Web Hosting Glossary

When you deal with web hosting, website building and management, if you’re not a techie, you’ll probably find terms that you don’t understand. For those who work in high tech environments most terms are pretty self explanatory, but not for the average guy.

Here’s a handy reference with most of the terms you’ll have to deal with from now on ( assuming you’re going to build a website, or maybe many websites as often happens to many webmasters ).

This article is very long and you probably don’t need to read it all together: bookmark this page ( in your browser or use the social bookmarking buttons at the bottom of the post ) so that you can quickly reach this page when you find a term that you don’t know.

The language used in this glossary is as simple as possible: when terms have multiple meanings, the one we mention here is the one you need to understand.

Apache

The most popular web server software. Used on millions of servers. It is the default web server for linux servers. Despite being natively for linux it runs on windows as well, but some advanced functionalities might not be available.

It can be used for running a single website on a server as well as thousands of virtual hosts.

ASP

ASP – Active Server Pages is a scripting language introduced by Microsoft®. ASP pages are regular HTML pages that have .asp extension and embed scripts that allow web developers to create web applications and dynamic pages. ASP runs on Windows Servers.

ASP Web Hosting

Web hosting service on Windows servers with support for the ASP scripting language.

Backbone

Collection of various types of high speed connections that compose the main link between different locations. High capacity routers and switches are used to carry large amounts of data.

Bandwidth

Maximum throughput of a communication path, be it a backbone link, residential link or any other type of link. Usually expressed in kbps, mbps or gbps. In some web hosting websites this term is used to describe the amount of GB of traffic that you are allowed to generate. It would more appropriate to define it as Monthly Data Transfer Limit or Montly Data Transfer Allowed, Monthly Allowed Traffic etc.

Bulletin Board

A system that allows people to exchange information, announcements or files without the need of all the interested parties to be connected to the internet at the same time. This usually happens saving the content into a database or on the server’s file system and making it available for visitors. Common uses are forums where information ( discussions, replies, attachments ) are stored into a database. There are many softwares, both free and commercial, that enable anyone to host a bulletin board.

Bit

A single digit number in base 2, hence or 1 or 0. This is the base size of every measure in computer systems. KB, MB, GB, TB, Kb, Mb, Gb,Tb are all based on bits.

Browser

The software used to surf the web. Most popular browsers are Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft® Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, Chrome.

Byte

8 bits

CGI

Common Gateway Interface – A standard protocol that defines how the web server software can delegate the generation of web pages to an application. Mostly used to retrieve content and build pages launching legacy software.

cgi-bin directory

The most common name for the directory in which CGI programs are stored on the web server.

Client

A computer or a software that sends a request to a server. This can be intended as hardware or software. A hardware client/server system could be your computer and the network device of your Internet Service Provider. Your computer requests data from that network device and the network device sends responses and data to your computer. Or if we mean a software client/server system we could take as example your browser ( client ) and the web server. Your browser requests pages and the webserver delivers the content.

Colocation

Data center give customers the possibility to colocate their own servers, switches and equipment in general inside their server rooms. This gives customers the possibility to control every aspect of their infrastructure, from the choice of servers and equipment to the configuration of such equipment. Colocating their equipment inside data centers companies and organizations can take advantage of high speed fiber connections, power backup systems, fire prevention and other advanced technologies and features without having to face the costs of building their own datacenter or house a small, and less reliable, server room inside their offices.

ColdFusion

ColdFusion is a scripting language by Adobe Systems® which allows web developer to interact with databases and generate dynamic websites.

Cookie

Cookies are small files placed on your computer when you navigate websites that use cookies. They are just text files and won’t do any harm to visitors’ computers. They are used to store data that can, for example, be related to the user’s account on a website, like preferences, settings or statuses. If your website asks visitors to set some preferences, say their favorite music genre, you could set a cookie with such preference on the visitor’s computer in order to serve him appropriate advertisements or a customized home page the next time he visits the website.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheet – This technique makes it possible to edit the style of a page from a single file which contains the display settings for every element on the page. Using CSS it’s possible to modify the aspect of websites composed of hundreds of static or dynamic pages editing a single file, the new styles will be applied to every page which uses that css file. HTML ( html, asp, php, cfm etc ) pages must be properly created to use this file and each element on the page must contain a reference to a specific style rule in the css file.

DNS

DNS is an acronym for Domain Name System. Check out this page to understand what is the DNS service

DNS Propagation

Time required for new domains, or updates on existing domains, to be reachable ( or updated ) from every corner of the world. This time is necessary in order for DNS records to be replicated on every nameserver.

Dedicated Server

A dedicated server is a server of which you have the full control. It can be used to host a single high traffic website or for other services. A dedicated server can often be used to run a single service of a high traffic website ( example: a high traffic website might need two separate servers to handle the traffic: one for the web server that actually serves the pages and another for the database service ).

Dedicated servers can be rented from a web hosting company or be owned by the customer and housed inside a data center. See Colocation

Domain Name

Check out this page to understand what is a Domain Name

Domain Name Registration

Domain names are unique, so registries have been created to handle the registration and assignment of domain names. To register a domain name you must go through a registrar ( most web hosting companies offer domain registration services taking advantage of reseller accounts with lower fees due to high volumes ).

Domain Name Renewal

Domains have to be renewed every year ( some require two years renewals ). The renewal fee is usually very similar to the registration fee.

ECommerce

Electronic Commerce. It’s the activity of selling goods ( tangible or digital goods ) online. It can feature online payments and, in case of digital goods, instant downloads delivery or access to paid sections of a website or services.

Ethernet

Ethernet is the most widely used LAN ( Local Area Network ) technology. Ethernet networks are cabled ( not wireless ) and can handle different speeds: 10mbps, 100mbps, 1000mbps (1Gbps) or 10 Gbps. Servers are connected to ethernet switches so, when you rent or colocate a dedicated server you have the possibility to choose a port  speed that will be the maximum bandwidth you will be able to push from your server. Some providers will block your traffic after a certain amount of GB of traffic, disregarding the network speed of your port. If you go over your allowed monthly transfer your monthly bill will include fees to cover the additional traffic you use.

Ethernet is widely used in most office buildings and home wired networks.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions. You will find this section on most web hosting companies support pages.

Firewall

Can be a hardware device or a software. A hardware firewall is used to separate a network in two separate networks for security reasons. A software firewall is used to protect a single computer or server against intrusions.

Front Page

A web editing software by Microsoft®. This software can be used to create static websites that can be hosted on both windows or linux servers.

FTP

File Transfer Protocol – The most common protocol to upload and download files from a server. FTP is used also as a method to distribute files to users on some websites where public downloads are available and it’s also one of the protocols used to distribute linux CD/DVD images. To connect to a host via FTP, despite it can be done via command line from any operating system, you typically use a software ( FTP Client ) that allows you to move files between the two hosts in a user friendly graphical way. On the server there must be installed and running an FTP server ( software ).

Gateway

A network device ( router, switch or even a server if configured to do so ) that allows a certain branch of a network to access the rest of a network ( or a different network ). At home your gateway is your internet router, in a datacenter it could be the a switch that connects you to a higher level of the datacenter network. In case you colocate your own equipment your gateway would be your own network switch that gives your servers access to the datacenter network. If you rent a single server your gateway is the switch to which your server is directly connected.

GB (Gigabyte)

Gigabyte, 1024 MB

Hit

A single request received from a web server. When a browser navigates an HTML page with 7 images and which links to a css file your web server would record a total of 9 hits: 1 for the HTML page, 1 for the css file and 7 for the images.

Sometimes hits are used to get an idea of the load of a server but this is a very rough mode to do it and doesn’t give a true representation of the server load. A website composed of static HTML pages could easily deliver tens of thousands of pages a day even on a shared hosting plan, instead a very resource intensive website with database interactions, complex search functions, real time elaborations, dynamic graphics etc could easily eat up the resources of a powerful server even with a lot less hits per day.

Homepage

The main page of a website. The first page that visitors view when they reach a website. Usually its name is index.html, index.htm, index.php, index.asp, default.htm, default.asp but it can have any other name. The first page to be loaded can be configured from the webserver configuration files or on a site per site basis using .htaccess directives or other methods.

Host

A computer. Any computer connected to the internet or to a local area network is a host. When you find this term it will most probably refer to a server.

The same hosting provider sometimes can be called ‘Host’.

Hosting

Web Hosting. Check out this page to understand what is web hosting.

.htaccess

On linux servers this is the name of a configuration file that allows system admins and users to apply specific configurations to single websites. This file can be used to block access from some IPs, some networks, to take advantage of rewrite rules in conjunction with Mod Rewrite, to force access with or without www and a variety of other configurations.

HTML

HyperText Markup Language – It’s the language used to difine the structure and the content of web pages. This language is based on tags which define properties of their content ( example: if we write <b>hello</b>, when we open the HTML file in a web browser the word ‘hello’ would be displayed in bold. Note that this same effect could be obtained using a CSS property. See CSS. ).

HTTP

HyperText Transfer Protocol – The protocol used to transfer files across the internet. This protocol requires that requests are made by a client ( usually a browser ) and files are delivered by a server ( web server software ).

Hypertext

Text with links that can be clicked to access related content. This content can be another section on the same page, a different page under the same domain, a page on another domain or any other resource accessible via the web.

IP – IP Number – IP Address

A number that uniquely identifies a host connected to the internet or to a LAN. Current IPs ( as we use them today, called IPV4 ) have the following format: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx where each xxx is a number smaller than 256. IPs used on Local Area Networks use reserved ranges: 192.168.xxx.xxx and 10.xxx.xxx.xxx. Due to the limited availability of IP numbers the world will soon migrate to IPV6 which allows an enormous number of IPs which will look like FE80:0000:0000:0000:0202:B3FF:FE1E:8329

ISP

Internet Service Provider – A company or organization that provides internet services such as internet access via dial up lines, analogic lines, ADSL or any other link type.

Java

A very flexible programming language introduced by Sun Microsystems that can be used for any type of development: desktop, web applications, mobile applications etc. It can also be used as scripting language in JSP files. It requires specific web hosting configurations. Java uses a virtual machine to be run, this makes it usable on any operating system ( as long as a virtual machine exists for it ).

It’s characterized by a steep learning curve and is more suitable for very large projects, in fact it is very popular among informative systems of banks and large organizations or companies.

Java JDK

Java Development Kit -  A set of tools that enables developers to create java programs.

LAN – Local Area Network

A network limited to a small area, usually one or few buildings. Also home networks are LAN networks.

Mailing List

A software or system that allows an administrator to send an email to a single email address, and the software redistributes the message to a list of subscribers.

When you subscribe to a mailing list you’ll receive all the messages sent to that mailing list from that moment ahead.

MB – Megabyte

1000 KB

Mod Rewrite

The Apache module that makes it possible to use clean semantic URLs and map them to standard files with parameters.

Combined with appropriate settings in the .htaccess file you can configure Apache so that, when you visit yourdomain.com/album/Motley-Crue/Saints-of-Los-Angeles.html, the web server loads the file display.php?pagetype=album&band=Motley-Crue&album=Saints-of-Los-Angeles.

MX Record

It is a DNS record ( DNS ) that designates the server used to process email messages for a domain.

Name Servers

The servers responsible for the DNS Service.

Network

Any number of hosts ( computers, servers, switches, firewalls and other devices ) connected via cabled or wireless links. Usually networks used by servers housed in data centers are Ethernet networks with speeds of 100 Mbps or 1Gbps. These networks are connected to other networks via routers to gain access to the internet. Networks can be composed by any type of link, mostly Ethernet, fiber and wireless.

OC-n networks

OC stands for Optical Carrier. These high capacity fiber optic links are used by ISPs or large companies.

The speed is determined multiplying n x 51.84 Mbps

OC-3 = 155.52Mbps

OC-12 = 622.08Mbps

OC-24 = 1244.16Mbps

And so on for OC-48, OC-96, OC-192 and OC-768 which reaches a speed of 39813.12Mbps

Domain Name Parking

It consists in registering a domain name without that domain being used for a website or email service. It can be done to reserve the domain for future development or simply to avoid someone else to register that domain.

Port

It’s a virtual way to enter a computer. Let’s make an example to clarify what it means. If you run a web server on a computer you must bind it to a port ( web server usually run on port 80 ). Doing so your web server ( software ) ‘listens’ on port 80. It means that it will wait for request arriving on that port. The concept is totally virtual, so no physical ports are involved. When your web browser requests a page it requests it on port 80 ( that’s a standard, http requests are made by default on port 80 ), the server receives it and sends the content.

In case a server is listening on a different port you can request pages or content on that port appending “:PORTNUMBER” to the URL. ( http://www.example.com:9765 would request on port 9765 ). If you do so on any domain you will receive an error because no software is listening on that port.

Registrant

The owner of the domain. The person or company that will use the domain name.

Registrar

Company or organization that acts as middleman between end users and the domain registry. Most registries don’t allow direct registrations so you have to go through a registrar.

Registry

Company or organization responsible for assigning domains under a certain TLD ( Top Level Domain ). They manage and update the global DNS records for that TLD, these same records are used by everyone to resolve domain names of that TLD.

Router

Network device that connects two separate networks. The only task of a router is delivering data packets on the appropriate branch of network. Carrier class routers are extremely expensive and are mostly used in telecommunication buildings, research facilities, large companies and data centers. SOHO routers are used in most residential buildings to connect the home network to the internet via a phone line, using a DSL service.

Server

Check out this page to understand what is a web server.

Servers can have many more uses, not related to the web, but analyzing other uses is out of the scope of this website.

SMTP

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol – The protocol used to send, and deliver, email messages.

SQL

Structured Query Language – A programming language for database interaction. You use it to retrieve data from a database, execute calculations like average, maximum or minimum values among those in the database and other useful operations. It is used also for storing data into the database. A basic set of instruction is generic and can be used with any DBMS ( which means you wouldn’t need to rewrite your software if you were switching between MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL etc and vice versa ). Moreover every DBMS has sets of proprietary syntax to expand the basic common instructions.

SSL

Secure Socket Layer – A cryptographic protocol that provides security for communications over networks such as the Internet. Mostly used to make financial transactions over a secure connection to protect credit cards data.

TLD – Top Level Domain

Check out this page to understand what is a TLD

URL

Uniform Resource Locator – It’s composed of the full set of data needed to reach a resource on the web. A resource can be any file, service, page or anything that can be accessed via the web.

Example: http://static.yourdomain.com/files/guides/filename.php

This is a complete URL, composed by the protocol (http) the third level domain ( static, usually you third level domain will be www which can usually be omitted) the second level domain name ( yourdomain ) the TLD ( .com ) the path to your file and the filename ( filename.php ).

Whois

Protocol used to query databases to determine the registrant/owner of resources like domains or IP numbers. Some web hosting providers/registrars offer privacy protection services ( paid or included in the registration fee ) to protect your personal details that would otherwise be publicly available and would expose you to receive large amounts of postal advertisements.

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