Glossary
1. Domain name registration - .co.uk or .com etc.
Domain name registration is a relatively simple operation, the difficult part is deciding on a name.
To do this
means searching under the domain you wish to use,
.com - a general business domain, mostly used by the Americans.
.co.uk - a business domain specific to the United Kingdom.
.org - usually reserved for charities.
.gov.uk - used by government departments and local councils.
Once this decision is made, it needs to be registered this can be done by your hosting company and once completed you are ready to start business.
When anyone then searches for a name and finds the name they are looking for is already registered, they will see a screen with the following information shown:
Domain Name: YOURDOMAIN.CO.UK
Registered For: Your Name
Domain Registered By: XYZ
Registered on 13-Oct-2001.
Domain servers listed in order:
NS.XYZ.CO.UK
123.456.789.12
NS2.XYZ.CO.UK 123.456.789.13
WHOIS database last updated at 00:13:15 07-May-2002
The
NIC.UK Registration Host contains information ONLY for
registrations in the co.uk, org.uk, net.uk, ltd.uk, plc.uk,
sch.uk and me.uk second-level domains.
2. Secure login and password.
To manage your site and all the attachments (e-mail addresses, mailing lists, autoresponders, etc.) without anyone else gaining access a secure login screen with a password system is used.
On registration with your host you will be e-mailed a username, password and the URL (Universal Resource Locator), for the control panel, it is then advisable to go in and change the password.
To gain access to this, you enter via your URL (www.yourname.co.uk/?????) and you are presented with a screen asking for your username and password. You are given 3 attempts to enter this correctly and after that it is 'locked' and becomes invalid. To gain access after that it is necessary to contact your 'host' and request access from them.
3. ?Mb web space.
This is the amount of 'space' you are entitled to use for your web presence. In general, for most small and medium sized businesses 50Mb is more than enough space to 'hold' your web pages. Most web pages are below 100Kb and there are approximately 1 million bytes to a Mb, this means that unless your site has over 5,000 pages, there shouldn't be a problem.
4. ? e-mail addresses (POP3) and Webmail.
This means that you can have e-mail addresses for various departments such as:
Webmail means that you can pick up your mail from anywhere in the world, not just from your own PC.
5. Unlimited e-mail forwarding.
If you have
another e-mail address that you decide to use, your mail can be redirected
to your other e-mail address via the control panel, this means that you
do not run the risk of losing clients/customers who are not familiar with
your new address.
6. 24/7 technical support.
Technical support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, giving you the peace of mind that; should a problem occur such as not being able to access your mail or your web site mysteriously 'goes down', then help will be available.
7. Virtual control panel.
The control panel is where you can set up your autoresponders, mailing lists and e-mail addresses, you set up your password control here as well as the 'access rights' to your web space.
8. Servers with full support for
Cgi (Common gateway interfaces) is the scripting language used with any forms that can be part of your web site, this type of language enables the information entered on the form to be sent to your e-mail address, be it sales@, info@ or jane.doe@. It also allows you to send a reply e-mail thanking or acknowledging receipt of the form information. This is also a way of letting your customer/potential client know that you have received their data.
Perl, Java and JavaScript are languages that can be used in the construction of your web site. Java is commonly associated with 'roll-overs' on buttons, where, when your mouse 'rolls over' a button it changes, for example, shape, colour, text etc.
ASP and PHP (Active Server Pages and PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) are also scripting languages, which basically means that these pages are built by the web server, which picks what is shown on the page, from a database holding all the relevant information.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a special encryption code used on a server making the taking of orders and payment for goods secure online.
WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) is used for transmitting data to mobile phones.
9. Mailing lists.
A mailing list is used to send the same e-mail to a group of people.
Common uses of mailing lists are the type of mail received from companies such as dabs.com, Comet, which inform you of something, but giving you have no idea who else is on the list.
From the mailing list section of the control panel it is possible to set this up in such a way as to allow subscribing and unsubscribing to/from the list, this is dealt with by the programme (Majordomo), which controls the list.
10. Autoresponders.
The main use is to inform e-mailers when you are on holiday, so that they do not expect a reply until after your return, this can save disgruntled clients/customers who were not aware that you were away.
During the rest of the year it can be used to send a response of any description such as; 'thanks for your mail, have you seen our special offer on widgets this month, take a look at www.yourdomain.co.uk/widgets.html'.
11. Databases.
Databases can be used for all sorts of things; a company selling a large range of products will record all their information into a database,
this makes it easier to amend when there is say a 15% price increase overall, it can be done with one calculation rather than several dozen individual calculations.
12. No banners or advertising.
As the heading says, your web site and e-mail will carry no further information other than that which you put there, no 'hosting by' adverts, no large banners quoting 'get your hosting with' just purely your own web material.
13. On-line graphical usage statistics.
These statistics show:
14. Three hour set up.
This is the length of time taken from requesting hosting to having the ability to 'upload' your site and make it 'live' and send and receive e-mail, once you have configured your control panel.
This is the 'norm for 'brand-new' setups, if transferring a domain name this will take effect from when the 'tag' is transferred.
Once you have this ability you will be invoiced for the years' hosting, which will be payable immediately.
15. Dedicated server if required, (an extra monthly charge is assigned for this).
Should you wish this service it can be arranged, this will mean that you will gain the maximum power, speed and space, by having exclusive use of the server.
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