Glossary

Air Conditioning

Computers give out a lot of heat. The average idling temperature of most computers is about 35 degrees celsius. If you have a lot of busy high-power servers in an unventilated room, the temperature will quickly rise to 50+ degrees! Leaving the door open isn't really an option, so the joys of air conditioning enable us to keep our server rooms at an optimal 18 degrees even in the height of summer

Browsers

Internet browsers is the collective term used for programs that enable people to view websites.

Cost per Click

Sometimes called Pay per Click, Cost per Click (CPC) is a service provided by search engines to enable you to have a listing in exchange for a fee. In the instance of CPC the advertiser is only charged when a user clicks on their link.

Data Centre

A data centre is the name for a building, or room, set up to house servers. They will typically have airconditioning, a fast internet connection and be very high security.

Download

The term download is used when transferring data from someone else's computer/server to yours.

Domain Registration

Domains have to be registered before you can use them, this is usually not a big one off payment, but a small charge, once a year or two years. Some types of domain name can be registered for up to 10 years at a time.

Email

Electronic Mail. A system for sending messages and files between computers over a network or the internet.

Email Signature

Email software can be confiured to add a predefined message to every email sent, this would typically be a persons contact details, teephone number, domain name etc, but may also include a company's special offers.

FTP

File Transfer Protocol. Method by which you upload a website to the web hosting on a web server.

gbps

Stands for GigaBits Per Second. A gigabit is 1,073,741,824 bits. 1gbps is about 1,900 times faster than the average narrow band modem (56k) and about 1,000 times faster than entry level ADSL broadband (1mbps).

HTML

HyperText Markup Language. The authoring language used in the creation of documents for the World Wide Web. You can see HTML by going to a webpage and selecting "view source" in your browsers options (normally View->View Source or View->Page Source).

IP Address

A numeric code that uniquely identifies a device that is on an internet. usually in the format 000.000.000.000 Where each step i1 between 1 and 3 numbers, eg: 212.46.139.98 is the ip address for the domains.co.uk server.

ISP

Internet Service Provider. A company that provides internet related services, such as domain names, web hosting, broandband and dial up access. Possibly with colocation and leased lines. See www.ukip.co.uk for more details.

mbps

Stands for Megabits Per Second. A megabit is 1,048,576 bits. 1mbps is about 18 times faster than the average narrow band modem (56k) and about 1mbps is the spped of entry level ADSL broadband.

MySQL

MySQL (pronounced "my ess cue el") is an open source relational database management system. www.mysql.com for more information.

PHP

The PHP Hypertext Preprocessor is a programming language that allows web developers to create dynamic content that interacts with databases. PHP is basically used for developing web based software applications. www.php.com for more information.

Search Engine

A website that allows users to find web pages on any given subject.

Search Engine Spiders

Search Engines use special programs, called Spiders or Robots that catalogue web sites for use in their searches.

SEO

Search Engine Optimisation, designing a website so it is accessible to search engine spiders.

Server

Any computer that is set up to allow other computers to access data stored on it over a networ or the internet. They are usually quite powerful, with lots of storage space.

Top Level Domain

The last and most significant component of an domain name, the part after the last ".". For example, domains.co.uk is in top-level domain "uk" (for United Kingdom).

Upload

The term upload is used when transferring data to someone else's computer/server from yours.

Web Hosting

Disc space on a server that is accessible over the internet. Needs to have a domain name associated to have maximum effect.

Website

In its simplest terms, a collection of text and graphics stored on some web hosting.