|
|
 |
Glossary of Internet Terms
One of the most offputting aspects of making the Internet a cornerstone of your business is the jargon. The terminology is changing as quickly as the technology, but there are a number of key definitions and concepts that are unlikely to change in the near future. We have listed some of these here.
This area is being routinely updated as we add new items and change others to reflect your requests and changing trends.
Banner
An interactive ad placed on a webpage that is linked to an external advertiser's website or another internal page within the same website.
Bricks & Mortar
A name given to a business whose trading is conducted purely offline.
Browser
A program on your computer used for viewing web pages. Examples are Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator & Opera.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
CSS is a technology used to seperate the layout of a site from its content. The instructions for the formatting and layout of a site's page elements may be stored on a style sheet to which all the other pages point.
Clicks & Mortar
A business whose trading is achieved via an offline presence eg. shop, and an online facility.
Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
CGI is the method by which a Web Server can obtain data from (or send data to) databases, documents and other programs, and present that date to viewers via the web.
Content Management System (CMS)
An easy to use interface that allows non-technical people to update, create and easily format site content. Changes are automatically reflected on the Web site.
Data Transfer
When organising a hosting deal to suit your needs, you will be allowed a certain amount of data transfer. For example a monthly quota of 1GB data transfer would be approximately 100,000 hits per month on your site. High volume sites with many visitors will need a higher monthly transfer quota.
Database
Loosely, any aggregation of data; usually a large collection of data that has been formatted by some user-defined standard.
If you need to display dynamic, rapidly changing information to viewers of your site, you will need a database driven site.
Database Driven Site
A web site whose pages are driven by updateable information stored on a database resident on the Web Server. The data could be job vacancies, flight data for a travel agent, hotel reservation data, or the product listing for an online store.
Digital Certificate
A Digital Certificate issued by a Certificate Authority certifies that a merchant and a particular eCommerce website are connected just as the photo on your driving licence connects your identity with your personal details. A Digital Certificate verifies to the shopper that the online store is actually asociated with a physical address and phone number which increases the shoppers confidence in the authenticity of the merchant.
All our eCommerce enabled sites are certified by the Thawte Digital Certificate.
Domain Name
The official name of a computer connected to the Internet. Domain names are derived from a hierarchical system, with host name followed by a top-level domain category eg. .com, .net, .org.
Put plainly, if a website is located at http://www.yoursite.com , then yoursite.com is your Domain Name.
eCommerce
This is the exchange of routine business information using Electronic Data Interchange, email etc.
It refers to Internet shopping, online transactions, and various other transfers.
Email
One of the most popular features of the Internet, e-mail allows you to send messages to any other Internet user anywhere in the world, usually within a few seconds. Not only can users send text messages: graphics, sounds and even software can be sent through e-mail. Although some online services do charge for e-mail, there is usually no additional cost. Most browsers (such as Netscape and Internet Explorer) feature some sort of email handling capability. In addition, there are highly sophisticated e-mail programs available, the most widely used being Eudora.
Email Aliases
Email aliases allow you to have more than one address per mailbox. eg. You could have sales@mysite.com and services@mysite.com and more displayed on your site and mail to these addresses will land in the same mailbox. maybe info@mysite.com
Email Autoresponders
Autoresponders are messages that are sent immediately in reply to every message landing in your mailbox. This feature is useful for confirming receipt of mail, and that someone will be in contact with the sender ASAP.
Email Forwarding
With Email Forwarding, you can forward mail arriving in one mailbox to another address.
Encryption
A Procedure that renders the contents of a message or file unintelligible to anyone not authorised to read it.
Extranet
An extension of a corporate intranet. It connects the internal network of one company with the intranets of its customers and suppliers.
Firewall
A set of security procedures that separates & protects data on a computer or network from hackers and who might access the computer from the Internet.
FTP
Acronym for File Transfer Protocol, one of the standard protocols defined for use on the Internet. It is the protocol used for uploading webpages onto the server, so they will be visible to all.
Hit
Each time a Web Server receives a request for a file from a browser, a 'Hit' is recorded.
Host
On a basic level a host is the same as a server. That is, the word "host" refers to the computer in a network where, for example, web sites reside, or where the software that supports delivery of services like chat, e-mail, etc. is installed. The term "to host" is synonymous with providing such services.
HTAccess Authentication
Web-based authentication that denies access to visitors who do not give a valid username & password. Essentially, this feature allows you to restrict access to certain areas of your site. eg. employees area only, admin areas etc.
HTML
Or Hypertext Markup Language. HTML is the language used for laying out web pages and manipulating graphics and text.
HTTP
Or Hypertext Transfer Protocol. This is a set of rules that dictate how web pages and graphics etc. are requested and sent over the internet.
Internet
A worldwide network of computers originally developed for the sharing of information between government, defense and educational institutions. Today the 'Net includes nonprofit organizations, businesses and personal sites.
Internet Service Provider (ISP)
An Internet Service Provider is the average user's "gateway" to the Internet. The ISP maintains connectivity to the Net, charging subscribers for use. Prices and features vary widely between ISPs and potential users are encouraged to shop around. At the very least, an ISP should provide basic Internet access, e-mail and Usenet. Before signing up for an ISP, make sure they have a local access number.
IP address
Also known as Internet Protocol address, the IP address is a numeric address such as 123.231.32.2 that the domain name server translates into a domain name.
Merchant Account
A Bank Account established with a payment processor for the settlement of credit card transactions. Any merchant who wants to take online credit card orders must set up a Merchant Account.
ODBC
Acronym for Open Database Connectivity, it is a standard protocol for accessing information in SQL servers. It is used for translating information from one database format into another eg. MS Access to MySQL.
POP3 Email Accounts
With a POP3 email account you will be able to reach your mail through Microsoft Outlook, Eudora, Pegasus or any other POP3 configured email program. Each POP3 email account allows you to have a unique e-mail address. (eg. name@mysite.com).
Pure Play
A business whose affairs are conducted purely online.
Search Engine
The primary way to find what you're looking for on the Net. There are over a billion documents available on the World Wide Web alone, and finding something useful would be impossible if search engines didn't exist. Basically, a search engine works much like a library catalogue: you type in keywords pertaining to what you want and the search engine retrieves URLs of Web documents matching those criteria. Though many search sites exist, the most widely used are Google, Yahoo, Alta Vista and Lycos. Most search engines are accessed through their Web sites at no cost.
Secure Socket Layers (SSL)
The leading security protocol on the Internet. In an online transaction, it creates a secure 'session' between the merchant & cardholder. An SSL session has the effect of scrambling or encrypting transaction information therefore not allowing intruders to view it's contents. When the information arrives at its destination it is decrypted and read in a normal format by the recipient.
Server
A server is simply a computer that is 'online' at all times. Web pages are stored on the server in the same way files are stored on your computer. Each server that is connected to the Internet is assigned a unique name (Domain name) and each domain name is assigned an address. (IP address) When you click on a link or enter an address (or URL which means uniform resource locator) in your browser, the server is contacted and the file you have requested is ' served ' to your computer.
Server Side Includes (SSI)
SSI's are a server side technology that enable developers to insert or include the contents of one file into the body of another file.
Shopping Cart
A software program that allows users to view and search for items available on a site that is selling goods. Users can select an item and add it to their virtual cart. They can then view the contents of their cart and change the quantities or delete items as they wish. Once the users are happy with the contents of their cart they then check out by confirming the order and purchasing the goods.
Sticky Factor
The stickiness of a site is a measure of how addictive a site is. ie. A measure of how much people will want to return to a particular site, again & again.
TCP/IP
TCP/IP is an abbreviation for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. TCP is a lossless protocol, requiring a handshake to ensure that data is not lost during transmission. Internet Protocol (IP) uses addresses which are a series of four "octet" (byte) numbers in a dotted decimal notation. For example, 205.152.184.32. Application protocols such as HTTP, and FTP are based on and use TCP/IP.
Webspace
When you purchase a hosting plan from us, you are assigned a certain amount of webspace. This is merely the amount of space allocated to you on our servers. So, your site and/or databases etc. must occupy not more than this much space.
World Wide Web
One of the largest subsets of the Internet, the World Wide Web allows access to multimedia files known as "Web pages." A Web page contains mostly text and graphics, but can also include sound, video and animation. This is accomplished through a browser, a special program which translates the Web page from its programming language, usually Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). The most popular browsers by far are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Both of these can be downloaded at no cost.
|
|
