ActiveX - ActiveX is a brand name referring to a set of Microsoft's technologies and services based on COM (Component Object Model).

Address - Unique identifier of a web page. URL (Uniformed Resource Locator) is more frequently used for this purpose.

ADN - (Advanced Digital Network). A 56kbps dedicated communication line.

ADO - ActiveX Data Objects. Different data sources can be accessed in the same way within a single data model. The data can be located in various locations, like spreadsheets, databases or ordinary files.

ADSL - (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Loop). High speed Internet access using the telephone line.

AIFF - Audio Interchange File Format. High quality audio file format introduced by Apple.

Anonymous FTP (Anon FTP) - A method for downloading and uploading files using FTP protocol without having a username or a password.

Apache - Apache is an open-source (source code is freely available and can be shared) HTTP Web server software.

Applet - Most often refers to a small Java program designed to run in a Web browser. Java applets run in a sandbox, so they can't perform unauthorized functions like file reading or opening Net connections to other computer from your computer.

Archive - Archives are large files containing valuable data. Archives are often compressed to save space.

ASCII - (American Standard Code for Information Interchange). A standard for coding text files. Every character has an associated number and any text can be represented by a sequence of numbers.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) - A set of network protocols designed for multimedia transmission. Data is partitioned into cells (53 bytes each) and passed along a virtual circuit. ATM allows for building very high speed networks.

AVI - Audio/Video Interleave. Audio file format used by Microsoft Widows.

Bandwidth - Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred over the network in a fixed amount of time. On the Net, it is usually expressed in bits per second (bps) or in higher units like Mbps (millions of bits per second). 28.8 modem can deliver 28,800 bps, a T1 line is about 1.5 Mbps.

Binary - Data represented in binary format uses only two digits - 0 and 1.

Binary Mode - FTP client mode used to transfer binary files (multimedia files, executables and other data files). Not suitable for transferring normal text files.

Bot - An automated piece of software that can be used in chat rooms or to crawl the web.

CERN - (Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire) A nuclear research laboratory where the World Wide Web was invented.

CGI - Common Gateway Interface. A standard for interfacing web servers with an executable application. A CGI program can be written in any language like Perl or C/C++ and it is often stored in a special directory like /cgi-bin.

Client - A computer program that requests a service from the server program, usually over the network.

Client/Server - A network architecture where a system is divided into two parts: the client and the server.

Clustering - Connecting many computers and making them appear as one machine. This is done to increase reliability and performance.

Cobalt RaQ - Server appliance made by Cobalt specifically for hosting companies. Newest RaQs are Linux-based and provide an easy-to-use interface. RaQs have no features that can't be had in a regular Linux box but they offer pre-installed programs and Cobalt's support.

Command-line interface - The opposite of the GUI (Graphical User Interface). A way of interacting with a computer system using the keyboard and a text-only display.

Control Panel - Control panel included in web hosting packages is an online web-based application that allows you to easily manage different aspects of your account.

Crawler - Also known as spider, an automated software that retrieves webpages and follows the hyperlinks contained in them. Used to generate indexes used by search engines.

Data transfer - In Web hosting, the total size of files transferred by an account in a month. Sites with a lots of graphics, downloads, or streaming audio or video and a lot of visitors will require plans with more available transfer.

Database - Data in a structured format stored on a web server.

Dedicated Server - The main advantage over co-location is easier upgrade and usually better support.

DHCP - (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). An automated way of obtaining an IP address in the Local Area Network. w and blocks the telephone line.

DNS - Domain Name System. Internet service that maps Internet domains into corresponding IP addresses.

Domain name - Domain name is an easy-to-remember address that can be translated by DNS into server's IP address.

Encryption - Encryption means encoding data using a cryptographic cipher. Encrypted data can be read (decrypted) only by an authorized entity.

Finger - A Unix program used to display information about users of the system. Can be used remotely.

Firewall - Firewall refers to either software-only or separate software and hardware combination that serves to protect an internal network or a computer from attacks and unauthorized access by sitting between the Internet and the internal network. .

FTP - File Transfer Protocol. The Internet protocol defining how to download and upload files between a client and an FTP server.

Gateway - A network device used to translate between two different protocols.

InterNIC - The organization that handles domain name registrations. See http://www.internic.net/

LANmodem - A LAN Modem is used to connect multiple computers to some other network (eg. ISP) over a phone line. It has the hub functionality built in.

MIME - (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) a method of including binary data and other multimedia content within email messages.

Mirror site - An FTP site that stores the exact content of some other site. Mirroring is done in order to minimize the load on a particular server and also to increase reliability.

Miva Empressa - Miva's XML based server-side scripting language. Available for multiple platforms.

Miva Merchant - Browser-based storefront development and management system for merchants.

Modem - MOdulator-DEModulator. A device used to transform digital data sent by a computer to analog format suitable for transmission over a telephone line. It also transforms analog signals back to the digital form. A modem is required for the dial up connection to the Internet.

MP3 - An extremely popular lossy audio compression format. Widely used over the Internet.

MPEG - (Motion Picture Experts Group) video compression format for movies or animations.

Peer-to-Peer network - A peer-to-peer network is a collection of computers that can communicate and share information, but that don't have any kind of hierarchical structure.

Port - A socket on the computer or other network device used to connect it to the network. suite is the basis of todays Internet.

Raw Logs - Raw access data updated in real-time that can be downloaded and used by any statistics program.

Reseller - Resellers are usually smaller companies that still try to build their customers base.

Router - A network device (can be a dedicated computer) that is used to connect two or more networks together and route packets between them.

S/MIME - Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions - a way of making email messages more secure. S/MIME uses digital certificates to attest the message origin and encryption to ensure that message could not be read while in transit.

Session - All the data exchange between two parties, starting when the connection is established and ending when connection terminates.

SHTTP - Secure HTTP. A version of HTTP protocol that uses encryption to assure that the traffic between the server and the browser cannot be eveasdropped on. Should be considered mandatory for all e-commerce applications.

Signature - A few lines of text that are automatically attached at the end of each email message by the email client. Usually it's some personal identification or an (un)interesting quote.

SSH - Secure Shell. Developed by SSH Communications Security, it is a standard for encrypted terminal Internet connections. SSH programs provide strong authentication and encrypted communications, replacing less secure access methods like telnet.

SSI - Server-Side Includes. Instructs the server to include some dynamic information in a Web page before it is sent to a client. This dynamic information could be current date, an opinion poll, etc. Many hosts require that SSI pages have .shtml extension to reduce the load on servers by not having to parse non-SSI pages.

SSL - Secure Sockets Layer. Protocol developed by Netscape to provide encryption for commercial transactions data that should be protected like credit card numbers.

Streaming - Playing multimedia files (audio and video) without requiring a full download. Audio and video are compressed but they still may require a lot of bandwidth.

Subdomain - Subdomain is a way to divide your site into sections with short and easy to remember names.

Telnet - Character-based protocol for connecting with remote systems.

TLD - Top Level Domain. The domain name elements at the right, such as .com, .org or .gov.

Traceroute - A computer program that lists network hosts visited by a packed on the way to its destination. Very useful for network debugging.

VPN - A virtual private network is a method of accessing the private network in a secure way over public communication lines and networks.

Webmaster - A person responsible for the maintenance of a particular website.

Whois - An Internet service allowing to obtain the information about the domain name owner.

There are currently no posts in this category.