| Word |
Description |
| .htaccess |
The default name of Apache’s directory level configuration file. htaccess is placed in a particular directory, and the directives in the .htaccess file apply to that directory. This makes it possible to customize configuration for requests to the particular directory. |
| A Record |
An address record, maps a hostname to a 32-bit iPv4 address. |
| Active Directory |
An implementation of LDAP directory services by Microsoft for use in Windows environments. It provides central authentication and authorization services for Windows based computers, as well as allows administrators to assign policies, deploy software, and apply critical updates to an organization. It works as a directory service to store information about the network resources across a domain. |
| Anonymous FTP |
With an Anonymous FTP, an account is not necessary on the server, nor is a password. Oftentimes email addresses are used as authentication, depending on the FTP server configuration. |
| Apache |
A web server. Many Apache features are implemented as compiled modules, which extend the core functionality. Virtual hosting allows one Apache installation to serve multiple websites. Apache features configurable error messages, DBMS based authentication databases, and content negotiation. It is also supported by several graphical user interfaces. Apache can be used to serve both static content and dynamic web pages. The Apache License is a free software license. It requires preservation of copyright and disclaimer, but is not a copyleft license. |
| ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers) |
Provides services related to the technical coordination and management of Internet number resources. Provides services in registration, organization, and policy development. Registration services include: IPv4/6 address allocation and assignment, AS number assignment, registration transaction information, routing information, DNS (reverse). |
| ASP (Active Server Pages) |
Microsoft’s server-side script engine for dynamically-generated web pages. It is an add-on to Internet information services. In ASP 2.0, there are six built-in objects to ease the creation of a dynamic web page: Application, ASPError, Request, Response, Server, and Session. ASP pages are generally written in VBScript. Jscript and PerlScript are also available. InstantASP and ChiliASP are ASPs that run without Windows Operating System. |
| Bandwidth |
A description of the amount of data that can be transferred to or from the website or server, measured in bytes transferred over a prescribed period of time. |
| BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) |
The core routing protocol of the internet. It maintains a table for IP networks, which designate network reachability among autonomous systems. It is described as a path vector protocol. BGP does not use tradition IGP metrics, but makes routing decisions based on path, network policies, and/or rulesets. BGP was created to replace EGP routing protocol to allow full decentralized routing in order to allow the removal of NSFNet Internet backbone network. Large private IP networks can also make use of BGP. Most internet users don’t directly use BGP. But, most internet service providers have to use BGP to establish routing between one another (especially if they are multihomed). BGP peers are established by manual configuration between routers to create a TCP session. It will periodically send 19 byte keep-alive messages to maintain the connection. During the OPEN handshake, BGP speakers can negotiate optional capabilities of the session, including multiprotocol extensions and various recovery modes. |
| CGI (Common Gateway Interface) |
Standard protocol for interfacing external application software with an information server. Allows server to pass requests from client web browser to external application. The server then returns the output from the application to the information server. Whenever a request to a matching URL is received, the corresponding program is called, with any data that the client sent as input. Output from the program is collected by the Web server, augmented with appropriate headers, and sent back to the client. An example of CGI is one implementing wiki. The user request the name of an entry and the server will pull the source of that entry’s page, transform it into HTML, and send it back to the browser or prompt the user to create it. CGI requires a fresh copy of the progam to be created for every request. This can overload a server, through mod_perl and PHP allow script interpreters to be integrated into the server as modules to avoid the overload, but this is only applicable for high-level languages that need interpreters. Web servers often have a CGI-bin directory to hold executable files. |
| cPanel |
A graphical web-based web hosting control panel. cPanel handles all aspects of website administration in its interface. It is designed for use by commercial web hosting services. cPanel runs on many RPM-based Linux distributions as well as Free BSD. cPanel provides front-ends for a some common operations, including the management of PGP keys, crontab tasks, mail and FTP accounts, and mailing lists. Add-ons are available, e.g. Fantastico. |
| Dedicated Server |
A type of internet hosting where the client leases and entire server not shared with anyone. The client has full control over the server, including choice of operating system, hardware, certificates, etc. |
| Exim |
a mail transfer agent for use on Unix systems. |
| FTP (File Transfer Protocol) |
FTP is a commonly used protocol for exchanging files over any network that supports the TCP/IP protocol. The transfer takes place between a server and a client. The client initiates the connection. Once connected, the client can do a number of things, including uploading files, downloading files, rename or delete files, etc. Also, almost every computer platform supports FTP protocol. When transferring data, several data representations can be used. The two most common representations are ASCII mode and Binary mode. It is important to note that any ASCII data that is not plain text will be corrupted. |
| Gateway |
A gateway is a node that servers as an entrance to another network. A node or a stopping point can be a gateway node or a host node. Both client and server computers are host nodes. The computers that control traffic for the network are gateway nodes. The computer server acting as a gateway node is often also acting as a proxy server or a firewall server. |
| IIS (Internet Information Services) |
A set of internet-based services for servers using Windows. |
| IP Address (Internet Protocol Address) |
A unique address that certain electronic devices currently use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a computer network utilizing the IP standard. |
| MS SQL (Microsoft SQL Server) |
A relational database management system produced by Microsoft. Its primary query language is Transact-SQL. |
| MX Record (Mail Exchanger Record) |
Type of resource record in the DNS specifying how internet email should be routed. MX records point to the servers that should receive and email and their priority relative to each other. An MX record must contain a host name defined by an A record. CNAME aliases are not allowed. When an email is sent, the MTA makes a DNS query requesting the MX record for the recipient’s domain name. This returns a list of host names of MX servers for that domain. The sending agent then tries to establish an SMTP connection to one of the servers and then deliver the message to the first server with which a connection can be made. The MX mechanism makes it possible to run multiple mail servers for a single domain and the order in which they should be tried. The MX mechanism doesn’t grant the ability to provide mail service on alternate ports or to distribute mail delivery across a set of equal-priority mail servers by assigning a weighting value to each one. The relative priority of an MX server is determined by the preference number present in the DNS MX record. A technique of spammers is to connect to the lowest priority MXs for a domain in an attempt to avoid any anti-spam filters. |
| MySQL |
A multithreaded, multi-user SQL database management system. MySQL acts as the database component of the LAMP, MAMP, and WAMP platforms and for open-source bug tracking tools. MySQL is an essential component for running content management systems, such as WordPress or Drupal. |
| Nagios |
An open source computer system and network monitoring application software. It watches hosts and services that you specify and alerts you when there are errors and then when they are subsequently fixed. The services entail:
• Monitoring of network services
• Monitoring of host resources
• Remote monitoring supported through SSH or SSL encrypted tunnels
• Parallelized service checks
• Ability to define network host hierarchy using “parent” hosts, allowing detection of and distinction between hosts that are down and those that are unreachable
• Contact notifications when service or host problems occur and get resolved
• Ability to define event handlers to be run during service or host events for proactive problem resolution
• Automatic log file rotation
• Support for implementing redundant monitoring hosts
• Optional web interface for viewing current network status, notifications, problem history, log files, etc.
|
| Plesk |
Provides a graphical web based interface, which allows the user to configure the most common server management tasks with only a limited knowledge of the server operating system. Plesk allows an administrator to set up new websites, email accounts, and DNS entries through a web based interface. Plesk is available for both Linux and Windows. |
| POP (Point of Presence) |
An internet point of presence is an access point to the internet. It is a physical location that houses servers, routers, ATM switches, and digital/analog call aggregators. |
| PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) |
A data link protocol commonly used to establish a direct connection between two nodes over a serial cable, phone line trunk line, cellular telephone, specialized radio links, or fiber optic links. Most internet service providers use PPP for customers’ dial-up access. PPP is commonly used to act as a data link layer protocol for connection over synchronous and asynchronous circuits. |
| SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) |
A text-based protocol, in which one or more recipients of a message are specified along with the message text and possibly other encoded objects. The message is transferred to a remote server. Either an end-user’s email client or a relaying server’s mail transport agents can act as an SMTP client. |
| SSH (Secure Shell) |
Network protocol that allows data to be sent over a secure, encrypted connection to another computer. SSH uses public-key cryptography to authenticate remote computers and allow the remote computer to authenticate users. SSH is generally used to log into remote computers and execute commands, supports tunneling, forwarding arbitrary TCP ports and X11 connections. It can transfer files using SFTP or SCP protocols. By default it listens on standard TCP port 22. |
| SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) |
Cryptographic protocols that provide secure communications on the internet for such things as web browsing, email, internet faxing, instant messaging, and other data transfers. The layer allows applications to communicate across a network in a way designed to prevent eavesdropping, tampering, and message forgery. It provides endpoint authentication and communications privacy over the internet using cryptography. |
| UNIX |
A class of operating systems widely used in servers and workstations. |
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