Glossary Of Terms used in Web Hosting Print

A record : An ‘A record’ is part of the zone file. It is used to point Internet traffic to an IP address of a Web hosting server. When you host your Web site with Systron, your A record will point to a Systron IP address.

Active Server Pages : Dynamic HTML documents that are embedded with Microsoft’s Visual Basic scripts or Jscript and typically database driven. These scripts are processed by the server before being served to the user and should be hosted on a Windows server.

Add-on Domain : It is another domain (domain2.com),added to a cPanel account that acts as if it is separate from the main domain, which the cPanel manages (domain.com).

Anonymous FTP : This allows people without FTP accounts to access a special directory to upload or download files.

Apache : The Apache HTTP Server Project is an effort to develop and maintain an open-source HTTP (Web) server for modern operating systems including UNIX and Windows NT. The Apache Software Foundation provides support for the Apache community fo ropn-source software projects.

Backup : The process of copying important data is backup. It is useful in case the original data becomes damaged or goes missing for some reason.

Bandwidth : The amount of data that can be transferred at a given moment to or from a server; the speed of data transfer.

Bounced Email : They are the email messages that get returned back to the sender because of some sort of problem and they are not delivered to the specified email address.

Browser : Client software that displays HTML code it receives from servers. Data may display different based on the browser used and the client’s settings.

CentOS : CentOS is a freely-available Linux distribution that is based on Red Hats’ commercial product.

CMS : Web content management systems are used to create powerful websites with a user friendly interface. They help to setup and manage your site content.

Common Gateway Interface (CGI) Scripting : A script that translates data supplied by a user, making your pages dynamic so that users can interact with the pages, such as in a form application.

cPanel : It is a popular web-based hosting control software package. The company that develops this software also goes by the same name. It is called cPanel Inc.

Cron Jobs : Cron Jobs are the commands or web scripts that the web server executes at a particular time.

Daemons : A daemon is a long running process that you wouldn't normally stop/start. Sometimes they provide kernel services. If you look at Unix, anything ending with a’d’, such as httpd, is a daemon.

Database : Databases are used to store information for quick retrieval. Many web scripts require using at least one database.

Dedicated hosting : Dedicated Server Hosting is most secure type of hosting server in which a full server and its resources are allocated to one client.

DKIM : DomainKeys Identified Mail, An anti-spam software application that uses a combination of public and private keys to authenticate the sender's mail domain and reduce the chance that a spammer will fake the domain sending address

DomainKeys : Similar to DKIM. An anti-spam software application that uses a combination of public and private keys to authenticate the sender's domain (A name by which a computer connected to the Internet is identified) and reduce the chance that a spammer will fake the domain sending address.

Disk Space : The amount of storage space to hold your Web files or Emails.

DNS Hosting : Servers specifically designed to house domain (zone) records such as A records, MX records and CNAMES.

Dynamic : Web pages that display different output based on user interaction. Pages that interact with a database are dynamic.

Email Hosting : Internet hosting service that sends electronic messages through an Email server. Systron provides 10MB of storage space per POP3 user in a shared environment with each standard hosting package. Premium Email hosting packages are also available.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) : A method to transfer files (upload and download) across the Internet, typically from your computer to your Web hosting server. Many free FTP programs are available and many development softwares, such as DreamWeaver, include FTP capabilities.

Firewall : A software application designed to prevent attacks or unauthorized access to Web servers or networks.

Host Platform : The operating system configured on the server, typically either Linux or Windows. Programming languages, such as PHP or .NET, determine the host platform necessary to host your Web site.

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) : The language used between Web browsers and Web pages. Web browsers display Web pages by interpreting the HTML codes.

Linux : A free Unix-type operating system originally developed in the early 1990s by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of open-source developers around the world. Linux hosting: A Web site that runs on a Linux (open source) operating system including basic HTML pages, PHP pages, Ruby on Rails or other programming languages compatible with Linux.

Load Balancing : Distributing data across two or more servers to ensure that a single server is not overloaded by traffic and affecting availability or performance.

Mail Bagging : A secondary mail server provided by Systron to capture Email messages when your primary mail server is unavailable.

Managed Colocation : Dedicated hosting with full support from trained staff.

Mirror Site : An exact copy of an existing Web site. Mirrors are used to spread traffic among busy Web sites.

MsSQL : A relational database management system produced by Microsoft. MsSQL is hosted on a Windows server and typically used in conjunction with sites created in .NET.

MySQL : An open-source relational database management system allowing multiuser access to multiple databases. It is frequently used in conjunction with Linux, Perl and PHP.

MX Record : An MX (Mail Exchange) record tells the server, where the e-mail for a particular domain should be sent.

Practical Extraction and Report Language (Perl) : An interpreted language optimized for scanning arbitrary text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing reports based on that information.

PHP : A scripting language hosted on Linux servers. Commands are embedded within HTML files and executed on the Web server, making it browser independent.

Plesk : The Plesk software package is a proprietary commercial Web hosting automation solution by SWsoft. Most commonly found bundled (or available as an optional extra) with VPS and dedicated server packages provided by professional hosting service providers, Plesk provides a graphical web based interface which allows the user to configure the most common server management tasks with only a limited knowledge of the server operating system.

Post Office Protocol (POP) : A method of retrieving Email from an Email server, typically through a client such as Mozilla Thunderbird or Microsoft Outlook Express. POP3, the most widely-used version, can be used with or without SMTP.

Port 443 : This port is used for secure web browser communication. Data transferred across such connections are highly resistant to eavesdropping and interception. Moreover, the identity of the remotely connected server can be verified with significant confidence. Web servers offering to accept and establish secure connections listen on this port for connections from web browsers desiring strong communication security.Once established, web browsers inform their users of these secured connections by displaying an icon — a padlock, an unbroken key, etc. — in the status region of their window.

Port 80 : On a Web server or Hypertext Transfer Protocol daemon, port 80 is the port that the server listens to or expects to receive from a Web client, assuming that the default was taken when the server was configured or set up. A port can be specified in the range from 0-65536 on the NCSA server. However, the server administrator configures the server so that only one port number can be recognized. By default, the port number for a Web server is 80.

Red Hat : Red Hat is dedicated to open source software. Founded in 1995 in Raleigh, North Carolina, Red Hat is widely recognized for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) : A method of data protection. Data is stored over a number of disks so that information is still available if a disk fails. Server: A computer that manages and shares network resources.

Reverse DNS : A Reverse DNS Lookup is when someone searches your IP address to match it to your domain. A reverse DNS record is a common name for a PTR record.

Sender-ID : Sender-ID is an email industry initiative championed by Microsoft and other industry leaders as a technical solution to help counter spoofing—the #1 deceptive practice used by spammers. See also: Phishing, Spoofing.

SFTP : A secure (encrypted) version of the FTP protocol.

Shared hosting : The most basic Web hosting, your site files are stored on a server that shares disk space and other resources on the server.

SPF : Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is a relatively new method of fighting spam. An SPF record is a type TXT record placed into a domain's DNS zone.The string placed within the TXT record specifies a list of authorized host names/IP addresses that mail can originate from for a given domain name. Once this entry is placed within the DNS zone, no further configuration is necessary to take advantage of servers that incorporate SPF checking into their anti-spam systems. These are added in the same way as a regular A, MX, or CNAME record. A typical TXT record for SPF looks like this: example.com IN TXT v=spf1 a: domain.com ~all.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) : The main protocol used to send mail on the Internet, providing a set of rules on how a program sending mail and a program receiving mail should interact.

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) : A protocol designed by Netscape Communications to enable encrypted, authenticated communication across the Internet. Secured connections provide privacy, authentication and message integrity. SSL connections typically have https in the URL and display a padlock or unbroken key in the status region of the browser window.

SSL Certificate : SSL Certificates are small data files that digitally bind a cryptographic key to an organization's details. When installed on a web server, it activates the padlock and the https protocol (over port 443) and allows secure connections from a web server to a browser.

Static : Pertaining to Web pages with fixed content (i.e. Content that is not database driven or manipulated by the end user.)

Statistics : Data collected on the visitors to your Web site so you can analyze trends such as times of day you receive the most traffic, entry and exit pages, files downloaded and more. Many hosting companies offer access to stats via programs that put the data in charts and easy-to-read formats.

Telnet : A command link interface that allows remote users to communicate with Web servers.

Virtual Server : A web server which shares its resources with multiple users.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) : A step down from Dedicated Hosting, a virtual private server provides space that runs independently of other partitions on the same server, using some shared resources.

Web hosting : A service that allows individuals and organizations server space to store Web sites that are accessible to people browsing the World Wide Web. Systron offers a variety of Web hosting packages in Linux and Windows environments to offer you the security and resources necessary to optimize your hosting needs.

Windows : A trademarked, proprietary operating system with a graphical user interface at the computer and server level that is wholly owned, supported and licensed by Microsoft.

Windows hosting: A Web site that runs on a Windows operating system including basic HTML pages, .NET, ColdFusion, ASP and other pages coded by Front Page, Expression Web, Visual Basic and other Windows compatible languages.