Article - Hosting and Hosting-related Terminology

Hosting
The term hosting (AKA web hosting, website hosting and webhosting) refers to the process that makes your website and its associated files available to the rest of the World Wide Web to view. Multiple website hosting accounts are located on an individual server. These accounts share system resources such as hard disk space, memory, and so forth.

Server
A server is a computer that relays information handles requests for website data, email, file transfers etc from other computers. Hosting or web servers (such as those employed by Grey Pebbles) can be enabled to perform extra functions associated with certain kinds of script such as OS commerce technology. If you intend to utilise many programming functions or move your website to an alternate serve it becomes important to find out what the hosting company is capable of. (Scroll down to view some of the programming terms.)

The two most common server types are Microsoft servers and Linux servers. Greypebbles hosts all its websites using Linux server because the structure and capabilities of linux are Open Source and needs based. This also means that we utilise OpenSource programming which is continually improved on by an entire community of developers as apposed to progress through a single companies developers (such as Microsoft).

Internet Service Provider (ISP)
An internet service provider is an institution (such as Telkom) which provides you as the user with access to the internet. If you cannot connect to the internet or download your emails you first have to test your internet connection.

Disc Space
Disc Space is the amount of storage space being made available to your website. Disc Space is usually measured in megabytes and refers to the physical size of your website including animations, HTML pages text and images.

Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred over the network in a fixed amount of time and refers to how fast data flows.

For example, a web page that is 3000 bytes can theoretically viewed in 0.05 seconds almost instantaneously - at a download speed of 512 kbps. However, in the real world web pages don’t usually load that fast. That’s because data is held up, or delayed by various factors. Latency is the delay caused by the physical limitations of each piece of hardware the data is passed through. Delays are also caused by pathway congestion, error checking, transmission negotiations and extra data sent with the web page to identify its type, origin and destination.

Domain Name
AKA "website address" or "URL", the domain name of a website is the ENTIRE website address (for example www.greypebble.com). A domain name must be unique and after being registered needs to be renewed on a yearly basis.

Sub Domain
Sub domains allow you to create second-level domain names under your primary domain name. A sub domain allows you to create separate web addresses from just one domain. An example of a sub domain of "www.greypebbles.com" would be "support.greypebble.com". Grey Pebbles offers free hosting for up to 10 sub domains.

IP Address
Each machine connected to the Internet has an address known as an Internet Protocol address (IP address). It is the numeric address of a computer connected to the Internet. The IP address takes the form of four numbers separated by dots, for example: 123.45.67.890. Hosting accounts for websites can have either a shared or unique IP address.

SMTP
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is a protocol used to send and receive email. SMTP transfers electronic mail messages when you email is correctly set up. Either from the hosting server to your email programme when you click on "receive" or through the hosting server to the intended recipient when you click on "send".

MySQL
MySQL is the most popular Open Source Software language for adding, accessing, and processing data in a database. MySQL is noted mainly for its speed, reliability, and flexibility.

FTP
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a very common method of moving files between two locations (for example from your PC to the internet location.) Access to FTP involves entering a username and password set up by your hosting company.

SSL
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a protocol for managing the security of a message transmission over the Internet. SSL is a security protocol that provides communication privacy.

Log File
A log file is a file that records the activity on a webserver. It ultimately lists actions that have occurred and contains every request made to the server.

RAID
Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) is a subsystem storage concept designed for the purpose of offering higher levels of protection from data loss that can occur from any down time. It is a performance enhancing method of storing the same data in different places on multiple hard disks.

Redundancy
The duplication of information or hardware equipment components to ensure that should a primary resource fail, a secondary resource can take over its function.Essentially backup components perform duplicate functions to ensure continuity of the hosting service.