Administration Panel:
Most web hosting companies provide their companies with a way to manage their hosting account online. Common tasks that are done online generally include manage e-mail users, ftp user, and databases, as well as add/remove domains and install preconfigured scripts. Common web-based administrative panels include cPanel, H-Spher, vDeck and Webmin.

Anonymous FTP:
Anonymous File Transfer Protocol; this can be used for public access for anyone to download files from your web site. Anonymous FTP does not require a user name or password and as such opens up your website to possible vulnerability from hackers.

APOP:
Secure e-mail messaging protocol using the POP standard. See POP for more information.

ASP:
Commonly known as Active Server Pages, ASP has become Microsoft's language for developing web pages that can interact with online databases. Hosting plans that use the Windows platform generally support ASP but if you choose Linux and want ASP support, be sure to make sure that it is specifically supported by your hosting company.

Bandwidth / Data Transfer:
Bandwidth is the amount of data that you can transfer from your hosting account. Bandwidth limits are usually monthly but check your hosting plan to be sure. Bandwidth can be allotments can be consumed by people using your webpage as well as downloading pictures, videos, etc. It is also used up by use of FTP or SSH.

CGI:
Common Gateway Interface is a standard for interfacing external applications with web servers. A CGI program is executed in real-time by the web user so that it can output dynamic information.

CGI-BIN:
Location on a webserver where CGI scripts are generally stored an executed. Most servers only support CGI script execution from the cgi-bin directory.

CGI Library / CGI Scripts:
Most CGI programs are written in C/C++ or the Perl programming languages which are generally languages that are difficult to learn for the novice user. Often time, hosting provides will provide prewritten CGI scripts in a library for customers to install on their web site.

Co-Location:
This refers to when hosting companies offer potential customer the ability to store their own servers at the datacenter for the hosting company. Most often, customers will use co-location because they want to highly customize their own server. The cost of co-location will depend on the amount of server administration customers are seeking as well as the amount of monthly bandwidth they need.

Control Panel:
See administration panel.

cPanel:
cPanel is a web-based hosting client administrative panel. cPanel has become the defacto standard for administrative panel software as it offers the most features and documentation for users. See administration panel for more.

Data Transfer:
See Bandwidth.

Database:
Databases are a method of storing data electronically in an organized manner usually to facilitate searching through the data. The most popular type of database is the relational database and the most common form of the relation database is SQL. SQL databases include MS SQL, MySQL, Oracle and PostgreSQL.

Dedicated IP:
Often referred to as a static IP, it means that if you will have a unique Internet Address that will not change.

Dedicated Server:
Some hosting customers require the ability to manage their own server with wanting the hassle of a co-located server. Dedicated servers give the customer the ability to full manage the server's software installation (include the operation system) as well as generally including larger amounts of bandwidth and disk space than what comes with standard shared hosting. Another option that many customers look into before purchasing a dedicated server is Virtual Private Servers.

Disk Space:
Sometimes referred to as storage space, disk space is the amount of space on the hosting server that the company gives the customer to store data on the server. Generally, the more storage space the better for many customers who use photo galleries or have sites that offer a lot to download such as videos.

Domain Name:
All websites generally have a unique domain name which translates to the server's Internet address, commonly known as IP address. An IP address can have multiple domains pointing to it.

Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce):
When web sites sell products online it is referred to as electronic commerce. Some hosting companies advertise their services as being e-commerce ready which means they offer the tools necessary to make e-commerce easier.

E-Mail Aliases:
Sometimes referred to as e-mail forwarding, this allows users with a pre-existing e-mail address to forward all e-mail from an address at their hosting account to their existing e-mail account.

FAQ:
(Frequently Asked Question) Lists of frequently asked questions and answers to them are used as a way of sharing knowledge on the web. They are a very good way of finding solutions to different problems. Some companies include them in their websites to minimize the number of Customer Support inquiries.

FrontPage Extensions:
A set of programs and scripts that allow specific features of a web site created with FrontPage to operate correctly. Web sites hosted on Linux and developed in FrontPage need to make sure that support for FrontPage extensions are an available feature on their hosting provider.

FTP:
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, which is a method of transferring files from one computer to another. Files transferred by FTP can be downloaded to the user's computer or uploaded from the user's computer to a remote computer. Unless an FTP connection is anonymous, a username and password is required to connect.

Gigabyte (GB):
A gigabyte is equivalent to 1024 megabytes.

GPL:
The GNU Public License is a software license for the open source community. Person's and companies who develop software under the GPL are required to release the source code the software they have written at no charge. The GPL also allows people to develop new software based off of software under the GPL and have it released as a different product so long as it is licensed under the GPL.

IMAP:
An e-mail messaging protocol. IMAP allows users to keep their e-mail on a remote server and organize it into folders. Users familiar with Microsoft Exchange use an IMAP-like protocol.

IP Address:
Every computer and device connected to the Internet must have a unique address to identify it. Machines can have multiple IP address but must have at least one.

Java:
The programming language created by Sun Microsystems. Java is a theoretically platform independent, crash proof, object-oriented programming language that can be run as an independent program, serverlet, or as a scripting language. It can even be used to run web-pages.

Kilobyte (KB):
A kilobyte is equivalent to 1024 bytes and 1 / 1024 of a megabyte.

Linux:
Linux is a Unix-like operating system that is developed by the Open Source community. Versions of Linux are called distributions and common distributions include SuSe, Red Hat, and Debian. Though there are pay versions of many Linux distributions, there are free versions available because they result from work written under the GPL.

Mailing List:
Mailing lists are a way of sending an e-mail to multiple recipients at the same time.

MySQL:
MySQL is the most popular open-source relational database.  Many Unix-based hosting plans allow MySQL databases.

Perl:
First written in 1987, Perl is an open source programming language that is used to script actions. Perl scripts are often used for CGI.

PHP:
PHP is the most widely used web-based scripting language. The language uses HTML as its output format. Pages written in PHP are dynamic and are executed when a web-user requests the page. PHP is also very good at working with Databases.

POP:
The Post Office Protocol is the standard e-mail messaging protocol. Though it is popular, it is not very flexible as it requires users to download all e-mail messages. Messages can only be manipulated once they are received by the downloading computer.

PostgreSQL:
PostgreSQL is a popular Unix-based open source SQL database server.

Python:
Python is an interpreted programming language, sometimes offered by hosts for server-side scripting.

Setup Fee:
An initial fee required by most hosting companies to configure your account when you sign up for the first time. A setup fee is a one-time fee and is often waived if you sign up for an annual or multi-year contract.

Shared Hosting:
The most common form of website hosting used today. Shared hosting accounts are not like dedicated server or virtual private servers but instead share the resources of the server with all the accounts on it. Since multiple websites are hosted on a shared server, problems caused by one website (such as those with memory consumption or excessive bandwidth usage) can adversely affect the operation of your website.

Shell Access / SSH:
SSH is a secure way of allowing users to telnet to remotely administer their account. The shell provides customers UNIX access to the server. Files can also be transferred using Secure Copy (SCP).

SMTP:
The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol which is the standard protocol for sending e-mail.

SQL:
SQL is structured query language. SQL is a limited programming language used for updating and performing queries on relational databases.

SSL:
Secure Sockets Layer.  SSL is an Internet standard developed to provide encryption for commercial transactions where data that should be protected while traveling over the Internet, like credit card numbers, can be safe from hackers. SSL certificates are used to secure the HTTP protocol.

Storage Space:
See Disk Space.

Subdomain:
A sub-domain is a sub-division of a domain name. Domain names are split up into 3 blocks: the sub-domain name, the name, and the top-level domain (TLD). So, guides.thebesthostingguide.com would mean that guides would be the sub-domain, thebesthostingguide is the domain name, and com is the top level domain. Sub-domains are often used to identify purposes such as mail or blogs.

Uptime:
Most commonly used to refer to what percentage of time a hosting provider keeps its servers online and fully operational. An uptime of 99.9% has become the industry standard. Some companies also provide an uptime guarantee.

Virtual Private Servers:
Shared servers are hosting services that are semi-dedicated to the customer. Generally VPS accounts on a server are far fewer and are configured in a manner to allow full access to Virtual Server environments allowing the using to make changes to their server configuration. Often a VPS solution is all that is needed for small to mid-size companies with specialized hosting needs.

Webmail:
Webmail is a way of accessing your e-mail account using the World Wide Web.