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Home >> Glossary
Glossary
Computer terms can sometimes be overwhelming to say the least! That is why we have put together a webmaster glossary section which we hope you find useful.
- Applet
An applet is an embedded program on a web site. Applets are usually written in the coding language called Java. They are mainly used for creating a virtual or 3-dimensional object that may move or interact with the web site.
- ARPANet
(Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) The precursor to the Internet . Developed in the late 60’s and early 70’s by the US Department of Defense as an experiment in wide-area-networking that would survive a nuclear war.
- ASCII
This is the de facto world-wide standard for the code numbers used by computers to represent all the upper and lower-case Latin letters, numbers, punctuation, etc. There are 128 standard ASCII codes each of which can be represented by a 7 digit binary number: 0000000 through 1111111.
- ASP (Active Server Pages)
Active Server Pages enable web developers to make their sites dynamic with database driven content. The code is mainly written in VB Script, and it is produced on the server of the web site instead of the browser of your web site visitors. The server reads the ASP code and then translates it to raw HTML. This means that the web site owner doesn't have to worry about the visitor having the right tools to view the the web site's dynamic content. The only downfall to ASP is that since it is run from the server, it takes longer for the pages to load because there are more steps involved in translating the code.
- Audio Streaming
The process of providing audio content on a web site. This takes up a nice amount of bandwidth, especially if you get a lot of visitors at your site. Some hosts do not allow audio or video streaming because of this. If you are going to want audio on your site, you should make sure that your host supports audio streaming first. This is usually stated in their plans.
- Auto Responder
An automated program that acknowledges receipt of an e-mail message, and then sends back a previously prepared email to the sender, letting them know it was received or that certain actions are being taken. Most of you probably already have a basic idea of what this is when you go on vacation and you create an auto response at your work to let everyone that emails you know that you will be away for the next week.
- Backbone
The main line of a series of connections within a network.
- Bandwidth
This is the amount of data that is sent through a connection. If you have a large web site, with many visitors, you will need a lot more bandwidth than someone with a one page web site that gets 2 visitors a month. Some hosting plans offer unlimited bandwidth, but most have limits or will just make you pay for extra bandwidth because if a site is clogging their servers with visitors, they want to get compensated for that.
- Browser
A Client program (software) that is used to look at various kinds of Internet resources.
- Byte
A set of Bits that represent a single character. Usually there are 8 Bits in a Byte, sometimes more, depending on how the measurement is being made.
- Certificate Authority
An issuer of Security Certificates used in SSL connections.
- CGI
(Common Gateway Interface) A CGI is a program that translates data from a web server and then displays that data on a web page or in an email. Many people use CGI's for guestbooks and email forms. Some hosts have pre-made CGI scripts that are ready to use and plug into a web site.
- cgi-bin
The most common name of a directory on a web server in which CGI programs are stored. The “bin” part of “cgi-bin” is a shorthand version of “binary”, because once upon a time, most programs were
referred to as “binaries”. In real life, most programs found in cgi-bin directories are text files -- scripts that are executed by binaries located elsewhere on the same machine.
- Client
A software program that is used to contact and obtain data from a Server software program on another computer, often across a great distance. Each Client program is designed to work with one or more specific kinds of Server programs, and each Server requires a specific kind of Client . A Web Browser is a specific kind of Client.
- Co-location
Basically this is just owning a server but having it a another location. This is great for people who want to own their own server, but do not want the hassle of maintaining that server in their environment.
- Cookie
If you have ever been to a web site like ivillage.com, iwon.com, or amazon.com, you may notice your name on the page in a message like "Welcome Back John!" This is because your browser stored a tiny cookie file that enabled their server to identify you from the first time that you registered with them. This saves regular visitors or customers of your site time from having to log in and log out every time they visit your site.
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