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MS Access® is Microsoft's advanced database creation and maintenance software. MS Access is not well suited for very high-traffic sites and is not as powerful as MySql or SQL Server.

A Microsoft technology used on the Internet to make interactive web pages that look and behave like computer programs, rather than static pages. ActiveX controls may be used with Microsoft's Internet Explorer to interact with web pages. ActiveX controls provide functions similar to Java Applets.

Allows a user to retrieve documents, files, programs and other archived data from a web server without having to establish a userid and password. By using the special userid of "anonymous", the network user will bypass local security checks and will have access to publicly accessible files on the remote system.

Apache is a Unix-based, open-source Web server that is used to host about half the sites on the Internet. Originally, Apache was a Unix product, but now versions for Windows, OS/2 and other platforms exist. The name Apache comes from its origin as a series of "patch files". Apache's major competitor is Microsoft's IIS.

An applet is a small Java program that can be downloaded quickly and used by any computer equipped with a Java-capable browser which adds animation and interactivity to the Web page.

An ASP (Active Server Page) is an HTML page that includes one or more scripts, or small embedded programs, that are processed on a Microsoft Web server (Internet Information Server) before the page is sent to the user. The scripts included within the page are developed with Visual Basic VB. Typically, the script in the Web page (at the server level) uses input from a user's request to access data from a database and then builds or customizes the page on the fly before sending it to the requester.

Autoresponders are an excellent way of replying to e-mail automatically. for example, if your customers send you an order form, you can set up an autoresponder which will reply to their e-mail instantaneously thereby confirming their order. A second application of an autoresponder can be that you are away from your office or your work location and want to send a reply to an e-mail automatically saying "I'm away from home and will be contacting you shortly".

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Main high-speed network connection composing the Internet. Backbones are operated by major telecommunications companies like Sprint, MCI, or AT&T.

Web hosts backup data on their servers. Many web hosting packages offer backups every 24 hours. This is supposed to prevent the loss of data should something happen to the server. If you think you may need to restore old data in case of a disaster, it may make sense to choose a hosting company that performs regular backups.

Bandwidth/Transfer is the amount of data the server will allow your site to send in a month. Transfer is usually measured in gigabytes (GB) - billions of bytes. Once you go over your monthly limit, your web host may either shut your site down for the remainder of the month or can charge you overage.

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Catchall email accounts are used to deliver "any-address@yourdomain.com" to a specified inbox. This can be very useful if your clients are unsure of your email address. Whatever alias they use @youdomain.com will get to your inbox.

Some hosting companies allow you to develop a chat room or other type of chat service for your visitors. Be sure to check with the web hosting provider about the details of the chat services offered. Some servers permit you to configure the service, some pre-configure everything for you while others do not allow chat rooms at all.

A Certificate (also known as a Secure or Digital certificate) is issued by a Certificate Authority (such as Equifax, Thawte or VeriSign) and is proof that a web site is linked to a legitimate business, with a physical address and phone number. It is the job of the Certificate Authority to verify the identity of merchants and issue each a digital or authentication certificate.

The CGI (Common Gateway Interface) is a standard way for a Web server to pass a Web user's request to an application program and to receive data back to forward to the user. When the user requests a Web page (for example, by clicking on a highlighted word or entering a Web site address), the server sends back the requested page. However, when a user fills out a form on a Web page and sends it in, it usually needs to be processed by an application program. The Web server typically passes the form information to a small application program.

Some HTTP servers require CGI programs to reside in a special directory. This directory is often "/cgi-bin". However, better servers provide ways to distinguish CGI programs so they can be kept in the same directories as the HTML files to which they are related.

A small program written in a language such as Perl, Tcl, C or C++ which functions as the glue between HTML pages and other programs on the Web server. For example, a CGI script would allow search data entered on a Web page to be sent to the DBMS (database management system) for lookup. It would also format the results of that search as an HTML page and send it back to the user. The CGI script resides in the server and obtains the data from the user via environment variables that the Web server makes.

Macromedia 's commercial database application development tool that allows databases to have a Web interface, so a database can be queried and updated using a Web browser. The ColdFusion Server application runs on the Web server and has access to a database. Examples of ColdFusion applications include order entry, event registration, catalogue search, directories, calendars, and interactive training. ColdFusion applications are robust because all database interactions are encapsulated in a single industrial-strength CGI script.

A Colocated Server is your own server stored at a facility of a co-location provider. A co-location provider provides an internet connection to your server and allows you physical access to your own server when you need it. If you do not already have one, some companies offer to build a server for you. Colocation should be used by power users that need custom hardware/software configurations, multi-server clustering, and access to specific data centers/uplinks.

The status regarding whether two computer systems are communicating with each other over either a local network or over the Internet. When computers are communicating with each other, there is said to be "connectivity" between them.

A CMS (Content Management System) is software used to automate the process of creating, publishing, and maintaining content. A CMS simplifies content production by empowering content contributors to perform content creation, publishing, and maintenance-related tasks. A CMS typically separates page design from content, facilitating content maintenance and design changes.

A control panel is a very important part of a web hosting package. It lets users administer and control all the aspects of their web site including FTP, e-mail management, database configuration, web site statistics, bandwidth usage, disk space usage and do a lot more with a simple point-and-click interface.

The crontab command, found in Unix and Unix-like operating systems, is used to schedule commands to be executed periodically. It reads a series of commands from standard input and collects them into a file known as a "crontab" which is later read and whose instructions are carried out.

A CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) is a specification for the presentation of HTML marked documents. Cascading style sheets work like a template, allowing Web developers to define a style for an HTML element and then apply it to as many Web pages as they'd like. 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.

Refers to the ability to create custom error pages on a hosting account to replace default 404 and other error pages.

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A database is a collection of information organized in such a way that a computer program can quickly select desired pieces of data. Relational databases are organized by fields, records, and tables. A field is a single piece of information; a record is one complete set of fields; and a table is a collection of records. A CMS generally uses a relational database as its content repository. Storing content in fields rather than static pages makes that content appropriate for dynamic delivery.

Also called NOC (Network Operations Center), a datacenter is a physical center from where networks are managed by a Web host. Typically, a datacenter has hundreds or even thousands of Web servers with multiple connections to the backbone, and power backup systems.

Data Transfer/Bandwidth is the amount of data the server will allow your site to send in a month. Data Transfer is usually measured in gigabytes (GB) - billions of bytes. Once you go over your monthly limit, your web host may either shut your site down for the remainder of the month or can charge you overage.

Dedicated IP (or Static IP) is an IP address set aside exclusively for a particular domain name.

A Dedicated server is an entire web server rented from a dedicated web hosting provider - you don't share the server with anyone. You can load any kind of application you require such as e-commerce payment engines or database applications. You can control the levels of security too because you can choose to add extra features which are not available on Shared Hosting. For example you decide whether your server is protected by a firewall and how often your data is backed up, if at all. Unless you take up a managed solution or a more comprehensive service level agreement, you are fully responsible for the maintenance of your dedicated server, so you will require some technical expertise or resources. You should select a Dedicated Server if your web site requires customized options, secure information and a high number of visitors or complex applications i.e. e-commerce, dynamic content, database and multimedia applications.

A diesel-powered generator used by hosting companies as a back-up source to generate electricity in the event of a power outage.

Disk space is the size your website can be. Every single "char" on your website has to be stored somewhere on your web host's server. Each "char" is one byte, and a megabyte (MB) is roughly one million bytes. HTML pages are usually very small, but it is the extra images, scripts, and even databases that can take up large amounts of disk space.

The DNS (Domain Name Server) translates a domain name such as netlingo.com into the Internet Protocol (IP) numbers (207.219.116.4) to find the correct web site. The DNS is a static, hierarchical name service that uses TCP/IP hosts and is housed on a number of servers on the Internet. Basically, it maintains this database for figuring out and finding (or resolving) host names and IP addresses. This allows users to specify remote computers by host names rather than numerical IP addresses.

Domain Aliasing/Domain Parking refers to the process of adding additional domain names to a hosting account with all of the domain names resolving to the account's index page. For example, say you have cats.com parked to your main account at pets.com. This would mean that anyone who goes to cats.com would automatically go to pets.com. There is no actual hosting involved with cats.com.

The unique name that identifies an Internet web site. On the Web, the domain name is the part of the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that tells a domain name server where to forward a request for a Web page. For example, the domain name of this web site is webhostlead.com.

The process whereby a unique domain name is selected and registered by a user, giving the user the right to use that domain name for their Web site. Most Web hosts allow you to register a domain when you sign up for Web hosting.

Domain Parking/Domain Aliasing refers to the process of adding additional domain names to a hosting account with all of the domain names resolving to the account's index page. For example, say you have cats.com parked to your main account at pets.com. This would mean that anyone who goes to cats.com would automatically go to pets.com. There is no actual hosting involved with cats.com.

When a domain name (Web site) is moved from one Internet address to another, the new address must be recorded by the domain registrar to allow Internet Domain Name Servers to point to the new location.

DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) is the most common type of memory and is "dynamic" because in order for the memory chip to retain data, it must be refreshed constantly (every few milliseconds). If the cell is not refreshed, the data is lost. DRAM temporarily stores data in a cell composed of a capacitor and a transistor. Each cell contains a specified number of bits. These cells are accessed by row addresses and column addresses.

This is the term given for furnishing a server with 2 independent power supplies for improved redundancy specification.

Information on a Web site or Web page that changes often, usually daily and/or each time a user reloads or returns to the page. Dynamic Content may also be structured based on user input. For example, when you search on some keywords on a search engine, the resulting page you get is a "dynamic" page, meaning the information was created based on the words you typed into the form on the previous page. Dynamic Web sites are usually driven by Web application environments such as Microsoft ASP or Allaire's ColdFusion, and the content is taken from a database.

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E-commerce means conducting business online. E-commerce software programs run the main functions of an e-commerce web site, including product display, online ordering, and inventory management. This software resides on a commerce server and works in conjunction with online payment systems to process payments.

Email forms are used to let site visitors contact you directly from your website. Email forms are easy to setup and require minimal HTML programming skills.

An email service which automatically sends email messages from one email address to another email address.

Web hosting plans that allow users to send and receive email, may or may not come with hosting for a website.

Encryption is the process of converting data into a secure code, through the use of an encryption algorithm, for transmission over a public network. The mathematical key to the encryption algorithm is encoded and transmitted with the data, thus providing the means by which the data can be decrypted at the receiving end, and the original data restored.

Web servers generate error messages when they encounter unexpected conditions. The most common of these, from a user's perspective, is the 404 error. This error occurs whenever a user requests a nonexistent page. The page may have been moved, or the user may have mistyped the URL.

A local area network used for connecting computers, printers, workstations, terminals, etc within the same building. Ethernet operates over twisted wire and over coaxial cable at speeds up to 10 Mbps. Ethernet LANs are being promoted by DEC, Intel and Xerox.

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An integrated application that allows web hosting clients to automatically install popular scripts.

A cable used for transmitting data as a light wave. A fiber optic cable is composed of very thin strands of glass on which information is conveyed in the form of pulses of light. It is more expensive that copper wire, but offers higher transmission speeds and allows for communication over larger distances.

The File Manager is a web-based tool that allows you to create, edit, copy, rename, and delete HTML files.

A system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. Firewalls can be implemented in both hardware and software, or a combination of both. Firewalls are frequently used to prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to the Internet, especially intranets. All messages entering or leaving the Intranet pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria.

A popular authoring software developed by Macromedia used to create vector graphics-based animation programs with full-screen navigation interfaces, graphic illustrations, and simple interactivity in an initialized, resizable file format that is small enough to stream across a normal modem connection.

FrontPage Extensions are a set of server-side applications that allow you to incorporate many advanced features such as hit counters, Java buttons and form validation without having to write the complex server-side programs typically required.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is the method used on the Internet to copy a file from one computer to another. Using FTP, you can search through directories on computers around the world, locate a file, and transfer a copy of it to your machine.

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A Gateway transfers information between physically separate networks that are based on differing protocols (for example, between Internet and AppleTalk networks). It performs high-level information translation, while routers provide low-level.

1 GB = 1024 Megabytes

The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG or GPG) is a free software replacement for the PGP suite of cryptographic software, released under the GNU General Public License. It is a part of the Free Software Foundation's GNU software project.

A Guestbook is a script on a web page with a form which lets those who visit the website to "sign in" and leave comments.

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Each time a Web server sends a file to a browser, it is recorded in the server log file as a "Hit". Hits are generated for every element of a requested page (including graphics, text and interactive items). If a page containing two graphics is viewed by a user, three hits will be recorded - one for the page itself and one for each graphic. Webmasters use hits to measure their server's work load. Because page designs vary greatly, hits are a poor guide for traffic measurement.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the coding language to design web pages used on the World Wide Web. Web browsers read HTML and display the page.

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the communication protocol used to connect to servers on the World Wide Web. The primary function of HTTP is to establish a connection with a Web server and transmit HTML pages to the user's browser.

The secure version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol. URLs starting with HTTPS would be seen in secure environments such as online banking, and where financial details are submitted, such as shopping online.

A hub is a network device that is used for connecting computers on a Local Area Network (LAN). It forwards all the packets it receives to all of its ports.

A highlighted, clickable word or image within a web page which, when clicked, takes you to another web page within the same site or to another site altogether.

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IIS (Internet Information Server) is Microsoft's Web server that runs on Windows NT platforms. This is the software that serves the information to the Web. The browser sends requests for pages, the server sends them back to the browser which then displays the information. IIS comes bundled with Windows NT 4.0. Because IIS is tightly integrated with the operating system, it is relatively easy to administer. However, currently IIS is available only for the Windows NT/XP platforms, whereas Netscape's Web servers run on all major platforms, including Windows NT/XP, OS/2 and UNIX.

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is a mail protocol that provides management of received messages on a remote server. The user can review headers, create or delete folders and messages, and search contents remotely without having to download the mail. It includes more functions than the similar and popular POP mail protocol.

Internet Backbone (or simply the Backbone) is the main high-speed network connection composing the Internet. Backbones are operated by major telecommunications companies like Sprint, MCI, or AT&T.

IP (Internet Protocol) is the method 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 enables information to be routed from one network to another in packets and then reassembled when they reach their destination.

A private network of various computers within an organization. An Intranet is used to share company information and computing resources among employees. An Intranet uses regular Internet protocols and in general looks like a private version of the Internet.

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is basically a huge multi-user live chat facility. There are a number of major IRC servers around the world which are linked to each other. Anyone can create a channel and anything that anyone types in a given channel is seen by all others in the channel. Private channels can also be created for multi-person conference calls.

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Java is a powerful, cross-platform programming language developed by Sun Microsystems. Java applets (small applications) may be incorporated into Web documents and can be executed securely by any Java-capable browser irrespective of whether it is running on a PC, an Apple Mac or a Unix workstation. Both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer are Java-capable. Java is being used in many ways which enhance the functionality and interactivity of Web pages.

The Java Servlet API allows a software developer to add dynamic content to a web server using the Java platform. The generated content is commonly HTML, but may be other data such as XML. Servlets are the Java counterpart to dynamic web content technologies such as CGI or ASP. It has the ability to maintain state after many server transactions. This is done using HTTP Cookies, session variables or URL rewriting.

A JVM (Java Virtual Machine) is an abstract computing machine which is platform-independent. The JVM converts Java bytecode into machine language and executes it.

JavaScript is a scripting language developed by Netscape to enable Web authors to design interactive sites. Although it shares many of the features and structures of the full Java language, it was developed independently. Javascript can interact with HTML source code, enabling Web authors to spice up their sites with dynamic content. JavaScript is often used for creating functions to automatically change a formatted date on a Web page, cause a linked-to page to appear in a popup window, cause text or a graphic image to change during a mouse rollover.

JDK (Java Development Kit) is a software development package from Sun Microsystems that implements the basic set of tools needed to write, test and debug Java applications and applets.

Microsoft's version of Javascript. JScript runs under Internet Explorer.

JSP (Java Server pages) are an extension to the Java servlet technology that was developed by Sun. JSPs have dynamic scripting capability that works in tandem with HTML code, separating the page logic from the static elements - the actual design and display of the page. Embedded in the HTML page, the Java source code and its extensions help make the HTML more functional, being used in dynamic database queries, for example. JSPs are not restricted to any specific platform or server.

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A searchable database of frequently asked questions and answers about a Web host and its packages.

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Linux is an open source operating system within the Unix family. Because of its robustness and availability, Linux has won popularity in the open source community and among commercial application developers.

Distributing data across a network of servers in order to ensure that a single Web server does not get overloaded with work, thereby affecting performance.

Raw log files are used to track the hits to your website. You can access them from your root directory.

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The Internet host (together with the appropriate software) that is used to send, receive and forward email messages.

A Mailing List is a list of people who subscribe to a periodic mailing distribution on a particular topic. On the Internet, mailing lists include each person's e-mail address rather than a postal address. Mailing lists have become a popular way for Internet users to keep up with topics they're interested in. Many software producers and other vendors are now using them as a way to keep in touch with customers.

Like Listserv, Majordomo is a small program that automatically redistributes e-mail to names on a mailing list. Users can subscribe to a mailing list by sending an e-mail note to a mailing list they learn about; Majordomo will automatically add the name and distribute future e-mail postings to every subscriber. Requests to subscribe and unsubscribe are sent to a special address so that other subscribers do not see these requests.

Mambo CMS is an easy to use content management system allowing users to create and manage corporate and personal web sites with very little technical experience.

A Managed Server is a Dedicated or Colocated Server managed by your Web host. The Managed Host procures, configures, installs, and maintains the necessary servers, firewalls, and other devices that the customer's architecture requires, including the operating system, and any backend database and server support required to make the site functional. Once configured, the Managed Host connects the server to the Web via its own network, where it is monitored on a 24 hour basis. In essence, a Managed Server is the sole responsibility of your Web host: if a hard drive fails, the host replaces it; if a server dies, the host swaps it; if there's a spike in traffic, bandwidth is increased.

1 MB = 1024 Kilobytes

An application that allows users to post and reply to messages from other users and review the flow of a discussion. Also known as a Discussion Group.

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. Instead, they provide information such as who created the page, how often it is updated, what the page is about, and which keywords represent the page's content. Many search engines use this information when building their indices.

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a network and accompanying protocol developed in the 1970's for tranmitting various information between musical and other devices including keyboards, samplers, lights, controllers, etc.

MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) is a protocol for allowing email messages to contain various types of media (text, audio, video, images, etc). To use MIME, both sender and receiver must use MIME compatible e-mail programs.

Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system produced by Microsoft. It supports a dialect of SQL, the most common database language.

A web hosting plan option that allows multiple domain names to share the resources of the single hosting account.

MX Record (Mail Exchange Record) is an entry in a domain name database that identifies the mail server that is responsible for handling e-mail for that domain name. If a user has more than one mailserver, MX records can also specify the order in which the mailservers will be used as primary, secondary, backup and so on.

MySQL is an open source relational database management system (RDBMS) that uses Structured Query Language (SQL), the most popular language for adding, accessing, and processing data in a database.

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A Name Server, or Domain Name Server, maintains the cross-reference between domain names and their corresponding IP addresses. Name servers are used so that people don’t have to remember long numerical IP addresses.

An electronic discussion group or bulletin board that is devoted to discussion of a specific topic. A newsgroup consists of postings, which are messages that have been addressed to the newsgroup rather than a specific individual. Newsgroup postings are uncensored. As a result, some very explicit and candid discussions occur, ranging from political arguments, to religious opinions, to very explicit stories. Unlike mailing lists, which send postings directly to subscribers' mailboxes, newsgroup postings are available on Usenet computers and must be accessed by the user. Usenet is the world-wide conferencing system, encompassing thousands of newsgroups.

A Newsreader is a program that lets you read, download, and reply to the newsgroup messages you want.

NOC (Network Operations Center or Datacenter), is a physical center from where networks are managed by a Web host. Typically, a NOC has hundreds or even thousands of Web servers with multiple connections to the backbone, and power backup systems.

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OC (Optical Carrier) is a hierarchy of optical signals used to classify speeds, or capacities, of fiber lines, especially as related to the SONET standard. The differrent carrier speeds, in Megabits per second (Mbps) and Gigabits per second (Gbps), are as follows:

• OC-1 (52 Mbps)
• OC-3 (155.52 Mbps)
• OC-12 (622.08 Mbps)
• OC-24 (1.244 Gbps)
• OC-48 (2.488 Gbps)
• OC-192 (9.952 Gbps)

ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) is a standard or open application programming interface (API) for accessing a database. By using ODBC statements in a program you can access files in a number of different databases; including, Access, dBase, DB2, Excel, and Text. In addition to the ODBC software, a separate module or driver is needed for each database to be accessed. The main proponent and supplier of ODBC programming support is Microsoft.

The Operating System (OS) is the most important program that runs on a computer. Every general-purpose computer must have an operating system to run other programs. Operating systems perform basic tasks, such as recognizing input from the keyboard, sending output to the display screen, keeping track of files and directories on the disk, and controlling peripheral devices such as disk drives and printers.

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Domain Parking/Domain Aliasing refers to the process of adding additional domain names to a hosting account with all of the domain names resolving to the account's index page. For example, say you have cats.com parked to your main account at pets.com. This would mean that anyone who goes to cats.com would automatically go to pets.com. There is no actual hosting involved with cats.com.

Perl (Practical Extraction and Report Language) is a programming language developed by Larry Wall, especially designed for processing text. Because of its strong text processing abilities, Perl has become one of the most popular languages for writing CGI scripts. Perl is an interpretive language, which makes it easy to build and test simple programs.

PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is an electronic privacy program which helps you ensure privacy by letting you encrypt files and e-mail. The encryption technology employed by PGP is very strong. PGP was created by Phil Zimmermann, and depends on public key cryptography for its effectiveness. Public key cryptography is a procedure in which users exchange "keys" to send secure documents to each other.

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is an open source server side programming language extensively used for web scripts and to process data passed via the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) from HTML forms etc. PHP is an alternative to Microsoft's Active Server Page (ASP) technology and can be written as scripts that reside on the server and may produce HTML output that downloads to the web browser. Alternatively, PHP can be embedded within HTML pages that are then saved with a .php file extension. The PHP sections of the page are then parsed by the PHP engine on the server and the PHP code stripped out before the page is downloaded to the web browser.

phpMyAdmin is a popular open source web-based application, written in PHP for administering MySQL databases. It can create and drop databases, edit tables (create, drop, modify) and fields, execute an SQL statement, manage privileges and also export data into various formats.

A Platform describes some sort of framework, either in hardware or software, which allows software to run. Typical platforms include a computer's architecture, operating system, or programming languages and their runtime libraries.

A (usually small) piece of software that adds features to a larger piece of software. Common examples are plug-ins for the Netscape® browser and web server. Adobe Photoshop® also uses plug-ins. The idea behind plug-in’s is that a small piece of software is loaded into memory by the larger program, adding a new feature, and that users need only install the few plug-ins that they need, out of a much larger pool of possibilities. Plug-ins are usually created by people other than the publishers of the software the plug-in works with.

POP (Post Office Protocol) is a protocol used to retrieve e-mail from a mail server. Most e-mail applications (sometimes called an e-mail client) use the POP protocol, although some can use the newer IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol).

The Primary Domain Name Server for the customer's domain. These are the DNS IP numbers, usually preceeded by "ns.name.com" and "ns2.name.com" and a domain must point at a DNS for it to "resolve" to a local virtual location.

The process where name servers throughout the Internet add new domains and remove expired ones from their records. This can be a lengthy process, which is why connecting to a new domain name can often take three or four days.

Python is an interpreted, interactive programming language created by Guido van Rossum in 1990, originally as a scripting language for Amoeba OS capable of making system calls. Python is often compared to Tcl, Perl, Scheme, Java, and Ruby. Python is developed as an open source project, managed by the non-profit Python Software Foundation.

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A Query is a collection of specifications used to extract a set of data needed from a database. In traditional terms this could be called a "computer program." Queries are probably the most frequently used aspect of SQL. Queries do not change the information in the tables, but merely show it to the user. Queries are constructed from a single command. The structure of a query may appear deceptively simple, but queries can perform complex and sophisticated data evaluation and processing.

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RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a system of using multiple hard drives for sharing or replicating data among the drives of a web server. The benefit of RAID is increased data integrity, fault-tolerance and/or performance, over using drives singularly.

Raw access data updated in real-time that can be downloaded and used by any statistics program. Typically each line show the user's IP, date and time of the access, what kind of request was done, which document was requested, HTTP status code, bytes transferred, referrer, and user agent info. If a host doesn't have statistics, you'll need access to raw logs to identify who your site's visitors are. Analyzing raw logs can also provide more detailed look at site accesses than stats.

One of the first CODECs for delivering streaming video over the Internet. Like other CODECs, RealMedia (comprised of RealVideo, RealAudio, and other file formats created by Real) use compression algorithms for eliminating data that can be considered as extraneous or not as important as other information. RealMedia and Windows Media are the two most widely used technologies for streaming video today.

A commercial Linux distribution, popular amongst Web hosts. Red Hat, Inc. is one of the largest and most recognized companies dedicated to open source software. Founded in 1993, the company now has more than 700 employees and 22 locations worldwide, including its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina in the United States.

A Registrar is the company or organization that you purchased or registered your Domain Name through.

If executed properly, reselling web hosting and related services can be a low-maintenance, high-profit way to online success. Reseller programs allow businesses to lease servers, connections and bandwidth from established hosting firms, but brand the product as their own. Even some of today's biggest hosting companies simply resell the products of bigger companies, due to the lower staffing and equipment expenses required. Resellers act independently of web hosting companies, and are not treated as employees.

A DNS name server that is the authority for resolving Internet names and IP addresses at the highest domain level, the top-level domain.

A special-purpose dedicated computer that attaches to two or more networks and routes packets from one network to the other. The router is connected to at least two networks and determines which way to send each data packet based on its current understanding of the state of the networks it is connected to. Routers create or maintain a table of the available routes and use this information to determine the best route for a given data packet.

A public key cryptographic algorithm named after its inventors (Rivest, Shamir, and Adelman). It is used for encryption and digital signatures. RSA was developed in 1977 and is today the most commonly used encryption and authentication algorithm.

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The ability of a piece of software or hardware to expand/grow according to requirements, e.g to support larger numbers of users without impacting performance.

A script is a list of commands that can be executed without user interaction. A script language is a simple programming language with which you can write scripts.

A chunk of information (often stored as a text file) that is used by the SSL protocol to establish a secure connection. Security Certificates contain information about who it belongs to, who it was issued by, a unique serial number or other unique identification, valid dates, and an encrypted 'fingerprint' that can be used to verify the contents of the certificate. In order for an SSL connection to be created, both sides must have a valid Security Certificate.

Shared Hosting, as the name indicates, refers to the practice of hosting a web site on one partition of a physical server, which may be divided into hundreds or even thousands of partitions. This is the simplest form of web hosting and also the cheapest. The number of partitions on the physical server depends on the particular web host. Each partition is used by a different customer. Shared Hosting, therefore lets a customer share the resources of a single physical server with many other customers. These resources include disk space, bandwidth, processing power, memory etc to name only a few. Hosting many accounts on a single server therefore reduces the associated cost and allows the web host to offer a lower price per month which may range anywhere from $5 - $20 per month.

An IP address shared by multiple domain names.

A text-based account on a Unix machine that allows a web site administrator to remotely access files, compile binaries, run programs etc using Telnet.

A technology developed by Macromedia, Inc. that enables Web pages to include multimedia objects. To create a shockwave object, you use Macromedia's multimedia authoring tool called Director, and then compress the object with a program called Afterburner. You then insert a reference to the "shocked" file in your Web page. To see a Shockwave object, you need the Shockwave plug-in, a program that integrates seamlessly with your Web browser. The plug-in is freely available from Macromedia's Web site as either a Netscape Navigator plug-in or an ActiveX control.

A shopping cart is a piece of software that acts as an online store's catalogue and ordering process. Typically, a shopping cart is the interface between a company's website and its deeper infrastructure, allowing consumers to select merchandise review what they have selected make necessary modifications or additions and purchase the merchandise.