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404
Error
The error message that is commonly displayed when
a Web browser cannot locate a Web page or script. The link to a Web
page (URL) is static like a telephone number in a telephone book. A
Web site can use software to search each link that it references for
validity, but there is no program that can automatically find the
new address for the missing link.
A Record
A pointer or alias record. It is very much like a DNS entry, but
you can use it to point one IP address to another, for forwarding
purposes.
Active Server Page
An Active
Server Page (ASP) is an HTML page that includes one or more scripts
that are processed on a Microsoft Web server. An ASP is somewhat
similar to a server-side include or a common gateway interface (CGI)
application in that all involve programs that run on the server,
usually tailoring a page for the user. Typically, the script in the
Web page at the server uses input received as the result of the
user's request for the page to access data from a database and then
builds or customizes the page on the fly before sending it to the
requestor.
Apache
Apache is a freely
available Web server that is distributed under an "open source"
license. According to the Netcraft (www.netcraft.com) Web server
survey in February, 2001, 60% of all web sites on the Internet are
using Apache (62% including Apache derivatives), making Apache more
widely used than all other Web servers combined.
Applet
An applet is a small program
that can be sent along with a Web page to a user. It utilizes Java,
the object-oriented programming language. Java applets can perform
interactive animations, immediate calculations, or other simple
tasks without having to send a user request back to the server.
Browser
A browser is an application
program that provides a way to look at and interact with all the
information on the Web. The word "browser" seems to have originated
prior to the Web as a generic term for user interfaces that let you
browse (navigate through and read) text files online. Technically, a
Web browser is a client program that uses the Hypertext Transfer
Protocol (HTTP) to make requests of Web servers throughout the
Internet on behalf of the browser user. Popular browsers in use
today include Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer and
Opera.
CGI
The common gateway interface
(CGI) is a standard way for a Web server to pass a Web user's
request to an application program and to receive data back to
forward to the user. When the user fills out a form on a Web page
and sends it to the server, it usually needs to be processed by an
application program. The Web server typically passes the form
information to a small application program that processes the data.
This method or convention for passing data back and forth between
the server and the application is called the common gateway
interface (CGI).
CGI-BIN
The most
common name of a directory on a web server in which CGI Programs are
stored. The “bin” part of the name is a short-hand version of the
word “binary”. Most programs found in cgi-bin directories are text
files.
Counter
A counter is a program
that counts and typically displays how many people have visited an
HTML page (usually the home page). Many sites include a counter,
either as a matter of interest or to show that the site is popular.
The counter can be part of the common gateway interface application
that logs and analyzes requests.
DNS
The domain name system (DNS) is the way that Internet domain
names are located and translated into Internet Protocol addresses. A
domain name is a meaningful and easy-to-remember "handle" for an
Internet address. The domain name doteasy.com translates into IP
address [209.153.212.111].
Domain
Forwarding
The forwarding of one domain name to another
web site URL or IP address. This allows more than 1 domain name to
access the same web site
Domain Parking
The act of registering a domain, then placing it on a server for
future reservation or usage purposes. Commonly used tactic for
reserving name similar or relevant to the original (ie: reserving
the .com, .net and .org of a given domain name).
Domain Registration
The act of
registering a domain name in the interNIC registry. An Internet
domain name is an unique name combined with a top level domain name
(TLD) extension. For example, yourcompany.com is a domain name within
the .com TLD. There are currently over 29 million domain names
within the .com, .net., .org TLDs.
E-commerce
E-commerce is the buying and
selling of goods and services on the Internet, especially the World
Wide Web. In practice, this term and a newer term, e-business, are
often used interchangeably. For online retail selling, the term
e-tailing is sometimes used.
E-mail
autoresponder
An email function that automatically
returns a pre written message to anyone who sends e-mail to a
particular e-mail address. Autoresponder's are widely used for the
purpose of responding to visitor comments and suggestions in a
preliminary way.
E-mail Forward
An
email function that sends a copy of an e-mail to another e-mail
address.
E-mail Server
A computer in a
network that provides "post office" facilities. It stores incoming
mail for distribution to users and forwards outgoing mail through
the appropriate channel. The term may refer to just the software
that performs this service, which can reside on a machine with other
services.
FrontPage
A popular WYSIWYG
Web authoring program from Microsoft for Windows and the Mac.
FrontPage Editor is the graphical editor for designing the pages and
FrontPage Explorer is the management tool that lets you construct
and maintain the entire site. It also includes WebBots, which
generate code for complex functions such as searching and password
protection.
FrontPage Extensions
The
Server Extensions for the Microsoft FrontPage Web site creation and
management tool are a set of server-side applications that allow you
to incorporate many advanced features without having to write the
complex server-side programs typically required.
FTP
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is the
protocol used on the Internet for sending files.
Guestbook
A web site component which
allows web site visitors to view and enter information and comments
about a web site
HTML
Short for
HyperText Markup Language, the authoring language used to create
documents on the World Wide Web.
HTTPS
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket
Layer, or HTTP over SSL) is a Web protocol that encrypts and
decrypts user page requests as well as the pages that are returned
by the Web server. HTTPS is really just the use of Secure Socket
Layer (SSL) as a sublayer under the regular HTTP application
layering. (HTTPS uses port 443 instead of HTTP port 80 in its
interactions with the lower layer, TCP/IP.)
Image
map
In Web page development, an image map is a graphic
image defined so that a user can click on different areas of the
image and be linked to different destinations. You make an image map
by defining each of the sensitive areas in terms of their x and y
coordinates (that is, a certain horizontal distance and a certain
vertical distance from the left-hand corner of the image). With each
set of coordinates, you specify a Uniform Resource Locator or Web
address that will be linked to when the user clicks on that area.
Internet Explorer
A popular Web browser
developed by Microsoft. Like Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer
enables you to view Web pages. Both browsers support Java and
JavaScript. Internet Explorer also supports ActiveX.
JAVA
A high-level programming language
developed by Sun MicroSystems. Java is an object-oriented language
similar to C++, but simplified to eliminate language features that
cause common programming errors.
JavaScript
JavaScript is an interpreted programming or script language from
Netscape. JavaScript is often used for creating functions to
automatically change a formatted date on a Web page, cause a
linked-to page to appear in a popup window, cause text or a graphic
image to change during a mouse rollover.
LINUX
Pronounced lee-nucks, a
freely-distributable implementation of UNIX operating system that
runs on a number of hardware platforms, including Intel and Motorola
microprocessors. Linux's kernel (the central part of the operating
system) was developed by Linus Torvalds at the University of
Helsinki in Finland. Linux has become extremely popular over the
last couple years because it's free.
Mail
Client
An application that runs on a personal computer
or workstation and enables you to send, receive and organize e-mail.
It's called a client because e-mail systems are based on a
client-server architecture. Mail is sent from many clients to a
central server, which re-routes the mail to its intended
destination.
Member Zone
Doteasy's
proprietary Account Control Panel supplied to all members with many
account control functions. It can be accessed at https://member.doteasy.com/
Meta Tag
A special HTML tag that
provides information about a Web page. Unlike normal HTML tags, meta
tags do not affect how the page is displayed. Instead, they provide
information such as who created the page, how often it is updated,
what the page is about, and which keywords represent the page's
content.
MX Record
A MX record is the
Mail Exchanger record. This tells the world what your mail server IP
address and name is so that you can receive SMTP e-mail.
MySQL
MySQL (pronounced "my ess cue
el,") is an open source relational database management system
(RDBMS) that uses Structured Query Language (SQL), the most popular
language for adding, accessing, and processing data in a database.
Because it is open source, anyone can download mySQL and tailor it
to their needs in accordance with the general public license. MySQL
is noted mainly for its speed, reliability, and flexibility. Most
agree, however, that it works best when managing content and not
executing transactions.
Netscape
Netscape is one of the two most popular Web browser and also the
name of a company, Netscape Communications, now owned by America
Online (AOL). Currently, almost all Internet users use either
Netscape's browser or Microsoft's Internet Explorer (MSIE) browser,
and many users use both. Although Netscape was initially the
predominant product in terms of usability and number of users,
Microsoft's browser is now considered superior by many users
(although many other users see them as roughly equivalent) and has
taken a slight lead in usage.
Nslookup
A command used to acquire the IP address of a given domain name,
or vice versa.
ODBC
Open Database
Connectivity (ODBC) is an open standard application programming
interface (API) for accessing a database. By using ODBC statements
in a program, you can access files in a number of different
databases, including Access, dBase, DB2, Excel, and Text. In
addition to the ODBC software, a separate module or driver is needed
for each database to be accessed.
Packet
A packet is the unit of data that is routed between an origin
and a destination on the Internet or any other packet-switched
network. When any file (e-mail message, HTML file, Graphics
Interchange Format file, Uniform Resource Locator request, and so
forth) is sent from one place to another on the Internet, the
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer of TCP/IP divides the file
into "chunks" of an efficient size for routing. Each of these
packets is separately numbered and includes the Internet address of
the destination.
PHP
In Web
programming, PHP is a script language and interpreter that is freely
available and used primarily on Linux Web servers. PHP (the initials
come from the earliest version of the program, which was called
"Personal Home Page Tools") is an alternative to Microsoft's Active
Server Page (ASP) technology.
Ping
Ping
is a basic Internet program that lets you verify that a particular
IP address exists and can accept requests. The verb ping means the
act of using the ping utility or command. Ping is used
diagnostically to ensure that a host computer you are trying to
reach is actually operating.
Plug-in
Plug-in tools are programs that provide dynamic functionality to
a Web site while running from an external server with scripting
capabilities. These applications are imbedded into HTML script and
executing from an external server.
POP3
POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) is the most recent version of a
standard protocol for receiving e-mail. POP3 is a client/server
protocol in which e-mail is received and held for you by your
Internet server. Periodically, you (or your client e-mail receiver)
check your mail-box on the server and download any mail.
POP3 mail server
Post Office Protocol 3
A standard mail server commonly used on the Internet. It provides a
message store that holds incoming e-mail until users log on and
download it. POP3 is a simple system with little selectivity. All
pending messages and attachments are downloaded at the same time.
POP3 uses the SMTP messaging protocol.
RAID
RAID (redundant array of independent disks) is a way of storing
the same data in different places (thus, redundantly) on multiple
hard disks. By placing data on multiple disks, I/O operations can
overlap in a balanced way, improving performance. Since multiple
disks increases the mean time between failure (MTBF), storing data
redundantly also increases fault-tolerance.
Root
directory
In a computer file system that is organized
as a hierarchy or tree, the root directory is the directory that
includes all other directories. (Unlike a real tree, a tree file
system has only one root!) In UNIX-based as well as in other
operating system, the root directory has no name. It is simply
represented by the special character that separates directories in a
file system "/".
Router
On the
Internet, a router is a device that determines the next network
point to which a packet should be forwarded toward its destination.
A router is located at any gateway (where one network meets
another), including each Internet point-of-presence.
Script
In computer programming, a
script is a program or sequence of instructions that is interpreted
or carried out by another program rather than by the computer
processor (as a compiler program is).
Search
Engine
A program that searches documents for specified
keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were
found. Although search engine is really a general class of programs,
the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Alta
Vista and Excite that enable users to search for documents on the
World Wide Web and USENET newsgroups.
Sendmail
On the Internet, sendmail is
the most popular UNIX-based implementation of the Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol (SMTP) for transmitting e-mail. When a sendmail
server receives e-mail, it attempts to deliver the mail to the
intended recipient immediately and, if the recipient is not present,
it queues messages for later delivery. It does not provide a mailbox
facility.
Shopping Cart
A shopping cart
is a software program that acts as an online store's catalog and
ordering process. Typically, a shopping cart is the interface
between a company's Web site and its deeper infrastructure, allowing
consumers to select merchandise; review what they have selected;
make necessary modifications or additions; and purchase the
merchandise.
SMTP server
Short for
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, a protocol for sending e-mail
messages between servers. Most e-mail systems that send mail over
the Internet use SMTP to send messages from one server to another;
the messages can then be retrieved with an e-mail client using
either POP or IMAP.
SQL
Abbreviation of
structured query language, and pronounced either see-kwell or as
separate letters. SQL is a standardized query language for
requesting information from a database. The original version called
SEQUEL (structured English query language) was designed by an IBM
research center in 1974 and 1975. SQL was first introduced as a
commercial database system in 1979 by Oracle Corporation.
SSI
SSI stands for Server Side Include.
It is a method of invoking script programs that run on the web
server to perform some function and/or add information to a web
page.
SSL
SSL (secure sockets layer) is
a commonly-used protocol for managing the security of a message
transmission on the Internet. SSL uses a program layer located
between the Internet's Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and
Transport Control Protocol (TCP) layers. SSL is included as part of
both the Microsoft and Netscape browsers and most Web server
products. SSL uses the public-and-private key encryption system from
RSA, which also includes the use of a digital certificate.
Subdomain
A domain name created by
adding a prefix to an existing domain name. For example
support.yourcompany.com is a subdomain of yourcompany.com.
Traceroute
A utility that records the
route (the specific gateway computers at each hop) through the
Internet between your computer and a specified destination computer.
It also calculates and displays the amount of time each hop took.
Traceroute is a handy tool both for understanding where problems are
in the Internet network and for getting a detailed sense of the
Internet itself.
UPS
An uninterruptible
power supply (UPS) is a device that allows your computer to keep
running for at least a short time when the primary power source is
lost. It also provides protection from power surges. A UPS contains
a battery that "kicks in" when the device senses a loss of power
from the primary source.
URL
A URL
(Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of a file (resource)
accessible on the Internet. The type of resource depends on the
Internet application protocol. Using the World Wide Web's protocol,
the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) , the resource can be an HTML
page (like the one you're reading), an image file, a program such as
a common gateway interface application or Java applet, or any other
file supported by HTTP.
Virtual Hosting
On the Internet, virtual hosting is the provision of Web server
hosting services so that a company (or individual) doesn't have to
purchase and maintain its own Web server and connections to the
Internet. A virtual hosting provider is sometimes called a Web or
Internet "space provider." Some companies providing this service
simply call it "hosting."
Web Server
A
Web server is a program that, using the client/server model and the
World Wide Web's Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), serves the
files that form Web pages to Web users (whose computers contain HTTP
clients that forward their requests). Every computer on the Internet
that contains a Web site must have a Web server program. Two leading
Web servers are Apache, the most widely-installed Web server, and
Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS).
Webcam
A video camera, usually attached
directly to a computer, whose current or latest image is requestable
from a Web site A live cam is one that is continually providing new
images that are transmitted in rapid succession or, in some cases,
in streaming video. Sites with live cams sometimes embed them as
Java applets in Web pages.
WYSIWYG
A
WYSIWYG (pronounced "wiz-ee-wig") editor or program is one that
allows an interface or content developer to create a graphical user
interface (GUI) or page of text so that the developer can see what
the end result will look like while the interface or document is
being created. WYSIWYG is an acronym for "what you see is what you
get". A WYSIWYG editor can be contrasted with more traditional
editors that require the developer to enter descriptive codes (or
markup) and do not permit an immediate way to see the results of the
markup.
XML
Short for eXtensible Markup
Language, a specification developed by the W3C. XML is a pared-down
version of SGML, designed especially for Web documents. It allows
designers to create their own customized tags, enabling the
definition, transmission, validation, and interpretation of data
between applications and between organizations. |
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