Web
Hosting Dictionary (Please
click on letter to view definitions)
Web
Hosting Glossary - D
Data
Transfer
This is the amount of data that is transferred from an account as
visitors view the pages of the web site. If John Doe has a web site
with lots of video, audio, and images that gets many visitors per
day, he would have to make sure that he chooses a host that will
allow his large amounds of data to be transferred. If he chooses
a host that only allowed 200 MB of data transfer per month, and
his site transferred 500 MB per month, then the host may stop half
of his visitors from viewing his site and he could lose potential
customers. Your best bet is to try to find a host that offers unlimited
data transfer or at least a Gig of transfer. A gig is more than
enough for most web sites.
DNS
A distributed database of information that is used to translate
domain names into Internet Protocol (IP) numbers. In other words,
computers need numbers in order to function. The computer itself
does not care whether you are yahoo.com or google.com. It has no
idea how to find the name, it needs a number that identifies that
name. So when you buy a domain, say www.whatever.com, it is nothing
until you get it hosted somewhere and until that host assigns a
number to your domain. A good analogy of this would be social security
numbers and humans. Humans are identified primarily by their names,
but government organizations use social security numbers to identify
the person behind that name.
Domain
Name
The unique name that identifies an Internet site. Domain Names always
have 2 or more parts, separated by dots. The part on the left is
the most specific, and the part on the right is the most general.
A given machine may have more than one Domain Name but a given Domain
Name points to only one machine.
DSL
(Digital Subscriber Line) A method for moving data over regular
phone lines. A DSL circuit is much faster than a regular phone connection,
and the wires coming into the subscriber’s premises are the
same (copper) wires used for regular phone service. A DSL circuit
must be configured to connect two specific locations, similar to
a leased line. A commonly discussed configuration of DSL allows
downloads at speeds of up to 1.544 megabits (not mega bytes ) per
second, and uploads at speeds of 128 kilobits per second. This arrangement
is called ADSL: “Asymmetric” Digital Subscriber Line.
Another common configuration is symmetrical: 384 Kilobits per second
in both directions. In theory ADSL allows download speeds of up
to 9 megabits per second and upload speeds of up to 640 kilobits
per second. DSL is now a popular alternative to Leased Lines and
ISDN , being faster than ISDN and less costly than traditional Leased
Lines.
Daemon
Pronounced demon or damon, a process that runs in the background
and performs a specified operation at predefined times or in response
to certain events. The term daemon is a UNIX term, though many other
operating systems provide support for daemons, though they"re
sometimes called other names. Windows, for example, refers to daemons
and system agents and services. Typical daemon processes include
print spoolers, e-mail handlers, and other programs that perform
administrative tasks for the operating system.
Database
A database is a structured set of records, such as a mailing list.
A web browser can access a public database by Perl Scripts. There
are many ways for a user to find information in a database. When
the data is structured as a table in a single file, a user need
only browse the page and use the browser"s "find"
feature. However, to search a relational database spread over many
files, a sophisticated CGI script is required to access the data.
Dedicated Server
A dedicated server is a single computer in a network reserved for
serving the needs of the network. For example, some networks require
that one computer be set aside to manage communications between
all the other computers. A dedicated server could also be a computer
that manages printer resources. In a web hosting context a dedicated
server is a server allocated to one customer.
Disk Space
Disk space is the storage capacity of your Web site for pictures,
HTML, graphics, etc. and is usually expressed in MB.
Disk Storage Space
In a shared hosting environment, the amount of server disk storage
allocated to your account. This space can be used to store HTML
and graphics files, programs or scripts, mail messages, compressed
files, or other files that make up your web site. This does not
include the log files, as they are owned by the processes on the
server.
Domain
The name for a company, organization, or individual"s Internet
connection. Individual computers within this domain all end with
the domain as a part of their host name.
Domain Name Registration
Domain Name Registration is the process of registering your Web
site address (i.e. www.valueweb.net) with an official Internet registrar.
Domain Transfer
When a domain name (Web site) is moved from one Internet address
to another, the new address must be recorded by the domain registrar
to allow Internet Domain Name Servers to point to the new location.
Digerati
The digital version of literati, it is a reference to a vague cloud
of people seen to be knowledgeable, hip, or otherwise in-the-know
in regards to the digital revolution.
DES
Data
Encryption Standard - an U.S. government approved cipher. It is
easy to break in its simplest form, but used multiple times with
key of at least 128 bits provides good security.
DHCP
(Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). An automated way of obtaining
an IP address in the Local Area Network.
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