Web Hosting Reviews - 12 Definitions
All web hosting reviews, as done by professionals in this field, have their own set of words to refer to various issues. In order to make informed decisions when looking for a suitable web hosting service that will be relevant and congruent with your needs, you have to learn a few of the technical words and phrases used in the web hosting field. Here, we present you some of those.
Internet Protocol Number - The Internet protocol number, otherwise known as IP address, is the number used to refer to a user’s computer, its location, the host, and the network used. This number acts to identify these details just like you would do when you are searching a geographical location using a house number.
Domain Name – This is the words used to identify your website, including its title and address. This, therefore, means that a domain name must be unique to a particular site. It also means that you cannot use another person’s domain name as it cannot be registered. All domain names have an extension, which means they always end with something like .com, .net, etc.
Uniform Resource Locator - In any web hosting plan, the Uniform resource locator, otherwise known as URL, is the universal way of presenting addresses on the Internet. The URL has two parts. The first part refers to the protocol used, while the second part shows the domain name. This also refers to how you set up your website’s address. It will then be used to find the exact location of the site on the Internet. The URL is also used by search engines to get to the site. It can therefore be seen as the address through which your site will be reached on the Internet.
Server – In web hosting service provision, a server is a machine, a computer, or any other software used to store information so that it can be accessed through the Internet. The server is then used by other computers connected to the Internet as a storage area where information will be retrieved once it is needed. A good web hosting plan will include strong and accessible servers so that users can access this information rapidly and easily.
Host – The host is the company or organization that provides web hosting services to other companies and individuals. The hosting company normally uses servers to hook up domain names and IP numbers. This, therefore, ensures that your website is searchable using search engines on the Internet. There are multiplicities of hosting companies with different qualities of web hosting services. It is therefore important to select one that you feel will provide the best web hosting plan for your business needs.
Active Server Pages – Active server pages, commonly referred to as ASP, are used to create dynamic content for websites. This is a windows-based specification to ensure that all visitors are able to view the site, even if they are all requesting it at the same time. The mechanism of this specification operates in a simple manner; the server will decode the information into HTML format and resend the same to your computer’s Internet browser. There are other specifications, such as those used by Linux servers (PHP). It is however dependent on the website hosting plan that you are using. Different plans will mean different ASP for particular web hosting service providers.
Internet Service Provider - ISP refers to the company that is providing Internet services to clients. The company gives connection services to its customers by allowing them Internet access through modems, DSL, or even wire connections. With a connection, users can therefore access the Internet on their computer browsers or mobile devices.
Audio Streaming - In order to access the audio content of any website, it must have the audio streaming feature. It is important to note that your web hosting plan must include that feature in order for users to access audio content on your website. This function usually requires a lot of bandwidth and therefore may not be automatically included in every web hosting plan. Be sure to ask your web hosting service provider if it is supported.
Bandwidth - Bandwidth- this refers to a bit rate measure of the amount of available or consumed data by a communication resource, in the case of web-hosting it is how much data is consumed/returned by a server. The Bandwidth is expressed in a unit of bits per second or similar multiples of it, kilobits per second or megabits per second.
Common Gateway Interface – this is commonly known as CGI and is a standard method for web servers to create and delegate the creation of executable files for web content. The executable files are commonly known as CGI Scripts and are programs that are standalone applications, typically written in a form of scripting language.
Encrypted Password - This refers to a password that has been converted to a another data format, in order to protect the password from being hacked. Only authorized users can use the encrypted password, with the help of a program to unscramble the encryption.