Glossary

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

The program that allows participants to earn a commission by referring sales

ASPs are HTML documents embedded with scripts (typically Microsoft's VB Script or Jscript). These scripts are processed by the server prior to being transferred to the user.

A set of properties that define how applications are to share information with each other. These properties are known as controls.

One of the world's most popular Web server programs, Apache was built by a group of open-source programmers and is often used because of its outstanding performance, strong security features and the fact that it is free.

A third party that manages software applications for servers and networks.

A small Java program that can be embedded in an HTML page. Applets differ from full-fledged Java applications in that they are not allowed to access certain resources on the local computer, such as files and serial devices (modems, printers, etc.), and are prohibited from communicating with most other computers across a network. The current rule is that an applet can only make an Internet connection to the computer from which the applet was sent.

(Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) -- The precursor to the Internet. The landmark packet-switching network was established in 1969 by the US Department of Defense as an experiment in wide-area-networking that would survive a nuclear war.

(American Standard Code for Information Interchange) -- The world-wide standard for the code numbers used by computers to represent all the upper and lower-case Latin letters, numbers, punctuation, etc. There are 128 standard ASCII codes each of which can be represented by a 7 digit binary number: 0000000 through 1111111, plus parity.

ASP - Active Server Pages (ASP). ASP files, are a type of file extension for web page creation by Microsoft. ASP is ideally suited for MS Windows based web servers. It's not appropriate for Linux based servers.

An automated email reply sent in response to each incoming message for a specific email address. This is quite useful when going on a trip, or out of office. You can set up a separate autoresponder for each email account.

[B]

The amount of data that can be transmitted through a connection in a fixed amount of time. Bandwidth is usually measured in BPS (bits per second).

See 'Data Transfer Per Month'

(Binary DigIT) -- A single digit number in base-2, in other words, either a 1 or a zero.

(Bits-Per-Second) -- A measurement of how fast data is transferred from one place to another. For example, a 56k modem moves 56,000 bits per second.

A software that resides in your computer and acts as an interface between you and a web-site. The browser translates web-pages, written in HTML, into formatted, nice looking text. Common example of browsers are Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera etc.

[C]

A type of email account designed to "catch" any email messages addressed to your domain (@yourdomain.com) but not addressed to an actual POP3 email account or email alias. The account can also catch misspellings of your email address and redirect the email to your account. Every hosting plan comes with one catch-all account as well as a certain number of POP3 email accounts. You may de-activate this feature from cPanel and re-direct all mails not directed to POP3 mailboxes towards trash bin (blackhole)

(Common Gateway Interface) -- A set of rules that describe how a Web Server communicates with another piece of software on the same machine, and how the other piece of software (the 'CGI program') talks to the web server. Any piece of software can be a CGI program if it handles input and output according to the CGI standard. Usually a CGI program is a small program that takes data from a web server and does something with it, like putting the content of a form into an e-mail message, or turning the data into a database query.

CGI "scripts" are just scripts which use CGI. Hit counters, guest books, order forms and many other useful features can all be programmed with CGI scripts. All of our hosting plans include a local cgi-bin directory, where you can upload custom CGI scripts that you have written, as well as free scripts from around the net.

The most common name of a directory on a web server in which CGI programs are stored. The 'bin' part of 'cgi-bin' is a shorthand version of 'binary', a legacy from old unix era when most programs were referred to as 'binaries'. In real life, most programs found in cgi-bin directories are scripts that are executed by binaries located elsewhere on the server. While most programs using CGI are stored in this directory, it is not a requirement for using CGI. For example, PHP scripts can be run from any directory

A software program that is used to contact and obtain data from a server, often across a great distance. Each client program is designed to work with one or more specific kinds of server programs, and each server requires a specific kind of client. Examples of client software are - your web browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape etc.), your e-mail software (e.g. Outlook, Netscape, Eudora etc.), FTP programs etc. Client software interact with server and perform given function.

This hosting option gives webmasters complete control over their server. You are responsible for providing the physical hardware and network administration; the hosting company will provide you with the rack space and Internet connection.

It is a piece of information that a web-server you are visiting stores in your local disk for future reference. Cookies send back variety of information, usually harmless, back to web-server whenever you are visiting that web-server. Cookies contain information on login/ registration, items you purchase in a shopping cart, user preferences, etc. Cookies are usually set to expire after a predetermined amount of time and are usually saved in memory until the Browser software is closed down. When the visitor accesses the same web site again, the server looks for the cookie and configures it based on the information provided. All browsers provide facility to regulate cookies.

[D]

Also called bandwidth limit - it is a measure of data quantity that your web-site can transfer in a month. Expressed in Mb or GB per month, it is the sum of total information uploaded to and downloaded from your site for the month. For example, if your web-site has a bandwidth limit of 500 Mb - then roughly 10000 web pages (.htm files), each of size 50 Kb, can be downloaded (i.e. viewed) from your web-site in a month (provided you do not use bandwidth in any other way like FTP, e-mail etc.). Bandwidth limit is flexible - your web-site provider can allot additional bandwidth at extra cost. If you expect large number of visitors - get higher bandwidth.

Domain Name System. The system responsible for translating domain names into numeric IP addresses. The DNS maintains a list of all the domain names and distributes them throughout the world. See also IP address.

A hosting feature that allows a Web site to have its own server. This is more flexible than shared hosting (see below), as webmasters typically have full control over the back end of the server, including choice of OS. Administration, however, is still handled by the hosting company

The amount of storage space on server - allotted for your web-site. This is again a flexible limit - your web-space provider may allot more space on payment of additional fee. Usually this space is used for holding your web-pages (.htm files, image files etc.) and POP mailboxes.

Domain name is your identity / official address in World Wide Web. It is a unique name that a computer can identify from million others. Like a brand name - you register your unique domain name with relevant registration authority in Internet. Once registered, no one can have a website with your domain name. Examples of domain name are yahoo.com, infobanc.com, vsnl.net, indianrailway.gov.in, fieo.org etc.

Registering a domain name is the first task for building your own website. For example - if your company name is 'Excel Garments', you may register your domain as excelgarments.com or excel-garments.com or even excelgarmentsindia.com In addition to .com - you now have option of .biz (i.e. business).

Remember - your registration of a domain name is subject to its availability. Like brand name, if the domain name is already registered you have hardly any choice but to look for alternative domain name.

A type of Domain Forwarding. Domain Aliases allow you to redirect visitors from several domain names to a given one. This is useful when registering .com, .net, and .org domains at the same time. You only have to provide one account with hosting, and the other two will reference the same page, regardless of whether the user typed .com, .net, or .org.

All domain names have to be stored on a server in order to be purchased. Most domain registration services will therefore temporarily place a newly purchased name on their servers until a hosting plan is purchased or the owner points the DNS to a different site. This is known as parking.

The process of registering a domain name in the universal register of domain names. Once registered - a domain name becomes your intellectual property, like a brand name. Remember - you still need web-hosting in order to build a site.

Domain names are registered for a given period (minimum one year) and need to be renewed before expiry of registration period. Domain registrars charge a fee for renewing domain name. Failure to renew a domain name on time will lead to cancellation of its registration when anyone can register it on his/her name. Be sure to renew your domain name on time or you stand to lose this valuable intellectual property !

[E]

Short for Electronic Commerce. E-Commerce transactions include the buying and selling of goods and services over Internet

Allows a user to consolidate emails into one account for easy access. A typical forwarding account can forward mail received at you@yourdomain.com to another e-mail address at your isp.

E-mail or Electronic Mail is a communication medium for sending and receiving messages from one computer to another through a network of computers.

[F]

Web Development tools created by Macromedia that enable you to provide dynamic content for your Web visitors, complete with the latest in streaming and audio technology.

Microsoft FrontPage provides users a What You See is What You Get (WYSIWYG) HTML editor, includes a publish feature that enables users to transfer files to and from the Web server.

File Transfer Protocol. A method used to transfer files across the Internet. FTP is typically used to upload and download files between your own computer and the Web server hosting your site. FTP requires a valid user name and password.

FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions - is actually a set of answers to common questions on a particular subject. It is presented in a question - answer format.

A combination of hardware and software system that creates an electronic blocking mechanism to prevent unauthorized access to a computer system. Firewall could be installed in remote server or in your PC.

[G]

1024 Megabytes

[H]

Each time a Web server sends a file to a browser, it is recorded in the server log file as a "hit". Hits are generated for every element of a requested page (including graphics, text and interactive items). If a page containing two graphics is viewed by a user, three hits will be recorded - one for the page itself and one for each graphic. Webmasters use hits to measure their server's work load. Because page designs vary greatly, hits are a poor guide for traffic measurement

The default page your browser displays when it reaches a web-site. For our servers as also in most cases - its the index.htm or index.html file.

The term is used to refer to housing of a web site, email or a domain.

Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is the universal language for creating web-pages. It is an international standard that lays down rules for encoding web-pages in plain ascii text. It has broadly two functions - hyper-text and mark-up. The former allows seamless linking of any two pages in the world wide web, no matter how far apart they are physically located. The mark-up part allows formatting a web-page using simple ascii text tags that can be decoded by any web browser. In addition to text, an HTML page may include graphics, video, audio, and other files. HTML files are meant to be viewed by a browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer.

HyperText Transport Protocol - The protocol for moving hypertext files across the Internet. Requires a HTTP client program on one end, and an HTTP server program on the other end. Remember how a web-site address is written ? http://www.infobanc.com - got it !

Words or phrases in a html page that is 'connected' or 'linked' to another html page. While browsing a web-page, your mouse pointer changes shape whenever you place it on a link. Clicking your mouse button on a link will cause your browser to retrieve and open the 'linked' page.

[I]

The Internet uses a technology to interlink millions of computers in its fold - TCP/IP. The core of this technology is called IP addressing or Internet Protocol addressing. Every computer connected to Internet is given a unique number for identification - called IP number. IP number is used to verify location and activities of any computer. Example of IP number is 66.246.89.148 (thegreatindianbazaar.com). Your ISP provider assigns you an IP address each time you connect to the Internet.

A private network inside a company or organization that uses the same kinds of internet protocol, but that is only for internal use. Intranets are usually established by large corporate organizations to improve communication. The main difference between the Internet and an intranet is that access to intranets are restricted to authorized members only.

Internet Protocol Number - Sometimes called a dotted quad. A unique number consisting of 4 parts separated by dots, e.g. 66.246.89.148 Every machine on Internet has a unique IP number.

Short for Internet Relay Chat, a popular text-based multi-user chat network There are many IRC servers around the world which are linked to each other.

Short for Integrated Services Digital Network, a high-speed solution to moving data over phone lines. It can transfer data at approximately 128,000 bits per second over a standard land line.

Internet Service Provider - a company or organization that provides internet access to your PC. Examples of ISP are VSNL, Sify, Dishnet DSL, AOL, Earthlink, MSN etc.

[J]

Java is a network-oriented programming language invented by Sun Microsystems that is specifically designed for writing programs that can be safely downloaded to your computer through the Internet and immediately run without fear of viruses or other harm to your computer or files. Using small Java programs (called "Applets"), Web pages can include functions such as animations, calculators, and other fancy tricks.

Java Server Page. A technology similar to ASP that enables you to embed small programs, called servlets, in your Web pages. These programs run on the Web server and modify the content of your pages before the page is sent to the user.

[K]

Kilobyte or Kb - 1024 bytes.

[L]

Local Area Network - A computer network limited to the immediate area, usually the same building or floor of a building.

Noun or a verb. Noun: The account name used to gain access to a computer system, also called login-id or user-d. Verb: The act of entering into a computer system, e.g. Login to Members' Control Panel and update company profile.

[M]

A dedicated server that is accompanied by a full suite of technical support, maintenance and monitoring services. This differs from dedicated Web hosting, where customers are provided with their own servers but are still responsible for virtually all administrative and maintenance duties

Megabytes or Mb - 1024 kilobytes. Roughly a million bytes.

Tags used to describe information about a web-page in its 'header' area. Not visible through web-browsers - Meta tags help search engines to index the web-page. Professional design of meta tags is extremely important as search engines use this information to decide if a page in your web-site is a 'match' for a given query as also the page's relevance rank in search result.

A concept related to credit card transaction. A merchant is a company, shop or an individual who accepts payment through credit card. For accepting on-line credit card payment from your web-site - you need a 'Merchant Account'. For detail discusion on Merchant Account as also how to accept credit card payment in your web-site, please see E-Commerce Articles

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions - The standard for attaching non-text files to standard Internet mail messages. Non-text files include graphics, spreadsheets, formatted word-processor documents, sound files, etc. An email program is said to be MIME Compliant if it can both send and receive files using the MIME standard. When non-text files are sent using the MIME standard they are converted (encoded) into text - although the resulting text is not really readable. The MIME standard is also universally used by Web Servers to identify the files they are sending to Web Clients, in this way new file formats can be accommodated simply by updating the Browsers' list of pairs of MIME-Types and appropriate software for handling each type.

A mirror site is an exact copy of another FTP or Web site. These are used to offset/spread traffic load on busy Web sites.

Short for MOdulator, DEModulator - A device used to connect a computer with another computer using a phone line. A modem allows a computer to transfer data with other computers through the phone line.

Mail Exchange record is part of the zone file used to designate which mail server machine should process email for a specific domain.

A freeware database program that adheres to SQL standards.

[N]

A server responsible for translating domain names and IP addresses

2 or more computers connected together for sharing resources. LAN refers to local area network where computers in a small area (e.g. office building or a floor) are connected with each other through cable. WAN refers to Wide Area Network where computers in a large region are connected through land or satellite based telecom system.

[O]

Short for Optical Carrier, representing the speed of fiber-optic networks. OC speeds can range anywhere between 1 and 48. Most hosting companies have OC3 connections, which allows for the transfer of data at a rate of up to 155.52 Mbps.

[P]

The method by which most data is exchanged throughout the Internet. Most data is broken down in to smaller "packets" prior to transfer, and then reassembled at the destination.

A directory on your web-site that requires the viewer to enter a username and password before accessing. Usually, web-sites are meant for public access. However, you may like to place restricted information for selective users. In such cases, create a directory, make it password protected and allot its user-id and password to selected visitors. Only visitors with your allotted user-id and password will be able to view pages stored in password protected directory. Vanik.com servers support password protected directory.

A popular programming languages for creating CGI scripts. vanik.com servers support Perl.

A popular open-source scripting language, PHP is used primarily on Linux servers. It is an effective alternative to Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) technology.

Post Office Protocol 3. A method for retrieving email through an email client, such as Outlook or Eudora.

Also called DNS Propagation - it is the process of updating nameservers around the world. When your ip address, nameservers, or zone record changes - all nameservers around the world need to be updated before someone can visit your web-site. Propagation may take anywhere from 24 to 72 hours.

A small piece of software installed into your browser that allows you to view content of differing formats. Common Plugins include Quicktime and Windows Media Players, Shockwave players, and Real Audio/Video players.

[R]

Files that contain detailed information about your site's activity in raw Web server format. Log files can help you find out how popular your site currently is.

The Internet streaming audio and video delivery systems developed by RealNetworks. Both the browser and the server must have RealAudio/Video components installed in order to work.

A company that has been certified by ICANN to register domain names. There are about hundred odd registrars in the world - who are permitted to access and modify the master database of domain names.

Since every domain is unique, registries have been set up to assign domains to individuals and organizations. When a domain is registered with the appropriate registry, that domain is assigned and becomes no longer available for anyone else to use.

The person/business that will be using the registered domain name.

An organization responsible for assigning domain names for the TLD that they manage.

[S]

Software system that searches web-pages for specified keywords and returns a search result with ranked list of web-pages matching the search expression. Search engines use the information contained in your site's Meta tags to generate an index of web-pages and sites. Examples of search engine are Google, Yahoo!, AltaVista etc.

A method of ensuring that information submitted through your Web site is secure and cannot be accessed by unauthorized users. Information submitted via an SSL-secured form is transmitted in an encrypted state. SSL is most commonly used for online credit card transactions. URL's that begin with 'https' indicate that an SSL connection will be used.

The term for unsolicited mass email, also known as UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email).

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. A protocol for sending email messages across the Internet. It is used in conjunction with both POP3 and IMAP, protocols that enable you to download messages from a mail server to your computer. SMTP is used for out going mail while POP3 and IMAP are used for incoming mail. Vanik.com supports POP3 but not IMAP.

The most basic of Web hosting types. With shared hosting, numerous Web sites are shared on one server. While an economic solution, they typically cannot handle large amounts of storage or traffic.

A program designed to handle the e-commerce section of a Web site. Shopping cart software lets users browse for and purchase products online

Short for Structured Query Language. A standard protocol used to request information from databases. Servers which can handle SQL are known as SQL servers.

Detailed information regarding your web site traffic, like number of unique visitors, number of visits, pages, hits, bandwidth used, source of hits, most popular pages and hundreds of other statistics

Typically known as a "domain within a domain", subdomains are individual web addresses built upon a pre-existing domain name. For example, http://support.infobanc.com is a sub-domain under domain infobanc.com

A computer, or a software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece of software, such as a WWW server, or to the machine on which the software is running.

Shockwave, produced by Macromedia, allows you to view new forms of entertainment on the Web, such as games, music, rich-media chat, interactive product demos, and e-merchandising applications

A phone or data connection that can support the transfer of up to 1.544Mbits of data per second. T1 connections are popular among businesses and ISPs. Most T1s are connected to T3, which can handle up to 43Mbits per second and are actual Internet backbone connections.

Short for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol This is the suite of protocols that defines the Internet. Originally designed for the UNIX operating system, TCP/IP software is now available for every major kind of computer operating system.

A command-line interface that allows remote users and Web servers to communicate. Because of security concern - most web-hosts have withdrawn telnet facility and instead offer SSH secure access service.

1024 gigabytes.

A device that allows you to send commands to a computer somewhere else. At a minimum, this usually means a keyboard and a display screen and some simple circuitry. Usually you will use terminal software in a personal computer - the software pretends to be (emulates) a physical terminal and allows you to type commands to a computer somewhere else.

A special purpose computer that has places to plug in many modems on one side, and a connection to a LAN or host machine on the other side. Thus the terminal server does the work of answering the calls and passes the connections on to the appropriate node. Most terminal servers can provide PPP or SLIP services if connected to the Internet.

A Top Level Domain (TLD) is the uppermost in the hierarchy of domain names. For example, infobanc.com is a domain name. The "com" is considered the TLD and the "infobanc.com" is considered the second level domain. Together they form a domain name which is unique. There are two types of TLDs. The most common type is the Generic or Global TLDs which include .COM, .NET, .ORG, .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME etc. National or ccTLDs are two letter country code domains that are managed by a registry designated and controlled by each specific country. For example, indianrailway.gov.in has a ccTLD .in - referring to India. Each registry might have differing prices, residency requirements and structure.

On occasion, domains are sold to another organization or sometimes the name of a company might change. Most registries require a proof of authorization from the old owner to hand over control to new owner. Actual procedures for Transfer of ownership depends on the registry. 'Domain Transfer' also refers to the process of changhing your domain Registrar. There are 100 odd ICANN approved Registrars - you may freely transfer your domain from one Registrar to other. Usually, domain transfer results in domain renewal also.

Each time visitors access a Web page, image, audio, video or other element on your site, traffic is generated. Your aggregate traffic is the sum of all outward-bound, inward-bound, email and FTP traffic.

[U]

Short for Uniform Resource Locator - the standard way to display an address on the World Wide Web (WWW). Examples of URL are http://www.vanik.com , www.infobanc.com etc.

A multitasking Operating System suitable for Web and network administration. Unix has spawned numerous popular spinoffs, including Linux and FreeBSD. Most Unix-based Operating Systems are open source, meaning the source code to the Operating System has been made freely available to the public for modification. Most Web hosting companies offer Unix-based hosting in some capacity or other.

A network of thousands of discussion groups (known as newsgroups) on the Internet

[V]

A shared hosting solution, the most basic of hosting types. Numerous Web sites are shared on one server.

A virtual private server provides the features of a dedicated server on a machine that is shared by other Web hosting customers. Customers therefore get hosting services that are similar to that of dedicated Web hosting without sacrificing privacy or performance.

[W]

A method for accessing email messages through a Web browser. Unlike POP mails - web-based e-mail may not be downloaded in your PC - it depends upon provider of such e-mail service. Examples of web-based e-mail are free e-mail service providers like rediff.com, hotmail.com, yahoo.com etc. vanik.com provides both web-based e-mail as also POP mailbox. This is actually best of both worlds - where web-based service helps you identify and delete virus mails / spams etc. and POP helps you download only relevant mails in your PC. Vanik.com provides three different kinds of web-based e-mail services - Neomail, Hoarde and Squirell mail.

A central database which tracks all domain name/IP registrations. Users query this database for availability or status of a domain name

These are graphic-based, multitasking Operating Systems developed over the past few years by Microsoft. Both can act as standalone OS for personal computers/workstations, or can serve as an OS for a Web site/network.

Short for World Wide Web - There are two meanings - First, loosely used: the whole constellation of resources that can be accessed using Gopher, FTP, HTTP, telnet, USENET, WAIS and some other tools. Second, the universe of hypertext servers (HTTP servers) which are the servers that allow text, graphics, sound files, etc. to be mixed together. Gradually, the first meaning is loosing ground as http is becoming the most popular choice.

What You See Is What You Get. The term used for Web design applications that display HTML documents on screen as they will appear in a Web browser. These applications make it possible for you to create Web pages without learning the HTML programming language.

[X]

Short for Extensible Markup Language. XML is a language allowing developers to create their own markup tags. All XML tags are defined by the programmer, and can be interpreted differently in different applications. For example, the "" tag in HTML means Italics, but could mean anything in XML, depending on the function the developer assigns to it. XML is a popular format for information exchange.

[Z]

The group of files that reside on the domain host or nameserver. The zone file designates a domain, its subdomains and mail server.