Common Web Hosting Terms

Web hosting is pretty straightforward on the surface, but beneath it lies a lot of technical jargon that can be very confusing. When looking for a host, you may encounter numerous unfamiliar terms from bandwidth to PHP. What do they mean? Check out our mini glossary of the most common web hosting terms.

ASP: Short for Active Server Pages, ASP is a server-side scripting language created by Microsoft. ASP scripts work in conjunction with HTML and are processed by a web server prior to being served to a viewer.

Bandwidth: The amount of data transferred when people visit and interact with your site. The more visitors you anticipate, the higher amount of bandwidth you will require.

CGI: Short for Common Gateway Interface, CGI is a scripting language that processes data submitted by a user. It’s most common usage is processing information from web forms.

CGI-Bin: A special repository on a server that stores CGI scripts.

Dedicated Server: A type of web hosting that allows you to lease your own web server. A dedicated server provides the utmost in flexibility and control and tends to be more secure than other forms of hosting.

Diesel Generator: A backup source a web hosting provider places in its data facility to generate electricity if the power happens to fail.

Domain Name: The identifying name of your website. Domain names are a part of the DNS (Domain Name System) and used to translate a numeric or IP address into words.

Disk Space/Storage: The amount of space you have on a web server to store files for your website.

FrontPage: A Microsoft web development and management tool. This program can be used offline as it is part of the Microsoft Office Suite.

FrontPage Extensions: Pre-configured server-side scripts that enable Microsoft FrontPage to function on a web server.

FTP: Short for File Transfer Protocol, FTP is a technology that allows files to uploaded/downloaded to and from a web server.

HTML: Short for HyperText Markup Language, HTML is a client-side programming language that enables a browser to communicate with a web server. All server-side scripts and functions rely on HMTL to display content to the viewer.

Load Balancing: The process of distributing data over various web servers to ensure that a single machine isn’t overloaded.

Managed Hosting: Refers to a turn-key managed service for a dedicated server. Service usually includes maintenance, monitoring and technical support. This type of hosting is ideal for someone who lacks server administration skills.

MySQL: A popular database that allows you to run software applications such as blogs, message boards and content management systems.

PHP: One of the most popular server-side scripting languages used to create dynamic web pages.

Reseller Hosting: An environment where an individual uses the infrastructure and resources of a
web hosting provider and offers their own hosting service. A reseller can be viewed as a sales agent or middleman for a larger web hosting company.

Shared Hosting: The most basic type of web hosting. Hence the name, shared hosting is where you share space and resources on a server with other customers.

VPS: Short for Virtual Private Server, a VPS is created with software that partitions a single physical server to create multiple servers. VPS hosting tends to be more flexible and reliable than shared hosting.

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