| A Record |
| An A record is part
of the zone file. It is used to point Internet traffic
to an IP address. For example, you can use an "A record"
to designate abc.yourdomain.com to send traffic to your
web site at IP address 209.15.32.135. You can also designate
xyz.yourdomain.com to go to a separate IP address. Access
[Microsoft®] MS Access® published by Microsoft is an easy
to use and highly integrated database creation and maintenance
software. Capable of online databases, the software is
supported with the NT® hosting platform. |
| ADSL |
| (Asymmetric Digital
Subscriber Line) -- A method for moving data over regular
phone lines. An ADSL 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. An ADSL circuit must be configured to connect
two specific locations, similar to a leased line. A commonly
discussed configuration of ADSL would allow a subscriber
to receive data (download) at speeds of up to 1.544 Megabits
per second, and to send (upload) data at speeds of 128
kilobits per second. Thus the 'Asymmetric' part of the
acronym. Another commonly discussed configuration would
be symmetrical: 384 kilobits per second in both directions.
In theory ADSL allows download speeds of up to 9 megabits
per second and upload speeds of up to 640 kilobits per
second. ADSL is often discussed as an alternative to ISDN,
allowing higher speeds in cases where the connection is
always to the same place. |
| Alias |
| An alias is an e-mail
address that forwards its mail to a specified mailbox,
masking the true name of the mailbox in which the mail
is actually received. For example, Sales@YourDomain.com
could be an alias for Joe1234@aol.com. |
| Anonymous FTP
|
| Anonymous File Transfer
Protocol allows the public to log into an FTP server with
a common login (usually "ftp" or "anonymous" and any password
(usually the person's e-mail address is used as the password).
Anonymous FTP is benefitial for the distribution of large
files to the public, avoiding the need to assign large
numbers of login and password combinations for FTP access.
|
| Applet |
| A small Java program
that can be embedded in an HTML page. Applets differ from
full-fledged Java applications in that they are not allowed
to access certain resources on the local computer, such
as files and serial devices (modems, printers, etc.),
and are prohibited from communicating with most other
computers across a network. The current rule is that an
applet can only make an Internet connection to the computer
from which the applet was sent. |
| ASCII (American
Standard Code for Information Interchange) |
| This is the de facto
world-wide standard for the code numbers used by computers
to represent all the upper and lower-case Latin letters,
numbers, punctuation, etc. There are 128 standard ASCII
codes each of which can be represented by a 7 digit binary
number: 0000000 through 1111111, plus parity. |
| Autoresponder
|
| An e-mail that is
automatically sent in reply to any e-mail received in
a specified mailbox. Also known as a vacation message.
|
| Bandwidth |
| The difference between
the highest and lowest frequencies available for network
signals. The term is also used to describe the rated throughput
capacity of a given network medium or protocol. In short,
bandwidth is a loose term used to describe the throughput
capacity (measured in Kilobits or Megabits per second)
of a specific circuit. |
| Browser |
| A client software
program which allows the user to view and navigate through
websites, and download or upload files. The most commonly
used browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape
Navigator. |
| Browser Compatibility
|
| A term that compares
the way a Web page looks on one WWW browser as opposed
to another. Usually this is done with Microsoft Internet
Explorer (MIE) and Netscape Navigator, but can also refer
to cross-platform compatibility. (For example, the way
a page renders or displays on a Windows system as opposed
to a Mac.) The reason these incompatibilities exist is
due to the way a browser interprets the Web page's code
(HTML). The differences are usually very slight, but they're
enough to annoy some Web designers and sometimes even
their clients to the point in which great time and energy
is spent in making a Web site compatible with any browser
on any type of system. Browser compatibility is also used
in conjunction with (and should not be confused with)
the term browser support. |
| Byte |
| A set of Bits that
represent a single character. Usually there are 8 Bits
in a Byte, sometimes more, depending on how the measurement
is being made. |
| Catch-all Email
Account |
| An email account
which allows any email of the form, anything@yourdomain.com,
to be forwarded or placed into a single email address.
For example, webmaster@you.com, info@you.com and anything@you.com,
will all be sent to the same email address. Often hosts
allow you to also specify particular email addresses to
be forwarded to different email addresses, in addition
to the catch-all email which sends any other email address
to one designated email address. |
| Certificate Authority |
| An issuer of Security
Certificates used in SSL connections. |
| CGI |
| (Common Gateway Interface)
-- A set of rules that describe how a Web Server communicates
with another piece of software on the same machine, 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. Usually a CGI program is a small program
that takes data from a web server and does something with
it, like putting the content of a form into an e-mail
message, or turning the data into a database query. CGI
"scripts" are just scripts which use CGI. CGI is often
confused with Perl, which is a programming language, while
CGI is an interface to the server from a particular program.
Perl is an application of CGI, as well as MIVA, Python,
PHP3, and other scripting languages. cgi-bin The most
common name of a directory on a web server in which CGI
programs are stored. The 'bin' part of 'cgi-bin' is a
shorthand version of 'binary', because once upon a time,
most programs were referred to as 'binaries'. In real
life, most programs found in cgi-bin directories are text
files -- scripts that are executed by binaries located
elsewhere on the server. While most programs using CGI
are stored in this directory, it is not a requirement
for using CGI. |
| Client |
| A software program
that is used to contact and obtain data from a server
software program on another computer, often across a great
distance. Each client program is designed to work with
one or more specific kinds of server programs, and each
server requires a specific kind of client. A web browser
and an FTP program are specific kinds of clients. |
| Contact Record |
| In the case of many
registries, contact information for technical, billing
and administrative purposes are maintained in their database.
It is important to keep your contact records updated to
ensure that billing and renewal can proceed without problems.
|
| Cookie |
| The most common meaning
of 'Cookie' on the Internet refers to a piece of information
sent by a Web Server to a Web Browser that the Browser
software is expected to save and to send back to the Server
whenever the browser makes additional requests from the
Server. Depending on the type of Cookie used, and the
Browser's settings, the Browser may accept or not accept
the Cookie, and may save the Cookie for either a short
time or a long time. Cookies might contain information
such as login or registration information, online 'shopping
cart' information, user preferences, etc. When a Server
receives a request from a Browser that includes a Cookie,
the Server is able to use the information stored in the
Cookie. For example, the Server might customize what is
sent back to the user, or keep a log of particular user's
requests. Cookies are usually set to expire after a predetermined
amount of time and are usually saved in memory until the
Browser software is closed down, at which time they may
be saved to disk if their 'expire time' has not been reached.
Cookies do not read your hard drive and send your life
story to the CIA, but they can be used to gather more
information about a user than would be possible without
them. |
| DNS: |
| Domain Naming System
The DNS is a distributed, replicated that allows nameservers
to map easily remembered domain names to an IP number.
|
| Dial-Up Account
|
| A basic type of Internet
account that allows you to dial up an Internet Service
Provider's (ISP) computer with a modem. These types of
accounts usually have a UNIX or other command-line interface.
|
| Domain Name
|
| The unique name that
identifies an Internet site. Domain Names always have
2 or more parts, separated by dots. The part on the left
is the most specific, and the part on the right is the
most general. A given machine may have more than one Domain
Name but a given Domain Name points to only one machine.
For example, the domain names: InternetHosting.net, ftp.InternetHosting.net,
whatever.InternetHosting.net can all refer to the same
machine, but each domain name can refer to no more than
one machine. Usually, all of the machines on a given Network
will have the same thing as the right-hand portion of
their Domain Names in the examples above. It is also possible
for a Domain Name to exist but not be connected to an
actual machine. This is often done so that a group or
business can have an Internet e-mail address without having
to establish a real Internet site. In these cases, some
real Internet machine must handle the mail on behalf of
the listed Domain Name. |
| E-Commerce
|
| Electronic Commerce.
Refers to the general exchange of goods and services via
the Internet. |
| Editor |
| Most free website
providers provide a program (editor) to edit the HTML
code of webpages online. |
| E-mail |
| (Electronic Mail)
-- Messages, usually text, sent from one person to another
via computer. E-mail can also be sent automatically to
a large number of addresses (Mailing List). |
| Email Forwarding
|
| An email service
in which your email is automatically sent (forwarded)
from one or more email address, to another (possibly several)
specified email address. "Unlimited email forwarding"
may refer to: (1) a catch-all email account; (2) the ability
to specify any number of email aliases (each of which
may have a different forwarding address); or (3) a combination
of both. |
| Encryption
|
| Processing and altering
data so only the intended recipient can read or use it.
The recipient of the encrypted data must have the proper
decryption key and program to decipher the data back to
its original form. |
| Extensions
|
| The characters after
the dot in a file's name are considered its extension.
This is used to determine how the file is formatted and
viewed. For example a file named netlingo.html means that
the file is coded in HTML and therefore must be viewed
with a compatible program such as a Web browser in order
to see it properly. On the Internet you will come across
many different file extensions such as .dcr, .mov, .avi
and .au. In order to properly handle these files your
browser must be configured to recognize these extensions.
|
| File Extension
|
| The group of letters
after a period or "dot" in a file name is called the file
extension. This extension refers to the type of file it
is, for example, if the filename is readme.txt, the extension
txt denotes this is a text file and can be viewed using
a text editor such as Notepad or Simple Text. Operating
systems such as MAC OS or Windows 95 will refer to a file's
extension when choosing which application to launch when
a user clicks on a particular file name. |
| Fire Wall |
| A combination of
hardware and software that separates a LAN into two or
more parts for security purposes. |
| Flash |
| Flash is a plug-in
that is used to deliver low-bandwidth vector art animations
and presentations for Web sites. It offers scripting capabilities
and server-side connectivity for creating engaging applications,
Web interfaces, and training courses. To view flash files
you must have the Macromedia Flash plug-in installed in
your web browser. |
| FrontPage |
| A commercial, WYSIWYG,
HTML editor for creating, editing, managing, and uploading
websites. Some of the special features of the program
(such as a graphical counter, forms, database, etc.) require
that the website be uploaded to a server which supports
Microsoft FrontPage extensions. |
| FrontPage Extensions |
| Also called FrontPage
server extensions. These are a set of server-side scripts
and programs which enable users of Microsoft FrontPage
to use its special components (called Web Bots). The extensions
can be installed for Microsoft Internet Information Services
(IIS) and on other Windows (usually Windows NT) and UNIX
web servers. |
| FTP |
| (File Transfer Protocol)
-- A very common method of moving files between two Internet
sites. FTP is a special 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. |
| Gateway |
| The technical meaning
is a hardware or software set-up that translates between
two dissimilar protocols, for example Prodigy has a gateway
that translates between its internal, proprietary e-mail
format and Internet e-mail format. Another, sloppier meaning
of gateway is to describe any mechanism for providing
access to another system, e.g. AOL might be called a gateway
to the Internet. |
| GIF (Graphic Interchange
Format) |
| A common format for
image files, especially suitable for images containing
large areas of the same color. |
| Gigabyte |
| A measurement used
for computer files. One Gigabyte is equal to 1,024 Megabytes |
| Hosting |
| This term can be
used to refer to the housing of a web site, email or a
domain. See Email hosting and Web Site hosting for more
details. HTML |
| HTML |
| (HyperText Markup
Language) -- The coding language used to create Hypertext
documents for use on the World Wide Web. HTML looks a
lot like old-fashioned typesetting code, where you surround
a block of text with codes that indicate how it should
appear, additionally, in HTML you can specify that a block
of text, or a word, is linked to another file on the Internet.
HTML files are meant to be viewed using a World Wide Web
Client Program, such as Netscape or Mosaic. |
| HTTP - HyperText
Transport Protocol |
| The protocol for
moving hypertext files across the Internet. Requires a
HTTP client program on one end, and an HTTP server program
on the other end. HTTP is the most important protocol
used in the World Wide Web (WWW). |
| HTTPS - Hypertext
Transfer Protocol Secure |
| A type of server
software that provides the ability for secure transactions
to take place on the World Wide Web. If a Web site is
running on a HTTPS server you can type in HTTPS instead
of HTTP in the URL section of your browser to enter into
the "secured mode". Windows NT HTTPS and Netscape Commerce
server software support this protocol. |
| Hyperlink |
| Web site text that
can be clicked on with a mouse, that in turn will take
you to another Web page or a different area of the same
Web page. Hyperlinks are created (coded) in HTML. They
are also used to load multimedia files such as AVI movies
and AU sound files. |
|
Hypertext
|
| Generally, any text
that contains links to other documents - words or phrases
in the document that can be chosen by a reader and which
cause another document to be retrieved and displayed.
|
| Internet |
| (Upper case I) The
vast collection of inter-connected networks that all use
the TCP/IP protocols |
| Intranet |
| A private network
inside a company or organization that uses the same kinds
of software that you would find on the public Internet,
but that is only for internal use. As the Internet has
become more popular many of the tools used on the Internet
are being used in private networks, for example, many
companies have web servers that are available only to
employees. |
| IP Number (Internet
Protocol Number) |
| Sometimes called a
dotted quad. A unique number consisting of 4 parts separated
by dots, e.g.165.113.245.2 Every machine that is on the
Internet has a unique IP number - if a machine does not
have an IP number, it is not really on the Internet. Most
machines also have one or more Domain Names that are easier
for people to remember. |
| ISDN (Integrated
Services Digital Network) |
| Basically a way to
move more data over existing regular phone lines. ISDN
is rapidly becoming available to much of the USA and in
most markets it is priced very comparably to standard
analog phone circuits. It can provide speeds of roughly
128,000 bits-per-second over regular phone lines. In practice,
most people will be limited to 56,000 or 64,000 bits-per-second.
|
| ISP (Internet Service
Provider) |
| An institution that
provides access to the Internet in some form, usually
for money. |
| Java |
| Java is a network-oriented
programming language invented by Sun Microsystems that
is specifically designed for writing programs that can
be safely downloaded to your computer through the Internet
and immediately run without fear of viruses or other harm
to your computer or files. Using small Java programs (called
"Applets"), Web pages can include functions such as animations,
calculators, and other fancy tricks. We can expect to
see a huge variety of features added to the Web using
Java, since you can write a Java program to do almost
anything a regular computer program can do, and then include
that Java program in a Web page. |
| JavaScript |
| A programming language
for use in webpages that allows the use of dynamic content.
In spite of the similarity in name to Java, it is not
closely related to Java. |
| JPG |
| JPG ( or jpeg) is
a file extension used for computer image files such as
graphic and photographs. JPG and GIF files are the standard
format used when making and saving images for web pages.
|
| Key Words/Key Phrases
|
| Words or sets of words
used to improve ranking in search engines when those words
are phrases are entered by a user. For example, if a person
does a search for "pet supplies", while a person who has
the key word "pet" in his page, the page with the key
phrase "pet supplies" will be ranked higher in the search
results. |
| Kilobyte |
| A measurement used
for computer files. One Kilobyte is equal to 1,000 bytes. |
| Kbps |
| Abbreviation for "Kilobits
per second", which is 1000 bits per second. It is a measure
of bandwidth. |
| Link |
| Text and/or an image
area on a Web page that a user can click on to connect
to or reference another document. Commonly, links connect
two Web pages or Web sites. They can also reference a
different part of the same document, linking to a file
which will download to your computer or triggering the
launching of an external or helper application which will
then process the clicked-on file. |
| Meta Tag |
| An optional HTML tag
that is used to specify information about a Web document.
Some search engines such as AltaVista use "spiders" to
index Web pages. These spiders read the information contained
within a page's META tag. So in theory, an HTML or Web
page author has the ability to control how there site
is indexed by search engines and how and when it will
come up on a user's search. |
| MIDI |
| Musical Instrument
Digital Interface -- A network and accompanying protocol
developed in the 1970's for transmitting various information
between musical and other devices including keyboards,
samplers, lights, controllers, etc. |
| MX Record: Mail
Exchange |
| Mail Exchange record
is part of the zone file and is used to designate which
mail server machine should process email for a specific
domain. |
| MySQL |
| An Open Source Software
relational database management system which uses a subset
of ANSI SQL (Structured Query Language). |
| Name Servers |
| A computer that performs
the mapping of easily remembered domain names to IP addresses.
Sometimes referred to as a host server. |
| Perl |
| A server-side scripting
language which is commonly used to write CGI programs.
Perl programs, or "scripts", are text files which are
parsed (run through and executed) by a program called
an "interpreter" on the server. |
| PHP |
| A server-side scripting
language. The PHP commands, which are embedded in the
web page's HTML, are executed on the web server to generate
dynamic HTML pages. See php.net. |
| POP (Point of Presence,
also Post Office Protocol) |
| Two commonly used
meanings: Point of Presence and Post Office Protocol.
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. A second meaning,
Post Office Protocol refers to the way e-mail software
such as Eudora gets mail from a mail server. When you
obtain a SLIP, PPP, or shell account 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. Port |
| Propagation |
| The process whereby
the name servers throughout the world have updated their
records for a specific domain. For example, if you move
your domain from one host to another, it will take around
24 hours or so for the new address to broadcast everywhere.
During that 24 hour period, the traffic is decreasing
at the old location and increasing at the new location.
|
| Shopping Cart
|
| A shopping cart is
a piece of software that acts as an online store's catalog
and ordering process. Typically, a shopping cart is the
interface between a company's Web site and its deeper
infrastructure, allowing consumers to select merchandise;
review what they have selected; make necessary modifications
or additions; and purchase the merchandise. |
| SMTP (Simple Mail
Transport Protocol) |
| The main protocol
used to send electronic mail on the Internet. SMTP consists
of a set of rules for how a program sending mail and a
program receiving mail should interact. Almost all Internet
email is sent and received by clients and servers using
SMTP, thus if one wanted to set up an email server on
the Internet one would look for email server software
that supports SMTP. |
| SQL (Structured
Query Language) |
| A specialized programming
language for sending queries to databases. Most industrial-strength
and many smaller database applications can be addressed
using SQL. Each specific application will have its own
version of SQL implementing features unique to that application,
but all SQL-capable databases support a common subset
of SQL. |
| SSI |
| Abbreviation for "Server-Side
Includes". A server-side scripting language. SSI scripting
commands are embedded within a webpage and are parsed
and executed on the web server to generate dynamic HTML
pages. Common uses of SSI are to include files (e.g. a
header or footer file) that are used on multiple pages,
or to show the current date and time. |
| SSL (Secure Sockets
Layer) |
| A protocol designed
by Netscape Communications to enable encrypted, authenticated
communications across the Internet. SSL used mostly (but
not exclusively) in communications between web browsers
and web servers. URL's that begin with 'https' indicate
that an SSL connection will be used. SSL provides 3 important
things: Privacy, Authentication, and Message Integrity.
In an SSL connection each side of the connection must
have a Security Certificate, which each side's software
sends to the other. Each side then encrypts what it sends
using information from both its own and the other side's
Certificate, ensuring that only the intended recipient
can de-crypt it, and that the other side can be sure the
data came from the place it claims to have come from,
and that the message has not been tampered with. |
| Subdomain |
| Sub-domains are domain
names with the form, anything.yourdomain.com. By definition,
a subdomain should not have the prefix of "www". |
| Tag |
| A tag is used to describe
a type of command or instruction usually in regards to
HTML or Web page code. HTML tags look like this: , , or
, always with a pair of brackets (<>) surrounding the
specific instruction. |
| Telnet |
| The command and program
used to login from one Internet site to another. The telnet
command/program gets you to the login: prompt of another
host. |
| Transfer (Domain
Name) |
| On occasion, domains
are sold to another organization or sometimes the name
of a company might change. Most registries require a letter
of permission from the old owner to hand over control
to the new owner. The procedures for Transfer of ownership
will depend on the registry. |
| UNIX |
| A computer operating
system (the basic software running on a computer, underneath
things like word processors and spreadsheets). UNIX is
designed to be used by many people at the same time (it
is multi-user) and has TCP/IP built-in. It is the most
common operating system for servers on the Internet. |
| URL |
| Uniform Resource Locator)
-- The standard way to give the address of any resource
on the Internet that is part of the World Wide Web (WWW).
A URL looks like this: http://www.InternetHosting.net/glossary/
or telnet://anywhere.you.want or news:new.newusers.questions
etc. The most common way to use a URL is to enter into
a WWW browser program, such as Netscape, or Lynx. |
| Web address |
| The location, or URL,
of a website, file, or resource on the Internet. For example,
http://www.webhosts4free.com/ is a web address. |
| Web Page |
| An HTML document which
has its own web address, or URL. The first page usually
requested at a web site is called the "home page". Using
frames, multiple pages (HTML files) can be viewed in a
browser and arranged in designated sections of the display
screen at the same time -- these can also collectively
be called a "web page". "Web page" is sometimes written
as "webpage". |
| Webspace |
| Data storage space
accessed via the Internet, usually used to host websites
and data files. |
| Whois |
| Most registries maintain
a database of domain names and their associated contact
information. Users can query these databases through a
program called Whois. |
| WYSIWYG |
| An acronym for "What
You See Is What You Get". A WYSIWYG program is one that
allows you to create and edit a web page, text, or graphical
user interface so that you can see what the end result
will look like while the document is being created. WYSIWYG
web page editors conceal the markup language (HTML) so
as to allow the user to think entirely in terms of how
the page should appear. Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia
Dreamweaver are two common WYSIWYG editors. |
