Web Hosting Glossary

Back to Glossary PageApache

The Apache web server is a very popular, open source, public-domain Web server. It is the most widely used Web server on the Internet. Originally designed for UNIX servers, it can now also run under Windows and other platforms. The Apache Web server provides a range of features including CGI, SSL, and virtual domains. The availability of the source code makes it possible for anyone to adapt the server for specific needs.

Back to Glossary PageBandwidth

Bandwidth, also called data transfer, is the amount of information transferred to or from a website or server given a prescribed period of time. It is usually measured in bytes (megabytes, gigabytes, etc.).

Monthly bandwidth is the amount of data that is accessed on your website each time a visitor visits your website. Each time a visitor views a page, the size of the page is added to the monthly bandwidth.

Back to Glossary PageBrowser

A web browser is a computer program used to view and interact with contents of web pages. Examples include Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, and Opera.

Back to Glossary PagecPanel Control Panel

WebHostingPad provides you with access to your account information and settings, including invoices, payment settings and even our helpful ticketing system, as part of your hosting control panel. This gives you full control over your account and billing options, and allows you to make whatever changes to your account information are necessary.

Back to Glossary PageCGI-BIN

CGI (Common Gateway Interface) is a kind of program that allows for communication between a web server and a script. This enables the interaction of HTML documents and applications. The CGI-BIN is a special folder in which these scripts can execute.

Back to Glossary PageCustomizable Error Pages

You are not required to use our server's default error pages. Customer error pages can be used, and are specified in the control panel we provide you with. These are very popular with regards to keeping the look and feel of your site consistent, even unto the error pages themselves, as well as for modifying the behavior of the site in the event of an error.

Back to Glossary PageDisk Space

This is the amount of storage space that is allotted to your account on our servers. This represents the sum total of all space available for your web files, email and databases. This is a separate factor from the number of visitors you have, and is not affected by web traffic.

Back to Glossary PageDNS

The DNS is an essential Internet database service that translates IP addresses into domain names. This allows users to look up addresses such as www.webhostingpad.com instead of long, hard-to-remember numerical IP addresses.

Back to Glossary PageDomain Name

A domain name is an easy-to-remember address entered into a Web browser to identify and visit Web sites. Domain names are translated by a DNS into an IP address. Examples of domain names are msn.com, pbs.org, and usa.gov. When you open a hosting package with Webhostingpad, you get 1 free domain name. With just 1 hosting account on Webhostingpad.com, you can have as many different websites, or domains, as you want.

Back to Glossary PageEmail Autoresponder

Email autoresponders are user-specified messages which will be sent back to whom ever sends email to that account. For example, if you were going on vacation for a week, you could setup an autoresponder for your email address which, when email is received at this address, will send a response back to the sender containing whatever message you specify. The email sent by them to you is stored in your mailbox as normal.

Back to Glossary PageEmail Forwarders

An email forward is an email address which, when it receives email, automatically forwards it to a specified remote email address. Forwards do not store email, they only route email to another email address elsewhere. For example, if you setup an email forward of johndoe@domain.com forwarding to johndoe@aol.com, then any email that is received by johndoe@domain.com will be automatically forwarded to johndoe@aol.com, where the email will then be stored.

Back to Glossary PageFantastico Script Support

The Fantastico Script Library is a collection of commonly used scripts that can be auto installed in your cPanel control panel. Installation of each script takes seconds and can be performed by beginners.

Back to Glossary PageForm-mail Script

From Form-Mail, Website Counter, Online Calendar, etc. to Advanced Polling System, you will have plenty of scripts to beautify your website.

Back to Glossary PageFrontpage Extensions

These are a group of add-ons scripts and programs, installed on the web server, which allow for the use of proprietary functions used by Microsoft FrontPage. This is necessary for many FrontPage functions such as forms. FrontPage server extensions are available on all of our hosting plans, both Linux and Windows.

Back to Glossary PageFTP (File Transfer Protocol)

FTP is a common method for exchanging files across the Internet. The most common use is downloading files from a server or uploading files to a server (example: uploading Web site files to a server).

Back to Glossary PageFTP Client

AddressAn FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Client is software used to transfer files between two computers over the Internet. Transferring can be as easy as dragging-and-dropping files from one pane to another - one pane displaying files on your own computer, the other displaying files on the remote computer, or server. In terms of hosting, an FTP Client is used to upload Web page files onto a host's server. There are many FTP Clients available on the internet. A popular, free FTP Client is Filezilla.

Back to Glossary PageImage Galleries

AddressAn Online Gallery is a script that lets you manage your photos or pictures on your own website. With online galleries, you will have an ever-lasting memory with your moments.

Back to Glossary Page IP Address

The unique, numerical address of a computer or web page. The format is xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (each xxx is represented by a number between 1 and 254). A DNS converts IP addresses into familiar domain names. Back to Glossary Page

Back to Glossary PageHTML (HyperText Markup Language)

HTML is a basic, cross-platform language used to create Web pages. The codes are interpreted by web browsers to format appropriately. HTML allows document authors to create hyperlinks between documents (within a website or between documents in various locations on the internet), forms, and image maps, allowing users to interact with the Web site.

Back to Glossary PageLog Files + Site Stats

Log files are text documents in which activity on a web server or web site is chronicled. Information about each visit, such as IP, time and date, and other relevant information is stored in these log files. Site stats tools are applications which analyze these log files and produce people-friendly charts and diagrams which illustrate and summarize the contents of these log files. Log files and site stats tools are both provided to our customers by default, even to the extent of providing two very different stats applications: ModLogAn and Webalizer.

Back to Glossary PageMailing Lists

Mailing lists allow you to easily send one email to any number of recipients. You could have a mailing list of newsletter@domain.com which has several hundred subscribers. An email sent to newsletter@domain.com will then be sent to each email address on the mailing list.

Back to Glossary PageMacromedia Shockwave / Flash

Flash and Shockwave are advanced media-rich formats for content delivery. Although we do not provide any Flash or Shockwave services, Flash and Shockwave content can be hosted with WebHostingPad without a problem. A great many of our clients currently use Flash elements in their sites, and several host sites with us which are entirely Flash.

Back to Glossary PageMIDI File Support

MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. Usage of midi files in web pages is not terribly popular, primarily due to the lack of control over how the playback on the visitors computer will sound. However, it is not a problem to embed a midi file into an html document, and can be done on our service.

Back to Glossary PageMambo and Joomla

Both Mambo and Joomla are opensource content management systems which are used to allow interactive management by a large number of users.

Back to Glossary PageMessage Board

Message Boards are a very popular feature on the web. These allow users of a website to communicate with one another, often carrying on long conversations amongst any number of users, in a format similar to a bulletin board.

Back to Glossary PagemySQL Databases

MySQL is an open-source database system which is often compared to Microsoft SQL in scope and power. Often paired with PHP, this is a very popular database platform, especially in the Unix and Linux communities.

Back to Glossary PageOpen PGP/GPG Encryption

The most widely used email encryption standard in the world. It is a computer program that provides a high level of cryptographic privacy. It often used with signing, encrypting and de-crypting emails.

Back to Glossary PageParked Domains

Parking domain names allows you to have multiple domain names for 1 website. For example, if a user enters mydomain.net, they will be directed to mydomain.com, if mydomain.net is parked on top of mydomain.com.

Back to Glossary PagePassword Protected Directories

By way of .htaccess, any folder can be password protected on Linux accounts. Windows accounts can have folders password protected as well, but the process of establishing this security is a bit involved.

Back to Glossary PagephpForm Generator

An easy to use, online tool for creating web forms very quickly.

Back to Glossary PagePHP Nuke

Content management and portal solution featuring web-based administration, surveys, customizable blocks, modules and themes with multi-language support.

Back to Glossary PagePHP

PHP, strangely enough, stands for Hypertext Preprocessor, and is a very popular open-source server-side scripting language, most often parsed on Apache-based web servers. We support both PHP v4 and PHP v5.

Back to Glossary PagePerl (unofficially acronymed as Practical Extraction and Report Language)

A dynamic procedural programming language which is influenced by a wide range of pre-existing technologies, such as the C programming language, and has been popular on Unix and Linux platforms.

Back to Glossary PagePython

An interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming similar to PERL or Java. It has clear syntax and readability, modules, classes, exceptions, very high level dynamic data types, and dynamic typing. Python is relatively easy to learn and portable.

Back to Glossary PageRuby/Ruby On Rails v1.1

A free web application framework which basically is a set of reusable programs structured in a way that makes it easier for you to create web applications.

Back to Glossary PageServer

A server is a networked computer that handles requests for data, email, file transfers, web pages and other network services from other computers. Webhostingpad.com uses the best and brand new hardware, Dual Quad core Xeon Servers, for the greatest speed and customer satisfaction.

Back to Glossary PageShared Hosting

Shared Hosting is the most common, basic, and least expensive form of hosting. It is called "shared" hosting because multiple clients, and thus multiple websites, share a single server. This splitting of server resources is what makes shared hosting so affordable, like renting an apartment versus buying a home (dedicated hosting). Shared hosting accounts are limited to specific space allotment and data transfer.

Back to Glossary PageShopping Cart

A shopping cart is software stored on Web servers that allows online shoppers to add/remove items and pay for multiple products chosen from a merchant's Web site. Shopping carts automatically calculate tax, shipping, etc. Once a shopper has made a purchase, shopping cart software sends the information to the merchant.

You will have complete tools with our hosting accounts. You can set up your online shop or ecommerce store front with our complimentary scripts, get a secure URL with our SSL support, and accept payment with our Merchant Account partners. Everything you need to start selling online!

Back to Glossary PageSite Builder

We provide you with an easy-to-use template-based application for creating your website from scratch. Knowledge of HTML not required, and you do not need to install any software on your computer. The site builder runs on our servers, and is accessed and utilized through your web browser. Webhostingpad provides a free site builder with all hosting accounts called RVSiteBuilder.

Back to Glossary PageSSI (Server Side Includes)

Server Side Includes are files which can be included when a web page is parsed. For instance, if you have a header or footer which appear on every page in your site, you can separate their code into separate files, SSI files, and the content of these can be included into the various pages within your site when they are accessed. This function is fully supported by WebHostingPad, and is a convenient way to modularize repetitive code, making it easier to build and maintain a site.

Back to Glossary PageStorage Backups

Without electricity, our hosting would be impossible. In order to ensure seamless, problem-free hosting, power backup is absolutely essential. We incorporate not only UPS systems on all of our equipment, but also have diesel backup generators in place for worst-case-scenarios. We test this system each and every week, and have shown that even in the event of catastrophic power failure, our data center remains live with no downtime.

Back to Glossary PageStreaming Video/Audio

Streaming video/audio is a method of media delivery in which the video/audio will play on the clients computer before the file has finished downloading. In other words, as the beginning of the file is downloaded, the video/audio will begin to play, and will continue to play as long as the process of downloading, streaming continues uninterrupted. This is supported by WebHostingPad as http streaming.

Back to Glossary PageSubdomains

Subdomains are third-level domains. For example, if you have domain.com, and you want to setup a special site just for your sales department, you could do so by adding a sub domain of sales.domain.com. These are independent sites with independent file and folder structures.

Back to Glossary PageUNIX

UNIX is a powerful, flexible, computer operating system designed for multi-user applications (such as networks). It is the most frequently used operating system for servers on the World Wide Web. Back to Glossary Page

Back to Glossary PageURL (Universal Resource Locator)

A URL is the full, unique address of a Web page. URLs are alphanumeric and replace IP numbers.

Back to Glossary PageWeb Hosting

Web hosting is a service that provides a physical location, space/storage, connectivity and services for Web sites so that Web site files can be accessed and viewed by anyone using the World Wide Web. Customers create Web page files locally and then upload them to their Web hosting provider's server. Web hosting services can include email addresses, databases, free site builders, and more.

Back to Glossary PageWebmail

Webmail is a service used to access email online through a web browser instead of downloading email onto a computer via a program such as Outlook Express. Webmail allows the sending, receiving, and storing of email, and is accessible on any computer.