The definitions included here are words that are commonly used in the web hosting industry. We also include definitions that are from other related fields.
We are constantly on the lookout for terms that are a good fit to be listed here.
Apache Server
An Apache Server, also known as Apache HTTP Server, is an open source software that allows for the creation of web servers, and the software to deploy and manage those servers.
The Apache Server software is maintained by the Apache Software Foundation.
The Apache Server software is designed to be able to create web servers that can host one or more HTTP-based websites. Some of its features include being able to support multiple languages, server-side scripting, authentication and support for databases.
Apache Server software is commonly used by web hosting companies to provide shared or virtual hosting.
Auto Responder
An auto responder is an email software that automatically sends a reply to incoming email.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth in web hosting is the maximum amount of data that can be transferred to your website visitors from your web hosting servers. Web hosting providers typically calculate and sell bandwidth in Gigabytes (GB). Some web hosts offer “unlimited bandwidth”, but that’s more of a sales tactic.
CDN
A CDN (content delivery network) is a group of geographically located and interconnected servers which work together to bring website visitors the contents of a web pages as soon as possible and also to provide latency as well as provide some protection against attacks such as DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks.
CloudFlare
Cloudflare is an American company that delivers services such as a content delivery network (CDN) and many other additional services to make websites faster and more secure. Cloudflare offers some of its services for free, and charges for others.
cPanel
cPanel is a web hosting control panel that lets you easily configure many account settings such as managing hosted domains, managing your emails, managing your ftp accounts, managing web hosting packages and much more.
cPanel is a third party application that is not free, however, most web hosts include that cost as part of their web hosting plan pricing.
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)
A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) is when multiple computers are used to flood a targeted network with a lot of network
traffic all at once so that visitors of a website cannot access that website. Many times the owners of the computers that are used to carry out this attack do not that their computers are part of these attacks.
Dedicated Server
A dedicated server is a physical server that hosts a single website. A dedicated server gives you complete control over almost everything, including the choice of operating system and resource usage.
Having a dedicated servers are usually dedicated for bigger websites with a high amount of traffic, which usually means better performance such site speed partly because the hosted website does not have to share resources with other websites.
Having a dedicated server for your website will cost more than if you were to go with shared web hosting.
Domain Name
A domain name is unique name and extension that identifies a website, for example, google.com, facebook and gab.com.
A domain name is meant for people, because computers use IP addresses, which is a series of numbers. A domain name is translated to an IP address which is changed dynamically by a DNS (Domain Name System).
DNS
The DNS (Domain Name System) turns domain names into IP addresses. An example of a domain is google.com and an example of an IP address is 64.233.160.0. Web browsers and every other device that connects to the internet uses IP addresses to know where to send the data to. The DNS allows for people to use domain names instead of having to enter IP addresses.
FTP
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a service for transferring files over the internet. By using an FTP client application such as
FileZilla, you can upload (send) and download (receive) files from a remote server.
HTML
HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language and is the standard language that is used to create web pages. HTML allows you to create the structure of a web page by creating elements such as paragraphs, headings and images. HTML also allows you to add tags and attributes to those elements.
HTTP
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the protocol used to transfer data such as images, text, videos, and more over the internet.
IMAP
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is a protocol that allows you to send and receive messages from and email server. IMAP allows email applications such Microsoft Outlook or Zepto Mail to retrieve and view your emails.
IP
IP stands for “Internet Protocol”, which is the set of rules for how to send and receive data over the internet or local network.
An IP address is a unique number (for example, 255.255.255.0) that is assigned to a device on a network. Every device that
connects to the internet is assigned an IP address, which is how they identify each other.
Javascript
Javascript is a scripting or programming language that can be used both on the client side and the server side that allows web pages, software and applications to be interactive. HTML, CSS and Javascript are used together to make websites interactive.
Linux
Linux is an open source operating system. Some examples of operating systems are MicroSoft Windows, Unix, Chrome OS, Mac Os, Apple’s iOS and Google Android.
Mailing Lists
A mailing list is a collection of emails. You can send multiple emails to those recipients at the same time. Mailing lists can be
and are often used to send newsletters, special announcements and other related material.
Managed Web Hosting
Managed web hosting is when a hosting company handles the setup, configuration, administration, management, software upgrades and other system administration tasks.
Let’s say that a web hosting company offers both shared web hosting and managed shared web hosting. It will not say that their shared hosting package is not managed, but will explicitly say that their managed shared hosting package is managed by them. Also, managed hosting is always costs more compared to the same hosting package that is not managed.
MySQL
MySQL is an open source database management system. A database is a structured collection of data. Some examples of this type of data can be an image gallery, items in an online store, a customer’s shopping list, employee data, etc. The amount of information in a database can be very small to very large.
MySQL databases are relational databases, which means that databases are stored in separate tables, compared to non-relational databases which keep all of their data in one place.
MySQL is often used along with PHP to build all kinds of websites and applications. MySQL is developed, distributed and supported by Oracle Corporation.
MySQL software is open source and uses the GPL (GNU General Public License) and can be downloaded and used for free.
PHP
PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor. This is a recursive acronym) is a free and open source scripting language that is well suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML syntax.
PHP is commonly used in combination with MySQL to make websites and applications.
POP
POP (Post Office Protocol) is a protocol that allows you to send and receive emails from an email server. POP and IMAP are used when connecting to desktop email applications like OutLook, ThunderBird, Gmail for Mac, Apple Mail. Webmail services like Gmail, ProtonMail, Zoho, Yahoo handle all of the authentification on their end.
Reseller Web Hosting
Reseller web hosting is when web hosting companies rent hard drive space and bandwidth to a person(s) or another company who then rents that hard drive space and bandwidth to other people or companies that are looking for web hosting as if they were the web hosting company.
Unmanaged Web Hosting
Unmanaged web hosting is when the hosting customer handles all of the configuration changes, software installs, software upgrades, including cPanel, WordPress, Drupal or any similar software and also software such as Apache or PHP.
Reseller Hosting
Reseller hosting is when you buy web hosting space and bandwidth in bulk and at a wholesale rate and turn around and resell it at a higher price so that you can make a profit while acting as the web host.
Shared Web Hosting
Shared web hosting is when multiple websites are hosted on the same server and they all share resources, for example, disk space and bandwidth.
Shared web hosting is the most inexpensive way to host a website.
SMTP
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a standard protocol for sending and receiving and emails.
Softaculous
Softaculous is an Auto Installer for cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, ISPmanager, WordPress, Joomla, WHCMS and a whole lot more. Softaculous allows you to automate the installation of web applications with only a few clicks. This is done within the website administration area of the web host.
Spam
Spam is unsolicited bulk, junk emails. These emails are usually sent to an indiscriminate email list. Spam usually meant for commercial purposes and usually sent by a network of botnets, which are infected computers that their owners do not know that they are a part of.
SPF
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is an email-authentication technique that is used to prevent spam from being sent to your inbox.
SSL
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a encryption-based internet security protocol. It is often used by web servers and web browsers but can also be used by mail servers and clients, and other applications.
Top-level domain
The top-level domain is everything that follows the last period of a domain name. For example, in the domain name “google.com”, “.com” is the top-level domain. Other examples of top-level domains are “.org”, “.edu”, “.gov”, “.uk”, “.mx” and there are many more.
Virtual Private Server
A virtual private server (VPS) is a server. A server is a computer that houses all of your website’s data and files. Virtualization technology allows that one server to split that one server into multiple virtual servers, so several websites can be hosted on that one server, each in its own environment allowing that one server to function like multiple separate servers. Each virtual server within that one main server is in its own private environment so that you do not have to share RAM, CPU, data or any other resources with the other private servers.
Webmail
Webmail are online based email accounts that you can access through a website. Some examples are GMail, ProtonMail and Zoho Mail. All that you need is an internet connection to send and receive email using webmail.
By accessing your email through a website, you do not have to download, install and configure an email application.
WordPress
WordPress is a free open-source software that let’s you easily create and design almost any kind of website. About 35% of websites on the internet are made using WordPress.
You can install WordPress from within your web host’s control panel with just a few clicks. WordPress itself is free and open-source, however, page builders, themes and plugins may be free or paid.