Web Hosting Glossary Terms starting with Letter S
Terms that will help you understand hosting services. Internet reference and glossary of Web Hosting Terms and Definitions. Please select a letter to jump to that section of The Glossary.
A glossary is defined as an alphabetical list of technical terms in some specialized field of knowledge; usually published as an appendix to a text on that field. This Web Hosting Glossary section is specially designed to explain most of the terms that you should read and understand before you choose your web hosting service provider.
Search Engine
An Internet service that stores a vast number of web pages and allows for fast searching among them. Also, a piece of software that implements a website search functionality.
See also : ( Spider )
Search engine optimization is a process or strategy designed to improve a webpage's relevance ranking on a search engine result page (SERP).
In the early days of the web, optimization involved carefully crafting metadata, setting up link farms and building reciprocal links to improve a website's popularity? Google, for one, factors the number of links that point to a webpage (incoming links) into it's relevance ranking (PageRank). Now, with the paid placement and submission fees to guarantee a listing, economics seem poised to triumph over content.
The name server will be used as a backup for the primary name server in the event that the primary server becomes unavailable.
Security Certificate
A chunk of information (often stored as a text file) that is used by the SSL protocol to establish a secure connection.
Security Certificates contain information about who it belongs to, who it was issued by, a unique serial number or other unique identification, valid dates, and an encrypted 'fingerprint' that can be used to verify the contents of the certificate.
In order for an SSL connection to be created, both sides must have a valid Security Certificate.
A computer, or a software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece of software, such as a WWW server, or to the machine on which the software is running, e.g. Our mail server is down today, that's why e-mail isn't getting out. A single server machine could have several different server software packages running on it, thus providing many different servers to clients on the network .
See also : ( Network )
This is raw statistical data stored on the server. It contains information such as how many visitors accessed certain pages of your site, what web sites referred those visitors to your site, and the domain name of the visitor. This information is very useful in determining which sections of your web site are more heavily traveled and what sites are referring traffic to yours.
Sever-Side
With server-side scripting, completing an activity involves sending information to another computer (server) across the internet. The server then runs a program that process the information and returns the results, typically a web page. Search engines use server-side processing. When a keyword is sent, a program on a server matches the word or phrase entered against an index of website content. (To complete the same search as a client-side process would require the browser to download the entire search engine program and index.) Server-side scripting languages include ASP and PHP.
Server Side Scripting and Programming LanguagesA variety of scripting and programming languages is available to you in order to give greater function to your web site. Some of the primary examples are: Unix, Perl, shell script, Server-Side Includes (SSI), PHP, Miva (formerly HTML Script), NT, Cold Fusion, and Active Server Pages (ASP).
Service ProviderA service provider is a company who supplies Internet services to personal users or business. Among other things they provide access to the Internet or somewhere to place Web Pages making them available to the WWW. You pay the service provider a set fee.
Shared IPAn IP address shared by multiple websites.
Shared Server
Shared web servers are a very popular way of providing low-cost web hosting services. Instead of requiring a separate computer for each site, dozens of sites can co-reside on the same computer. In most cases, performance is not affected and each web site behaves as if it is being served by a dedicated server.
Shell AccountSomething experienced computer users often request. Permits you to edit your files online in real-time, rather than making changes to your site offline and then uploading the changes. Unless you intend to manage the web server your site runs on, a shell account should not be needed.
Shopping Cart
Software that allows users to select products from a Web catalog, modify their choices, calculate prices, review their choices, and order them. Many hosts with e-commerce plans offer installed shopping carts, but you can always get a shopping cart of your choice instead.
SHTTP
Secure HTTP. A version of HTTP protocol that uses encryption to assure that the traffic between the server and the browser cannot be eavesdropped on. Should be considered mandatory for all e-commerce applications.
Signature
A few lines of text that are automatically attached at the end of each email message by the email client. Usually it's some personal identification or an (un)interesting quote.
Site Monitoring
A service that regularly checks a site and alerts the administrator in the event of a problem.
SLIP
(Serial Line Internet Protocol) -- A standard for using a regular telephone line (a serial line) and a modem to connect a computer as a real Internet site. SLIP is gradually being replaced by PPP.
SMDS
(Switched Multimegabit Data Service) -- A new standard for very high-speed data transfer.
SMTP
Short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, a protocol for sending e-mail messages between servers. Most e-mail systems that send mail over the Internet use SMTP to send messages from one server to another; the messages can then be retrieved with an e-mail client using either POP or IMAP.
SNMP(Simple Network Management Protocol) -- A set of standards for communication with devices connected to a TCP/IP network . Examples of these devices include routers , hubs, and switches.
Socket
When your computer is on the Internet via a SLIP connection, a socket is a conversation your computer is having with a computer elsewhere on the net. You may have one socket for an FTP session, another socket for a Telnet session, and another socket taking care of getting your mail.
Spam (or Spamming)An inappropriate attempt to use a mailing list , or USENET or other networked communications facility as if it was a broadcast medium (which it is not) by sending the same message to a large number of people who didn't ask for it. The term probably comes from a famous Monty Python skit which featured the word spam repeated over and over. The term may also have come from someone's low opinion of the food product with the same name, which is generally perceived as a generic content-free waste of resources. (Spam is a registered trademark of Hormel Corporation, for its processed meat product.)
E.g. Mary spammed 50 USENET groups by posting the same message to each.Spider
An automated robot program that searches the Internet, usually retrieving information from web pages for storage in a database.
See also : ( Robot , Search Engine )
SQL
Structured Query Language - a standardized language used to access databases. See MySQL.
SSI - Server Side Includes
Commands that can be included in web pages that are processed by the web server when a user requests a file. The command takes the form <!--#include virtual="/path/to/file"-->. A common use for SSI commands is to insert a universal menu into all of the pages of the web site so that the menu only has to be changed once and inserted with SSI instead of changing the menu on every page.
SSL Support
Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, support allows the transfer of data in a secure environment.
Statistics
Many hosting companies run software on their web servers that collect usage information about your web site and compile it in a user-friendly, easy-to-read format for you to analyze trends about your web site. Having access to statistics is critical if you need to know how many visitors are coming to your site, which web pages receive the most attention, and how much time people actually spend browsing your site.
Sub Domain
Typically known as a "domain within a domain", sub-domains are individual Web addresses built upon a pre-existing domain name (such as clientname.yourhostingcompany.com). As a reseller, you will have the option of assigning sub-domains to clients if they do not choose to have a domain name.
