glossary of hosting terms

Access - See MS Access.

Active Server Page (ASP) - Short for Active Server Pages. ASP is a server-side scripting environment (not a scripting language) developed by Microsoft that allows embedding of scripting commands in HTML documents to create dynamic web pages. ASP is particularly useful for reading from and writing to databases in the background, and displaying the results on web pages. ASP comes with VBScript and JScript scripting engines, but third-party engines for Perl, REXX, and Python are also available.

ActiveX - ActiveX controls are software modules based on Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) architecture. They add functionality to software applications by seamlessly incorporating pre-made modules with the basic software package. Modules can be interchanged but still appear as parts of the original software. ActiveX controls turn Web pages into software pages that perform like any other program launched from a server.

Apache - Apache is a freely available Unix based web server program, which was built by a group of open source programmers. It is currently the most commonly used web server program on Internet connected sites.

Bandwidth - The amount of data that can be transmitted at a given moment to a server. The higher your bandwidth, the larger amount of traffic your site can handle at one time. Measured in bits per second (bps).

CGI - Short for Common Gateway Interface. The CGI standard lays down the rules for running external programs in a Web HTTP server. CGI programs or scripts can be written in several programming languages including C, C++, Java and Perl.

Cgi-bin - The directory on a Web server where CGI scripts are stored. The name of the CGI directory can be changed by the webmaster or system adminstrator.

Co-location hosting - This hosting option gives webmasters more freedom over their servers. Webmaster have to provide the hardware and network administration and the hosting company will provide the rack space and Internet connection.

Cold Fusion - Coldfusion is a Macromedia technology which allows the programmer to a proprietary scripting language directly within an html document on the server. The server runs the code to generate the final page which is returned to the client's browser. This style of embedding a server parsed languaged directly within an html file is very similar to PHP, ASP and JSP.

Cookie - Cookies are blocks of text placed in a file on your computer's hard disk. Web sites use cookies to identify users who revisit the site.

Cron Jobs - Cron jobs (aka Crontabs) are commands for running certain UNIX processes that need to be executed at a specific time, either on a regular or continuous basis.

CSS - Cascading Style Sheets are a big breakthrough in Web design because they allow developers to control the style and layout of multiple Web pages all at once. With CSS, when you want to make a change, you simply change the style, and that element is updated automatically wherever it appears within the site.

Data Center - This is where all the servers are located. Technicians are in the same building for administration and technical support.

Dedicated Hosting - aka as dedicated server. This type of hosting allows a webmaster to rent an entire server. This server is not shared with anybody. This is more flexible than shared hosting (see below), as webmasters have full control over the server, including choice of operating system, hardware, etc. Administration, however, is still handled by the hosting company.

Disk Space - Refers to an amount of space on a web server's hard drive. If for example a web hosting customer was given a disk space allocation of 100 MB on a web server, the customer would be able to store a total of 100 MB of data. This can be html, php, asp, images, or other files.

Diesel Generator - In the event of a power outage, a diesel-powered generator is used by web hosting companies as a back-up source to generate electricity for the web servers in the datacenter.

Domain names - Domain names are the word sequences users enter in their address bar of an internet navigator to visit a specific web site. Each domain name is assigned to an IP address. The DNS ( Domain Name System ) is used to translate the IP addresses into words.

Addon Domains are domains that are pointed to subdomains. This means that you can host multiple domains, with different content, in a single web hosting account. However, an addon domain does NOT get its own cPanel.

Addon domains can have their own POP accounts but cannot have subdomains.

When you define an Addon Domain, four things happen:

1. A subdirectory in public_html is created (unless the subdirectory exists already).
2. A subdomain is created (unless it exists already). The content for the subdomain will be in the new subdirectory.
3. An FTP account is created with the name and password you specify (unless the FTP account exists already). This FTP user has access to the new subdirectory ONLY.
The domain is pointed to the subdomain, so that when you browse the domain in your Internet browser, you will see the content from the subdomain. Someone browsing the addon domain will not be able to tell that it is an addon domain.

Domain Parking - See Glossary of Domain Name Terms.

Firewall - Software that acts as a security filter that can restrict types of network communication. Most often used between a LAN and Internet.

Flash - A plug-in that plays Flash movies, which usually include animation, sound and even video clips, right in your browser. Flash was developed by Macromedia.

FrontPage - See MS FrontPage.

FTP - Short for File Transfer Protocol. Webmasters can easily manage all their files by connected to their FTP.

HTML - Short for the HyperText Markup Language, the language by which Web servers and client browsers communicate. HTML files are plain text files, so they can be composed and edited in different types of operating systems.

HTTP - Short for HyperText Transfer Protocol, the protocol by which HTML files move across the Internet. Hypertext Markup Language. HTML allows text to include codes that define fonts, layout, embedded graphics, and hypertext links.

HTTPS - See SSL.

IIS - Short for Internet Information Server, Microsoft's server software for Windows NT / 2000 / 2003 .

IP - Short for Internet Protocol. An IP address is a unique 32-bit number, which identifies a computer in an IP network. An example of a dedicated IP address is HostLead's IP address, http://216.157.135.128. About shared and static IP addresses

IRC - Internet Relay Chat. A system that enables Internet users to talk with each other in real time over the Internet. Most web hosts don't allow webmasters to host an IRC server on their network.

Java - A programming platform developed by Sun Microsystems commonly used for web applications on web servers.

JSP - Short forJava Server Page. Regular HTML webpages with embedded scripts that deliver dynamic content. Mostly used on Linux, Unix and Solaris platforms.

Load Balancing - Load balancing is dividing the amount of work that a server has to do between two or more servers so that more work gets done in the same amount of time.

Managed hosting - A dedicated server that comes with a full suite of technical support and maintenance services. This differs from unmanaged dedicated web hosting, where customers are provided with their own servers but are still responsible for all maintenance duties.

MIME - MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension) is an Internet protocol that allows other information such as word processing documents, graphics, sound and video to be sent as attachments to E-mail messages.

MS Access - Microsoft's advanced database creation and maintenance software. It is very popular among developers who maintain online databases with Windows NT.

MS FrontPage - A popular site design and management tool developed by Microsoft. Official Web site.

Name server - A server responsible for translating IP addresses and domain names.

NOC - Short for Network Operations Center. This is where all the servers are located. Technicians are in the same building for administration and technical support.

Parking - See Glossary of Domain Name Terms.

POP - Short for Post Office Protocol. It allows e-mail messages to be downloaded and stored locally through a local email client like Outlook, Eudora, and Netscape Messenger. Also see SMTP.

Propagation Period - See Glossary of Domain Name Terms.

Protocol - Defines rules for the transmission of data.

Root - The top of the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy.

Shared hosting - The most basic type of web hosting. A web server is shared for numerous web sites.

Shell Access - Shell access allows a user to connect to a server using a SSH client.

SMTP - Short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, a protocol for sending e-mail messages between servers. Also see POP.

SQL - Short for Structured Query Language. A standard protocol used to communicate with databases. Servers which can handle SQL are known as SQL servers.

SSH - SSH Telnet is a secure form of Telnet. It is a more powerful means of access than FTP, as it allows running scripts. SSH also allows more possibilities for unwanted actions which may harm the web server. A very popular (and free) SSH client is Putty.

SSI - Short for Server Side Include - A way for a web server to include variable values and information from an external source into a web page as it is requested by the browser. Uses include automatic display of data like the Last Modified date of the page, or storing common page elements in their own files, enabling site-wide updates by modifying a single file. Introduction to Server Side Includes

SSL - A protocol created by Netscape Communications Corporation for general communication authentication and encryption over TCP/IP networks. The most popular usage is HTTPS, i.e. the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) over SSL.

Subdomain - See Glossary of Domain Name Terms.

Telnet - Telnet is the main Internet protocol for creating a connection to a remote server.

TCP - Short for Transmission Control Protocol. TCP allows two web hosts to exchange data, and ensures that not data packets are lost during the transfer.

TLD - See Glossary of Domain Name Terms.

UNIX - Unix is an open source operating system that was created created by Linus Torvalds in the late 1960s. The UNIX operating system comprises three parts: the kernel, the standard utility programs, and the system configuration files. Unix has spawned various popular spin-offs, like FreeBSD and Linux.

USENET - Usenet is a world-wide network of discussion groups (or news groups).

Virtual hosting - The most basic type of web hosting. A web server is shared for numerous web sites.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) - Almost the same as a managed server. The main difference is that several Virtual Private Servers are on one server. Customers therefore get hosting services that are similar to that of dedicated Web hosting but without sacrificing performance or privacy. Vps' are the ideal solution for webmasters who are not ready for a dedicated server but need to upgrade from their shared hosting account.

Web Space - See disk space.

WHOIS - A central database which tracks all domain name and IP registrations. Whois.sc

Windows NT / 2000 / 2003 - These are graphic-based, multitasking Operating Systems developed over the past few years by Microsoft. Both can act as standalone OS for personal computers/workstations, or can serve as an OS for a Web site/network. Most Web hosting companies and resellers offer Windows-based hosting in some capacity or other.

XML - Short for Extensible Markup Language, which allows you to define the tags (markup) that you need to identify the data and text in XML documents. XML Introduction

More hosting terms.

24 Hour Account Setup
This is the maximum time period for an account to be activated.

.htaccess Support
A .htaccess file is basically a text file. It contains special instructions for the web server regarding how it should treat the files contained in the same directory as the .htaccess file and the subdirectories of that directory.

PHP 4.3.2
A powerful server-side, cross-platform, HTML embedded scripting language.

Perl 5.6
Perl is a very powerful and popular scripting language. When combined with a database solution such as MySQL there is virtually no limit of what you can create!

CGI-Bin Directory
This is a directory setup with special permissions to auto-execute user-defined scripts. CGI is used to accomplish tasks which are not supported by basic HTML such as shopping carts and auctions.

Server Side Includes (SSI)
SSI allows you embed CGI scripts into your web pages. The scripts will execute automatically when the web page is opened.

JavaScript Support
A popular scripting language that adds author-specified user events to static pages.

Wireless Application Protocol
WAP allows you to create web pages that can be viewed over mobile devices such as micro browser equipped cell phones.

Subdomains - (Unlimited)
A subdomain is shown as sub.domain.ext, where domain.ext is the primary domain. A subdomain can be redirected to display any page located on the internet.

Subdomain Redirects - (Unlimited)
A Subdomain Redirect redirects Internet traffic from a particular subdomain to another location.

Statistics for Subdomains
You can view statistics specifically for each subdomain using the Analog and Webalizer tools.

Customizable Error Messages
You can provide a customized error message when a visitor encounters an apache error.

OpenPGP Keys Manager
OpenPGP is a tool for securing online communication.

Index Manager
The Index Manager will allow you to turn indexes on or off for a directory. If indexes are off, people will not be able to see what files are in a directory that lacks an index file.

Password Protected Directories - (Unlimited)
Password Protected Directories are secure directories that require a username and password in order to view the documents inside using a web browser. Secure directories are recommended to ensure security of confidential and private information.

Raw Access Logs
Raw Access Logs contain all the recorded hit information that your site has received.

Analog Statistics
The Analog reporting tools presents a comprehensive coverage of web server statistics available for your web site.

Awstats
Awstats provides highly detailed graphical site statistics for your domain.

Webalizer Statistics
Webalizer Statistics provides highly detailed graphical site statistics for your domain.

View Latest Visitors
This will show you the last 300 visitors who came to your site, and some interesting information about them.

Bandwidth Usage Indicator
This will show how many bytes of transfer your account has done.

Error Logs
This will show errors in your site, images not loading, missing files, etc. This is very useful for debugging a cgi script.

MySQL Databases - (Unlimited)
A true multi-user, multi-threaded SQL (Structured Query Language) database server. SQL is the most popular database language in the world. MySQL is a client/server implementation that consists of a server daemon mysqld and many different client programs/libraries.

phpMyAdmin
PhpMyAdmin is a PHP interface that abstracts mysql into a web-based administration tool allowing you to sort, edit, and create tables within a given database.

Cron Jobs
Cron jobs allow you to automate repetitive tasks on the server that hosts your web site. This is a powerful tool that allows you to take a hands-free approach to repetitive tasks.

Add Mime Types
Mime types tell browsers how to handle specific extensions. Most Mime types are set globally on the server. For example, the text/html Mime type equates to htm, html, and shtml extensions on most servers, and this tells your browser to interpret all files with those extensions as HTML files. You can alter or add new Mime types specifically for your site (note that you can not alter the global Mime type values, only add to them). Mime types are often used to handle new technologies as they appear. When WAP technology first appeared no-one had these extensions set up on their server. With Mime types, however, you could have set it up yourself and begun serving WAP pages immediately.

Add Apache Handlers
Apache handlers tell the server how to deal with web files that need to be processed on the server. For example, Apache is set up to process files with .pl extensions using Perl. However, if for some reason you also wanted to process files with .script extension using Perl, then you would have to set up a custom Apache handler for your site.

Redirects
The Redirects area allows you to redirect Internet traffics from one web page to another. This is usually used when a web page has been moved to another location.

HotLink Protection
Hotlinking is when another web site owner links directly to one or more of your images or multimedia files and includes it on their web page. Hotlink protection can prevent hotlinking by only allowing named sites (such as your own web site) to access files on your site.

Search Engine Submit Tool
This allows you to submit your web site details to several search engines at one time.

Domain Lookup Tool
The Domain Lookup tool allows you to look up information about a particular domain. It does this by using a DNS (Domain Name System) lookup, which is a general-purpose replicated, data query service used for translating hostnames into Internet addresses. DNS details are published for public use.

Trace Route Tool
The Trace Route tool allows you to trace the IP (Internet Protocol) route taken by your server to reach your current ISP (Internet Service Provider)

Account Access Feature

Web-based Control Panel
cPanel is a fully-featured web-based control panel that allows you to manage your domain through a web interface. The idea is to transfer as much of the control and responsibility of managing your web site to you. You have the ability to manage all aspects of email, files, backup, FTP, CGI scripts, and web site statistics.

File Manager
The File Manager allows you to manage your site through HTML, rather than an FTP tool or other third-party application. You can upload, create or delete files, organize files in folders, and change file permissions. While not as sophisticated as most FTP tools, File Manager is free and gives you all the basic functionality necessary to manage your site.

FTP Accounts - (Unlimited)
The FTP area deals with all the tools relating to setting up and managing FTP accounts, as well as managing FTP sessions. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a method by which you can transfer files between computers.

Microsoft FrontPage Extensions
FrontPage extensions are available in order for you to use the FrontPage client software to create your web site.

E-mail Features

E-mail Accounts - (Unlimited)
An e-mail account is a communication system that allows you to send and receive text, files and/or graphical messages over the Internet. Setup as many accounts as you need to for additional aspects of your business such as sales@, billing@, etc. All of your e-mail accounts can easily be managed through UltraCP.

POP3 (Incoming) Mail Server
A personal POP3 mail server enables you to receive mail on your domain at mail.yourdomain.ext.

SMTP (Outgoing) Mail Server
A personal SMTP mail server enables you to send mail out through your domain at mail.yourdomain.ext.

Internet Message Access Protocol
An Internet e-mail protocol which allows access of your e-mail from any IMAP compatible application. Your mail resides on the server level while working with it, versus POP mail which is downloaded from the server into your mail program.

Horde WebMail
WebMail allows access to mailboxes via a web-browser. Using WebMail you can search, view, edit, delete, and compose e-mail messages. Webmail also has a built in address book to store frequently used contacts and the ability to setup multiple e-mail folders to help manage your incoming and outgoing e-mail.
Click Here For Demo

NeoMail
NeoMail allows access to mailboxes via a web-browser. Using NeoMail you can search, view, edit, delete, and compose e-mail messages.
Click Here For NeoMail screenshots

SquirrelMail
SquirrelMail allows access to mailboxes via a web-browser. Using SquirrelMail you can search, view, edit, delete, and compose e-mail messages.
Click Here For SquirrelMail screenshots

Auto-responders - (Unlimited)
Auto-responders are email messages that are sent automatically when an email arrives for a specific email account.

Mail Forwards - (Unlimited)
Mail Forwards simply allow you to automatically forward email sent to one account to another account.

MX Entry Modification
cPanel manages your email through its own mail server. However, by altering your MX (Mail Exchange Record) Entry you can point your email to another mail server, if this is required.

Custom Mail Filtering
You can block incoming email using filters.

Automatic Spam Filtering
If enabled, Spam Assassin will automatically filter incoming spam e-mail.

E-commerce Features

Shared Secure Server Access (SSL)
Secure Socket Layer, or SSL, support allows the transfer of data in a secure environment. SSL access is free. You must contact the Sales Department for instructions on using SSL if you plan on using this feature.

osCommerce
osCommerce is an online shop solution that offers a wide range of out-of-the-box features that allows online stores to be setup fairly quickly with ease.
Click Here For Demo

Agora Shopping Cart
A fully featured shopping cart that can be installed with the click of a button.
Click Here For Demo

Preinstalled Scripts

Java Chat
Basic jave-based chat room.

phpMyChat
phpMyChat is a PHP chat room script that uses a mySQL database to store information.

InvisionBoard
Invision Power Board is one of the most efficient forum systems available. Invision Power Board has an intuitive design that allows for information to be presented in a logical and clean structure.
Click Here For Demo

phpBB
phpBB is a high powered, fully scalable, and highly customizable open-source bulletin board package. phpBB has a user-friendly interface, simple and straightforward administration panel, and helpful FAQ.
Click Here For Demo

PHP-Nuke
PHP-Nuke is an advanced content management system.

Random HTML
Random HTML picks a html string out of a list and inserts it in an SSI enabled web page.

GuestBook
This is a just a simple guestbook for your visitors to view and sign.

Advanced GuestBook
This is an advanced guestbook for your visitors to view and sign.

Counter
You can create a counter to count how many visitors have been to your site.

Clock
This utility will create a real time java clock for your site.

Countdown
You can create a countdown box to countdown to a specified date.

CGI Email
CGI Email can make nicely formatted forms output in email that has been submitted over the web.

Entropy Search
This script enables a nice, quick search engine that can help your visitors find information that they are interested in more easily.

Entropy Banner
This feature allows you to create rotating banner ads.