| Server Backups |
 |
| ASP / .ASP (Active Server Pages) |
ASP has come to have numerous meanings in the
technology/computing/internet world. ASP is a term for application
service provider, and is a new term meaning to provide a hosted
application. An application might be to run a virus application from a
website which in turn scours your local hard drive. The application is
never installed on your machine. Another might be to provide accounting
or billing or warehouse software from a remote location. Neotrope
offers an e-commerce solution through its BlueSpin.com website that
works in this way — you rent space as part of a larger application
which we host.
".asp" can also refer to active server pages, an outgrowth
of server side includes and tag-based HTML extensions created by
Microsoft and used almost exclusively on Windows NT machines. A
scripting language which allows you to design Web pages that can make
displaying, manipulating and editing databases simpler.
|
| Backbone |
| A high-speed line or series of connections that forms a major pathway
within a network. On the Internet there are several major backbone
providers like BBN Internet , MCI/SprintLink, and US West.
|
| Bandwidth |
|
Amount
of data you can send through a connection. Usually measured in
bits-per-second (bps). A 56K modem transfers data up to 53Kbps, or
53,000 bits-per-second. Terms is also sometimes used in place of "data
transfer."
|
| CGI (Common Gateway Interface) |
A set of rules that describe how a Web Server communicates with another piece of software on the same machine
|
| CGI-Bin Access |
Ability for the customer to write custom programs to manipulate data on their Web site.
|
| Client |
Any
software application (and sometimes used to describe the computer
itself) connected to the server and run to send/retrieve data to a
server is called a client, such as a web browser. This relationship
between the "client" and the "server" is often referred to as a "client
server relationship."
|
| Co-location |
Refers
to having a server that belongs to one group physically located on an
Internet-connected network that belongs to another group. Usually done
because the server owner wants their machine to be on a high-speed
Internet connection and/or they do not want the security risks of
having the server on thier own network.
|
| Custom Error Messages |
Refers to the ability to create custom pages on a hosting account to replace default 404 and other error pages.
|
| Data Transfer |
This
is the amount of data that you are allowed to transfer with your
account. Data is this case usually referrs to images and text.
Typically refers to a data transfer allotment, most often in GB
(gigabytes). Thus, a hosting plan might come with, "3GB of data
transfer." 500 MB of data transfer is equivilant to about 25,000 page
views.
|
| Dial-up Account |
To
access and update a Web site, hosting customers need dial-up access to
the Internet (see ISP). Techically, xDSL would still be considered a
dial-up account since you don't have a dedicated wire for data
transfer.
|
| Disk Space (Storage Space) |
Amount
of hard disk space available for storage of all Web pages, HTML,
CGI-bin programs, e-mail, log files, images, sound clips, audio, video
clips, etc. 1MB equals one megabyte, or approximately milllion bytes. A
100K file would be 100,000 bytes.
|
| 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.
|
| Domain Name Registration |
Refers to registering a name which can be used for hosting a domain name, such as www.yourname.com.
|
| DS-3 |
Connection
to Internet Backbone favored by most medium-size Web hosting providers.
More than 28 times the bandwidth of a T-1 connection.
|
| Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce) |
Allows
Website customers to sell products and services online and accept
payment at the same time, usually through a cgi-script of some kind.
|
| E-Mail Aliases/Forwarders |
E-mail
forwarders and aliases are e-mail addresses such as
billing@yourdomain.com which do not have a username/password as a "POP"
account would. Instead, you would set up billing@yourdomain.com to
forward to a real POP account such as customerservice@yourdomain.com.
The only real distinction between an alias and a forward, is than an
alias will likely forward to another existing account at the same
domain, whereas a forward might be sent to another e-mail account with
an ISP: such as cs@yourdomain.com being forwarded to Joe@att.net or
similar.
|
| E-Mail Autoresponders/Vacation Messages |
Allow customers to set up an automatic message to respond to anyone who sends email to the customer.
|
| File Extensions |
In
the DOS/Windows computer world, and UNIX as well, almost every file
(anything on your computer that isn't a folder is a file in this
context) must have some kind of extension. Example: index.htm would be
a filename, where ".htm" is the file extension. On a PC in particular
the operating system needs an extesion in order to determine what kind
of file it is, and what to do with it when it is activated. With the
internet, you may see extensions like .exe, .cgi, .asp, .htm, .jsp,
.cfm, .tam, .php, .shtml, .pl, and many others. It is important to note
that in some cases you have to be aware of the proper extension to use
for a file depending on the environment in which the file will be used.
|
| File Transfer Protocol (FTP) |
Short
for "file transfer protocol," FTP is a method for transferring data
to/from web servers via a slightly different method than used by web
browsers (which use the http method). FTP software is used to upload
files to your virtual, shared, or dedicated web server site. FTP can
also be used for direct downloads of files and images from a web server
without being served from the public html directory (anonymous FTP).
FTP access to a web server requires a password and username in order to
gain access to the file/folder directories of a virtual domain.
|
| FrontPage2000 |
Microsoft's
FrontPage 2000 software is a Web site development software package. It
uses unique Microsoft file types (often referred to as "Microsoft
extensions"). A Web server and virtual domain must be configured to
accept these extensions.
|
| FTP Client |
Software needed by the customer to upload content files to their Web site.
|
| FTP Site/Anonymous FTP |
Anonymous
FTP is a dedicated area on a virtual or dedicated hosting domain for
download of files, and even upload of files to an "incoming" folder.
FTP is a special way to login to another Internet site for the purposes
of retrieving and/or sending files.
|
| Home Page |
The
first page in the public directory of a domain, usually index.php.
Called thome page because it's the first page that loads from a
Website.
|
| Hosting Provider |
An institution that provides Web space to companies or individuals, usually for money.
|
| HTML |
Hyper-Text
Markup Language. The basic page instruction language used to create web
pages. Far easier for basic pages to use than some might think because
many commands are simple such as "" for bold text. It can be more
complex as you get into newer versions which allow for floating layers,
tables, style sheets, and features which don't work across all web
browsers.
|
| HyperText |
Text
which links to other content by being an in-context link. The basis of
the original text-only internet page structure. Any word can be a link
to another page, idea, image or internet site, thus the "hyper" in the
term. The actual link is called a "hyper link."
|
| IP Address |
Internet
Protocol address. A number analagous to a street address on the Web.
See IP Number. When the internet was invented many years ago, there
needed to be a way to identify one computer from another. The "IP" or
"internet protocol" address has been used since then. In fact many
corporate networks assign IPs to desktop computers without the employee
knowing that they've been using Internet related technology for years,
whether connected to the internet or not. When a Web server is setup,
it has its own IP address to identify itself on the local network. Each
virtual server is given its own static (non-changing) IP address as if
it were its own machine.
|
| IP Number (Internet Protocol Number) |
Sometimes called a dotted quad. A unique number consisting of 4 parts separated by dots, e.g. 64.65.47.113
|
| IPP) |
Internet Presence Provider. Another name for a hosting provider.
|
| ISP |
Internet
Service Provider (see Dial-Up access). An ISP is a service provider who
creates the connection from your home or office to the Internet. It's
how you connect. Your ISP does not need to be your hosting provider, or
vice versa. This generally refers to how you access the internet with
your computer. Specifically, it is the company you signed up with and
where you "dial in" to connect to the web. If you have an account with
Earthlink, then your ISP will be Earthlink.
|
| Majordomo |
An
open-source server-based mailing list system, sometimes called a
"reflector" or "list server" (ListServ is actually a similar product)
because any message sent by a member to the list is re-sent
("reflected") to all the other list subscribers.
|
| Megabyte (MB) |
A million bytes. (Technically, actually 1024 kilobytes).
|
| NOC (Network Operation Center) |
Sometimes
called a Datacenter. This is the term for a secure, managed network
environment which may house tens or thousands of Web servers with power
backup and high-speed connections to the Internet Backbone. NOCs
usually have a mixture of OC-3 and DS-3 connections, or higher (i.e.,
OC12).
|
| NT/WINDOWS NT |
The
name used by Microsoft for its business class operating system, called
Windows NT (for "new technology"). Windows NT includes a rudimentary
web server system, and other tools used to create local networks.
Windows NT is useful for creating low-cost websites because NT will run
on inexpensive hardware and has familiar tools to Windows 95/98 users.
However, in practice, it has been found to be about as buggy as Windows
itself, and is shunned by many web hosting purists because of its
unreliablity relative to the more expensive UNIX hardware/software
platform. Neotrope no longer offers WindowsNT hosting services,
although we can recommend dedicated hosting providers who do.
|
| OC-3 |
Ultra-fast
connectivity for their mission-critical Internet needs, ranging from
60- 155 Mbps of service. Up to 3 times more bandwidth capability than a
T-3.
|
| POP (E-MAIL) |
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)
or APOP. POP stands for "post office protocol" not your dear old dad. A
"pop" account is any real e-mail account which uses a password and
username to retrieve mail from a virtual server. The username would be
yourname@yourdomain.com and the password would usually be a mixture of
letters and numbers.
|
| Primary DNS |
The
Primary Domain Name Server for the customer's domain. These are the DNS
IP numbers, usually preceeded by "ns.name.com" and "ns2.name.com" and a
domain must point at a DNS for it to "resolve" to a local virtual
location.
|
| Secure Server (SSL) |
Secure
Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. Requires use of a certificate for secure
access. A Secure Socket Layer does not provide for credit card clearing
or any other form of payment processing. It only provides a facility
for secure transactions across the Internet. Some hosting providers
allow use of a "shared" certificate.
|
| Server |
In
a modern computing environment there are usually two kinds of computer
classifications when more than one is connected together to create a
network. The server is the computer which provides data and is the
central repository, and/or gatekeeper between multiple "client"
computers. A server can also be called a "host" because it hosts the
data "served" to "clients."
|
| Server Side Includes |
Server
side includes (or SSI) is a set of tags which can be used within HTML
pages to be replaced by something else, added ("included") by the
server. An example might be that you have one file with copyright
information which goes on the bottom of every page. By using a SSI tag,
you could tell the server to replace every tag on every page with the
copyright information. The benefit is that you could have one file
containing the copyright information that gets placed on hundreds of
pages on your site. By updating the single page, all the others are
instantly updated when loaded by the server. On most servers you must
use a filename extension of ".shtml" in order for SSI tags to operate.
|
| Shell Account |
A UNIX shell account to their shared server Web site, allows a customers to update their Web site content using Telnet.
|
| T-1 |
A
leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 1,544,000
bits-per-second. At maximum theoretical capacity, a T-1 line could move
a megabyte in less than 10 seconds. That is still not fast enough for
full-screen, full-motion video, for which you need at least 10,000,000
bits-per-second.
|
| T-3 |
A
leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 44,736,000
bits-per-second. This is more than enough to do full-screen,
full-motion video.
|
| 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 |
Total
amount of data transferred from the customer's Web site to clients.
Includes all HTML, Web pages, images, sounds, videos, etc. See Data
Transfer.
|
| UNIX |
An
operating system used on business-class computers typically used as
"servers" which serve databases, websites, or other corporate
applications. UNIX has numerous variants including IRIX (SGI), Solaris
(Sun), and derivitives including Linux, Apple OSX, and others.
|
| 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.egiftbaskets.com
|
| Virtual Hosting |
Virtual
hosting describes a remote web server which is "host" to numerous
domain names, where each domain name owner has all of the features of
having a dedicated (on site) server. Virtual hosting provides for most
of the same features of a dedicated server but is located in a high
speed dedicated data center costing millions of dollars. The cost to
maintain a virtual server for each site owner is a fraction of the cost
of a dedicated server, with most of the benefits.
|
| Web Server |
A
computer, or a software package, that provides a specific kind of
service to client software running on other computers. The term can
refer to a particular piece of software (such as Apache or WebStar) or
to the machine on which the software is running.
|
| Web Site |
A
Web site is a collection of Web pages that reside together on the World
Wide Web and are connected. Web site also refers to the server space
allocated to a specific customer in a shared "virtual" server
environment. NeotropeHosting.com would be a "Web site," while the page
you are reading now would be a "Web page."
|
| Web Site Traffic Reporting |
Reporting
software to provide information such as the frequency of hits, page
views, amount of data transfer, and total transfer sizes. Popular
reporting tools include Analog, Webalizer, and WebTrends.
|
|
|
|
|
