Hosting terminology

Data transfer/bandwidth traffic

Data transfer or bandwidth is the amount of information that your visitors download from your website. Each time a person visits your site, the pages visited is transferred from the webserver to the visitors’ computer.

What is Perl

Perl is an interpretive programming language that can be used for a large variety of tasks and is short for Practical Extraction and Report Language. A typical simple use of Perl would be for extracting information from a text file and printing out a report or for converting a text file into another form.

ASP.net or ASP

ASP.NET is an open-source web framework, created by Microsoft, for building modern web apps and services with .NET. ASP.NET is cross-platform and runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, and Docker.

DNS

Short for Domain name system. You can think of a DNS being the internet's phonebook and it is a directory of domain names that translates the domain names into IP addresses. The IP addresses then point to the IP address of the server where your website or email is hosted.

IP address

An IP address is a unique number (for example, 104.22.0.112) assigned to a device on a network. A domain name is a human-readable label (such as axxess.co.za) that points to the actual numeric IP address that computers can understand.

Web or Disk Space

Web or disk space is the size that your website can be. All files, including images, scripts, databases, logs and emails, will take up disk space. This space is measured in Bytes, KiloBytes, MegaBytes and GigaBytes.

kB / MB and GB

kB is an abbreviation for Kilobyte, MB is Megabytes and GB is GigaBytes, which is all measurements of storage. Below is a table illustrating multiples of bytes.

MySQL, MS SQL, Access Databases

MySQL, MS (Microsoft) SQL Server and Access are database systems. A database is a systematic collection of data arranged for ease and speed of search and retrieval. Databases are used to create a variety of sites. If you are going to make use of a database, make sure you choose a hosting package that will support the specific database you are looking to use.

PHP

PHP is a recursive acronym for Hypertext Preprocessor and is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language. It enables your website to be more dynamic. It's also cross-platform which makes it compatible with most if not all operating systems.

FTP

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and allows site owners/developers to upload and download files via a specific protocol standard. It also allows site owners to set up a temporary account for users to upload or download files to a specific folder without granting them access to the entire site.

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.

SSL

Apache webserver

Apache HTTP Server is a free and open-source web server that delivers web content through the internet. It is commonly referred to as Apache and after development, it quickly became the most popular HTTP client on the web.

Autoresponder

As its name implies, an autoresponder automatically sends an e-mail response to the message sender. One of the most common and well-known examples of an autoresponder is the “Out of Office” message reply. Similarly, you could configure your website to automatically respond to e-mails sent to a particular address, such as info@example.com.

Backup

A backup is a copy of files or data. In the event of data loss or corruption, you can use a backup to restore data to the last version you have a backup of.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is the rate of data transfer. It is usually expressed as the amount of data transferred in a second, such as kilobits per second or gigabits per second.

Browser

A browser (or “web browser”) is a client application that parses HTML from a web server and displays it as a human-readable page. Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Apple Safari are all commonly used web browsers.

cPanel

cPanel is one of the most common hosting control panels. It’s known for its ease of use and a large number of options for managing your webspace. It offers file management, mail management, database management, domain management, and security features.

DDoS

A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack occurs when multiple computers flood a target system with network traffic. Depending on the target system's configuration, it may be unable to handle the increased traffic, and site performance may suffer.

HTML

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the standard language used to create web pages. A web browser receives raw HTML from a web server, parses it, and displays a human-readable web page.

HTTP

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the protocol used to transfer hypermedia (text, images, video, and more) across the internet. It is the basis for the World Wide Web (WWW), an interconnected collection of hypertext documents.

IMAP

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is a protocol for authenticating to and retrieving messages from an e-mail server. With IMAP, you can use a client e-mail application such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird to retrieve and view your e-mail messages. 

JavaScript

JavaScript is a client-side scripting language that enables developers to add dynamic content to a website. Because it is a client-side technology, it runs in the user's web browser, not on the webserver. Most websites use at least some JavaScript.

Linux

Linux is a free and open-source operating system similar in functionality to Unix. It is known for its stability and reliability and is used in many computers around the world, particularly servers.

POP

POP (Post Office Protocol) is a protocol for authenticating to and retrieving messages from an e-mail server. With POP, you can use a client e-mail application such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird to retrieve and view your e-mail messages.

SMTP

An SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server is an application that’s primary purpose is to send, receive, and/or relay outgoing mail between email senders and receivers. When you send an email, the SMTP server processes your email, decides which server to send the message to, and relays the message to that server. 

Spam

“Spam” is a common term for unsolicited bulk (junk) e-mail messages. There are various methods and techniques for trying to reduce the amount of spam in user inboxes, but currently, none of them is 100% effective at blocking all spam and permitting all legitimate messages.

Top-level domain

The top-level domain is the right-most portion of a domain name. For example, in the domain name example.com, .com is the top-level domain. Other examples of top-level domains are .org, .net, .gov, and .edu, and there are many others.

Webmail

Webmail enables you to view and send e-mail messages from your web browser. This removes the need to install and configure a dedicated e-mail client application, such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. It also means you can access your e-mail account from any internet-connected computer that has a web browser.

Firewall

Website security is important, and a firewall is an essential part of protecting your website from attacks. Think of your firewall as security guards who have been given a set of rules to evaluate whether or not to let guests in. This makes sure that genuine visitors have access to your website, but keeps unwanted visitors out.

SSH

SSH stands for Secure Sockets Shell and is a protocol that provides the administrators with a secure way of accessing a remote computer.

Domain name

a Domain name is a set of letters and/or numbers that make up the web address of your website. Any domain name acts as a placeholder for the IP address of your website that lets users type in a much easier to remember website name instead of a complicated IP address. Our domain name is Axxess.co.za and our web address is www.Axxess.co.za

Subdomain

A subdomain is an add-on to your primary domain name. Essentially a subdomain is a separate part of your website that operates under the primary domain name. For example, Axxess.co.za is the primary domain and ccp.Axxess.co.za is a subdomain.