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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. Visit the official Apache web site for more details.

Ad banner A commercial message i.e. animation or a banner on a web page promoting a product.

Ad Clicks A click on an advertisement on a web site, which takes a user to another web location or another frame of page within the advertisement, it is referred to as an ad click.

Ad Impressions Its a measurement of responses from an ad delivery system, to an ad requested by the user's browser, which is recorded in a certain format depending on the delivery system. Web pages have ads. Once the visitor has viewed an ad on a web page an impression is recorded. Ad Views are different from Page Views.

Ad Click Through Ratio Percentage of users who click on an advertisement i.e. ratio of ad clicks to ad impressions. This is an indication of the effectiveness of this ad.

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 in BPS or KBPS (bytes per second or kilobytes per second).

Browser A Client program (software) that is used to look at various kinds of Internet resources and HTML pages. (For example Netscape, Microsoft Explorer)


Log File
A file created by a web server or proxy server which contains all the information when the server is accessed and all activities that are carried out on that server.

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.

Domain Name
The text name that identifies an Internet site corresponding to the numeric IP address of a computer on the Internet (i.e., www.indiatimes.com). Every domain name consists of one top or high-level and one or more lower-level designators. Top-level domains are either generic or geographic. Generic top-level domains include .com, .net, .edu & .org. Geographic domains designate countries of origin, such as .us (United States), .fr (France), .uk (United Kingdom), etc. 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.


Domain Name Lookup
The process of converting a numeric IP address into a text name (for example. 203.199.107.189 is converted to www.indiatimes.com).

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 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 Forms
An HTML page which passes different variables back to the server. These pages are used to gather information from users in the form of pages or ads. It's also referred to as scripts.

FTP
Internet protocol which facilitates transfer of files. It's a standard method of sending files between computers over the Internet. 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.

GIF
Graphics Interchange Format is an image file format commonly used in HTML documents. Hit A web site when accessed the computer sends a request to the site's server for downloading the web page.

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.

HIT
records each element of a requested page (including graphics, text, and interactive items). Home Page The main point of entry or a main page of a Web site.

HTML
Hyper Text Markup Language is used to write documents for the World Wide Web. An HTML page is a Hyper Text Markup Language document stored in a directory on a Web server at the time of the request for the purpose of displaying that document. HTML files are plain text files, so they can be composed and edited in different types of operating systems In addition to text, an HTML page may include graphics, video, audio, and other files

HTTP
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is a standard method of transferring data between a Web server and a Web browser.

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.

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.

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.

Page Views
Also called Page Impressions. Unlike Hits, page views are recorded when the page is actually seen by the user.

Platform
The operating system (i.e. Windows 95, Linux, etc.) used by a visitor.

Protocol
A uniform set of rules or method of exchanging data between two devices over the Internet.

Proxy Server
A server that acts as the Internet server for a LAN or an intermediate server between the user and the web site.

Platform
The operating system (i.e. Windows 95, Linux, etc.) used by a visitor.

Protocol
A uniform set of rules or method of exchanging data between two devices over the Internet.

Proxy Server
A server that acts as the Internet server for a LAN or an intermediate server between the user and the web site.

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

Referrer URL
The referrer url is a place from which the user clicked to get to the current page.

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.

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.

Server
A high-end computer which distributes / hosts files which are shared across a LAN, WAN or the Internet.

Server Error
An error occurring on the server in anyone of its processes.

Server Logs
Log files created on the server are server logs. This is mainly used to monitor the server performance, record authorized / unauthorized requests and all other activities carried out on the machine.

Session
A sequence of Internet activity made by one user at one site or a series of transactions performed by a user that can be tracked across Web sites.

Session cookies
These are temporary cookies, which are loaded into the users computer, and only work during that browser session. When the browser exits, these cookies are erased.

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.

User Agent
Fields in an extended Web server log file identifying the browser and platform used by a visitor. URL
Uniform Resource Locator is a means of identifying an exact location on the Internet e.g. http://www.indiatimes.com/default/index.html is the URL which defines the use of HTTP to access default web page (/index.html). As the previous example shows, a URL is comprised of four parts: Protocol Type (HTTP), Web site name (indiatimes.com), Directory path (/default /index.html), and File Name (index.htm).

Virtual hosting - See shared hosting.

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.

Visit
Commonly reffered to as a User Session. Its all the activity performed by one user on a web site. By default, this session is terminated when a user is inactive for more than 30 minutes.

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.