Finding the right web hosting company can be a challenging task, but it can be especially challenging for beginners looking to host a website for the first time.
Today I started thinking about the the terminology that I often throw around in meetings and I realized that many individuals may not completely understand the web hosting “lingo”. To help those who may not be a expert in web hosting have a better understanding of the products in which they are purchasing I have decided to write an article explaining the sometimes misunderstood web hosting language.
This article is written for beginners; I will explain each term to the simplest degree possible for an easy understanding you may can comment below.
Bandwidth
Controls the amount of traffic your website can handle
– Tip: The higher the bandwidth the better
CGI
A simple script that processes data submitted by a website visitor
– Example: Most online forms (enter name, address, phone, etc.) use CGI.
CGI-BIN
The place on a web server where CGI scripts are stored
Cpanel
The tool that allows you to control information on your web server
Dedicated Hosting
A more expensive form of web hosting. Cheaper hosting plans share a web server with others who are hosting websites. Dedicated hosting allows a user to have his/her own server. Increased server speeds and less server downtime can be expected with a dedicated hosting plan.
Disk Space
See “Hosting Space” below
Domain Name
A domain name is the actual name of the website that must be entered in a address bar to access a website
–Example: www.inodecloud.com is our domain name.
Firewall
A security feature for your web server
– Analogy: Not Anti-virus but instead Anti-Hacker
FrontPage Extensions
FrontPage is a popular web site builder program. A web server with FrontPage extensions support many of FrontPage’s add-on features
– Tip: If you use FrontPage you will want to have FrontPage extensions on your server.
FTP
A way to connect to your web server from your personal computer.
Linux Web Hosting
The base/foundation software of the web hosting server
– Analogy: Linux is to web server as Windows is to personal computers
Hosting Space
The amount of space that you have available on your web server
– Analogy: Hosting Space is to web server as Hard Drive is to personal computer.
IP
The unique address of “data packets” on the internet
– Analogy: IP is to internet as fingerprint is to human
POP
A way to connect web server email accounts to programs such as Outlook and Express Outlook
Reseller Hosting
A reseller hosting plan gives the customer the necessary tools needed to sell his/her own hosting plans for a profit
Shared Hosting
The most affordable and basic way to host a website. With shared hosting multiple websites are stored on the same web server, sharing resources
– Tip: This is the opposite of dedicated hosting
SiteBuilder
Free software that allows customers to build websites without the need of expensive software.
Stats
Software on a web server that enables you to see visitor information
– Example: “inodecloud.com had 1,203 views yesterday”
SQL
SQL is a website language that is used to request data from a database on your web server
– Tip: Microsoft Access is an example of a database
Sub-Domain
– Example: “www.inodecloud.com” is my domain name & “signup.inodecloud.com” would be an example of a sub-domain
Virtual Host
Just like shared hosting, multiple websites are hosted on the same server
VPS – Virtual Private Server
Increases privacy and web server performance.
– Tip: The middle grown between a virtual hosting account and a dedicated hosting account
Windows Hosting
Most web hosting servers are either windows based or Linux based
– Analogy: The operating system of a web server
About Kappy Prasad
Founder & CEO at iNode Cloud