Hosting Terms
Accessibility − Refers to a web page or web site that people interacting with different kinds of disabilities, the difficulty they can experience due to physical and or technological barriers. A web page or site that address these users limitations is said to be Accessibly friendly.
Applet − An applet is a small program designed to run within another application. Java is one of the major languages used for creating Web-based applets.
ASP Active Server Pages − Microsoft technology similar to CGI that is used to create dynamic content for a web page. Pages using ASP are created with programming scripts (eg; JavaScript) and integrated with the HTML of a page. It is a server−side scripting language and is mostly used on Windows platforms.
Bandwidth − Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred over the network in a fixed amount of time. On the Internet, it is usually expressed in bits per second (bps). A hosting server will allocate your site a fixed amount of bandwidth usage within a regular period of time.
Banner
Also referred to as a banner ad, a banner is a typically rectangular advertisement placed on a Web site either above, below or on the sides of the Web site's main content and is linked to the advertiser's own Web site.
Browser − Often called a Web browser, it is simply a software application used to interpret HTML commands and display page content. The two most popular browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) and Netscape Navigator.
Content − A word you'll likely see around a lot is "web content" and by definition, content is the 'stuff' that makes up a web site. This could be words, pictures, images or sounds. In essence however, when we talk about web content, we are essentially referring to content in a textual nature. Content therefore is the 'information' in text form a web site provides.
CSS Cascading Style Sheets − A simple mechanism for adding style (e.g. fonts, colors, spacing) to Web documents. Not all browsers (of specific versions) implement the full specification of CSS.
Database
A special way of organizing computer data. It looks like a table implemented columns and rows for fast accessing data from any of the cells in the table. There are many different types of databases but all of them work on the same principle. Databases are very useful for storing and organizing data for later retrieval. Very often used for managing accounts, managing user information, creating guest books and bulletin boards, even this page (dictionary) is implemented with database.
Discussion Group
A web page that supports interactive discussions by users. Users submit text content using a form, that is saved on the server and that way make it available to other visitors.
DNS
The Domain Name System which identifies each computer as a network point on the Internet using an internet protocol address systems to translate from domain name to IP and reverse.
Domain Name
A unique name that identifies one or more IP addresses. For example, the domain name abacus.ca represents one IP address. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages. Every web site that you visit is stored under domain name.
Domain Name Extension
Part after the dot in the domain name is a domain name extension. In the abacus.ca domain, domain extension is .ca . There are many other domain name extensions such as .com .net .org .gov .edu .mil .info .web .us .uk .cc .it .mx .ba and many others.
Downloading
Downloading is the method by which users access and save or "pull down" software or other files to their own computers from a remote computer, usually via a modem.
E-Commerce
E-Commerce means conducting business on the Internet. It is mostly referred to buying and selling items on line.
Encryption
A way of coding the information in a file or e-mail message so that if it is intercepted by a third party as it travels over a network it cannot be read. Only the persons sending and receiving the information have the key and this makes it unreadable to anyone except those persons (your browser does it automatically).
Flash
Browser independent vector and graphic animation technology owned by Macromedia Inc.. Most browsers support Flash technology and one flash animation looks the same on all browsers.
Frames − An HTML technique for combining two or more separate HTML documents within a single web browser screen. A web site using frames often causes great problems for search engines, and may not be spidered and indexed correctly.
FTP File Transfer Protocol − One of the common methods of transferring files over the Internet. A typical method used for uploading files (pages) to a hosting server for viewing on the Internet.
GIF
GIF stands for graphics interchange format, it is a bit-mapped graphics file format used by the World Wide Web. GIF supports colour and various resolutions. But it is limited to 256 colors.
Hits − Are the individual requests a server answers in order to render a single Web page completely. The page document itself and the various images on the page represent a separate hit.
Home Page − It is a first page (also referred as an opening page, start page or main page) of a Web site. This would technically be your index page or default page of your directory.
Hosting − Usually refers to a computer (or a network of servers) that stores the files of a web site which has web server software running on it, connected to the Internet. Your site is then said to be Hosted.
HTML HyperText Markup Language − HTML is a basic markup language derived from the Standardized General Markup Language (SGML), providing the means for creating simple hypertext documents, intended for publishing on the World Wide Web.
Image Map − An image that has several links geographically mapped onto it.
Interactive − A Web page is interactive when it prompts a response from the user or in some way can interact with the user dynamically (eg; filling out a form or a poll etc).
Internet − A global network connecting millions of computers. Each Internet computer, called a host, is independent. The Internet is not synonymous with World Wide Web. The Internet and the Web are two related but separate things.
Intranet
A private network belonging to an organization, usually a corporation, accessible only by the organization's members, employees, or others with authorization.
IP Internet Protocol − The method or protocol by which data is sent from one computer to another on the Internet. Each computer (known as a host) on the Internet has at least one IP address that uniquely identifies it from all other computers on the Internet.
IP Address
An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a unique identifier for a point or host connection on an IP network. An IP address is a 32 bit binary number usually represented as 4 decimal values, each representing 8 bits, in the range 0 to 255 (known as octets) separated by decimal points. It is just a number like 66.46.105.9
Java applet
A short program written in Java (not JavaScript) that is attached to a World Wide Web page and executed by the browser machine. Often used for complicated web applications.
JavaScript − JavaScript is an object-based, client−side scripting language developed by Netscape. Embedded in the head section of a web document, It can produce interactivity to a web page dynamically.
JPEG (JPG)
Stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPEG uses compression technique for color images and therefore some details are lost in the compression yet giving relatively good quality. It is widely used on the Internet and other digital applications.
Link - Hyperlink − An element in an electronic document that links to another place in the same document or to an entirely different document. Typically, you click on the hyperlink to follow the link. Hyperlinks are the most essential ingredient of all hypertext systems, including the World Wide Web.
Meta Tag − A special HTML tag that provides information about a Web page. Unlike normal HTML tags, meta tags do not affect how the page is displayed.
Mouseover − A JavaScript element that triggers a change on an item (typically a graphic change, such as making an image or hyperlink appear) in a Web page when the mouse pointer passes over it.
MP3
MP3 is the file extension for MPEG, audio layer 3. Layer 3 is one of three coding schemes (layer 1, layer 2 and layer 3) for the compression of audio signals. MP3 files could be embedded into web site providing music while visitors are viewing the site. MP3 files are relatively small comparing to other audio files and therefore are quite suitable for transferring over the Internet.
Perl - Practical Extraction and Report Language − Perl is a server−side, interpreted language that provides much of the web's interactivity.
Pixel − Refers to how monitors divide the display screen into thousands or millions of individual dots to display an image. A pixel is one dot.
PHP - Hypertext Preprocessor − A server−side, HTML embedded scripting language used to create dynamic Web pages. Designed for Windows and Unix type platforms.
Protocol
A formal set of conventions that allow communication between two communicating functional units. Simply said it is a language that computers use to talk to each other. Of course there are many such languages. Most popular is TCP/IP used officially on the Internet.
Ranking − The number (order of ranking; ie 1 being the highest) that a web site is listed for a specific search term in a specific search engine. Search Engines utilize a ranking algorithm (mathematical formulas, variables, and set of weights) to determine a site's ranking for a particular keyword or keyword phrase.
Resolution − The resolution of an image describes how fine the dots are that make up that image. The more dots, the higher the resolution. When displayed on a monitor, the dots are called pixels. A 640 x 480 screen (resolution) is capable of displaying 640 distinct dots on each of its 480 lines, or about 300,000 pixels.
Script − A script is an executable list of commands created by a scripting language. Scripts that are executed on a web server (eg; Perl, PHP) are said to be server−side scripts. Scripts that execute on your own home PC (eg; JavaScript) are said to be client−side scripts. Scripts can be embed within HTML to produce a web page with dynamic actions.
Scripting Language − A scripting language is a simple programming language used to write an executable list of commands, called a script. JavaScript, Perl, VBscript are scripting languages rather than general-purpose programming languages.
Search Engine − A server (computer) or commonly a collection of servers dedicated to indexing internet web pages, storing the results in a giant database and returning lists of pages which match particular searched queries from within its database. The indexes are normally and automatically generated using spiders.
Server − A computer, program or process which responds to requests for information from an user. On the internet, all web pages reside on servers (computers).
Spider − An automated software robot that continuously crawls hyperlinks and pages on the Internet and collects data that is returned to its database for indexing. This is how Search Engines function. The process of crawling the web, storing URLs' and indexing keywords, links and text, is the act of Spidering.
SSI - Server−Side Includes − Tells a server to include information (source from a separate file) in a document before sending it to the browser. A very effective method of producing the same information over many pages as one file can be altered to produce the changes over the many the pages that includes the SSI file.
Sub−Domain (Name) − A sub−domain is a domain that is part of a larger domain name. DNS hierarchy consists of the root-level domain at the top, underneath which are the top−level domains, followed by second−level domains and finally sub−domains.
Spam
Spam refers to the practice of blindly sending commercial messages or advertisements to email users or posting to newsgroups.
Submission Forms
Forms are web pages "fields" for a user to fill in with information. They are an excellent way of collecting and processing information from people visiting a website, as well as allowing them to interact with web pages. Forms are written in HTML and processed by CGI programs. The output can be sent as an e-mail form, stored online, printed, and/or returned to the user as an HTML page.
Tag − An HTML tag is a formatting command written into a document that specifies how it should be formatted. A web browser interprets these tags and outputs the intended command (action).
Template − HTML templates are skeletal HTML pages with the main content left out. Templates provide an effective solution in creating many pages with an identical look or navigational structure but different content.
Traffic − Similar to a real−world sense of traffic on a road or freeway, traffic in a web−sense is a measurement of the amount of users that visit a Web site.
Thumbnail
A small version of a bigger image on a web page. Usually containing a hyperlink to a full-size version of the image.
URI - Uniform Resource Identifier − The generic term for all types of names and addresses that refer to objects on the World Wide Web. A URL is one kind of URI.
URL - Uniform Resource Locator − Each separate page accessible on the Web has a unique address which can by identified by it's URL. The first part of the address (eg; http or ftp etc) indicates what protocol to use, and the second part specifies the IP address or the domain name where the resource is located.
Usability − Refers to the level or degree of a page's operating friendliness for the user.
Validation − Validation is a way to make sure that your (HTML) code is compliant with current HTML specifications.
Video Clip
A short video sequence that can be embedded into a web page.
Web Application
Web Applications are web programs or real programs designed to be used on the web site using a browser. Example of web application would be e-commerce web site, web banking, stock exchange on the web, web games and many others. Web applications are becoming very popular due to wide availability of the Internet access.
Web Based E-mail
Web based e-mail is a software on a POP3 server that allows you the luxury, if desired, to access your POP accounts by simply using a web-browser. It allows users to send and receive emails via any web-browser by viewing an HTML web page.
Web Page
One of the pages one the web site including home page.
Web Site
A site presence on the World Wide Web. Each Web site contains a home page (opening page), which is the first document users see when they enter the site.
World Wide Web
A system of Internet servers that support specially formatted documents. The documents are formatted in a script called HTML (HyperText Markup Language) that supports links to other documents, as well as graphics, audio, and video files. This means you can jump from one document to another simply by clicking on hot spots. Not all Internet servers are part of the World Wide Web.
W3C - World Wide Web Consortium − Established in October 1994 to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability.
WWW - World Wide Web − Is a way of accessing information over the medium of the Internet. Browsers, such as Internet Explorer or Netscape are utilized to access the vast collection of interconnected (hyperlinked) documents on the web.
AutoRecover
Use AutoRecover to automatically save a temporary copy of your presentation in a recovery file at specified intervals in case of a power failure or similar problem.
Back Up
Backing up a file creates a copy of the file in the specified location so that this new file can be used in place of the original if the original becomes corrupted or unusable.
Download
Downloading is the process of transferring a copy of a file from a central server or host onto one's own computer or device so that it can be accessed there.
E-mail
E-mail, also called electronic mail, is a system for sending and receiving messages electronically over a computer network, such as between personal computers. An e-mail is a message or messages sent or received by such a system.
Firewalls
Firewalls are security schemes that prevent unauthorized users trom gaining access to an organization's network. They can also track the exchange of information sent from and received to the network.
Hackers
A hacker is a person well-versed in computers and programming, who breaks into a system by sidestepping its security measures and obstacles.
Hard Drive
A hard drive is a secondary storage device that is located in a sealed case and stores large amounts of data.
Internet
The Internet is a worldwide collection of more than a million hosts that can communicate with each other using TCP/IP. The lowercase internet simply means multiple networks connected together.
MB
MB is the abbreviation for megabyte, a unit of measurement used to measure memory and disk storage space. One megabyte is equal to 1,048,576 bytes.
Memory
Memory is the capacity for storing information.
Viruses
A virus is a program that often has an incubation period, is infectious, and is intended to cause damage or user annoyance. A virus program might destroy data and programs or damage a disk drive's boot sector.