Basic Terms

There are many technical terms when it comes to web hosting, and this page is targeted to that less knowledge of their meaning, in order to help them understand. If you have any questions about something, please feel free to contact us.

ASP – ASP stands for Active Server Page. Active Server Pages allow web developers to make their sites dynamic with database driven content. The code is mainly written in VB Script, and it is produced on the server of the website instead of the browser of your website visitors. The server reads the ASP code and then translates it to HTML.

Autoresponder – An automated program that acknowledges receipt of an e-mail message, and then sends back a previously prepared email to the sender, letting them know it was received. Once you configure your autoresponder, it sends an e-mail with no further action required on your part, making your website interactive around the clock. Most hosting companies let you set this up through their control panel.

Backups – These are performed automatically, so that if our servers suddenly crash, then we can automatically restore all your websites data back to the internet as such. Alternatively, one can manually backup and keep the files off their website stored on their local computer.

Bandwidth (Data Transfer) – This is the amount of data that is transferred from an account as visitors view the pages of the website. If you have a website with lots of video, audio, and images that gets many visitors per day, you would have to make sure that you choose a host that will allow large amounts of data to be transferred. If you choose a hosting package that only allows 200 MB of data transfer per month, and your site transferred 500 MB per month, then you may be charged excesses or lose from viewing your site and you could lose potential customers. Therefore, the greater the bandwidth allowance, the better that it is for your website.

CGI – A CGI is a program that translates data from a web server and then displays that data on a web page or in an email. CGI involves the transfer of data between a server and a CGI program (called a script). This allows HTML pages to interact with other programming applications. These scripts make web pages interactive. Page counters, forms, guest books, random text/images and other features can be driven by CGI scripts. Some servers have pre-installed/pre-defined CGI scripts, meaning that the scripts are already installed on the server for you to use on your site. Some servers permit user-defined or custom CGI scripts, which means the site owner creates his/her own CGI script and runs this custom made a script on the website. Not all servers allow user-defined (custom) scripts for security reasons. If you think you will need forms on your website, CGI could be a key requirement.

Content Management System (CMS) – This is a CGI Script to a certain extent. It is a system that helps you as the user to easily manage all the dynamic content of your website, such as blogs via the web, from anywhere in the world, making it easy to update. WordPress is often referred to as a CMS Solution and we provide all our website design work within this system.

Control Panel – This is an online package of tools permitting easy site management and editing. It is a very important feature to have. By having your own control panel, you can maintain basic information about your site, mailboxes, etc.

Databases – If your website will leverage a database to store information, database support by the hosting company will be required. After you have developed your website, you will know which database will be required. Some commonly used database programs are SQL Server, MySQL, MS SQL, Access, Oracle, and FoxPro. Databases can be difficult to configure properly.

Data Server – This is where the servers containing your entire website are kept. Currently, at Integral Web Hosting, these are all around the world, more details of which can be found here.

Disk Space/Web space – This is how much space that you have available to store data on the web with. It includes the space required by all databases and files, and different amounts are available based on which hosting package that you choose with us.

Domain Mapping – This is the process by which 2 separate domains names both go to exactly the same website. For example, a domain name such as www.ultimate-web-hosting.co.uk, if typed into a web browser, and mapped onto www.ultimatewebhosting.co.uk, would automatically go to www.ultimatewebhosting.co.uk. This gives users the ability to have secondary domains if people often mistype or misspell their web address.

Domain Name – This is 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 (ultimatewebhosting.co.uk). Technically, the domain name is a name that identifies an IP address. To most of us, it simply means www.ultimatewebhosting.co.uk. Because the Internet is based on IP addresses, not domain names, web servers depend on a Domain Name System (DNS) to translate domain names into IP addresses. Simply stated, domain names allow people to find your web site by name rather than by its numerical (IP) address.

Domain Name System – This is a model for tracking other machines (that contain websites) and their numeric IP addresses. When a computer is referred to by name, a domain name server puts that name into the numeric IP address assigned to that computer. This means when you buy a domain, say www.yourname.com, it does not become accessible until it gets assigned an IP address from a hosting company. Once the IP address is assigned, a cross-reference record (DNS record) is created that points your domain name to the numeric IP address.

E-Commerce – This incorporates the tools and the ability to sell products or services via the internet, such as shopping baskets and the ability to accept credit card payments. All of this is required when trying to set up a business selling on the internet.

Email – An email account is literally the ability to receive emails and send emails to another person with email. An email can contain either text or a no text type of files and the sender can be identified easily. The key advantages of email are that they can be sent at any time of the day and it is free to use.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) – This is the protocol used by the internet to transfer files across to your website. It can be used through Windows Explorer for example and will require a username login and password to gain access to. When signing up with Ultimate Web Hosting, you will be given a login to this automatically.  You will be able to change your login details and create further users for example from your control panel.

Hosting – This is literally the title given to the whole web package that you are purchasing from us, it is basically the service provided by us to give you space on the internet. For more information about the hosting packages that we can offer you, please click here.

HTML – This is known as the HyperText Markup Language, and is the main type of web programming language of the current day. Almost every website ever has some form of HTML associated with it, and hence it is a key part of a website.

IP Address – This is a unique number used to specify hosts and networks. Internet Protocol (IP) numbers are used for identifying machines that are connected to the Internet. They are sometimes called a dotted quad and are unique numbers consisting of 4 parts separated by dots. They would look something like this 216.119.81.205. However, domain names are used to represent these numbers as to make it easier to remember them.

PHP – PHP is another scripting language. Like ASP, its commands are embedded within the HTML of a web page. The commands are executed on the web server, making it browser independent. The web browser only sees the resulting HTML output of the PHP code.

POP3 – This is the main protocol used by computers to receive emails via.  An email program will download your emails using this protocol so that you can read them easily.

Responsive Web Design – This is ensuring that your website is mobile friendly. Most web traffic nowadays comes from sources such as mobile phones or tablet PC’s (as opposed to the now retro laptop/desktop machine). Responsive design simply means that your website reflects the size of the screen which it shows on in order to ensure that your website always shows a clear picture of what you are offering to your potential customers.

Search Engine Optimisation – This is the process where your website pages are neatened up almost so that a search engine can read them better.  This means that your website will appear higher in the search engine rankings.  You can click here to view more information on this.

Search Engine Submission – This is submitting your website to search engines such as Google so that people can find you easily when searching for keywords relating to your website.  You can visit our free guide on how to do this by clicking here.

SMTP – This is the default outgoing server for emails with all email clients. It is also known as the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Unlike most providers who tell you that you have to use your Internet Service Provider for outgoing emails, Ultimate Web Hosting, provides these as default with all hosting packages.

SQL Server – This is one type of database possible to use the system. It is ideal for storing customer details for example so that user accounts can be created and brought up whenever they log in to the system. It integrates well with PHP.

Uptime – This refers to the amount of time within a 24 hour period a system is active or available for servicing requests. For example, if a hosting company says it is available 99.9% of the time, they are claiming that your website will up all the time except for about 8 seconds each day. Over the course of a year, in this example, the hosting company is claiming that your site will only be unavailable (couldn’t surf it) for 50 minutes approximately.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) – This is the standard way to locate a web page on the internet. It is literally the web address which you type into the web browser to view a specific website such as www.ultimatewebhosting.co.uk.

Web Design – This is offered by us in two forms. The first is the free web builder which comes included as default with all hosting packages. Lastly, there is the professional web design which we offer, which is obviously the most expensive of the two, based on the personalized aspects of it that are catered for.  More details of this can be located by clicking here.

Website Builder – This refers to software that will help build you to your website easily. It is simple and quick to use and enables the most basic of users to create a high profile website, without any prior knowledge.

Windows Hosting – Windows hosting is less common in the web hosting industry.  It is more designed for websites where running Microsoft based programs are essential that would otherwise not run on Linux systems.  For more details of the packages that we offer, you can click here.

WHOIS – This is the ability of the public to search for details on the holder of a specific domain name, in order to trace or to contact the owner. It is based on the details you initially put into the order form when buying one, although they can be changed easily at a later stage. It is also possible to prevent these details being shown by purchasing the domain identity protection add-on when ordering a domain name from us.

Esta resposta foi útil?

0 Utilizadores acharam útil