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SUPPORT > GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Some technical terms can baffle even the most gifted of web developers, and so we hope that this glossary of terms found across the Cyberjack.net web pages will help everyone, whether you're coding up some HTML, or developing a new Linux kernel which will get us all slashdotted.
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A
Apache
Apache is a popular open source web server used by Cyberjack.net to power all web sites hosted with us. You can find more information on the Apache web page.
B
Blog
A blog is an online diary, and is short for web log. More information can be found in the web log glossary entry.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth, or 'traffic' is the term used to describe the amount of data that has been transferred to and from your web site in any given period of time, (usually measured monthly). Data is transferred whenever you upload files to your site, or whenever someone looks at your web site - in fact, any data movement to or from your site. Therefore, the more visitors your site gets, the more bandwidth it will use. Bandwidth itself is measured in units of Mb and Gb, just like web space. Your hosting account comes with a set amount of monthly bandwidth, which you can increase if you need to.
C
CGI scripting
CGI stands for common gateway inferface, and is a way for various scripting languages to build web pages dynamically, either from a text file, or from a database, or around information submitted in an HTML form. Whilst you can use programming languages such as C to build CGI scripts, the most commonly used language is Perl. CGI scripts offer an opportinity to build highly dynamic and customisable web sites, as well as extra features such as online forums, diaries, content management systems and more.
cgi-bin
Every hosting account on our server has it's own CGI-bin, which is simply a folder within your web directory where you should place all of your CGI scripts.
Control Panel
A control panel is software installed onto the server which provides an easy to use GUI (Graphical User Interface) that enables our hosting customers to admin their own account, (add email accounts, change passwords, etc.)
D
Database
A database is essentially a table of information stored on a computer system in an easily searchable and retrievable format. A database can have any number of rows and columns, and can contain a huge amount of information. Advanced web sites such as Amazon.co.uk or dell.com use databases connected to their web sites to store and retrieve large amounts of information quickly.
H
HTML
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, and is the building block of the web. It allows formatting, such as bold, italics and links, to be included in normal text files, which can be easily moved across the internet. The formatting takes the form of start and end tags, which are then interpretted by a web browser, and displayed (hopefully) correctly.
HTML is a subset of a more global technology, called XML.
K
Kernel
The kernel of an operating system, such as Windows, OS X or Linux, is the central core which controls the computer. The kernel contains all the information needed to write and read data to hard drives and talk to the computer's processor, network, sound cards and other hardware devices.
L
Linux
Linux is an open version of the powerful Unix operating system. Initially developed by Linus Torvalds, Linux's open source structure allows thousands of enthusiasts and companies build, alter and contribute to the codebase to make Linux even better. All Cyberjack.net's servers are powered by Linux, chosen because of it's speed, flexibility and stability.
M
mySQL
mySQL is an open source database server, used by Cyberjack.net to power all databases hosted with us. mySQL databases can be easily queried using cgi scripting and PHP functions.
O
Open source
Software projects such as Apache and mySQL for which the full source code is readily available. Such projects usually encourage people to download the code and modify it to their needs, fix bugs and generally play with it, so long as they let other developers know if they improve the product in any way. Open Source software is usually more stable and more secure because of this.
P
PHP
PHP is an excellent server side web scripting language. It has good support for session management, form handling and database connectivity. Special PHP tags can be placed inside normal HTML web pages and are interpretted by the web server before being sent to the browser. This allows PHP to power dynamic web sites with some cool features. The Cyberjack.net web site is built using PHP.
What does PHP stand for? It's a recursive abbreviation of: PHP is a Hypertext Preprocessor. You had to ask. ; )
POP Email Accounts
POP ('Post Office Protocol') is an internet mail server storage system. It works in confuction with SMTP ('Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) to move email around the internet, from the sender of the email to the recipient. In hosting terms, a POP email account is a 'real' email account (as opposed to a mail forwarding account). With a POP email account, you can enter your email account settings into any computer and collect and send your email. POP mail accounts provide much more flexibility than webmail or email forwarding. When we say that your hosting account comes with X amount of POP email accounts, this means you can set up X amount of email addresses under your domain, ie: sales@yourdomain.com.
S
Slashdot effect / slashdotting
Slashdot is a community web site with a focus on technology. Such is the popularity of the site, that the number of visitors a link posted on the site can receive is huge, occasionally exceeding a server's bandwidth, or more usually, causing the web server to crash, taking the site down. So far, no slashdotting for Cyberjack.net. : )
Subdomains
Your web site is attached to a domain name, such as yourdomain.com. In addition to this domain name, your web address can also contain a sub-domain. This is usually www, but with our new range of services, can be set to anything you wish, allowing you to extend you domain name. You may like to include a second site for your customers to handle feedback, which could be called contact.yourodomain.com, or sales.yourdomain.com.
W
Web log
A web log is a form of online diary becoming more and more popular on the web. They allow individuals to post their daily news, thoughts or whatever to their web sites quickly and easily, without the need for much technical knowledge. Web logs are updated using only a browser, so they are also perfect for posting your news from the road. The Cyberjack.net Starter Hosting Plan includes a pre-installed blog, all ready to rock when you sign up.
Web server
A web server is a piece of software specifically designed to handle web sites on the internet. They receive requests from web browsers over the internet, process those requests, and send back the correct web page to the browser. The most popular on the web is Apache, a fast, very stable, open source web server, also used to power the sites hosted by Cyberjack.net.
Web space
The term 'web space' is used to describe the amount of disk space on the server. On the internet, space is measured in mega-bytes ('Mb' for short). HTML files, jpegs, gifs, mp3's - in fact anything at all you upload to your web directory - will take up web space. If a hosting plan comes with 25Mb web space, that means you will be allowed up to 25Mb of space on our web server for your web site's files. The bigger the web site, the more web space you need to host it. Removing files from your server space will free up more space, but many people find as their site grows they will need to purchase extra web space.
X
XML
The eXtensible Markup Language allows the structured storage of data in an easy to read (for humans and computers) format. The full gory details are beyond the scope of this glossary, but you can find out more about this important technology at the O'Reilly XML web site.
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