Web Hosts offer a service where their "server" stores your website's HTML files and graphics on the hard disk, and then deliver those files upon request from your web browser (such as Netscape, Internet Explorer, Opera, or Mozilla) for viewing.
The amount of space on the server allocated to an account or domain name (to be linked to the domain name page) .It is measured in KB, MB or GB.
1KB = 1024 bytes.
1MB = 1024KB (Kilobytes)
1GB = 1024MB (Megabytes)
Bandwidth is the amount of data transferred to or from your website or server in a given time. In other words, bandwidth is the amount of web traffic a site can facilitate. Suppose your website is hosted on a 2GB/month hosting account and your site contains a 2MB picture. Each time a visitor see that image, you are using 2MB from your bandwidth and 1000 visitors can view that picture before you exceed the 2,000MB (2GB) limit. In general, if you have a commercial site or a site that generates a lot of traffic, you will need a lot more bandwidth than someone with a one page website that gets 10 visitors a month.
Many hosting companies offer “unlimited” bandwidth, but be aware that there are physical limitations to bandwidth. Check in the hosting company’s Terms of Service about what “unlimited” really means.
IP address is a unique number consisting of 4 parts separated by dots, e.g. 216.121.19.83. Every domain name (to be linked to the domain name page) has an IP address assigned to it. Some hosting provides one single IP address to all websites sharing one server.
A Dedicated IP is a unique Internet address dedicated exclusively to a single hosting account. If you have a business oriented website and you need to install SSL certificate for your website, then you will need a Dedicated IP address for your site. From SEO point of view it is good to have Dedicated IP address. Sites with a Dedicated IP address do better in the search engine results than those utilizing shared IPs.
Uptime is the term used to measure how long a server or service has been "up" and operational. This requires continuous monitoring and management by server administrators. Server uptime depends on data being available to administrators that allows them to foresee potential failures and prevent them. Server uptime tools deliver vital data about machine and operating system performance in real-time to administrators, alerting administrators when something goes wrong.
Windows hosting refers to on a Microsoft Windows Server platform, which allows web pages to be hosted using classic ASP and/or ASP.NET platform. Windows hosting typically involves using a Windows Web Server like Windows 2003 or Windows 2008 servers.
Also Microsoft flagship products like SQL Server (which may be part of a windows server or may be installed in a separate web server) are usually part of a windows hosting package.
cPanel is a web-based control panel that is designed to manage hosting a domain (website) through graphical interface. You can manage email, files, backup, FTP, scripts, website statistics and more using cPanel.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP). The standard rules that govern the transfer of files and programs over the Internet. FTP allows files to be moved from one computer to another over a network, regardless of the types of computers or operating systems involved in the exchange. FTP is also the name of the program a user invokes to execute the protocol.
All files (web pages, text, images) accessed by people browsing your website constitutes website traffic, also known as, data transfer. For example, every time a web page, image, midi file, mpeg video, e-mail, etc... is loaded or transferred from or to a server, a data transfer occurs. All hosting plans include a limited amount of website traffic, also known as a bandwidth quota. This quota is rarely reached unless you have (1) huge MP3 or video files that are downloaded frequently, or (2) pages in your website that are tremendously popular and are viewed by thousands of people. Web traffic quota measurement is reset on the first day of each month.
A number of commercially available web statistic analyzers exist in the market that will allow you to take standard web server log files and produce graphical reports. We provide customers with the option of using one of several provided like Weblizer or Urichin
Common Gateway Interface (CGI) provides advanced users to write (or use existing from free libraries) specialized software programs (scripts) that can perform custom or advanced complex functions. "CGI-BIN" (CGI binary) is the term used for both the type of custom software as well as the standard web directory name (sub-folder) that contains the program files to be executed.
A typical use for CGI is the processing of online forms. When the user fills in the boxes on the form and hits the SUBMIT button, the CGI program specified in the HTML code will be run on the server, and the information in the client-side browser form become available to the program as parameters. The program, being a program, can then do anything the programmer wants it to do.
Formmail, for example, is a standard program written in 'C' that transmits the contents of the boxes on the form to a specified destination, then displays a web page that confirms the action.
Audio and video files can be stored on your website for playing/viewing in web browsers. Although we do not have Real or other streaming servers, you can still "stream" audio, video, and flash files to your web site viewers. Visitors can play prerecorded sound, video and animated files over the Internet using the "http" protocol.
Directory and file password protection allows you to protect web pages by asking browsers for their username and password using HTTP-standard Basic Authentication. The general procedure for setting up access authorization for your users is accomplished via your cPanel settings or the usage of an .htaccess file.
A firewall is a software used by Web Hosting companies to protect web servers from attacks or unauthorized access. It is very similar to a person’s computer having a “personal” firewall to protect itself from adware/virus/malware. This firewall is at server level to protect the server from external attacks or attempts to bring the server down. The firewall protects the server and also the websites hosted on that server. A firewall software is absolutely a must for a Web Hosting company.
