General Web Hosting Terminology

Below mentioned are the words that come in Hosting field but not known by everyone. In this article I have tried to explain these terminologies in simple words.

Web Hosting

Web hosting refers to the service which makes your website available to be viewed by others on the Internet. A web hosting provider sells the hosting space on their server, so that it is possible for others to view your website over the Internet.

Apache

Auto Responder

Auto responder is an e-mail utility which automatically sends pre written replies to the e-mail. Auto responder is an automated message that is automatically sent as a reply by the mail server for all received emails. Generally user uses auto responders to acknowledge the sender. The best example of Auto Responder is Bounce Back mail.

Backups

Backup is the activity of copying files or databases to another place. Backup is used in case of original data becomes damaged, corrupted or unavailable. The retrieval of backup is called restore.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is the maximum data transfer rate of a network or Internet connection. Bandwidth measures how much data can be sent over a specific connection in a given amount of time.

Catch All

A catch-all email account is an address that is specified to receive all messages that are addressed to an incorrect email address for particular domain. The Catch-All email option is essentially for that email address of particular domain which do not exist.

CDN Hosting

CDN (Content Delivery Network) is a network of servers that quickly delivers a web page content based on the visitor’s geographic location.

The CDN copies the static content of a website like images, scripts etc. in the network of servers which are scattered in different locations. When someone views a website cached on a CDN, the data is pulled from the server which is geographically closest to the visitor.

Cloud Hosting

Colocation Hosting

Colocation Hosting is the type of Hosting where user own the hardware, but rent space in a data center (or colocation facility) for Internet connectivity and networking. Colocation means housing the servers and devices in the professional datacenter for accessing economies of scale, advanced infrastructure, high bandwidth, lower latency, services from expert, constantly secure etc.

Control Panel

→ cPanel
→ WebsitePanel
→ Plesk
→ Webmin

Dedicated Hosting/Dedicated Server

Dedicated hosting is a specialized type of hosting service in which user have full or near full access to an entire web server. The customer is leasing the web server and all of the resources associated with the server for independent use. Dedicated Hosting can be a somewhat expensive compared to other hosting types. Dedicated Hosting is best for Hosting Enterprise Websites or running online big Application programs.

Domain Name Service (DNS)

The primary purpose of DNS (Domain Name Service) is to converting Domain name to IP address & visa versa. Without DNS, we need to remember the IP address of every site, instead of just the domain name. At the time of accessing any website, the domain name is translated to an IP address, which defines the server where the website is located. This translation is performed dynamically by a service called DNS.

Domain Name

Domain Parking

The company through which you register a domain, allowing you to point your domain to a particular web page which is also called dummy web page. When visitors visits the website whose domain has been parked, they will see this dummy web page in their web browsers. Domain parking is the best way to secure a domain for later development or re-sale. Domains can be parked before the web site is ready for launching.

Firewall

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard Internet protocol for transmitting files between two computers either client or server computer. FTP, is a protocol through which internet users can upload files from their computers to a website or download files from a website to their PCs. FTP uses Transmission Control Protocol(TCP) and Internet Protocol(IP) to perform uploading and downloading tasks.

Internet Service Provider (ISP)

Internet Service Provider (ISP) is the company that provides Internet access. ISP is also known as Internet Access Provider(IAP). In order to connect to the Internet, you need an ISP.

MySQL

MySQL is an open source RDBMS (Relational DataBase Management System). MySQL is based on the SQL (Structure Query Language), which is used for adding, removing, and modifying information in the database.

Phishing

PHP

PHP is an HTML-embedded Web scripting language. PHP code can be inserted into the HTML page. When accessing the PHP page, the PHP code is read or “parsed” by the server in which the page resides. The output from the PHP functions returned as HTML code, which is read by the browser. Most syntax of PHP is borrowed from other programming languages like C, Java and Perl. PHP allows Web developers to write dynamically generated pages quickly and easily.

phpMyAdmin

phpMyAdmin is being translated into 69 international languages.

Ping

Ping is the network utility to test whether the device such as a router, server or switch is active and contactable or not. Ping sends the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packets over network to find the device. When the device receives this packet, it sends a reply saying “yes, I am here”. Ping is used for network troubleshooting.

Port Number

Port number distinguish different instance of different applications. It is 16 bit number used to identify sending and receiving application layer processes. Port numbers allow different applications on the same computer to share network resources simultaneously. The port number while added with the IP address, it completes the destination address of a communications session.

Reseller Hosting

Reseller hosting is a form of web hosting where the account owner has the ability to sell their allotted resources. The reseller purchases the host’s services wholesale and then sells them to customers and earn. The reseller may rent a dedicated server or resell shared hosting services.

Shared Hosting

Shared Hosting is cheaper & cost saving Hosting plan. This plan is best when user don’t have much more experience of Hosting. In Shared Hosting user’s IP is shared among many users. Server’s resources like RAM & CPU is also shared among many users in Shared Hosting.

Spam

SSH (Secure Shell)

Secure Shell (SSH) is a method for securely communicating in the network. SSH sometimes also known as Secure Socket Shell. SSH is a UNIX-based command interface which is used for secure login to another Unix based Computers. SSh is widely used to control the servers remotely. As the name implies, SSH provides strong security in communication by encrypting data. Since SSH is based on a Unix shell, standard Unix commands are used to view, modify, and transfer files from a remote machine once an SSH connection has been established.

SSL (Secure Socket Layer)

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) used for transmitting private documents over the internet. In SSL data is encrypted before it is transmitted. Many websites use SSL in secure areas of their websites, like login pages and online checkout etc. In SSL only the user’s computer and the secure server are able to recognize the data. URLs that require an SSL connection start with https: instead of http.

Subdomains

Subdomain is the part of a domain name in DNS hierarchy and it is also known as Child Domain. For example, mail.google.com and play.google.com are subdomains of the google.com domain.

Technical Support

The technical support is the help provided by a persons who are familiar with all the aspects of device. The Technical support officers are known as technicians. The job of technician is to diagnose the faults and solve the technical as well as application level problems. Technical support may be provided over the phone, through email, or with a live-chat interface.

Virtual Private Server

Virtual Private server (VPS) is very popular way of providing low-cost web hosting services. VPS is one of the virtual machine which are running on a single dedicated server. VPS bridges the gap between Shared Hosting & Dedicated Hosting and you can get advantages of both the Hosting types in VPS.

VPN

VPN is a networking technology which creates a secure network connection over a public network such as the Internet or a private network. VPNs are often used to extend intranets worldwide. By using encryption and other security measures, a VPN can scramble all the data sent through the wide area network (WAN). VPN allows administrators to take advantage of the Internet to help provide the functionality and security of private WAN connections at a lower cost.