to an alias to another email account while also allowing you to send email under the alias name.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol. A protocol for exchanging files with a host computer.

HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol): The most common protocol used on the web for transferring hypertext files.

Internet Protocol (IP) Numbers (IP addresses): A unique set of numbers used to specify systems, whether they be a home computer, a wap enable cell phone or an Internet server.

MySQL: MySQL is the world's most popular database server technology. It is robust and flexible and owes it's popularity to the Open Source movement; developers who create base applications and make them, and the source code, available to all at no cost.

Name Server: A computer designed to resolve domain names to Internet Protocol (IP) numbers.

Perl (Practical Extraction and Report Language): A programming language used to creative interactive applications

PHP: A server-side scripting language made popular by the Open Source community.

POP: Post Office Protocol, a protocol for fetching mail from a mailserver

Registrant: Person or company that registers a specific domain name and holds the rights over that name for the registration period.

Script: A compilation of commands that can be automatically executed.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol): The protocol used to send email.

SSI (Server Side Includes): Commands that can be embedded in web pages which are then processed by the web server the page is requested. The most common usage of SSI is the inclusion of common menus, headers and footer elements for a page. Using SSI, when the page containing the common element is updated, then all the pages containing the SSI command that calls for that element will display the updated version.

SSL: Secure Sockets Layer. It's a protocol that allows for secure and encrypted transmissions of data form. SSL ensures that data is sent only to the server you intended to send it to, and without it being intercepted and changed along the path. SSL is most commonly used in payment transactions and for securing pages where sensitive data is required. A secure page is usually indicated by a https:// in the address and also by a closed lock on Internet Explorer's status bar.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol): The protocol used to connect computers on the Internet.

Telnet: A terminal protocol that runs on top of the TCP/IP protocol that allows for users to log into other computers via a command line interface. SSH is a secure version of Telnet.

Whois: The command/application to access searchable databases of domain names maintained by domain registrars. These databases contain information on the registrants and networks associated with a particular name.