Web Hosting Terminology in Layman's Terms - Simple Guide

Finding the right web hosting can be a challenging task for professional webmasters but it can be especially challenging for beginners looking to host a website for the first time. As a professional web hosting researcher I spend countless hours researching web hosting companies to determine each hosts strengths and weaknesses. I then take my research and create web hosting reviews for my website.

One day I started thinking about the knowledge that I have obtained and the terminology that I often throw around on my website and I realized that many individuals may not completely understand the web hosting lingo. To help those who may not be a expert in web hosting better understand the products in which they are purchasing I have decided to write this article to explain the sometimes misunderstood web hosting language.

This article is for beginner web hosting users; I will explain each term to the simplest degree possible for a better understanding you may want to complete further research.

Terminology Explained

BandwidthControls the amount of traffic your website can handle
- Tip: The higher the bandwidth the better

CGIA simple script that processes data submitted by a website visitor
- Example: Most online forums (enter name, address, phone, etc.) use CGI.

CGI-BINThe place on a web server where CGI scripts are stored

CPANELThe tool that allows you to control information on your web server

Dedicated HostingA more expensive form of web hosting. Cheaper hosting plans share a web server with others who are hosting websites. Dedicated hosting allows a user to have his/her own server. Increased server speeds and less server downtime can be expected with a dedicated hosting plan.

Disk SpaceSee Hosting Space below

Domain NameA domain name is the actual name of the website that must be entered in a address bar to access a website
-Example: www.AlreadyHosting.com is my domain name.

Domain Name ForeverMany hosting sites offer a free domain name free of cost forever with the purchase of any hosting package.

FirewallA security feature for your web server
- Analogy: Not Anti-virus but instead Anti-Hacker

FrontPage ExtensionsFrontPage is a popular web site builder program. A web server with FrontPage extensions support many of FrontPages add-on features
- Tip: If you use FrontPage you will want to have FrontPage extensions on your server.

FTPA way to connect to your web server from your personal computer.

Linux Web Hosting
The base/foundation software of the web hosting server
- Analogy: Linux is to web server as Windows is to personal computers

Hosting Space
The amount of space that you have available on your web server
- Analogy: Hosting Space is to web server as Hard Drive is to personal computer.

IP
The unique address of data packets on the internet
- Analogy: IP is to internet as fingerprint is to human

POPA way to connect web server email accounts to programs such as Outlook and Express Outlook

Reseller HostingA reseller hosting plan gives the customer the necessary tools needed to sell his/her own hosting plans for a profit

Shared HostingThe most affordable and basic way to host a website. With shared hosting multiple websites are stored on the same web server, sharing resources
- Tip: This is the opposite of dedicated hosting

SiteBuilderFree software that many web hosting sites offer, this software allows customers to build websites without the need of expensive software.

StatsSoftware on a web server that enables you to see visitor information
- Example: this article had 1,203 views yesterday

SQL SQL is a website language that is used to request data from a database on your web server
- Tip: Microsoft Access is an example of a database

Sub-Domain - Example: www.AlreadyHosting.com is my domain name www.hostingreviews.alreadyhosting.com would be an example of a sub-domain

Virtual Host Just like shared hosting, multiple websites are hosted on the same server

VPS Virtual Private Server Increases privacy and web server performance.
- Tip: The middle grown between a virtual hosting account and a dedicated hosting account

Windows Hosting Most web hosting servers are either windows based or Linux based
- Analogy: The operating system of a web server

This web hosting information was brought to you by the hosting experts at AlreadyHosting.com. If you are looking for additional web hosting terminology explanations I would recommend HostMonster's Help Center.