PHP
PHP (a recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is an open-source, server-side HTML embedded scripting language used to create dynamic web pages. A dynamic web page is a page that interacts with the user, so that each user visiting the page sees customized information. PHP is freely available and used primarily on Linux (UNIX) web servers, and as an alternative to Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) technology. As with ASP, the PHP script is embedded within a web page along with its HTML. Before the page resolves, the web server calls PHP to interpret and perform the operations called for in the PHP script. An HTML page with PHP script is typically given a file name suffix of ".php," ".php4," or ".phtml."
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SSI
Server Side Includes. The ability to include files from the server inside an HTML document by placing tags in the HTML file that link to those files. Using server-side includes makes it unnecessary to include multiple copies of the same information in the HTML file, and make it easier to work with frequently-updated information.
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PERL
Short for Practical Extraction and Report Language, PERL is a programming language developed by Larry Wall, especially designed for processing text. Because of its strong text processing abilities, PERL has become one of the most popular languages for writing CGI scripts. PERL is an interpretive language, which makes it easy to build and test simple programs.
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CGI-BIN
The most common name of a directory on a web server in which CGI programs are stored. The 'BIN' part of 'CGI-BIN' is a shorthand version of 'binary', because once upon a time, most programs were referred to as 'binaries'. In real life, most programs found in CGI-BIN directories are text files -- scripts that are executed by binaries located elsewhere on the server. While most programs using CGI are stored in this directory, it is not a requirement for using CGI.
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FTP
File Transfer Protocol. A very common method of moving files between two Internet sites. FTP is a special way to login to another Internet site for the purposes of retrieving and/or sending files. There are many Internet sites that have established publicly accessible repositories of material that can be obtained using FTP, by logging in using the account name anonymous, thus these sites are called anonymous ftp servers.
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FrontPage
A Microsoft program used to create and edit HTML documents. It can be used to create large complex web sites. FrontPage is a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editor, meaning that you can create the web page exactly as you want it to look on the screen, and the program adds the HTML source code necessary to make sure that the page looks right in a web browser.
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Protected Directories
You can protect directories within your site from browsers by using a password to protect them. This allows you to restrict material to only authorized users or store sensitive material online.
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Raw Log Files
Raw log files allow you to get information about your site. Where people are going, what is being download, IP addresses of visitors, referring sites and much more. All log files are in plain text.
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Telnet
Telnet is a protocol for remote computing on the Internet. It allows a computer to act as a remote terminal on another machine, anywhere on the Internet. This means that when you telnet to a particular host and port, the remote computer (which must have a telnet server) accepts input directly from your computer (which must have a telnet client) and output for your session is directed to your screen. There are many library and information resources that are accessible through telnet.
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Anonymous FTP
Anonymous File Transfer Protocol allows the public to log into an FTP server with a common login (usually "ftp" or "anonymous" and any password (usually the person's e-mail address is used as the password). Anonymous FTP is beneficial for the distribution of large files to the public, avoiding the need to assign large numbers of login and password combinations for FTP access.
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Auto Responders
"Autoresponders" reply to incoming e-mail automatically. An auto responder could be used to send a standard text file to persons addressing, say, info@yourname.com. If you've ever received a response to an e-mail which suggests that the recipient is away from the office, you may have received such an automated response.
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Forwarders
Forwards simply allow you to automatically forward e-mail sent to one account to another account. This is useful when you work at two separate locations, or have gone on holiday.
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Web-Based Email
Email accounts which are accessible anywhere from any computer which is connected to the Internet.
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Mailing List
A group discussion conducted through email messages, specific to a topic or common interest. When a message is sent to a mailing list, each list subscriber receives a copy. LISTSERV is a popular mailing list server.
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IMAP Protocol
Internet Message Access Protocol, a protocol for retrieving email messages. The latest version, IMAP4, is similar to POP3 but supports some additional features. For example, with IMAP4, you can search through your email messages for keywords while the messages are still on the mail server.
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Subdomains
A subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain name. DNS hierarchy consists of the root-level domain at the top, underneath which are the top-level domains, followed by second-level domains and finally subdomains. For example, in the domain name webopedia.internet.com, "webopedia" is a subdomain of the larger second-level domain "internet.com."
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Domain Pointers
Domain pointers (also called domain aliasing or re-direction) allow you to point multiple domains to the same website, ie: yourdomain.com and yourdomain.net to yourdomain.com.
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Platform
An operating system on a specific computer. The most common platforms are DOS, Windows, (both of which run on IBM computers, Mac, and Unix. The last is the least common of the four. Software generally runs on only a limited set of platforms.
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Control Panel
A control panel allows you to set mail forwarding options, enable/disable anonymous FTP access, view your statistics, change your password and more. It also allows access to other features such as HTML form generators, web-based HTML editor and PERL script checker. Users can also update account contact information at anytime without having to contact customer support.
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Web Statistics
A program that tracks the number of visitors to a web site over a given period of time.
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MySQL
MySQL is a relational database management system, which means it stores data in separate tables rather than putting all the data in one big area. This adds flexibility, as well as speed. The SQL part of MySQL stands for "Structured Query Language," which is the most common language used to access databases. The MySQL database server is the most popular open source database in the world. It is extremely fast and easy to customize, due to its architecture. Extensive reuse of code within the software, along with a minimalist approach to producing features with lots of functionality, gives MySQL unmatched speed, compactness, stability, and ease of deployment. Their unique separation of the core server from the storage engine makes it possible to run with very strict control, or with ultra fast disk access, whichever is more appropriate for the situation.
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PHPMyAdmin
PHPMyAdmin is a tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the Web. Currently it can create and drop databases, create/drop/alter tables, delete/edit/add fields, execute any SQL statement, manage keys on fields, manage privileges, export data into various formats and is available in 47 languages.
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SSL
Secured Sockets Layer is a protocol that transmits your communications over the Internet in an encrypted form. SSL ensures that the information is sent, unchanged, only to the server you intended to send it to. Online shopping sites frequently use SSL technology to safeguard your credit card information.
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Shopping Cart
This is software added to your web site that will allow visitors to select items from your online catalog and add them to a "shopping cart". When they are finished shopping, they "check out" to complete the purchase. On commerce sites, the customer would enter credit card information which would be securely processed. Basic sites do not handle secure payment, so the customer could print the order form and fax it to you with payment information.
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Live Chat
Live chat lets you communicate in real-time with a support or sales representative on the host's web site.
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* These definitions taken from Google's Web Definition Search.
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