Knowledgebase

A

Access is a popular database application from Microsoft that is used for creating databases, custom forms, tables and SQL databases. It is included in the Microsoft Office Professional suite. It can also be purchased separately.

Addon domain is a full-functional domain name that is associated with your cPanel. It is stored in its own directory, has its content, SQL databases, email accounts, etc. Such an option allows you to manage multiple domains from a single cPanel account.

Anonymous FTP isan ftp feature that allows users to upload/download files without creating an ftp account hence remaining anonymous. This is commonly used for those who make files (documents or software updates) publicly available for downloading.

Apache is the server-side application that functions as a webserver. It is responsible for accepting HTTP requests from clients and returning the content (webpages, images, flash-movies, etc.) to the users who make these requests.

Applet is an interactive program (application) that performs small tasks. It is executed on client’s side and is used to provide interactive features. It is usually written in Java language and embedded into HTML pages. The main difference between Java and Java applets is that applets can't access system resources on the local computer.

ASP – Active Server Pages – Microsoft™ technology that is used for pages that have dynamic or frequently changing information with one or more ASP scripts embedded in it. These scripts (usually VB Script or Jscript code) work like small computer programs that start working when an ASP-based web page is accessed. Before providing the visitor with the results a Web server processes the pages that were required: when a browser requests an ASP, the Web server generates a page with HTML code and sends it back to the browser.

Autoresponder is a program that automatically answers all incoming emails (sent to a certain email address) with a prewritten text (response). It is very convenient for those who receive emails that require immediate answer but cannot be answered straight away due to some reasons (e.g. vacation). Autoresponders can also be used for support emails. As an example our helpdesk also uses this option. When someone submits a ticket he/she immediately receives email saying that his/her ticket has been received and a member of our staff will review it and reply as soon as possible.

B

Backup is an extra copy of data (that is stored separately from the original) made as a precaution measure in cases when the original data is lost or becomes unusable/unavailable. In hosting it refers to the practice of making copies of the content that is uploaded to the server in the event of server crash or hard disk failure.

Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred/transmitted through the communication channels (network) in a specified period of time.

Bitmapped graphic- see raster graphic.

Blog (Short for Web Log) is an “online dairy”, is an online, regularly updated (usually every day) journal that is accessible for publicity. Blogs typically display articles that are of interest to the author. These articles are usually shown in a chronological order (the latest article is on top) and are written using software specifically designed to facilitate blogging (they include hyperlinks to other websites and, often, photos, video clips, etc.).

Browser is a software application program that allows people to access the World Wide Web and view webpages. Browsers (are also called web browsers) interpret HTML code and other scripts and programs into a text and graphics (except text-only browsers), play music and video (though they require plug-ins for some formats). The most common browsers in use today are: Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox, Netscape Communicator and Apple Safari, Opera, Mosaic, and the text-only Lynx.

Bug in computing is a hardware or software program error that leads to the system failure. It is usually caused by an error in the code of a program or software applications incompatibility.

C

Cache is a temporary storage of data on your computer. When you access a webpage its information is cached (saved) on your PC so you could easily access it the next time, as the retrieval of information from the cache is much faster than from the web server. Most of ISPs cache frequently visited sites and provide you with their content (when you are trying to access the webpage) from their own cache.

CGI - Common Gateway Interface - is an interface program that extends the capabilities of Web servers. It is a set of instructions written in a programming language that processes the data, and returns the result. For example when you submit a form, search terms, register on a site, fill in login and password, query databases by submitting search requests, etc. most probably the server is using a CGI script to receive and process the data. The program can be written in any programming language, including C/C++, Perl, Java, PHP, ASP, Visual Basic, etc. It is often stored in a special directory called cgi-bin.

Cgi-bin is the most common name of the directory on a server where CGI scripts are stored.

Chat is a real-time online communication between two or more users. The participants of chat sessions type what they want to say and the messages appear on the screens of all the participants. Traditionally IRC channels are used in such conversations, but some applications (such as Microsoft NetMeeting) can also be implemented.

CMS - Content Management System – software application used to easily create/manage a website without any special technical knowledge.

Collocated hosting (also co-located) is a type of webhosting that gives you an opportunity to put your own server at the premises of a datacenter. It is constantly connected to the high-speed Internet and power supplied. Collocated hosting is a good decision for those who possess their own server and require full control over its configuration. However hardware maintenance in case of failure may cost you one dear :)

Hosting control panel is a software with web-based interface provided by web hosting companies used to maintain and monitor hosted sites. Some hosting packages (like VPS, dedicated servers) include possibility to install control panel at customer’s choice.

Cookie is a small piece of information that is automatically stored (by a Web server) on a user's hard drive. The main purpose of cookies is to identify the user. That is why cookies might contain information such as login, password, online shopping cart information, or other data used by websites. Cookies hold information that can be retrieved by other web pages on the site. There is also a type of cookies that have an expiration date and are automatically deleted after the specified period of time.

Cron jobs is an application suite that allows you to reproduce special sets of scripts in order to organize the work of specific applications in a given time frame.

D

Database (DB) is a structured set of data or information (organized in such a way that can be easily found and retrieved per user’s/computer program request) stored on a computer. A database usually consists of many linked tables of rows and columns.

Data Transfer is the total amount of data that can be uploaded/downloaded (transferred) through your site in a fixed amount of time. This data is usually referred to images, software, videos, etc.

Dedicated hosting is a “rent” of pre-configured full-fledged server from the hosting provider. You don’t share this server (and its resources) with any other users – it’s only under your control. That’s it. You can install/uninstall any software of your choice. Server control/maintenance can be performed by hosting provider (optional). Dedicated hosting is a good decision for those who run heavy websites (with high traffic/load or just need more CPU resources, etc.) or for those who doesn’t want to share server’s resources with others thus improving speed and performance.

Dedicated IP address is an IP address solely assigned to 1 hosting account. This means that your site will be the only one in the Internet using this IP address (and not sharing it with others). Dedicated IPs are necessary for certain features, such as SSL, to function properly.

Disk space is the amount of server disk space allotted per hosting account by a hosting company. You can use this space to upload the content of your site – pictures, animations, docs, databases, etc.

Domain name is a unique human-friendly alphanumeric Internet site (address) identifier that can be converted into an IP address by DNS. Domain names consist of top level domains (TLD), second level domains, etc. separated by dots. Domain names are registered by companies, called domain name registrars. These companies are accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers – ICANN (http://icann.com/) and are empowered to resell these “rights” to other companies (that are called resellers) through their interface (API).

DoS attack – Denial of Service Attack – a type of attack designed to disable networked systems usually by sending a huge amount of external requests thus flooding the system or making it work slowly. It works in the following way: a lump of external connections that require server response overfill the system so that it can’t function properly. DoS attacks are mostly directed against commercial webservers/sites, such as banks, CC payment gateways, etc.

DNS – Domain Name System – is a system that “converts” domain names into corresponding IP addresses. The Internet works in such a way that it doesn’t recognize alphabet, but only numbers and every time you send a request for this or that domain name DNS service “translates” it into IP address. It is much easier for us to remember a domain name rather than 4 octets of numbers (for example, what would you remember faster google.com or 216.239.51.99 - its IP address?). And it is only 1 site. What if you need to visit 10 sites? You’ll have to remember !10 IP addresses, that is not very convenient. Here DNS comes for help. It works in such a way: you send a request for a webpage > a computer sends a request to the nearest DNS server, which finds the correct IP address (if not it sends a request to another DNS server, etc. until it finds the proper IP address) > the computer connects to the server with this IP address. Once all these steps are performed you can see the content of the requested webpage.

E

Email client is a computer program that runs on user’s computer and is used for sending, retrieving and managing emails. It is called client as it acts like a client towards email server. Popular examples of email clients are Mozilla Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook, Entourage, Opera Mail, etc. Mail clients must be configunamred to access particular email accounts.

Email forwarding is an option used to redirect emails sent to one email address to another. For example, if you’d like all emails sent to your_name@your_domain.com to be redirected to your_name@mydomain.com you can use email forwarding option.