TERM
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DEFINITION
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.NET
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A comprehensive software development platform from Microsoft that
was introduced in 2000 as the company's next generation programming
environment. Pronounced "dot-net," and widely known as
the ".NET Framework," it was designed to compete with
the Java J2EE platform.
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ADSL
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Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) -- A method for moving data
over regular phone lines. An ADSL circuit is much faster than a
regular phone connection, and the wires coming into the subscriber's
premises are the same (copper) wires used for regular phone service.
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API
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Application Programming Interface) A language and message format
used by an application program to communicate with the operating
system or some other control program such as a database management
system (DBMS) or communications protocol.
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ASP
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Active Server Pages. A specification that enables Web pages to
be dynamically created using HTML, scripts, and reusable ActiveX
server components.
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Back up
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Additional resources or duplicate copies of data on different storage
media for emergency purposes.
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Bandwidth & internet traffic
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RapidHost, like most hosting companies offer a variety of bandwidth
options in ourplans. So exactly what is bandwidth as it relates
to web hosting? Put simply, bandwidth is the amount of traffic that
is allowed to occur between your web system and the rest of the
internet. The amount of bandwidth we can provide is determined by
our network connections, both internal to our data center and external
to the public internet.
A very simple analogy to use to understand bandwidth and traffic
is to think of motorways and cars. Bandwidth is the number of lanes
on the motorway and traffic is the number of cars on the motorway.
If you are the only car on a motorway, you can travel very quickly.
If you are stuck in the middle of rush hour, you may travel very
slowly since all of the lanes are being used up.
Traffic is simply the number of bits that are transferred on network
connections. It is easiest to understand traffic using examples.
One Gigabyte is 2 to the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes. One gigabyte
is equal to 1,024 megabytes. To put this in perspective, it takes
one byte to store one character. Imagine 100 file cabinets in a
building, each of these cabinets holds 1000 folders. Each folder
has 100 papers. Each paper contains 100 characters - A GB is all
the characters in the building. An MP3 song is about 4MB, the same
song in wav format is about 40MB, a full length movie can be 800MB
to 1000MB (1000MB = 1GB).
If you were to transfer this MP3 song from a web site to your computer,
you would create 4MB of traffic between the web site you are downloading
from and your computer. Depending upon the network connection between
the web site and the internet, the transfer may occur very quickly,
or it could take time if other people are also downloading files
at the same time.
If, for example, the web site you download from has a 10Mbs connection
to the internet, and you are the only person accessing that web
site to download your MP3, your 4MB file will be the only traffic
on that web site. However, if three people are all downloading that
same MP at the same time, 12MB (3 x 4MB) of traffic has been created.
Because in this example, the host only has 10Mbs of bandwidth, someone
will have to wait.
The network equipment at RapidHost will cycle through each person
downloading the file and transfer a small portion at a time so each
person's file transfer can take place, but the transfer for everyone
downloading the file will be slower. If 100 people all came to the
site and downloaded the MP3 at the same time, the transfers would
be extremely slow. If the host wanted to decrease the time it took
to download files simultaneously, it could increase the bandwidth
of their internet connection (at a cost due to upgrading equipment).
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CGI
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(Common Gateway Interface) -- A set of rules that describe how
a Web Server communicates with another piece of software on the
same machine, and how the other piece of software (the 'CGI program')
talks to the web server.
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Cold Fusion
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Cold Fusion is a scripting language for web designers that wish
to do advanced development and/or database interfacing.
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Cookie
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Information that is sent from a web site to your computer's hard
disk in the form of a text file. Cookies contain all types of information,
such as registration information and user preferences, which is
used by the website that set the cookie.
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CPU
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Central Processing Unit) The computing part of the computer. Also
called the "processor," it is made up of the control unit
and ALU. Today, the CPUs of almost all computers are contained on
a single chip.
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Database
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Iis an organised collection of information stored on a computer.
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Dedicated Hosting
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Typically refers to a single Web site that is hosted on a stand-alone
server.
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DNS
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Short for Domain Name System (or Service or Server), an Internet
service that translates domain names into IP addresses. Because
domain names are alphabetic, they're easier to remember. The Internet
however, is really based on IP addresses. Every time you use a domain
name, therefore, a DNS service must translate the name into the
corresponding IP address. For example, the domain name www.example.com
might translate to 198.105.232.4.
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Domain name
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The unique name that identifies an Internet site. Domain Names
always have 2 or more parts, separated by dots
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FileMaker
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An excellent database product designed for users and small, medium
and large workgroups. FileMaker's
website provides detailed information and free dowloads of the
software.
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Firewall
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Specialized hardware or software designed to secure a computer
or network from unauthorized access.
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Frontpage
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A popular Web authoring program from Microsoft for Windows and
the Mac. FrontPage Editor is the graphical editor for designing
the pages and FrontPage Explorer is the management tool that lets
you construct and maintain the entire site. It also includes WebBots,
which generate code for complex functions such as searching and
password protection.
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FTP
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FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is the Internet protocol that lets
you transfer files between your computer and our web servers. This
protocol enables you to upload your web pages to our server over
the Internet. FTP is supported by all leading web development software
solutions.
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Gb
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(Gb) (GigaBit) One billion bits (technically 1,073,741,824 bits).
Lower case "b" for bit and "B" for byte are
not always followed and often misprinted. Thus, Gb may refer to
gigabyte
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Hosting
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Making a Web site available on the Internet.
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HTML
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(HyperText Markup Language) -- The coding language used to create
Hypertext documents for use on the World Wide Web. HTML looks a
lot like old-fashioned typesetting code, where you surround a block
of text with codes that indicate how it should appear, additionally,
in HTML you can specify that a block of text, or a word, is linked
to another file on the Internet.
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IIS
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Internet Information Services) Microsoft's Web server. IIS runs
under the server versions of NT and 2000, adding full HTTP capability
to the Windows operating system. Formerly known as "Internet
Information Server," IIS is also available for the Windows
2000 client version.
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IP
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(Internet Protocol) The network layer protocol in the TCP/IP communications
protocol suite (the "IP" in TCP/IP). The terms "IP
network" and "TCP/IP network" are synonymous. "IP"
is generally heard more frequently than "TCP," primarily
because it is faster to say IP and also because some data are sent
over the unreliable UDP/IP, rather than the reliable TCP/IP.
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IP address
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Internet Protocol address) The address of a device attached to
an IP network (TCP/IP network). Every client, server and network
device must have a unique IP address for each network connection
(network interface). Every IP packet contains a source IP address
and a destination IP address.
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IPS Tag
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Internet Provider Security Tag. Nominet is the registry for UK
domain names and all hosting companies that host .uk domains will
have an IPS tag (also known as a Nominet Provider tag or IPS Key)
which signifies membership of Nominet. The tag is used to identify
the company responsible for the management of a .uk domain. It is
a single alpha-numeric sequence, in uppercase, sometimes hyphenated.
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Linux
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Unix derivative available in both "free software" and
commercial versions, is increasing in popularity as an alternative
to proprietary operating systems.
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Load Balancing
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You may choose to distribute copies of your website across multiple
servers thereby both spreading visitor traffic loads, so retaining
optimum speeds at busy times, as well as providing for resilience
for your site(s) in the case that one copy becomes unavailable.
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Meta Tags
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An HTML tag that identifies the contents of a Web page for the
search engines. Meta tags are hidden on the page, but they, as well
as all the HTML code on a page, can be viewed by selecting View/Source
or View/Page Source from the browser menu. Meta tags contain a general
description of the page, keywords and copyright information.
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MSDE
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Microsoft Data Engine. SQL Server compatible database engine that
can be distributed royalty free with applications built using Visual
Studio or Office 2000 (some conditions may apply).
The main differences between MSDE and SQL Server are that MSDE has
a limit of 5 concurrent connections and it does not come with any
management tools (such as SQL Server's Enterprise Manager and Query
Analyzer). However an MSDE database can be managed using SQL Servers
management tools. It also has a maximum 2GB database size, and may
limit the number of databases on a single machine.
MSDE is due to be replaced by SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. SQL
Server 2005 Express Edition will provide the same functionality
as MSDE but be built upon a more up to date kernel and will still
be distributed free by Microsoft.
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MySQL
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Pronounced "my S-Q-L" or "my-see-quill," it
is a very popular open source, relational DBMS from MySQL AB, Uppsala,
Sweden (www.mysql.com) that runs under various versions of Unix
and Windows and Mac. Widely used for Web applications and embedded
applications, MySQL is available for free from MySQL AB under the
GNU license as well as for a fee without restrictions.
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ODBC
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Open DataBase Connectivity) A database programming interface from
Microsoft that provides a common language for Windows applications
to access databases on a network. ODBC is made up of the function
calls programmers write into their applications and the ODBC drivers
themselves.
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Perl
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Practical Extraction Report Language) A programming language written
by Larry Wall that combines syntax from several Unix utilities and
languages. Introduced in 1987, Perl is designed to handle a variety
of system administrator functions and provides comprehensive string
handling functions. It is widely used to write Web server programs
for such tasks as automatically updating user accounts and newsgroup
postings, processing removal requests, synchronizing databases and
generating reports.
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PHP
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PHP Hypertext Preprocessor) A scripting language used to create
dynamic Web pages.
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Ping
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Packet INternet Groper) An Internet utility used to determine whether
a particular IP address is reachable online by sending out a packet
and waiting for a response. Ping is used to test and debug a network
as well as see if a user or server is online.
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POP 3
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Post Office Protocol 3) A standard interface between an e-mail
client program and the mail server. POP3 and IMAP4 are the two common
access protocols used for Internet e-mail. POP3 provides a message
store that holds incoming e-mail until users log on and download
it.
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RAM
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Random Access Memory) A group of memory chips, typically of the
dynamic RAM (DRAM) type, which function as the computer's primary
workspace.
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Server
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A computer system in a network that is shared by multiple users.
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Shared hosting
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Shared hosting is Web hosting in which the service provider serves
pages for multiple Web sites, each having its own Internet domain
name, from a single Web server.
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SMS
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(Short Message Service) A text message service that enables short
messages of generally no more than 140-160 characters in length
to be sent and transmitted from a cellphone.
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SMTP
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Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) The standard e-mail protocol on
the Internet and part of the TCP/IP protocol suite. SMTP defines
the message format and the message transfer agent (MTA), which stores
and forwards the mail
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Spam
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E-mail that is not requested.
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SQL
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Structured Query Language) Pronounced "S-Q-L" or "see-quill,"
a language used to interrogate and process data in a relational
database
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SSH
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Secure SHell) A security protocol for logging onto a remote server.
SSH provides an encrypted session for transferring files and executing
server programs.
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SSL
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Secure Sockets Layer) The leading security protocol on the Internet.
Developed by Netscape, SSL is widely used to do two things: to validate
the identity of a Web site and to create an encrypted connection
for sending credit card and other personal data.
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Streaming media
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Lets you add live web casts, or streaming audio and video to your
site to provide added interest and information.
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Telnet
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A terminal emulation protocol used on the Internet and TCP/IP-based
networks. A Telnet program allows a user at a terminal or PC to
log onto a remote computer and run a program and execute other Unix
commands.
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Unix
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a powerful operating system developed at the Bell Telephone Laboratories
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Virtual Dedicated Server
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Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS) software provides a method of virtualization
that enables server customers to have an environment that behaves
as if the server was completely dedicated to them.
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Virus
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Self-replicating, malicious code that attaches itself to an application
program or other executable system component and leaves no obvious
signs of its presence.
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Webspace
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Webspace refers to data storage space accessed via the Internet,
usually used to host websites and data files.
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XML
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EXtensible Markup Language) An open standard for describing data
from the W3C. It is used for defining data elements on a Web page
and business-to-business documents.
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