Pay per Click Advertising Guide

August 30, 2006 the maven 1 Comment

This Pay Per Click Advertising Guide (PPC Advertising Guide) provides tips and strategies to maximize profits from keyword advertising on the search engines that sell sponsored pay per click advertising.

Pay-per-click advertising is a quick way to establish relevancy and establish national or regional prominence for your product or service. There are a number of key elements to an effective Pay Per Click advertising campaign:

1. Quality of the Search Engine

2. Keyword choices

3. Keyword Cost-per-click (CPC)

4. Quality of Ad and Click-Through-Rate (CTR)

5. Quality of site advertised

6. Return on Investment (ROI)

Quality of Search Network

Right now the two top tier Pay Per Click Networks are Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google Adwords.

Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly called Overture) sponsors links on Yahoo!, MSN, Altavista, CNN, and Infospace. It allows your keyword sponsored ads to be seen by the vast majority of Internet users. Ad placement is based on bid amount per keyword.

Google Adwords sponsors links on Google and with their search and content network of subscribers such as AOL and other prominent websites. Ad placement is based on bid amount and Click-Through-Rate (CTR). Google will de-activate low-performing keywords.

Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google Adwords will soon be joined in the top tier of Pay Per Click Networks by MSN when they launch their new service soon.

The two top tier Search Engines have broad distribution, lots of features, fast feedback, and are easy to maintain. The main disadvantage is cost – broad reach = competition = expensive for some keywords.

Middle tier Search Networks include Miva, Kanoodle, Enhance Interactive, Search123, 7Search.com, LookSmart, etc. These Search Engines have cheaper click prices than Google or Yahoo! Search Marketing and may work on some keywords that are expensive there. Some meta search engines mix PPC listings from these search engines with other search results making your listing on these more useful at times. The big disadvantage is the quality of the traffic sometimes suffers and there is much more click fraud on these search engines.

Smaller Pay-per-click Search Engines should be avoided. I learned this the hard way. You’re better off paying for web traffic than listing with small PPC Search Engines. There are always exceptions to the rule but the rule is that you will get a lot of clicks, spend a lot of money, and see very little Return on Investment. These search engines are very susceptible to click fraud. Instead of including that topic in this Pay Per Click advertising guide I have created an article on that form of fraud as well as on impression spam.

Keyword Choices

Remember, with Pay Per Click Advertising, you are paying every time somebody clicks on your ad. You want to make sure you choose keywords related to the content of the page that the searcher will be visiting. If you have a web page you want to advertise that is about cars then you don’t want to be advertising with the keyword “bicycles” because, although somebody might click through out of mere curiosity, you’re not targeting the right audience. Yahoo! Search Marketing will not let you bid on keywords unrelated to your content (which helps you) but others might. Don’t waste your money on clicks that won’t convert to customers.

Another aspect of keyword choice is variety and specificity. It is usually better to bid on many different very specific keywords related to your content than it is to bid on a very few general keywords. One reason is cost – very general keywords that lots of people are searching on are generally more expensive while variations or more specific keyword combinations may be cheaper and allow your ad to be placed more favorably.

Yahoo! Search Marketing and most other PPC engines work on a bidding system – the highest bid for a particular keyword always appears at the top of sponsored results. Google Adwords works with a combination of Cost-per-click you are willing to spend combined with the click-through-rate for your keywords. If you choose very general keywords on Yahoo! Search Marketing you are likely to spend a great deal getting to the top. If you choose very general keywords on Google, your Click-through-rate is likely to suffer because your ad will appear frequently but will be unrelated to a specific niche. In either model, your performance will suffer.

If you really must compete with popluar keywords, instead of less popular variations, then make sure you set up your search account to only “fire” on the exact match for that keyword. In Google, for example, you might want to compete for the specific keyword “web page”. With a broad match setting, your ad will show up if somebody types anything with either web or page in the search. You can narrow it down further by having your ad show only when “web page” appears somewhere in the search string. Finally, with exact match, you can have your ad appear only when the string “web page” is typed and nothing else is searched for.

With popular keywords, I recommend you stick to exact match for two reasons: cost and ad delivery. On one hand with broad match you may end up paying for a ton of clicks from visitors that figure out your product was not what they were looking for. On the other hand, you may receive too few clicks to maintain an acceptable click-through-rate (CTR) and have your ad disabled by Google. It is better to come up with very speciific exact match keywords (and lots of them) that relate to your site and have your ad appear only for those specific keywords.

Google offers free advice on how to optimize your keywords here.

Cost per Click

With Yahoo! Search Marketing and other PPC engines, your ad position is dictated purely by how much you are willing to spend for every click – this is called a bid amount for a keyword or sometimes called a Cost per Click (CPC) for some engines. Google uses an algorithm that factors in CPC along with how “successful” a keyword is for your ad (also known as Click through Rate – CTR).

There is not a single answer to the question – what should my maximum Cost-per-Click (CPC) be. Some very specific keywords fetch exorbitant click prices because the advertisers get a huge sale for every one that buys that product. Many people lose money based on their bid prices. Because there are so many people trying to sponsor ads, there are also many new entrepeneurs who will push the click prices way up. What you need to do is be smart about the bid amounts and figure out how much you can afford to spend per click. To do that, you will have to experiment.

There are services such as Atlas Onepoint that allow you to track keywords from click to sale to determine how profitable they are. These tools figure out which keywords have led to a sale and how much you had to pay for each click. You can also use the free conversion tools provided by Google and Yahoo! Search Marketing to determine which keywords are converting and how much you had to pay for each click before you got a sale. Your conversion rate is the number of sales (conversions) divided by the number of clicks for a keyword before you got a sale (sales/click). Cost per conversion is how much you had to pay on average for each sale (cost per click x number of clicks/ number of sales). If you can keep your cost per conversion below the amount of money you are making per sale then you are making a profit.

Tracking this information will allow you to determine which keywords are worth “upgrading” and which are dogs that are just costing you money. You may determine that a keyword converts really well and it is worth upgrading the max CPC in order to get it higher in the sponsored results. You may also lower the CPC price in order to make a keyword profitable.

Quality of Ad and Click Through Rate

In order to get clicks, people will have to want to click on your ad. Some sites allow a good amount of text but my experience indicates that less is more. Google’s restrictions to 3 lines with only about 30-40 characters per line is a good guideline. If you cannot grab the attention of the reader in that space then you will get few clicks. A few thoughts:

Click through rate (CTR) is a measure of how many clicks you receive on your ad divided by the number of times your ad appears (also called impressions). Yahoo! Search Marketing does not care about your CTR and will continue to give your ad placement based solely on CPC or bid amount. Google places your ad based on a combination of your CPC and how well your ad is performing (CTR). If your ad falls below a 0.5% click through rate (1 click for every 200 impressions) your ad gets in danger of being slowed down and eventually disabled for that keyword.

Make sure your ad title contains the keyword you are advertising for. PPC search engines bold the keyword in the search results and make your ad stand out. It also is an indication to the searcher that your content relates to their search term. Have many different ads for different search combinations to improve your ad performance.

Ads that appear on the first page of search results (positions 1-7 in sponsored results) have better CTR’s than ads that appear in the 2nd page or further of results. Folks assume that if it’s not in the first page then your site must not be as “important”.

With Google, if your CTR is really high you can pay far less in terms of CPC than others do for the same level of placement. This is especially true if a keyword has been disabled multiple times based on poor CTR. If your ad regularly gets a CTR for a keyword that exceeds 0.5% then you can try gradually lowering the max CPC and still achieve great performance. Some days are better than others so it’s always wise to track ad performance and “throttle” the max CPC for keywords based on how they’re performing for a given day. The basic rule of thumb is to try to keep your ad in the first page of search results and to change your CPC to do that. If your budget can’t afford that then turn off your ad on those days when you’re getting clobbered.

A final note on CTR in Google has to do with what I call impression spam (I’ve actually been interviewed about this phenomenom). I have had keywords disabled because there are huge spikes in searches for my keywords. On a typical day for my most popular keyword, there are about 6000 impressions for an exact match search. On occassion, I’ve seen as many as 30,000 impressions for the exact match in a single hour. Google repeatedly denies glitches in their system or click fraud but it is impossible to account for it based on “normal” traffic. The net result is that, because Google tends to measure keyword performance (CTR) every 1000 clicks, these spikes in traffic tend to disable keywords based on poor CTR. I’ve learned that these spikes tend to happen at night and in the morning hours and, so for very popular keywords, I don’t turn on ads until after 10 pm EST. I don’t know why it works but it just does. You’ll have to do a bit of experimentation to figure out if you have any keywords that tend to spike in the same way.

Quality of Site Advertised

So far the discussion has been limited to those factors that affect how well ads perform on Google or Yahoo! Search Marketing or other Pay Per Click engines. It is certainly true that you need to optimize your ads so they perform well and get you the highest quality clicks at the best prices. Equally, or perhaps more important is the quality of the site once the searcher lands on the site after clicking on the advertisement.

If your site does not have what the person is looking for, if the site layout is confusing, if the text isn’t compelling, or if the site is unprofessional your visitors may just visit quickly and leave the site. Conversion rate is as much about the quality of your web site as it is about keyword choice and cost per click. You need to build a site that people will want to read and make them want to purchase whatever you have to offer. I discuss the principles of a profitable web site in making money from your web site.

Return on Investment (ROI)

No Pay Per Click Advertising Guide is complete without a discussion of Return on Investment because the most important thing, in the end, is the bottom line when advertising: am I taking in more than I’m paying out? If the answer is No, then unless your motivations for your site are altruistic, then you need to come up with a better advertising strategy. ROI is a measure of profit realized from your use of advertising dollars. It is very easy to spend $50 at a time and have it add up to thousands of dollars a month wasted if you are not tracking the factors that contribute to profit and loss in Pay Per Click advertising. One dollar per click may not seem like much but if you’re paying for 1800 clicks per month and it leads to no sales then you have just contributed $1800 to your favorite search engine. The Pay per Click Reviews page gives some real world data that shows ROI for the major PPC networks and recommendations on the networks that seem to perform the best.

The maximize ROI you need to follow the strategies outlined above. I also highly recommend the SEOBook and SiteBuildIt! as my strategies are a distillation of the tomes of information provided with their products.

Domain Names

How to Choose a Domain Name

August 24, 2006 the maven 2 Comments

In general, you wan to choose a domain name that reflects your organization, is easy to type, is easy to remember, and has a TLD extension (.com, .org, etc) appropriate for your use.

1. The best place to begin is a domain name registry such as ICANNWholesale to help determine what domain names are available. You may have a name in mind already that you think is perfect for your business but it may already be registered by another business. Use the tools provided to search different variations. The tools come up with some great variations you may not have considered.

2. In general, if you are a business, and concerned about driving traffic to your site then try to find a .com address that matches your business name. People are so used to typing .com that your traffic may go to another business that owns yourbusinessname.com.

3. Try to choose a domain name that matches your organizational name. People may remember your business name and if they know you have a web site they will first try to find you by typing yourbusinessname.com.

4. If you are a non-profit of any kind you may want to consider getting both the .org and .com domains for your organization. Many just naturally type .com to the end of domains so you won’t lose that traffic. You may also run into the problem, if you become very popular, that people will buy the .com address that matches your site to get some free traffic. E-sword.net is a very popular free Bible software program. I’ve found myself, on several occasions, accidentally typing esword.com only to be taken to another domain. It is quite easy to forward the .com address to your .org address to take advantage of the added traffic.

5. Domain names can have dashes in them. If the domain name, thebagelfactory.com is taken, you may be able to buy the-bagel-factory.com. If you can get the domain name without dashes, choose that one. Use variations in capitalization to promote your domain name vice dashes. People forget to put dashes in domains.

6. It is key to choose a domain name that is memorable. People may find you on a search engine and if your domain name easily “sticks” in their head they will likely return to your site. If they constantly have to find you via a search engine, because they can’t rember your domain, then you will lose visitors. There are a couple of key factors to being memorable: brevity and relation to product or service.

a. Brevity: Short domain names are generally better than long domain names. The-best-chiropractor-in-town.com makes it difficult to type but also to remember because of all the words in it and it has dashes as well. Domain names that are too long will also get cut off in many forms or other internet apps. Keep it short.

b. Relation to Product: If you can get a domain name that people will naturally think of when they think of you they will more likely remember your domain. It’s a balancing act to find a domain that makes people think of you while keeping it short too. I always forget, for instance, that Merrill Lynch’s domain name is www.ml.com because, while brief, I don’t think of ml immediately.

7. Some will tell you that having keywords in a domain name helps you in the search engines if it relates to your topic. The domain best-temecula-chiropractor.com has targeted keywords in it but it is long, has dashes, and will be hard to remember. It used to be true that the search engines gave a bonus to keyword domain names in search engine results but the algorithms have improved. Keep your domain name related to your content but don’t sacrifice being memorable in the process.

8. Domain names are not case sensitive. TheBagelFactory.com resolves the same as thebagelfactory.com but is more readable. Try variations in Capitalization to see how your domain name reads. It helps when promoting your domain, to capitalize certain letters so people will see the distinct words in the domain rather than a bunch of letters run together.

9. Some domain names just don’t look right. Make sure you look at your domain name typed out before you settle on it. The domain name websiteexplained.com just looks weird because it has two contiguous vowels. There’s no hard and fast rule here but most people can “see” when a domain name just doesn’t work. One of the reasons Merrill Lynch chose ml.com, I would guess, is that merrilllynch.com just doesn’t “work” with three l’s run together.

10. Use a Thesaurus! If a domain name is taken, use a thesaurus to find synonyms to terms that you wanted in your domain name. You may find some memorable variations you had not considered.

11. For personal use or for other organizations where .com is not a requirement, don’t forget about all the other domain extension options available. There is .net, .org, .biz, and .us just to name a few. I find the .us domain to be a great domain extension for people who want to set up personal domains such as lastname.us. Just remember, though, people usually remember the first part of domain name and “default” to a .com extension. Always go with .com if you can get it.

Domain Names

What is a Domain Name?

August 22, 2006 the maven 1 Comment

Background

The World Wide Web (WWW) has become such a normal part of life, with browsing so simplified, that the vast majority take for granted that when they type in an address (aka URL), they load a page. Why is it, however, that https://www.websitemaven.com leads a user to my site?

Information on the internet is routed according to Internet Protocol Addresses (or IP addresses for short). Every web server that hosts web pages to be viewed has a unique IP address, such as 192.0.34.35. You can actually browse to websites using IP addresses but what if you had to remember to type 192.0.34.35 every time you wanted to visit a web page? This is where the Domain Name System comes in?

In the early days of the Internet, there were few computers connected to the Internet and a central database was maintained that listed every computer on the Internet. With several thousand computers connected, the database became too large to manage centrally and in 1983, the Domain Name System was invented at USC to distributed databases, decentralizing management while maintaining central control of domains.

The Domain Name System (DNS) uses the familiar address of www.somedomainname.com and translates (or resolves) the name into an IP address. People naturally remember names or “mnemonic” devices more easily than numbers (which is why we sort telephone books by last name to find phone numbers and not the other way around.) The goal of the DNS is for any Internet user any place in the world to reach a specific website IP address by entering its domain name. Domain names are also used for reaching e-mail addresses and for other Internet applications.

In an Internet address – such as icann.org – the .org part is known as a Top Level Domain, or TLD. So-called “TLD registry” organizations house online databases that contain information about the domain names in that TLD. The .org registry database, for example, contains the Internet whereabouts – or IP address – of icann.org. So in trying to find the Internet address of icann.org your computer must first find the .org registry database. How is this done?

How the Domain Name System Works

At the core of the DNS are 13 special computers, called root servers. ICANN coordinates their operation and they are distributed around the world. All 13 servers contain identical information; this allows the workload to be spread as well as to back each other up. Reflect on the elegance of the design that allows the central resolution of domain names for millions of people with only 13 servers!

The 13 servers are called root servers and they contain the IP address of all the Top Level Domain (TLD) registrars. These TLDs include global registries such as .com, .net, .org, etc. and the 244 country specific registries (.tw, .ca, .uk, etc.)

Scattered across the Internet are thousands of computers – called “Domain Name Resolvers” or just plain “resolvers” – that routinely cache the information they receive from queries to the root servers. These resolvers are located strategically with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or institutional networks. They are used to respond to a user’s request to resolve a domain name – that is, to find the corresponding IP address.

When a user types a domain name for a web page or to send an e-mail, a domain name request is forwarded to a local resolver to figure out where to send or look for name.com. The resolver knows how to find the .com registry as it has copied its IP from a root server beforehand. The resolver then goes to the .com registry and “says” “Can you give me the IP address for name.com?” The .com registry returns the IP address of name.com which is sent back to the requesting server so it can make a connection using the IP address provided. It all happens in fractions of a second (usually) without the user needing to know (nor caring) what the IP address of name.com is.

Top-level, second-level, and third-level domains

The domain name system is a hierarchical system. You may have encountered domain names like www.usa.xerox.com. That domain name has different domain levels within it. The top level domain is .com, controlled by ICANN’s root server. Moving to the left of .com, xerox.com is a second-level domain – the .com registry contains the IP address of xerox.com. Moving further left, usa.xerox.com is a third-level domain. Xerox has its only domain name system (DNS) server that has the IP address of usa.xerox.com. Xerox’s DNS system also knows where to resolve www.usa.xerox.com where www is at the fourth-level position though is not a domain. It is rare to see domain names beyond the third level.

Who cares about this domain name stuff?

I thought you did since you clicked on What is a Domain Name and you’re reading this page. For many, ignorance is bliss as they need not understand the system to use it. If you are going to purchase or think you want to own a domain name it is useful to understand it. When you purchase a domain name on the Internet, that domain name is yours – you can point it whereve you want and if you understand how the domain name system work then you have great flexibility as to who you pay to register your domain as well as who you choose to let host your domain.

For instance, I have several websites hosted at Lunar Pages and own several domain names for personal and professional use. I registered the domain names at the registry of my choice and I can choose where I want to point those domain names to. I point several to Lunar Pages but if I ever wanted to change Web Hosting companies, I can do so within minutes by pointing the domain names to a different host. More discussion on managing your domain is available on this site but the main point is that if you understand the fundamental principles of the domain name system (DNS) then you have much more power and flexibility as an Internet user.

Internet Applications

HTML Editors Explained

August 17, 2006 the maven Leave a comment

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the language that web pages use to represent the information contained in a web page. When you view a web page your browser loads and interprets text in an html file and displays that information graphically on your browser. Even the images you are viewing are instructions in the HTML file that tell the browser “show an image here” and other similar commands. Anyone who wishes to create quality web pages needs to become familiar with the syntax and rules of HTML.

Since web pages consist primarily of html files that are strictly text based, it is possible to construct web pages using a simple text editor like notepad. The job becomes more tedious for elaborate web pages and sites that have content that you want to remain consistent across. Toward that end, HTML Editors have been created to aid the webmaster in creating elaborate and consistent web pages for a site.

The best editors have both a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) design workspace as well as an ability to code html directly. The design workspace allows the webmaster to create his content graphically and quickly, seeing the results as he goes. Unfortunately, even the best graphical interfaces create bloated html code and it is necessary to go directly into the code to tweak the html.

While basic html editing is very simple and even a novice can create a simple web page, there are intermediate to advanced techniques to web design including the inclusion of applets and scripts that take time and instruction to learn. Beyond the technical aspects, there are asthetic or artistic aspects of web design that create a “feel” for a website that are more difficult to teach and are reflections of artistic talent.

Given the breadth of the subject, an exhaustive discussion of web design or even the intricacies of html editors, I’ll merely recommend some books. Those who have the time and interest in building their own web pages should consider the HTML editors and resources below. A great way to build quick content, and learn HTML along the way, is to use pre-made web templates built by professionals. Businesses more concerned with getting a professional site online should consider hiring a professional web designer to build their website.

Web Hosting

Web Hosting Glossary

August 16, 2006 the maven Leave a comment

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

Don’t see a definition below that you would like to suggest for the web hosting glossary? Please contact us

ActiveX

A loosely defined set of technologies developed by Microsoft. ActiveX is an outgrowth of two other Microsoft technologies called OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) and COM (Component Object Model). As a moniker, ActiveX can be very confusing because it applies to a whole set of COM-based technologies. Most people, however, think only of ActiveX controls, which represent a specific way of implementing ActiveX technologies. Once downloaded, ActiveX controls have a large degree of freedom, presenting a security risk. ActiveX controls have to be digitally signed by their creator. Major competitor to ActiveX controls are JavaBeans. Some hosts support ActiveX server components for ASP.

Address

Unique identifier or location of a web page. Also called a Web Address or URL (Uniformed Resource Locator)

Anonymous FTP (Anon FTP)

A method for downloading and uploading files using FTP protocol without having a username or a password. In place of a username, word “anonymous” is used, and in place of a password, email address is usually used. If a hosting plan offers this service, your users will be able to download or upload files with FTP without having their own account.

ANSI

American National Standards Institute. The U.S. standards organization.

Apache Web Server

Often referred to as simply Apache, a public-domain open source Web server developed by a loosely-knit group of programmers. The first version of Apache, based on the NCSA httpd Web server, was developed in 1995.

Core development of the Apache Web server is performed by a group of about 20 volunteer programmers, called the Apache Group. However, because the source code is freely available, anyone can adapt the server for specific needs, and there is a large public library of Apache add-ons. In many respects, development of Apache is similar to development of the Linux operating system.

The original version of Apache was written for UNIX, but there are now versions that run under OS/2, Windows and other platforms.

The name is a tribute to the Native American Apache Indian tribe, a tribe well known for its endurance and skill in warfare. A common misunderstanding is that it was called Apache because it was developed from existing NCSA code plus various patches, hence the name a patchy server, or Apache server

Applet

Most often refers to a small Java program designed to run in a Web browser. Java applets run in a sandbox, so they can’t perform unauthorized functions like file reading or opening Net connections to other computer from your computer.

Application ServerAlso called an appserver. A program that handles all application operations between users and an organization’s backend business applications or databases. Application servers are typically used for complex transaction-based applications. To support high-end needs, an application server has to have built-in redundancy, monitors for high-availability, high-performance distributed application services and support for complex database access.

Archie

A program that enables you to search for files anywhere on the Internet by filename.

Archive

(1) To copy files to a long-term storage medium for backup. Large computer systems often have two layers of backup, the first of which is a disk drive. Periodically, the computer operator will archive files on the disk to a second storage device, usually a tape drive.
On smaller systems, archiving is synonymous with backing up.

(2) To compress a file.

ARPANET

The precursor to the Internet, ARPANET was a large wide-area network created by the United States Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA). Established in 1969, ARPANET served as a testbed for new networking technologies, linking many universities and research centers. The first two nodes that formed the ARPANET were UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute, followed shortly thereafter by the University of Utah.

ASCII

(American Standard Code for Information Interchange). A standard for coding text files. Every character has an associated number and any text can be represented by a sequence of numbers.

ASP

Active Server Pages. ASP is Microsoft’s server-side scripting technology. An Active Server Page has an .asp extension and it mixes HTML and scripting code that can be written in VBScript or JScript. ASP is distributed with Microsoft’s IIS web server, so most host using IIS will also offer ASP for dynamic web programming. ASP.NET is the next version of ASP. Other popular server-side scripting languages are Perl, PHP, ColdFusion, TCL, Python, and JSP.
Authentication

The process of identifying an individual, usually based on a username and password. In security systems, authentication is distinct from authorization , which is the process of giving individuals access to system objects based on their identity. Authentication merely ensures that the individual is who he or she claims to be, but says nothing about the access rights of the individual.

AVI

Audio/Video Interleave. Microsoft’s video for Window’s standard.

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Backbone

Main high-speed network connections which together comprise the Internet. Backbone connections are installed, operated, and maintained by major telecommunications companies like Sprint, MCI, or AT&T.

Bandwidth

(1) The amount of data that can be transferred over a network in a fixed amount of time. On the Net, it is usually expressed in bits per second (bps) or in higher units like Mbps (millions of bits per second). 28.8 modem can deliver 28,800 bps, a T1 line is about 1.5 Mbps.

(2) Bandwidth is also synonomous with the term Data Transfer and is used by many hosting companies to refer to the aggregate total of data (in MB) that is allowed to by downloaded or uploaded into your account in a given month

Binary

The Base 2 number system. Important for computers as chips and memory are designed with binary-based registers.

binary mode

FTP client mode used to transfer binary files (multimedia files, executables and other data files). Not suitable for transferring normal text files.

Bit

(Binary DigIT) the smallest unit of information, comprising of either a 1 or 0.

Bit rate

The speed at which bits are transmitted over a communication link. Expressed in bits per second (bps).

BRB

Be Right Back

Broadcast

Sending a packet to all machines on the network.

Browser

Short for Web browser, a software application used to locate and display Web pages. The two most popular browsers are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Both of these are graphical browsers, which means that they can display graphics as well as text. In addition, most modern browsers can present multimedia information, including sound and video, though they require plug-ins for some formats.

Browser sniffing

The process in which the web site tries to determine what kind of web browser the user is using. This is done to suit the website to the particular capabilities of the browser.

BTW

By The Way

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Cable Modem

A modem designed to operate over cable TV lines. Because the coaxial cable used by cable TV provides much greater bandwidth than telephone lines, a cable modem can be used to achieve extremely fast access to the World Wide Web.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

A feature of HTML that gives both Web site developers and users more control over how pages are displayed. With CSS, designers and users can create style sheets that define how different elements, such as headers and links, appear. These style sheets can then be applied to any Web page.
The term cascading derives from the fact that multiple style sheets can be applied to the same Web page. CSS was developed by the W3C.

CCIT

Comite Consultatif International Telegraphique et Telephonique (International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee). International telecommunication standards body.

CERN

(Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire) A nuclear research laboratory where the World Wide Web was invented.

Certificate

Digital ID used for SSL transactions. It includes owner’s public key, the name of the owner, the issuer, hostname, and the expiration date.
CGI

Abbreviation of Common Gateway Interface, a specification for transferring information between a World Wide Web server and a CGI program. A CGI program is any program designed to accept and return data that conforms to the CGI specification. The program could be written in any programming language, including C, Perl, Java, or Visual Basic.

CGI programs are the most common way for Web servers to interact dynamically with users. Many HTML pages that contain forms, for example, use a CGI program to process the form’s data once it’s submitted. Another increasingly common way to provide dynamic feedback for Web users is to include scripts or programs that run on the user’s machine rather than the Web server. These programs can be Java applets, Java scripts, or ActiveX controls. These technologies are known collectively as client-side solutions, while the use of CGI is a server-side solution because the processing occurs on the Web server.

One problem with CGI is that each time a CGI script is executed, a new process is started. For busy Web sites, this can slow down the server noticeably. A more efficient solution, but one that it is also more difficult to implement, is to use the server’s API, such as ISAPI or NSAPI. Another increasingly popular solution is to use Java servlets.

cgi-bin

A directory on the server where the executable CGI scripts reside.

Client

A computer program that requests a service from a server program, usually over the network.

clustering

Connecting many computers or servers and making them appear as one machine. This is done to increase reliability and performance.
ColdFusion

A product created by Allaire Corporation of Cambridge, Mass. (in 2001, Allaire merged with Macromedia) that includes a server and a development toolset designed to integrate databases and Web pages. With Cold Fusion, a user could enter a zip code on a Web page, and the server would query a database for information on the nearest movie theaters and present the results in HTML form. Cold Fusion Web pages include tags written in Cold Fusion Markup Language (CFML) that simplify integration with databases and avoid the use of more complex languages like C++ to create translating programs.

Control Panel

A utility, provided by Web Hosting companies to their clients, that allows a client to log in to their account and perform a number of account maintenance functions (billing information, e-mail accounts, ftp accounts, etc)

Cookie

A message given to a Web browser by a Web server. The browser stores the message in a text file. The message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. The main purpose of cookies is to identify users and possibly prepare customized Web pages for them. When you enter a Web site using cookies, you may be asked to fill out a form providing such information as your name and interests. This information is packaged into a cookie and sent to your Web browser which stores it for later use. The next time you go to the same Web site, your browser will send the cookie to the Web server. The server can use this information to present you with custom Web pages. So, for example, instead of seeing just a generic welcome page you might see a welcome page with your name on it.

CPU

Central Processing Unit. The actual “computer” that executes programs on a machine.

Crawler

Also known as spider, an automated software that retrieves webpages and follows the hyperlinks contained in them. Used to generate indexes used by search engines.

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Data transfer (aka Transfer)

In Web Hosting parlance, data transfer (also called Bandwidth) typically refers to the amount of data that is permitted to be downloaded per month, usually expressed in MB. A web hosting account with 1000 MB transfer will allow users to stream or download any number of files provided the aggregrate data does not exceed 1000 MB for the month.

Database

Data in a structured format stored on a server. Most popular type is a relational database. The most common query (information retrieval) language for relational databases is SQL. Linux-based hosts most commonly include MySQL database and Windows NT-based hosts usually include Access or MS SQL databases.

Dedicated Server

In the Web hosting business, a dedicated server is typically a rented service. The user rents the server, software and an Internet connection from the Web host.

DNS

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.

The DNS system is, in fact, its own network. If one DNS server doesn’t know how to translate a particular domain name, it asks another one, and so on, until the correct IP address is returned.

Domain name

Domain name is an easy-to-remember address that can be translated by DNS into server’s IP address. Domain names are hierarchical. Domain’s suffix indicates which TLD (top level domain) it belongs to, for example .com, .gov, .org, .net, or .jp. Recently ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) added several new TLDs, like .biz, .pro., and .museum.

DSL

Digital Subscriber Line. A technology that allows high-speed internet connections to the Internet over phone lines.

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E-Business

Using web and Internet technologies in conducting the business activities. Also expanding end enhancing traditional business practices by means of the Internet.

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FAQ

(Frequently Asked Question) Lists of frequently asked questions and answers to them are used as a way of sharing knowledge on the web. They are a very good way of finding solutions to different problems. Some companies include them in their websites to minimize the number of Customer Support inquiries.

FCC

(Federal Communications Commission). U.S.A. telecommunications regulatory organization. It controls standards that pertain to electronic and electromagnetic transmission and also licenses the frequencies and bandwidth for the commercial use.

Fibre Optic Cable

A cable used for transmitting data as a light wave. A fiber optic cable is composed of one or more optical fibers. It is more expensive that copper wire, but offers higher transmission speeds and over larger distances.
Filtering

Screening network packets for certain properties, such as the source or destination address, protocol used or even a pattern in the data. It is used in firewalls in order to decide if the traffic is to be forwarded or rejected. Provides the basis for network security.

Finger

A UNIX program that takes an e-mail address as input and returns information about the user who owns that e-mail address. On some systems, finger only reports whether the user is currently logged on. Other systems return additional information, such as the user’s full name, address, and telephone number. Of course, the user must first enter this information into the system. Many e-mail programs now have a finger utility built into them.

Firewall

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.

Flame

An insulting email message sent to an individual as punishment for not adhering to the netiquette. Can be sometimes seen in the newsgroups or on internet message boards.
FrontPage Extensions

Microsoft’s server-side applications that lets users of FrontPage Web site creation tool to incorporate “web-bots” that perform pre-packaged function like full-text Web site searching or adding a hit counter. FrontPage extensions are also available for Unix-based operating systems but some hosts refuse to use them because of potential security holes.

FTP

Short for File Transfer Protocol, the protocol for exchanging files over the Internet. FTP works in the same way as HTTP for transferring Web pages from a server to a user’s browser and SMTP for transferring electronic mail across the Internet in that, like these technologies, FTP uses the Internet’s TCP/IP protocols to enable data transfer.

FTP is most commonly used to download a file from a server using the Internet or to upload a file to a server (e.g., uploading a Web page file to a server).
Major browser also have FTP capability.

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GIF

(Graphics Interchange Format) A graphic file format invented by Compuserve. One of the most widely used formats for internet and web. Uses a lossless compression method but is limited to 256 colors.

Gigabyte (GB)

2 to the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes. One gigabyte is equal to 1,024 megabytes.

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

A way of interacting with the computer that relies on graphical symbols. Most often requires a mouse. It is less powerful then the command-line interface, but is more user friendly and is easier to learn for users without technical background.

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Hexadecimal

Base16 numbering system. The hexadecimal system is useful because it can represent every byte (8 bits) as two consecutive hexadecimal digits. It is easier for humans to read hexadecimal numbers than binary numbers. For example FF in hexadecimal is 11111111 in binary or 255 in decimal.

Hit

In the WWW world “hit” is used to describe a single request made by a web browser. The data transmitted by the web server in response to the request is a text file or a binary file (images, audio, video, executables and other data).

Home Page

Main web page on a website, usually with an introduction and links to other sections of the site. This is the page that is initially displayed when user makes a request for a particular domain name.

Host

A networked computer dedicated to providing a certain kind of service. Most hosts on the internet are web servers (a type of host).

HTML

Short for HyperText Markup Language, the authoring language used to create documents on the World Wide Web.

HTML defines the structure and layout of a Web document by using a variety of tags and attributes. The correct structure for an HTML document starts with <HTML><HEAD>(enter here what document is about) and ends with </BODY></HTML>. All the information you’d like to include in your Web page fits in between the <BODY> and </BODY> tags.

There are hundreds of other tags used to format and layout the information in a Web page. Tags are also used to specify hypertext links. These allow Web developers to direct users to other Web pages with only a click of the mouse on either an image or word(s).

HTTP

Short for HyperText Transfer Protocol, the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web. HTTP defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. For example, when you enter a URL in your browser, this actually sends an HTTP command to the Web server directing it to fetch and transmit the requested Web page.
Hyperlink (or link)

A special type of database system, invented by Ted Nelson in the 1960s, in which objects (text, pictures, music, programs, and so on) can be creatively linked to each other. When you select an object, you can see all the other objects that are linked to it. You can move from one object to another even though they might have very different forms.

Hypertext

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IEEE

(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). Organization that ensures that electronic devices produced by different companies can interoperate. IEEE developed the 802 family of standards that govern computer networks.

IIS

Short for Internet Information Server, Microsoft’s Web server that runs on Windows NT platforms. In fact, 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 platform, whereas Netscape’s Web servers run on all major platforms, including Windows NT, OS/2 and UNIX.

Image Map

An image displayed on a webpage that has different areas that are hyperlinks. By clicking on different parts of the image browser can be redirected to another webpage, or can display modified version of the current one.

IMAP

Internet Message Access Protocol. A method allowing a client email program to access remote messages stored on a mail server. The protocol includes operations for creating, deleting, and renaming mailboxes, checking for new messages, message parsing, searching, and setting and clearing flags.

IMHO

In My Humble Opinion (or: In My Honest Opinion)

IMO

In My Opinion

Internet

A global network connecting millions of computers. More than 100 countries are linked into exchanges of data, news and opinions.

Unlike online services, which are centrally controlled, the Internet is decentralized by design. Each Internet computer, called a host, is independent. Its operators can choose which Internet services to use and which local services to make available to the global Internet community.

Internet backbone

see Backbone

Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP)

A network control protocol running on top of the IP protocol. It is used by Internet hosts to maintain information related to multicast. All machines that want to use the multicast have to have the IGMP implemented.

InterNIC

Short for Internet Network Information Center, a registered service mark of the U.S. Department of Commerce and now a defunct entity. InterNIC began as a collaborative project between AT&T and Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) supported by the National Science Foundation.

The InterNIC is currently an informational Web site established to provide the public with information about domain name registration. ICANN now oversees the domain name registration industry.

Intranet

A part of an organization’s network that is private. Only authorized individuals have access to the intranet.

Abbreviation of Internet Protocol, pronounced as two separate letters. IP specifies the format of packets, also called datagrams, and the addressing scheme.

IP Address

Internet Protocol Address. A unique number identifying all devices connected to the Internet. This number is usually shown in groups of numbers from 0 to 255, separated by periods, for example 207.46.230.218. The current version of IP is IPv4. A new version, called IPv6 or IPng, is under development.
IRC

Internet Relay Chat. Multi-user chat service. IRC users can go into public or private channels to discuss a topic or transfer files. IRC servers are connected into networks. The most popular IRC client program is mIRC. Many hosts are wary of letting customers access IRC because of a possibility of a denial of service attack on the whole network.

ISO

(International Organisation for Standardisation). An Geneva-based international organization that develops and publishes various international standards.

ISP

Internet Service Provider. A company that provides its subscribers with Internet access. Customers have a username and a password and can dial-up or use a cable or DSL line to connect to ISP’s network which is connected to the Internet. The biggest ISP is AOL.

ITU

(International Telecommunication Union). (Formerly CCITT). Another international standards body concerned with telecommunications.

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Java

Sun’s popular programming language. Java is a platform-independent (at least in theory), crash-protected, object-oriented language that can be used to write applets that run in a browser, servlets that run server-side, or independent programs. Java’s syntax is similar to that of C++.

Java class files

The file or set of files that contain the code for a Java applet.

Java Servlet

Servlets are programs written in Java that run on a Web server and can produce dynamic pages. Also see JSP.

Java Virtual Machine (JVM, Java Runtime Environment)

A set of programs that allow for Java applets to be run on a particular computer system.

JavaScript

Simple, client-side programming language created by Sun and Netscape. JavaScript can be embedded in HTML pages to create interactive effects and do tasks like validate form data. JavaScript is a separate language from Java. All popular modern browsers support JavaScript. A few hosts support server-side JavaScript.

JDBC

Java Database Connectivity – a mechanism allowing Java applets to access different databases.

JPEG

Short for Joint Photographic Experts Group, and pronounced jay-peg. JPEG is a lossy compression technique for color images. Although it can reduce files sizes to about 5% of their normal size, some detail is lost in the compression.

JScript

Microsoft’s implementation of ECMAScript standard based on JavaScript. Limited, object-based, interpreted scripting language. Here is the official JScript site. JScript is comparable to VBScript.

JSP

Java Server Pages. Extension of Java Servlet technology for combining Java server-side programs and HTML. JSP pages have an extension .jsp.

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Kbps

Kilobits per second. 1Kbps = 1024bps.
Kilobyte (KB)

In decimal systems, kilo stands for 1,000, but in binary systems, a kilo is 1,024 (2 to the 10th power). Technically, therefore, a kilobyte is 1,024 bytes, but it is often used loosely as a synonym for 1,000 bytes

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LAN

Local Area Network. A network of devices (computers, printers, hubs) occupying a small area. Usually LANs do not span more than one building. LANs are very fast compared to WANs.

Link

(1) Another name for a connection. Sometimes refers to a physical line.

(2) Abbreviated form of the term hyperlink.

Latent Semantic Indexing

A document indexing process, used by Search Engines, that records which keywords a document contains and examines the document collection as a whole to see if any other documents contain the same keywords. LSI considers documents that have many common words to be semantically close, and those with fewer in common to be semantically distant. When an LSI-indexed database is searched it looks for similitarity values it has calculated for every content word, and returns documents it thinks best fit the query. LSI does not require an “exact match” to return useful results because two documents may be semantically close even if they don’t share a particulary keyword.

Linux

A public-domain UNIX-like operating system first developed by Linus Torvalds. Linux and FreeBSD are very often used by hosting companies as their operating systems for web servers as it is an inexpensive and highly stable/secure OS.

Login

To make a computer system or network recognize you so that you can begin a computer session.

LOL

Laughing Out Loud

Lossless

A compression scheme is loseless if no information is discarded during compression.

Lossy

Lossy compression discards some information during compression. Useful when degradation of quaility is acceptable to dramatically reduce size.

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MAC

Media Access Control.

MAC Address

Short for Media Access Control address, a hardware address that uniquely identifies each node of a network.

Mailing List

A way of having a group discussion with list subscribers by email. Emails are sent to all list subscribers. Popular mailing list programs, like Listserv and Majordomo, allow for automated subscription and un-subscription from a mailing list. Some hosting plans allow creation of mailing lists.

Mailserver

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

MBps

MegaBytes (MB) per second, 1 MB = 1,048,576 bytes or 1024 kilobytes.

Mbps

Megabits (Mb) per second, 1Mb = 1,048,576 bits

Megabyte (MB)

1MB = 1024 KiloBytes = 1,048,576 (2 to the 20th power) bytes

MHz

MegaHertz = 1.000.000 Hertz. 1 Hertz is a cycle per second.

MIME

(Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) a method of including binary data and other multimedia content within email messages.

Mirror site

A site that stores the exact content of some other site. Mirroring is done in order to minimize the load on a particular server and also to increase reliability.

Modem

MOdulator-DEModulator. A device used to transform digital data sent by a computer to analog format suitable for transmission over a transmission line. It also transforms analog signals back to the digital form.

MP3

An extremely popular lossy audio compression format for audio files.

MPEG

(Motion Picture Experts Group) video compression format for movies or animations.

mSQL (Mini SQL)

Light-weight relational database.

MySQL

Pronounced “my ess cue el” (each letter separately) and not “my SEE kwill.” MySQL is an open source RDBMS that relies on SQL for processing the data in the database. MySQL provides APIs for the languages C, C++, Eiffel, Java, Perl, PHP and Python. In addition, OLE DB and ODBC providers exist for MySQL data connection in the Microsoft environment. A MySQL .NET Native Provider is also available, which allows native MySQL to .NET access without the need for OLE DB.

MySQL is most commonly used for Web applications and for embedded applications and has become a popular alternative to proprietary database systems because of its speed and reliability. MySQL can run on UNIX, Windows and Mac OS.

MySQL is developed, supported and marketed by MySQL AB. The database is available for free under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) or for a fee to those who do not wish to be bound by the terms of the GPL.

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Netiquette

Informal set of rules that should be followed when using internet services like email, message boards and newsgroups. Describes what it means to be “well behaved” while interacting with other people online.

Netscape

Officially called Netscape Communications Corporation, Netscape was founded by James H. Clark and Marc Andreessen (creator of Mozilla) in 1994 and was acquired by AOL in 1999. It revolutionized the computer software market by giving away for free its popular Navigator Web browser until it had acquired an overwhelming market share for this category of software. The term Netscape is often used as the name of the company’s browser, not the company itself.
Newsgroup

A virtual Internet place where people exchange thoughts, ideas and interests, and amuse themselves by means of text messages.

NNTP

(Network News Transfer Protocol) An Internet protocol that describes how the newsgroups messages are distributed, stored, posted and retrieved.

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OC-1, OC-3, OC-12, OC-24, OC-48

Optical Carrier transmission speeds, used in fiber optic networks conforming to SONET standard. OC-1 is 51.85 Mbps. Higher levels are multiples of that speed.

ODBC

(Open Database Connectivity) A standard allowing applications to access different databases in an uniform way.

Offline

The state of a computer or any other device when it is not connected to the network (i.e. it is not online).

Online

Tha state of a computer when it is connected to the network and communicate with other machines.

Operating system

A software heart of the computer. It is a set of programs that manage the hardware resources of a computer, provide the environment for application programs to run and provide the user interface. Most known operating systems are: different flavors of Unix (SunOs, HP-UX, Irix, FreeBSD, Linux,…), MacOS and Windows.

OSI

(Open System Interconnection). A network standard developed by ISO and CCITT. It describes the way in which protocols of different layers communicate. This enables machines of different vendors to communicate over the network.

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Page

Name for a basic web document. Websites usually consist of many (web) pages.

Perl

Open source CGI scripting programming language. Written in 1987. Still one of the most popular web programming languages mostly due to its powerful text-manipulation facilities. A huge number of Perl scripts are available for download.

PHP

PHP is an free, open-source server-side scripting language. PHP code can be embedded in HTML. PHP files usually have extensions like .php or .php3. PHP language style is similar to C and Java. Other popular server-side scripting languages are ASP, Perl, ColdFusion, TCL, Python, and JSP.

PKZIP or PKUNZIP

Popular compression and decompression programs.

Plug-in

An add-on piece of software that can extend the features of an existing application. For example Netscape browser plug-ins allow displaying of new types of web content, that the browser can’t display on its own.

POP

Post Office Protocol. Popular and simple email retrieval standard. All messages are downloaded at the name time and can only be manipulated on a client machine. Current version is POP3.

Port

1) An interface on a computer to which you can connect a device. Personal computers have various types of ports. Internally, there are several ports for connecting disk drives, display screens, and keyboards. Externally, personal computers have ports for connecting modems, printers, mice, and other peripheral devices.

(2) In TCP/IP and UDP networks, an endpoint to a logical connection. The port number identifies what type of port it is. For example, port 80 is used for HTTP traffic. Routers and firewalls typically block traffic over most ports allowing only those applications to run across a network that are “safe” to allow the outside world.

PPP

(Point to Point Protocol) A network protocol widely used to connect computers to the Internet. Most often used on a telephone line.

Protocol

A set of rules by following which two parties can communicate. The TCP/IP protocol suite is the basis of todays Internet.

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RAID

Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks. Type of disk, often used on servers, where several physical disks are combined into an array for better speed and fault tolerance.

Level 0 implements data striping where file blocks are written to separate drives. Does not provide fault tolerance, because failure of one drive will result in data loss.

Level 1 implements data mirroring. Data is duplicated on two drives either through software or hardware. Provides faster read performance than a single drive.

Level 2 – not used in practice. Data is split at bit level at written to multiple drives.

Level 3 – requires at least 3 drives. Data block is striped at byte level across drives and error correction codes (parity info) is recorder on another drive. Provides fault tolerance but slower writing performance.

Level 4 – Similar to Level 3 but provides faster performance because it uses blocks for striping.

Level 5 – Similar to Level 4 but improves performance but also striping parity info across multiple drives.

Level 6 – Similar to Level 5 but also uses second parity scheme for better fault tolerance.

Level 7 – Proprietary RAID design by Storage Computer Corporation. Faster than other levels because it uses multiple levels of cache and asynchronous I/O transfers.

In addition multiple RAID levels can be combined to improve performance or reliability.

Reseller

Resellers are usually smaller companies that still try to build their customers base. They don’t own the server with user accounts but can perform most administrative functions.

RJ-11

A standard connector that is used to connect to the telephone line. Also known as a phone jack.

RJ-45

A standard connector that is used to connect to the Ethernet network. Looks like a big phone jack.

ROFL

Rolling On the Floor Laughing

Router

A network device (can be a dedicated computer) that is used to connect two or more networks together and route packets between them.

RSA

A public key cryptosystem developed by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman. It can be used to encrypt session keys and to generate digital certificates.

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S/MIME

Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions – a way of making email messages more secure. S/MIME uses digital certificates to attest the message origin and encryption to ensure that message could not be read while in transit.

Scripting Language

A programming language in which programs are the series of commands that are interpreted and then executed one by one. Doesn’t require the compilation phase, for the price of lower performance.

Search engine

A program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. Although search engine is really a general class of programs, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Google and Yahoo that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web and USENET newsgroups.

Typically, a search engine works by sending out a spider to fetch as many documents as possible. Another program, called an indexer, then reads these documents and creates an index based on the words contained in each document. Each search engine uses a proprietary algorithm to create its indices such that, ideally, only meaningful results are returned for each query.

Self-extracting Archive

A compressed (archived) file that is also an executable program. The file(s) that were archived are extracted automatically when the program is run without the need for an archive utility like WinZip.

Server

A networked computer that handles client requests for resources. Most servers on the Internet are web servers.

Session

All the data exchange between two terminals, starting when the connection is established and ending when connection terminates.

Setup fee

Initial fee charged by a host to set up your hosting account.

SHTTP

Secure HTTP. A version of HTTP protocol that uses encryption to assure that the traffic between the server and the browser cannot be eveasdropped on. Should be considered mandatory for all e-commerce applications.

Smileys

Characters used in text-only communications to convey emotions. Example 🙂 🙂 😉 :O :(…

SMTP

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. The predominant protocol used to transfer email messages across the Internet mail servers.

Snail Mail

A normal paper mail delivered by the Post Office.

SNMP

(Simple Network Management Protocol). A most widespread protocol used for network management.

Spam

Unsolicited email sent in mass quantities to multiple receipents, most often for marketing purposes.

Spider

An automated software that retrieves webpages and follows the hyperlinks contained in them. Used to generate indexes used by search engines.

SQL

Structured Query Language. Limited programming language used for updating and performing queries on relational databases. All databases share a common subset of SQL. Most popular SQL databases available with hosting plans are MySQL and MS SQL.

SSH

Secure Shell. Developed by SSH Communications Security, it is a standard for encrypted terminal Internet connections. SSH programs provide strong authentication and encrypted communications, replacing less secure access methods like telnet.

SSI

Server-Side Includes. Instructs the server to include some dynamic information in a Web page before it is sent to a client. This dynamic information could be current date, an opinion poll, etc. Many hosts require that SSI pages have .shtml extension to reduce the load on servers by not having to parse non-SSI pages.

SSL

Short for Secure Sockets Layer, a protocol developed by Netscape for transmitting private documents via the Internet. SSL works by using a private key to encrypt data that’s transferred over the SSL connection. Both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer support SSL, and many Web sites use the protocol to obtain confidential user information, such as credit card numbers. By convention, URLs that require an SSL connection start with https: instead of http:

Static (or dedicated) IP

If a host offers a static IP, it means that your site will be assigned a unique and unchanging IP address.
Streaming

Playing multimedia files (audio and video) from an online file without requiring a full download. Audio and video are compressed but they still may require a lot of bandwidth. Popular streaming formats inclue Real Media, Quicktime, and Windows Media.

Subdomain

Subdomain is a way to divide your domain name and site into sections with short and easy to remember names. For example, a section of this site for new users could be at newbies.webhostingratings.com. Other use of subdomains might be to let somebody else use your account (but this may not be allowed by your host’s terms of use). Large websites might make their subdomains point to another server to reduce load on the main www site.

Surfing

Using world wide web is often referred to as “surfing the web”.

Switch

A switch is a network device that forwards packets to other devices on the same networks. Switches are more intelligent than hubs and typically place each node in its own broadcast domain eliminating collisions and improving overall performance.

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Dedicated telecommunications line providing 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth. Consists of 24 individual channels 64 Kbps each, that can be configured for voice or data transmission. T1 lines can be leased by businesses that required a dedicated Net connection of with higher reliability than a DSL and faster than an ISDN line but are still quite expensive.

Dedicated telecommunications line providing 44 Mbps of bandwidth. T3 lines are often used by ISPs to connect to the Internet backbone.
TCP

Abbreviation of Transmission Control Protocol, and pronounced as separate letters. TCP is one of the main protocols in TCP/IP networks. Whereas the IP protocol deals only with packets, TCP enables two hosts to establish a connection and exchange streams of data. TCP guarantees delivery of data and also guarantees that packets will be delivered in the same order in which they were sent.

TCP/IP

Short for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, the suite of communications protocols used to connect hosts on the Internet. TCP/IP uses several protocols, the two main ones being TCP and IP. TCP/IP is built into the UNIX operating system and is used by the Internet, making it the de facto standard for transmitting data over networks.

Telnet

Character-based protocol for connecting with remote systems. Still popular among hosts, but it is being replaced by much more secure SSH access.

Terabyte (TB)

1024 gigabytes = (2 raised to the 40th power bytes!)

TLD

Short for top-level domain, and refers to the suffix attached to Internet domain names. There are a limited number of predefined suffixes, and each one represent a top-level domain. .com, .net, .gov, and .org are examples of TLD’s.

Traceroute

A computer program that lists network hosts visited by a packed on the way to its destination. Very useful for network debugging.

Traffic

Data packets being transmitted over a network.

Twisted Pair

A pair of wires twisted one around the other. Very common in the networking applications.

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Unicode

A 16 bit ISO 10646 character set. It can accommodate more characters that ASCII, thus allowing for easier internationalization.

Unix

A family of multi-user operating systems, first developed by AT&T Bell Laboratories in the 1970s and then licensed to many universities. A basis for Linux, a very popular operating system among web hosts.

UPS

Uninterruptible Power Supply. UPS kicks in if power is lost allowing servers and other critical infrastructure to keep operating until generators kick in or the administrators shut them down.

URL

(Uniform Resource Locator) is a way of addressing used for world wide web. An URL consist of the type of service (protocol), then the host name and then the file on the host.

Usenet

Network of all the newsgroups in the Internet.

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VBScript

Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition. Interpreted scripting language (subset of MS Visual Basic language) for creating scripts that can be embedded in HTML pages or for creating ActiveX Controls. Meant as an alternative to JavaScript. Here is the official VBScript site. VBScript is comparable to JScript.

viewer

An stand-alone application used to display files of different formats. For example a QuickTime move viewer or a JPG file viewer.

Virus

A malicious program written to disrupt computer systems.

VPN

(Virtual Private Network). A virtual private network is a method of accessing the private network in a secure way over public communication lines and networks.

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W3C

World Wide Web Consortium. An international industry consortium that develops standards for the world wide web.

WAV

An audio file format. Very accurate, but offers no compression, thus resulting in very large files.

Webmaster

A person responsible for the maintenance of a particular website.

whois

An Internet service allowing to obtain the information about a domain name.

Wide Area Network (WAN)

A group of LAN’s interconnected across a campus or region.

WWW

World Wide Web

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XML

Extensible Markup Language. A meta-language, abbreviated version of SGML, used to specify other document types used on the Web. Accepted as a format in 1998 to replace dependence on HTML extensions. MSIE 5.5 and Netscape 6 both support XML.

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YMMV

Your Mileage May Vary

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ZIP

A popular compression format that allows files to be compressed (or shrunk) to allow for easier file sharing.

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Web Hosting

Web Hosting Explained

August 15, 2006 the maven Leave a comment

If you are reading this page then you need the concept of web hosting explained. You may not be specifically knowledgeable about the technical aspects of Web Hosting and what all the terms mean but by browsing the web you are constantly accessing web pages that are hosted by individuals or companies across the world.

What you are viewing right now is a web page. Using your web browser, you have typed in or clicked a web address (or URL) telling your browser where to go on the Internet. When your request to look at that page goes out to the Internet, your address contains a domain name that is translated to a unique internet protocol (IP) address that tells the Internet where to look for the web page. Web pages can be located on University Servers, at company sites, in military headquarters, web service providers, and any other number of organizations. Web pages can even be located on individual people’s computers and some run software on their computer to do just that. Any computer or server that actually has the web page physically located on it is called a host. The server is said to host the web page. When you click or type to come to this web page, this web page is hosted on a server – contained as a file on a hard drive.

In the early days of the Internet, web pages were primarily means of sharing information between academia and governmental agencies. The links on the pages made it easier to find the information needed rather than remembering or keeping a list of all the internet addresses. In fact, it is still possible to browse to web pages using IP’s (but that’s a different subject). Outside of academia, in those early years, web pages were more of a novelty with very few businesses actually relying upon them to share critical information or generate revenue. Putting a web page on a home computer or on a SUN workstation with no backup was acceptable – if the computer or workstation got turned off or crashed then it was more of a hobby than a necessity.

As the web became more ubiquitous with businesses and organizations recognizing the power that the web had to offer, it was no longer acceptable to treat web pages as a hobby. Hosting a web site on just any computer just wouldn’t cut it any more. Powerful web servers, switches, and routers were built in data centers that had fire suppression systems with Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) systems and diesel generators that would continue to operate even if the surrounding area lost electricity. As more people connected to the Internet, the “need for speed” or bandwidth became more critical (Think of all the people trying to access Google at the same time and how quickly they are able to respond – they can’t do that with a single dial-up connection to the Internet.)

Finally, as more people and critical business systems came online so did malicious users intent on spreading viruses and attacking web servers. In addition to all the fancy hardware necessary to provide web pages, companies now had to protect their servers from malicious coders using firewalls and other preventive measures. I still vividly remember the “cowboy” days of the mid-90’s when military and industry where trying to get their arms around the new technology – some may remember how easy it was for hackers to play with the FBI website.

All the technology and expertise that goes into providing a reliable and secure website on the Internet is clearly not cheap. Web Hosting companies have proliferated to fill this gap. The Web Hosting company takes care of building the secure data center with reliable hardware, software, and technical expertise. Individuals and companies pay the Web Hosting provider to give them space on their machines, allow them to run applications, set up web stores, and use bandwidth on the Internet. The company and individual pay a small amount for reliable service while the Web Hosting Company benefits from volume of customers.

If you still need web hosting explained more you can visit multiple forums to learn more about specific techologies.

Internet Applications

Using FTP Clients

August 1, 2006 the maven Leave a comment

Using FTP clients is remarkably simple. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words and its easier to show some basic functions when using ftp clients than to describe them. In very simple terms, using FTP clients consists of setting up the client to communicate with your web server and then uploading and downloading files between them.

Setting up your FTP client to connect to a Server:

Using FTP Clients - Setting up FTP Client to Connect to Server

While the above picture is from a CuteFTP screenshot, it is representative of the setup for most clients. Essentially, the client needs to know where to go to connect to your web server and then what your username and password for the server is. Your web hosting company provides the FTP server information to you as well as your username and password. Once the information is filled in, you need only press connect and the FTP client takes you to your web server. Note also, the option to login anonymously. You can use your FTP client to anomymously login to any number of sites that support it to download files from their servers.

Using ftp clients to transfer files:

Using FTP Clients - Transferring Files using an FTP client

Another screenshot from CuteFTP. The screenshot is a bit compressed to fit into my typing space but the image is illustrative of the simplicity of the FTP client. In the left window pane is your computer. You can browse to any folder on your computer and the left window pane will show the directory you are working in locally. In the right window pane is the server you are connected to. Like any other computer, the server has files within folders. The FTP client allows you to browse to the folder you want on the distant end. When you have browsed to the appropriate folders for your client end and the distant end you can now select files and drag them from one window to the other or use the upload and download arrows. Files can be transferred in either direction and many FTP clients have a sync function that figures out what needs to be uploaded or downloaded to make the local and distant end folders identical in content.

There is more to using ftp clients than this short guide but gives the basics. The full functionality of CuteFTP or other clients can be found by reading their respective manuals. Suffice to say that there is great power and flexibility offered by thes programs with variations on their use limited only by your imagination. FTP clients don’t care what the file is or how big it is. You can use them to upload and download web pages to keep your web page up to date as a webmaster or you can use them to download music for your personal collection.

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Monthly Archives: August 2006

Pay per Click Advertising Guide

Quality of Search Network

Keyword Choices

Cost per Click

Quality of Ad and Click Through Rate

Quality of Site Advertised

Return on Investment (ROI)

How to Choose a Domain Name

What is a Domain Name?

Background

How the Domain Name System Works

Top-level, second-level, and third-level domains

Who cares about this domain name stuff?

HTML Editors Explained

Web Hosting Glossary

Web Hosting Explained

Using FTP Clients

Internet technology for your business or non-profit