Bandwidth
How much data you can send through a connection. Usually measured in
bits-per-second. A full page of English text is about 16,000 bits. A fast
modem can move about 15,000 bits in one second. Full-motion full-screen
video would require roughly 10,000,000 bits-per-second, depending on
compression.
CGI
(Common Gateway Interface) -- A set of rules that describe how a Web
Server communicates with another piece of software on the same machine,
and how the other piece of software (the "CGI program") talks to
the web server. Any piece of software can be a CGI program if it handles
input and output according to the CGI standard. Usually a CGI program is a
small program that takes data from a web server and does something with
it, like putting the content of a form into an e-mail message, or turning
the data into a database query. You can often see that a CGI program is
being used by seeing "cgi-bin" in a URL, but not always.
Co-location
Most often used to refer to having a server that belongs to one person or
group physically located on an Internet-connected network that belongs to
another person or group. Usually this is done because the server owner
wants their machine to be on a high-speed Internet connection and/or they
do not want the security risks of having the server on their own network.
Cookie
A message given to a Web browser by a Web server. The browser stores the
message in a text file called cookie.txt. The message is then sent back to
the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.
The main purpose of cookies is to identify users and possibly prepare
customized Web pages for them. When you enter a Web site using cookies,
you may be asked to fill out a form providing such information as your
name and interests. This information is packaged into a cookie and sent to
your Web browser which stores it for later use. The next time you go to
the same Web site, your browser will send the cookie to the Web server.
The server can use this information to present you with custom Web pages.
So, for example, instead of seeing just a generic welcome page you might
see a welcome page with your name on it.
The name cookie derives from UNIX objects called magic cookies. These
are tokens that are attached to a user or program and change depending on
the areas entered by the user or program. Cookies are also sometimes
called persistent cookies because they typically stay in the browser for
long periods of time.
Data Transfer
This is the amount of data that you are allowed to transfer with your
account. Data is this case usually referrs to images, text, or anthing
else that the web server must transfer to the user's web browser. As a
general rule 500 MB of data transfer is equivilant to about 20,000 page
views.
Web Hosting Glossary of Terms Page
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