Web Hosting Terms

Here are a handful of web hosting terms that will allow you to understand some basic terms and allow you to make an educated decision on your web hosting.

AJAX

Ajax, shorthand for "Asynchronous JavaScript and XML," is a web development technique for creating interactive web applications. The intent is to make web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user requests a change. This is intended to increase the web page's interactivity, speed, and usability.

ASP.NET

NET is Microsoft's new programming technology which is now gaining acceptance and momentum. Soon, it will completely replace standard ASP. Glaserweb.com is already up to speed with .NET technology, and is fully ready for this switch. While .NET development is not as rapid (leading to higher production costs), it is significantly more stable, and runs much faster than older programming technologies, opening up new possibilities for web development.

ASP

Active Server Pages are HTML pages that contain embedded scripts. IIS (Internet Information Server) and third party providers offer server software that interprets Active Server code. ASP pages contain either server side or client side scripts which performs functions such as database access, page personalization, or interactive functions. Scripts act similar to CGI scripts. Pages should end in .asp.

Bandwidth

The amount of data a web host will allow you to transfer, typically within a month and usually indicated in gigabytes (GB).

Cold Fusion

CF or ColdFusion is a scripting language like ASP. It can be used to interact with a database and to dynamically create HTML and XHTML pages on a server.

Add On Domains

A term used to describe the option to host additional domain names on a shared hosting account. With addon domain names you can host multiple domain names/sites with a distinct content on a single hosting account. The addon domain names usually are pointed to some folder on your web space and open a differnt website from your main site.

CGI

(Common Gateway Interface script) - a specificiation for transferring information between a Web server and a CGI program, designed to receive and and return data. The script can use a variety of languages such as C, Perl, Java, or Visual Basic. Many html pages that contain forms use a cgi program to process the data submitted by users/clients.

Databases

A database allows the storage of data either inputed by the site owner or visitors and enables websites to create dynamic pages, based on user input and actions.

File Space

The amount of space typically in gigabytes (GB) that a web host will allow you to use to store files.

FrontPage

Microsoft software product which is used to design web pages. It is made with ease of use in mind, and does not necessarily produce the most elegant or reliable code. While it may be suitable for the novice, it is generally frowned upon by the professional web design community.

PHP

PHP - Hypertext Preprocessor is a server-side, cross-platform, HTML embedded scripting language that lets you create dynamic web pages. PHP-enabled web pages are treated just like regular HTML pages and you can create and edit them the same way you normally c reate regular HTML pages.

Perl

Perl (Practical Extraction and Report Language), is a programming language specifically designed for processing text, and because of this trait is one of the most popular languages for writing CGI scripts.

Platform

Platform refers to the operating system a server is operating such as Windows, Linux, or Unix. Linux and Windows platforms are widely used with Linux plans usually being less expensive.

Python

Python is an interpreted, object-oriented programming language similar to Perl, that has gained popularity because of its clear syntax and readability.

Ruby On Rails

Ruby on Rails, sometimes known as "RoR" or just "Rails," is an open source framework for Web development in Ruby, an object-oriented programming (OOP) language similar to Perl and Python.

SSH

SSH - Secure Shell is a program designed to perform a number of functions, such as file transfer between computers, execution of commands on a remote computer, or logging on to a computer over a network. It is intended to be able to do these tasks with greater security than previous programs such as telnet or ftp.

SSI

SSI (Server side includes) is a type of HTML comment that directs the Web server to dynamically generate data for the Web page upon request.

SSL

The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a commonly-used protocol for managing the security of a message transmission over the Internet.

Server

In the web hosting definition, it refers to whether the server is Shared, used by many different sites/users, Dedicated, used by one user with indirect full control of the server, or Virtual, used by many different users but allows more control of the server than a Shared plan.