Web Hosting Glossary: More Than 100 Web Hosting Terms & Definitions

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Web Hosting Glossary More Than 100 Web Hosting
Terms Definitions
Although web hosting is just about hosting your
website, there are many web hosting terms that
one might be unfamiliar with. Having complete
knowledge about all the aspects related to web
hosting will give you a better understanding of
what you are getting with your web hosting
package. Web hosting is a technology-driven
industry and you might come across various web
hosting terms for the first time. Here is an
all-inclusive list of all the important web
hosting terms Addon Domain Addon domain is an
additional domain that can be added through your
control panel. The functionalities like hosting a
website, creating email addresses, forwarders,
etc. can be performed on the addon domain just
like your main domain. Apache Web Server The
Apache web server delivers the web content to the
users generally through their web browsers.
Apache is a free and open-source web server and
it is maintained by an open community of Apache
developers. Apache is feature-rich and a stable
web server that is widely used by web hosting
service providers. b2evolution b2evolution is
a multi-user, multi-lingual, and multi-blog
publishing platform. This is an open-source
blogging platform that is created in PHP and
backed by the MySQL database. It is one of the
most efficient blog management platforms. Bandwid
th Bandwidth is the measure of the data that can
be transferred at a given point in time. Data
transfer of your website occurs when visitors
come to your website and are involved in actions
like browsing, file downloading, file uploading,
etc. Blog A blog is a website that is
constantly updated by an individual or a group of
people/bloggers. One or more authors can publish
articles, images, videos, and other content in a
blog. Bounce Rate The bounce rate of the
website determines the volume of visitors to your
website who leave your website in a short span
of time or after viewing just one page on the
website. A high bounce rate means that people are
not finding what they are looking
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for on your website and they are not interested
in browsing your website. A high bounce rate is
an alarming sign for the website to make
improvements for holding the visitor's
attention. Browser A browser or a web browser
is a client application that decodes the HTML
from a web server and displays it as an easily
readable web page. The commonly used web
browsers include Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox,
Internet Explorer, and Apple Safari. Catch-All
Email Catch-All is a mailbox on the domain that
catches all the emails that are addressed to the
domain. The catch-all mailbox catches the emails
that do not exist in the mail server. If you
have configured the catch-all address, then you
wont lose the emails due to misspellings. Cloud
Hosting Cloud hosting is a cluster of servers
that stores the data virtually in the cloud.
Cloud hosting has the ability to scale the
resources up or down in real time depending on
the requirements of your website/application. The
owner of the cloud server can access the data
from anywhere at any time. Cloud servers are
perfect for meeting the requirements of
extensive software development and business
production requirements along with ensuring
affordability. Cloudlet A cloudlet is a
mobility-enhanced and small-scale cloud data
center located at the edge of the internet. The
main task of a cloudlet is to support interactive
and resource-intensive mobile applications by
providing mobile devices with powerful computing
resources along with ensuring low latency. A
cloudlet is a state-of-the-art technology that
extends todays cloud computing infrastructure.
In MilesWebs cloud hosting, 1 Cloudlet 128 MB
RAM 400 MHz CPU. Country Code TLD Country
code TLD signifies the country code top-level
domain. This is the two-letter code that
identifies the websites and content specific to a
country. For instance for India the country code
TLD is .in for the USA, the country code TLD
.us can be used, and .uk for the United
Kingdom. Control Panel The control panel is
provided by web hosting companies to manage your
web hosting account and your website. A control
panel is a web-based interface that enables
customers to manage their hosting services
through a single interface. A control panel
allows you to add email addresses, park domains,
install applications, upload files, manage
databases, etc.
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CMS CMS stands for Content Management System. A
content management system is a system that runs
in the backend and manages the content. You can
easily post content to your website through a
CMS and make it look appealing to your website
visitors. You can also add a new theme to your
website through a CMS and you can keep adding
new content at any time. Some popular examples of
CMSs include WordPress, Joomla, Drupal,
etc. CPU CPU stands for Central Processing
Unit. It is the central processor of the
computer where all the calculations are
done. cPanel cPanel is a control panel that is
offered with Linux-based web hosting services.
This control panel is user-friendly and it
provides a graphical interface and automation
tools for simplifying website management. cPanel
Hosting cPanel hosting is a web hosting service
that works with the cPanel control panel. cPanel
is provided for the Linux web hosting services.
cPanel is a user-friendly control panel and it
facilitates effective website management. With
cPanel, you can easily manage website files, and
databases, create email accounts, manage domains
and sub-domains and do much more. Database A
database is a system of storing information.
Various types of data are organized and stored
in a database and it can be easily accessed,
managed, and updated. In a database, the data is
stored in columns, rows, and tables thus making
it easy to find the relevant information. Datace
nter A data center is a facility that houses the
web hosting servers. It is a physical
infrastructure that is used for housing
computers, servers, networking systems, and
other components for the companys IT
infrastructure. The web hosting data centers are
based in several locations and you can choose to
house your servers in the location near
you. DDOS Attack DDOS attack stands for Denial
Of Service Attack. In this attack, various
compromised systems that are infected with a
Trojan are used for targeting a single system
thus causing a denial of service attack. This is
a cyber attack that aims at making a computer or
network resources unavailable. Dedicated
Hosting In dedicated hosting, you rent a
complete server. The user gets complete control
over the server and all the server resources can
be used by that single user.
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Dedicated IP Dedicated IP is the IP that is
exclusively allotted to a website. It is a
unique IP that is devoted to a single hosting
account. A dedicated IP address is required if
you wish to install an SSL certificate on your
website or you can also use it for email
service. Disk Space Disk space is the amount of
storage space that is available in your hosting
plan. You will need sufficient disk space to
store the website's HTML pages, databases,
files, emails, images, etc. DKIM DKIM stands
for DomainKeys Identified Mail. This is a process
of verifying if the incoming email messages are
actually coming from the mentioned sender. This
process also verifies if the email message has
been modified during transit. When the DKIM
system is enabled, the sender digitally puts
his/her signature on the message through a
private key. The recipient retrieves the senders
public key through DNS and verifies the
signature on the email message. Domain Name The
domain name is the name of your website through
which people can find you online. You can
register your desired domain name and your
website will be known by that domain name. For
example, if your business name is MilesWeb, then
you can register a domain name like
www.milesweb.com. Domain Aliases This is a
domain name that points to some other domain.
Through domain aliases, users can access the
same website with many different web addresses.
Many organizations create domain aliases by
registering many similar domain names that
resemble their main domain name and pointing them
to the same website. Domain Parking Domain
parking is the process of registration of the
domain name, this domain is not associated with
any services like emails or websites. At times,
domain parking is done in order to reserve the
domain for future use. Domain Privacy Domain
privacy is a security service provided by various
domain name registrars. If you own a domain, you
can purchase domain privacy from the domain
registrar. When you purchase the domain privacy
option, the domain registrar will replace your
information in the WHOIS records with other
information and a forwarding service in order to
maintain your privacy. Domain Registrar The
domain registrar is the entity that registers
your domain name. When you purchase a domain
name, you will have to follow the process of
registering your domain name in order to link it
with your IP address. The main domain registrar is
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the entity that has access to register domain
names along with your desired domain name
extensions like .com, .co.in, .net, etc. DNS
DNS stands for Domain Name Server. This process
translates the internet domain names and host
names to IP addresses. DNS is equivalent to the
internets phone book. The DNS maintains a
database of domain names and translates them into
Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. The DNS
process is necessary because it is easy for
people to remember the domain names but computers
and machines remember the domain names as IP
addresses. Drupal Drupal is a free and
open-source content management system based on
PHP. It needs to be customized and then you can
publish content to your website along with media
files. Drupal is easy to use and it can be used
by individuals or groups. Drupal incorporates a
content management platform along with a
development framework. E-commerce Hosting
E-commerce hosting is the hosting platform for
running an online store. E-commerce hosting
enables you to set up your online store within a
short span of time. E-commerce hosting includes
optimized web servers for managing the online
store and e-commerce installation and
migration. Email Hosting Email hosting is the
process of creating secure business email IDs for
your organization. Email hosting is backed by a
hosting platform that manages email servers. In
simple words, if you own a domain name and you
want your email address to be with that domain
name, then you have to sign up for an email
hosting service. Email Auto-Responder The
auto-responder sends automated email responses
through a specific email address. You can create
the draft for the auto-response emails before
setting them up. The auto-responder emails are
generally used in order to notify people if you
are on vacation or in any situation when you are
unable to reply to the emails. Error Pages An
error page is a warning page to let your website
visitors know that there is an error on the web
page that they are trying to access. The error
pages are also displayed when there is a
server-related error. The error pages include 500
internal server error (usually displayed when a
server or database is down) or a 404 page not
found error (displayed when the requested web
page does not exist). Fantastico Fantastico is
a script library through which you can
automatically install the required web
applications like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal
for your website.
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Fantastico scripts can be accessed and installed
through the website control panel
cPanel. File Permission File permissions are
the access levels set for certain users or
groups. File permissions might include complete
access to a file, access to file editing or
read-only permission, etc. Forum A forum is an
online community or an online bulletin board. You
can usually add a forum to your website through
your control panel and you can customize it
according to your requirements. FTP FTP stands
for File Transfer Protocol. FTP is utilized for
transferring files between computers on a
network. FTP can be used for exchanging files
between computer accounts and transferring files
between an account and a desktop
computer. Google Google is one of the most
popular search engines that can be used for
searching for anything on the internet. Google
Analytics Google Analytics is a web analytics
platform offered by Google. It tracks the
website traffic and provides necessary reports
about website traffic scenarios. It is the most
widely used web analytics service on the
internet. Google Analytics services include free
and paid services. Google Webmaster Tool Google
webmaster tool is also known as the Google search
console. Google Webmaster tool is a free service
by Google for webmasters for checking the
indexing status of website links and for
optimizing the visibility of the website. Green
Hosting Green Hosting is an Eco-friendly hosting
service that incorporates green technologies for
providing hosting services. Green hosting
comprises environmentally friendly materials and
it works towards reducing emissions and
optimizes the use of resources. Guestbook If
you would like your customers to leave comments
and reviews on your website, then you can add a
specific web page for that known as a guestbook.
A guestbook is a web page that collects
information like customer names and
reviews. HackAlert Monitoring HackAlert is a
monitoring service that analyses your website on
a daily basis. This service notifies you in case
your website is hacked or if there is any
malicious code on your website.
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High Availability High availability of a system
is its ability to ensure the agreed level of
uptime that Is usually higher than the normal
period. High availability also signifies the
systems that can operate continuously for a long
period of time without any failure. Horizontal
Scaling Horizontal scaling means scaling by
adding additional machines to your existing
resources or adding additional nodes to the
system. For example, scaling from one web server
to two or three. Horizontal scaling is to scale
wider in order to cope with the website traffic
requirements. .htaccess .htaccess stands for
hypertext access. .htaccess is a configuration
file that works with Apache-based web servers.
Through .htaccess one can set parameters for a
file like setting permissions, blocking some
websites, or determining if people can link to
your pages. .htaccess can also be used for
improving your websites functionality and
improving SEO. HTML HTML stands for HyperText
Markup Language. This is the standard language
that is used for creating website pages. The web
browser receives the original HTML through a web
server and displays a readable page. HTTP HTTP
stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. This
protocol is used for transferring hypermedia
files like text, images, videos, etc. through the
internet. It is the base of the world wide web
(WWW) and it comprises of interconnected
hypertext files. ICANN ICANN stands for
Internet Corporation For Assigned Names And
Numbers. This organization brings together the
unique identification factors assigned for all
computers worldwide so that each computer can
communicate with the others. This collaboration
enables the internet to perform its functions.
ICANN also administers the distribution of
internet naming resources and it undertakes
certain responsibilities related to the DNS
management. IP Address IP stands for Internet
Protocol. An IP address is a unique string of
numbers and dots that identifies an individual
computer connected to the internet. The IP
address identifies every computer that uses the
internet protocol for communicating over a
network. IMAP IMAP stands for Internet Message
Access Protocol, this is an email retrieval
process. A copy of the original email is
permanently stored inside the server till it is
deleted from the server. This process is
preferred by people who work with multiple
computers and email clients for email tracking
whenever required.
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JavaScript JavaScript is a programming language
through which developers are able to add dynamic
content to the website. JavaScript is a
client-side technology that runs in the web
browser of the user and not on the web
server. Java Applets Java Applets are programs
created with the Java programming language and
they can be included in the HTML page in the same
way as the images are included. If you are using
a Java-enabled browser in order to view a web
page that includes a Java Applet, the code of
that applet is transferred to your system and it
is executed by the Java virtual
machine. Joomla Joomla is an open-source
content management platform for creating websites
or blogs. Joomla is a CMS that connects your
website to MySQL, MySQLi, or PostgreSQL
databases for managing the content. Linux
Server A Linux server is a server that is
powered by the Linux operating system. Linux is
an open-source operating system and it is
preferred by many webmasters. Live Chat Support
Live chat support is a customer service feature
through which you can chat with the customer
service representatives of the web hosting
company at a specified time or round the clock.
You can discuss your website-related issues
through live chat support. Load Balancer A
load balancer is a system that distributes the
network resources or application traffic across
the servers. Load balancers are utilized for
increasing the capacity and reliability of the
applications. The incoming network traffic is
perfectly distributed by the load balancer
across a group of backend servers or server
pools. Managed Hosting Managed hosting is a web
hosting platform where the web hosting company
manages the processes like software upgrades,
configuration changes, system administration
tasks, etc. In this type of hosting, the web
hosting company provides support and assistance
to the clients in terms of their web hosting
package. Managed hosting is ideal for webmasters
who are not comfortable managing their web
hosting accounts. Malware Malware is harmful
software that aims at damaging or disabling your
website, computer, or network. Mailing List A
mailing list is a list of email addresses stored
together. You can send common emails to the
email addresses in your mailing list in one go.
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Money Back Guarantee This is a guarantee
provided by the web hosting company which means
that in case you are not satisfied with the web
hosting services, the web hosting company will
return your payment. However, a money-back
guarantee is subject to the terms and conditions
issued by the web hosting company. MySQL MySQL
is an open-source database that can be operated
with various applications that you install on
your website. Through MySQL, you can store
information in an encrypted form and retrieve it
whenever required. MX Record MX record stands
for Mail Exchange Record. This record signifies
the mail server that is entitled to receive the
email messages for a domain. MX record is stored
within the DNS system. Office 365 Office 365 is
developed by Microsoft and it is a subscription
platform that provides access to Microsoft
Office applications along with offering other
productivity services over the Internet. Office
365 offers productivity software and other
related services to subscribers. With Office
365, users can use the Microsoft Office apps on
Windows and MacOS. It also provides Microsofts
cloud storage space service OneDrive and grants
60 Skype minutes per month. On-Page
Optimization On-page optimization is the
practice of optimizing individual website pages
in order to gain a higher search engine ranking,
better search engine visibility, and for gaining
more targeted and genuine traffic. On-page
optimization covers both, the website content
and the HTML source code of the website
pages. Operating System The operating System or
OS is the platform that supports your website
functions. The choice of operating system is
based on some specific features. In web hosting,
one can choose from Linux and Windows operating
systems for the web hosting package. osCommerce
osCommerce is an e-commerce and online store
management platform. osCommerce can be installed
on any type of web server that operates on PHP
and MySQL and it is easy to use. osCommerce is
open source and free and it is available under
General Public License. Overselling Like the
name suggests, overselling is selling more
services than the web hosting company can
actually deliver. This means selling web hosting
space to the customer. Overselling is not
ethical as it may slow down the customer's
website due to inadequate resources.
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Perl Perl stands for Practical Extraction
Reporting Language. This is the most popular
programming language used by web developers. Perl
is known to have the best text manipulation
capacities and it is best suited for web
development purposes. PHP PHP is an open-source
scripting language for creating dynamic content.
PHP functions by embedding the code directly
into the HTML of the website page. phpMyAdmin
phpMyAdmin is an open-source platform created in
the PHP language that handles the administration
of MySQL over the internet. phpMyAdmin can
execute various tasks like creating databases,
modifying or deleting databases, fields, tables,
or rows, and executing SQL queries and it also
manages users and user permissions. Plesk Plesk
is an efficient control panel that is offered for
both Windows and Linux hosting services. Plesk
enables you to easily manage your web hosting
account including applications, files, emails,
etc. POP POP stands for Post Office Protocol.
This process is used for retrieving the messages
from an email server and authenticating them. You
can also use a client email application with POP
like Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook, etc. in
order to view your email messages. RAID RAID
stands for Redundant Array Of Independent Disks.
RAID is the process of storing the same data at
different places on multiple hard disks. This
process safeguards your website data on many
locations so that the data can be retrieved in
case of failure. It is important to note that
redundancy is not ensured by all the RAID
levels. Raw Log Files The raw log files are
complete and detailed server logs about a
particular account. These logs are mostly
important for debugging or for processing
third-party programs or services. Reseller
Hosting Reseller hosting is the type of hosting
where the user (reseller) can resell hosting
space to his/her clients. The reseller can
provide every client with their own control
panel. The reseller purchases the web hosting
companys services and sells them to customers
for earning a profit. Server A server is a
system where your website resides. A server is
usually owned by a web hosting company. The
server delivers your website content on the world
wide web.
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Search Engine Optimization Search engine
optimization is the process of optimizing the
website pages for getting more traffic through
organic search. It is the technique of working
on the right keywords for your website and
improving the search engine rank of the
website. SFTP SFTP stands for Secure File
Transfer Protocol. This is a network protocol
that enables data transfer through a single
connection using a secured shell protocol. SFTP
is a separate file transfer protocol that is
executed with SSH and works over a secure
connection. Shared Hosting Shared hosting is a
type of hosting where multiple websites are
hosted on one server. It is an affordable form of
hosting. Every shared hosting customer has a
limit over the server resources like disk space,
bandwidth, etc. according to the shared hosting
package. Sitelock Basic Sitelock ensures
complete website security. It performs monthly
malware scans, guards your website against
hacking attacks, and identifies thefts. Sitelock
provides website trust seals and does daily
security scanning of website pages. Sitemap A
sitemap displays the list of all the pages of the
website that are accessible to the crawlers and
to the visitors. Sitemap Generation Sitemap
generation is a service that makes sure that all
the crawling search engines like Google, Yahoo,
Bing, etc. are informed of your website content
along with your website links. Site Access
Reports Site Access Reports are the graphical
reports that transform the raw access logs into
manageable and readable reports. Through these
reports, webmasters can easily understand
website traffic trends and make better decisions
for the website. SLA SLA stands for Service
Level Agreement. This is the agreement made with
the web hosting company or with other
organizations. The web hosting company or the
other organization you are in contract with lays
out the terms and conditions of the agreement.
Usually, SLA comprises rules for the duration of
service, scope, web hosting guidelines, terms of
services provided, etc. SMTP SMTP stands for
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. This is an
internet-based standard for sending and
receiving emails.
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SME SME stands for Small-To-Medium Enterprises.
SME signifies startups, new businesses, and
mid-size organizations. Softaculous Softaculous
is an auto installer that is used for installing
various scripts and applications. Softaculous
works with control panels like cPanel, Plesk,
Webuzo, DirectAdmin, etc. Softaculous is a
commercial script library and you will find
numerous scripts that can be used for the
functioning of your website. Spam These are the
bulk emails or messages sent to you without being
asked for and from illegitimate sources.
Usually, these messages are sent to sell
something. If you purchase a web hosting account
and start spamming, then you can get yourself
banned and lose your web hosting package. Spam
Filter A spam filter is an email filter that is
used for identifying spam emails. A spam filter
utilizes many advanced and statistical analysis
methods on the email headers and the main
content of the email in order to spot spam
emails. SSH SSH stands for Secure Sockets
Shell, this is a protocol that provides
administrators a secure way of accessing a remote
computer. It is a secure method of file
transfer. SSL SSL stands for Secure Sockets
Layer. SSL is an encryption that enables people
to make secure transactions online. If you own
an e-commerce website, you will need an SSL in
order to accept payments online in a secure way.
If a website is secured with SSL, the website
address will start with HTTPS. Google
recommends having an SSL installed on your
website and it also helps in improving the search
engine ranking of the website. Server Side
Includes Server Side Includes is also known as
SSI, this platform enables web developers to add
HTML comments to the pages that can deliver many
benefits to the website. This comprises of
header/footer includes or the implementation of a
dynamic server-side script. Sub-Domain A
sub-domain is a website domain that is a part of
the primary main domain. A sub-domain can have
its own unique content. For instance, your
website blog can be hosted on a sub-domain of
your website and if your website name is
mywebsite.com, your blog sub-domain can be
blog.mywebsite.com.
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TLD TLD stands for Top Level Domain. TLD is the
last segment of a domain name that follows after
the dot .. For example in the website URL
www.mywebsitename.com, .com is the TLD. TLDs
are of two types generic TLDs like .com, .net,
etc., and country-specific TLDs like .uk, .usa,
.co.in, etc. Trial Period Some web hosting
companies offer a free trial period where you can
avail of the web hosting package and services
for free for a certain period of time. If you
like the web hosting services you can purchase
the web hosting package or you can opt out after
the trial period. Web hosting companies have
terms and conditions laid out for the trial
period. Traffic Distributor A traffic
distributor enables the faster processing of
requests and manages simultaneous threads
without any failure. With the help of a traffic
distributor, you can ensure perfect management
of the workload. Unlimited Hosting The term
Unlimited hosting states that the web hosting
package provides unlimited resources like disk
space, bandwidth, etc. However, there are terms
and conditions to unlimited hosting packages.
Unlimited hosting plans are recommended for
small and medium size companies. Uptime Uptime
is the amount of time when a server is up and
running without any interruptions. You must look
for a web hosting service that provides an uptime
of at least 99.95. Uptime of your website means
that if your website is up and the visitors can
access it and use it perfectly. Vertical
Scaling Through vertical scaling, one can
increase the capacity of the existing virtual
server by adding additional resources. For
instance, you can add processing power to a
server for making it fast. Virtual Datacenter A
virtual data center is basically a pool of cloud
infrastructure resources that are specifically
designed for enterprise business requirements.
The resources provided in a virtual data center
incorporate memory, network, connectivity,
bandwidth, storage, backup solutions, etc. VPS
Hosting A virtual private server is a physical
server that is virtually partitioned. Every
virtual private server has dedicated resources.
VPS server is equivalent to a dedicated server
and is available at an affordable cost. VPS
hosting is Linux-based and Windows-based, you
can also opt for managed or un-managed VPS
hosting services.
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Webmail Webmail is the direct access to your
emails. You can log in to your webmail through
your control panel and you can check the emails
without the need for any third-party
software. Website Backup Website backup is the
process of backing up your website data in order
to safeguard the data and maintain a copy of the
data in case of system failure, cyber attack, or
any other disaster. Some web hosting companies
offer website backup services as a part of the
web hosting package. Website Migration Website
migration is the process of transferring a
website from one web hosting company to the
other. This move comprises the migration of all
the important website files to the new web host.
It is important to schedule website migration at
an appropriate time so that your visitors or
customers are not affected. Web Hosting Web
hosting is a platform on which your website is
hosted and made live so that it can be viewed
and accessed on the world wide web. The website
owner can buy the hosting space according to
his/her website requirements. Along with the web
hosting package, the web hosting company also
provides support and customer care services for
the smooth functioning of the customers
websites. Web Traffic Web traffic is basically
the number of visitors coming to your website, it
also signifies the volume of data sent and
received by the visitors coming to your website.
Web traffic does not comprise the traffic through
bots. Web traffic to a website is determined by
the visitors coming to a website and the number
of pages they visit. Windows Server A Windows
server is a server powered by the Windows
operating system. Usually, webmasters opt for
Windows-based hosting if they would like to use
certain Windows features or run ASP.NET, MSSQL
based apps. Windows Hosting The Windows hosting
platform is based on the Windows operating
system. This hosting service offers
Windows-specific technologies like ASP, .Net,
MSSQL, FrontPage, Visual Basic, etc. Windows
hosting provides the Plesk control panel for
managing the website functions. WordPress
WordPress is one of the most popularly used free
blogging and website-building platforms and a
content management system. WordPress is based on
PHP and MySQL. WordPress incorporates a huge
number of plugins, extensions, and themes to
customize the website. You can also run various
addons and utilities on WordPress.
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Zen Cart Zen Cart is a PHP-based online store
management platform that utilizes the MySQL
database and HTML components. Zen Cart supports
various languages and currencies for managing
the online store effectively. Zimbra The Zimbra
Collaboration Suite (ZCS) is a collaboration
software suite that comprises an email server
and a web client. Zimbra is an open-source email
platform that offers email services,
calendaring, and enterprise applications. Zimbra
connects the end users to share information and
perform activities in their private cloud.