Jargonbuster

If you’re a newcomer to the web the choice about which hosting solution to use can be daunting. You’ll be faced with terms you don’t understand and decisions you have to make, without understanding what any of it means. For example, questions you maybe asking yourself are:

Disc Space/Hard Disk/Drive

The amount of physical space devoted to holding your "content." This will be mainly your website files, but can include stored emails and databases.

Monthly Traffic/Bandwidth

When people visit your site, data is sent from our servers to their computer. This data can be composed of web pages or anything else on your site that can be viewed or downloaded by visitors. It also includes email received and downloaded to your PC. Every month this requested data is added up, to give your total data transfer.

POP3 Email

The "pop" in POP3 stands for "post office protocol." It's a client/server protocol for collecting email on a server from individual mail accounts. You can configure the users and passwords from a straightforward online control panel.

Email Redirects

This is sometimes known as "Email Forwarding." Rather than collecting your email off our server, you can arrange for mail addressed to your domain to go to mailboxes hosted elsewhere (perhaps at your ISP).

Mail Responders

The ability to create automated responses to incoming email. This is quite handy when you are out of the office or on holiday and can't respond in person immediately.

MySQL Databases

MySQL (pronounced "my ess cue el" ). An open source relational database management system (RDBMS) that uses Structured Query Language (SQL), the most popular language for adding, accessing, and processing data in a database. MySQL is noted mainly for its speed, reliability, and flexibility and usually used in conjunction with PHP scripting to create exciting dynamic websites such as bulletin boards and content management systems.

CGI and Perl

Perl is a high-level programming interpreted language originating from Larry Wall. It derives from C and to a lesser extent from sed, awk, the Unix shell. Perl's process, file, and text manipulation facilities make it particularly well-suited for tasks involving quick prototyping, system utilities, software tools, system management tasks, database access, graphical programming, networking, and world wide web programming. A CGI script is a program written in Perl that is stored on the remote web server and executed on the web server in response to a request from a user.

PHP

Hypertext Pre-processor (PHP) is a popular general-purpose server side scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML pages. It works particularly well when used for database driven applications using MySQL. Many popular CMS systems, such as Drupal, Joomla and PHP-Nuke are based on MySQL and PHP.

FTP

Stands for File Transfer Protocol (part of the TCP/IP protocol stack). It is used for transfering files between servers and clients and it will allow you to upload your website files to your hosting account. You will need to install an FTP client on your PC to do this. Windows comes with a very basic command line FTP client. We would recommend a graphical client such as SmartFTP, CuteFTP or WS-FTP.

IMAP

IMAP stands for Instant Message Access Protocol. It differs from POP3 in that it allows remote clients to access email stored on a remote server, rather than downloading it. Webmail allows you to view these stored emails. This is quite handy especially if you are on the move and don't have access to an email client. Also as the mail is centrally stored you can always access your mail from your home or work PC, laptop or mobile device. Additionally Outlook, Outlook Express, Mozilla Mail and Mozilla Thunderbird all have IMAP support.

Web hosting/shared hosting

The World Wide Web is a massive collection of web sites, all hosted on computers (called web servers) all over the world. The web server (computer) where your web site's html files, graphics, etc. reside is known as the web host (Global Gold). Web hosting clients (You) simply upload their web sites to a shared (or dedicated) web server with Global Gold and we ensure they are available for public viewing.

UNIX Hosting

This is a computer operating system. It is designed to be used by many people at the same time (multi-user). It is the most common operating system for servers on the Internet. UNIX is our most popular platform and is the best to chose if you are just starting out. We do not run ASP on our UNIX server so consult with your designer/developer first.

Windows 2003 Hosting

This is our alternative platform to UNIX. It is run on a server using Windows technology. Hosting packages are a little more expensive due to Windows Licensing fees. Windows is only really needed if you plan to use ASP.NET technologies. It is always best to check with your developer/designer before choosing your platform as it is a little tricky to migrate once the account has been set up.

Domain Name

This is a unique name that people use in order to be directed to your files on our server. e.g 'globalgold.co.uk' is a domain name. This is unique and nobody else can purchase it once you have registered the domain name. There are many different extensions to choose from such as .com/.co.uk/.org etc.

Sub domain/Sub folder

A sub domain is normally used to direct people to a different part of your site without them having to navigate themselves there. For instance, here at global gold we have http://accounts.globalgold.co.uk which will take you straight to your account area. This makes it quick and easy for visitors to your site.

Sub folders work in a slightly different way. Sub folders allow you to host another site within your main hosting account. We point the domain you choose to a folder within your web space where you upload all your files for that particular separate website.

VPS

A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a hosting environment that combines the benefits of both shared hosting and dedicated hosting. It does this by creating a virtual server that runs inside a hardware server via a specially designed partition.
Each Virtual Private Server partition runs its own operating system in a secure and private environment and cannot be accessed or interrupted by its neighbours. This system gives you the same level of root access as a dedicated server whilst sharing the cost of the hardware. With a VPS you are virtually running your own server but at a fraction of the cost.

Plesk

Plesk is software used to manage Web servers. It allows you to create new Web sites and email accounts through a Web-based interface. We offer Plesk on all of our VPS packages.

Database

Any collection of information, usually (but not always) used to refer to information stored on a computer. Database software applications usually include powerful search and data-filtering facilities. For specific details of the types of database you could come across, see MySQL or SQL Server

ASP

ASP is a powerful server side scripting language ideal for the creation of dynamic database driven web sites. It is mainly used in conjunction with windows based hosting packages.

HTML

The language used to create pages for a website. HTML code is written as text that is converted to a web page by a web browser.

XHTML

Abbreviation for Extensible Hypertext Mark-up Language and is a hybrid of XML and HTML. Web pages designed in XHTML should look the same across all web browser/platforms.

RAM

Random Access Memory. The computer's working area, used for data storage while the PC is switched on. Its capacity is measured in megabytes (Mb): the more memory your PC has, the more things it can process simultaneously and the faster it will seem. Note that any information in RAM will be lost when the power is switched off.

CPU

An abbreviation for central processing unit, or processor, the heart of a computer. The CPU does most of the hard work and the faster it is, the better the PC is likely to be.

Memory

Random Access Memory is the computer's temporary storage area, measured in megabytes (Mb). Anything written to memory will be lost when the power is switched off. A server typically needs 1GB or more to function efficiently.

SMTP

(pronounced as separate letters) Short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, a protocol for sending e-mail messages between servers. Most e-mail systems that send mail over the Internet use SMTP to send messages from one server to another; the messages can then be retrieved with an e-mail client using either POP or IMAP. In addition, SMTP is generally used to send messages from a mail client to a mail server. This is why you need to specify both the POP or IMAP server and the SMTP server when you configure your e-mail application.

Registrar

A domain registrar is a company or organisation involved in registering domain names on the Internet e.g. Global Gold Network Ltd

Registrant

A registrant is the person or company who registers a domain name. For example, Joe Smith (registrant) registers the name joesmith.com through Global Gold (registrar) who in turn submits the name to the central database (Registry).

Nominet

Nominet is the Not-for-profit company that registers and oversees all UK domains names e.g. joeblogs.co.uk or joeblogs.org.uk

WHOIS

Pronounced "who is" - a utility which interrogates the Internet domain name administration system and returns ownership and other details of the specified domain name. An example WHOIS search engine is http://www.who.is

Telnet

Telnet is a utility program and protocol that allows you to connect to another computer on a network. After providing a username and password to login to the remote computer, you can enter commands that will be executed as if entered directly into the remote computer. We commonly use telnet is to test whether you can connect to the Global Gold mail server.

SSH

Secure Shell. Also known as Secure Socket Shell. A UNIX-based command interface and protocol for accessing a remote computer securely using encryption. SSH connectivity requires applicable clients and servers be installed and running.

Webmail

Webmail is a web application that allows users to read and write e-mail using a web browser, or in a more general sense, an e-mail account accessed through such an application e.g. http://webmail.globalgold.co.uk

HTTPS (SSL/Secure Certificate)

(Secure Hypertext Transport Protocol) When logging on to secure Web sites, note that the URL starts with HTTPS rather than HTTP. The 'S' indicates a secure connection. Using SSL is recommended when confidential details are being entered over the Internet.

The list is endless.

We’ve been around a long time and have probably heard most of the questions you've got before so if you don't find the answer to your question here, just call us on 0845 313 0909 or email support@globalgold.co.uk and we'll be happy to assist by making things as simple as possible. We know that a lot of the information you’ll find on the web is designed to confuse and keep you in the “Internet dark", we, on the other hand, are happy to cut through the jargon and tell you the simple truth. Call us on 0845 313 0909.