IT Dictionary

  • APOP
    Secure e-mail protocol. See POP.
  • ASP / .ASP (Active Server Pages)
    ASP has come to have numerous meanings in the technology/computing/internet world. ASP is a term for application service provider, and is a new term meaning to provide a hosted application. An application might be to run a virus application from a website which in turn scours your local hard drive. The application is never installed on your machine. Another might be to provide accounting or billing or warehouse software from a remote location.
  • Bandwidth
    Amount of data you can send through a connection. Usually measured in bits-per-second (bps).
  • CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
    A set of rules that describe how a Web Server communicates with another piece of software on the same machine
  • Client
    Any software application connected to the server and used to send/retrieve data, such as a web browser. This relationship between the "client" and the "server" is often referred to as a "client server relationship."
  • Co-location
    Refers to having a server that belongs to one group physically located on an Internet-connected network that belongs to another group.
  • Data Transfer
    Amount of data that you are allowed to transfer with your account – usually images and text. Typically refers to a data transfer allotment, most often in GB (gigabytes).
  • Disk Space (Storage Space)
    Amount of hard disk space available for storage of all Web pages, HTML, CGI-bin programs, e-mail, log files, images, sound clips, audio, video clips, etc.
  • Domain Name
    The unique name that identifies an Internet site.
  • Domain Name Registration
    Refers to registering a name which can be used for hosting a domain name, such as www.yourname.com.
  • E-Mail Aliases/Forwarders
    E-mail forwarders and aliases are e-mail addresses such as billing@yourdomain.com which do not have a username/password. Instead, you would set up billing@yourdomain.com to forward to a real account such as customerservice@yourdomain.com.
  • File Extensions

Almost every file must have some kind of extension. The operating system needs an extension in order to determine what kind of file it is, and what to do with it when it is activated.

  • File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
    A method for transferring data to/from web servers. FTP software is used to upload files to your virtual, shared, or dedicated web server site. FTP access to a web server requires a password and username in order to gain access to the file/folder directories of a virtual domain.
  • FTP Client
    Software needed by the customer to upload content files to their Web site.
  • Hosting Provider
    An institution that provides Web space to companies or individuals.
  • HTML
    Hyper-Text Markup Language. The basic page instruction language used to create web pages.
  • HyperText
    Text which links to other content by being an in-context link.
  • IP Address
    Internet Protocol address. A number analogous to a street address on the Web.
  • IP Number (Internet Protocol Number)
    A unique number consisting of 4 parts separated by dots, e.g. 64.65.58.113
  • ISP
    Internet Service Provider who creates the connection from your home or office to the Internet.
  • Megabyte (MB)
    A million bytes.
  • NOC (Network Operation Center)
    A secure, managed network environment which may house tens or thousands of Web servers with power backup and high-speed connections to the Internet Backbone.
  • POP (E-MAIL)
    A protocol used to retrieve e-mail from a mail server. POP stands for post office protocol. A pop account is any real e-mail account which uses a password and username to retrieve mail from a virtual server.
  • Secure Server (SSL)
    Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. Requires use of a certificate for secure access. A Secure Socket Layer does not provide for credit card clearing or any other form of payment processing. It only provides a facility for secure transactions across the Internet.
  • Server
    In a modern computing environment there are usually two kinds of computer classifications when more than one is connected together to create a network. The server is the computer which provides data and is the central repository, and/or gatekeeper between multiple client computers.
  • Transfer
    Total amount of data transferred from the customer's Web site to clients. Includes all HTML, Web pages, images, sounds, videos, etc.
  • URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
    The standard way to give the address of any resource on the Internet.
  • Virtual Hosting
    A remote web server which is host to numerous domain names, where each domain name owner has all of the features of having a dedicated server. Virtual hosting provides for most of the same features of a dedicated server but is located in a high speed dedicated data center.
  • Web Server
    A computer, or a software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers.
  • Web Site Traffic Reporting
    Reporting software to provide information such as the frequency of hits, page views, amount of data transfer, and total transfer sizes.