KB / Getting Started / Glossary
From DreamHost
Here we define some common web-hosting terms, as well as any terms we just made up!
Parent Article
What's webmail?
All DreamHost accounts come with free web-based access to all their email hosted with us at http://webmail.yourdomain.com/ .
It's set up automatically on all domains with us and uses the open source Squirrelmail IMAP client.
Perfect for checking your email on the road!
What's an IMAP account?
IMAP (like POP3) is a protocol for reading email.
It differs from POP3 in that you read the mail directly on our mail server, rather than downloading it to your home computer first. This means:- You have to be connected to the Internet the whole time you read your email.
- You don't need to download messages unless you actually want to read them.
- You can access the same inbox and mail folders from multiple computers since they all connect to the same central server.
What's TCP/IP?
TCP/IP is a protocol: an agreement about how to exchange information. Computers that are hooked into the Internet send and recieve information according to the TCP/IP protocol.
What's an IP address?
An IP address is the address of a computer connected to the Internet by TCP/IP. It consists of a series of four numbers separated by dots (for example 123.45.67.89).
Domain names, such as www.yourdomain.com, are easier for mere humans to remember, so DNS (domain name service) servers associate each IP address with a URL like www.yourdomain.com. When you point your browser toward www.yourdomain.com, your browser takes you to the corresponding IP address.
What's an email client? What does it do?
An email client is a program that allows you to read and send email. Installing an email client on your computer gives you an easy way to download your mail from our server for reading, and to send mail to other computers.
Some email clients include Outlook, Eudora, Mutt, and Pine.
What does download mean?
Downloading means moving files from another computer to the one you're currently working on.
What does upload mean?
Uploading (aka: publishing) means moving files from the computer on which you're currently working, to another computer, usually a web server (a computer that makes your files accessible on the Internet).
The most common way to upload files is via FTP.
What's a text editor?
A text editor is a program that allows you to read and edit documents, including the source code for web pages.
Text editors vary in complexity and ability. Some allow only the most basic reading, writing, and editing functions. Advanced editors may have color-coding of programming commands, built-in macros, and other features.
Some examples of text editors include: Notepad, Wordpad, Emacs, Xemacs and VI.
What's domain parking?
A parked domain is like a bookmark. It's a one-page place-holder for your website, with a generic message like "coming soon" or "under construction."
What's the difference between domain parking and domain hosting?
What are keywords?
When you type words into a search engine (such as Google), the search engine looks for pages that are indexed with these words. These are keywords.
Keywords are like the words in the index in the back of a book. They tell the search engine where to look for pages that contain that word.
What's a browser?
A browser, or web browser, is a program that displays web files on your monitor. When you "surf the net," you start by opening a browser window, then pointing the browser at a website. The URL of the site currently being viewed is displayed in the bar above the window where the web page is displayed.
Some examples of web browsers include: Internet Explorer, Netscape, and Lynx.
What's html?
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is a system of tags used to make web pages. The tags are put before and after text and images, and tell your visitor's browser how the text should appear on the computer screen. Here's an example:
<b> Everything between the tags will appear in boldface. </b>
Other markup languages include XML (eXtensible Markup Language), DHTML (Dynamic HTML), and WML (Wireless Markup Language).
What does bounced mean?
When email is "bounced", that means it was sent, but not successfully received. This usually "bounces" a message back to the sender to that effect. This can happen for many different reasons, the most common of which is that the address to which the email was sent is not valid.
What is web hosting?
Hosting means providing space on a computer for files that will be accessed by other computers. For example, DreamHost stores the files that make up your web pages, so that your visitors' computers can request the files and show them to people who want to see your site.
What's an ISP?
ISP stands for Internet Service Provider.
An ISP (or IAP --- Internet Access Provider) provides access to the Internet by giving its customers the software necessary to cruise the World Wide Web and send and receive e-mail, usually for a monthly fee.
Some ISPs include America Online and Earthlink. DreamHost is not an ISP.
What's a server?
A server is a computer (or software package) in a network that is used to provide particular services to other computers. Here are some examples:- A mail server routes email. IMAP and POP3 servers handle incoming mail, and SMTP servers handle outgoing mail.
- A file server, also called a web server, holds your web pages, and makes them available to your viewers.
What's a URL?
A URL is the same thing as a web address, ie: http://www.something.com.
What's an Auto-responder?
An autoresponder is a function that generates and sends an email response every time a visitor sends an email to your pop3 account.
You can use autoresponders in conjunction with email aliases, sending a different messages to users who send mail to different aliases. Use the Account Control Panel to create the alias (for example, info@yoursite.com) and write the text that you want to go out to your visitors (for example, general information about your site.)
You can set up as many autoresponders and email aliases as you like, free of charge, through the Account Control Panel.
What does CGI mean?
CGI (Common Gateway Interface) is the name for scripts that run on the host server. CGIs allow greater site interactivity and functionality. Some common CGI programs include counters and form-mail.
CGIs are most often written in Perl, but can be written in almost any language.
All our plans come with full CGI capabilities. DreamHost also offers pre-written ("canned") CGI scripts for use by all customers. Our "canned" scripts include counters and formmail.
What's a domain name?
This is the "address" of your website - the name that visitors type in to the location window of their browser to get to your homepage.
All computers that are connected to the Internet have a numeric IP address such as 65.22.34.97. Since mnemonic addresses like mycoolwebsite.com are much easier to remember, we use the Domain Name System (DNS) to translate from the numeric IP address to a mnemonic domain name.
For more information about domain names and DNS, check out these sites:
A concise, slightly technical explanation
An easy-to-understand presentation for the general reader.
What is an email alias/address?
E-mail aliases direct mail sent to one e-mail address to another address. The second address can be an account on our system or an e-mail address on another system altogether. All of our accounts come with free, unlimited e-mail aliases, which can be configured through the Account Control Panel.
What's an FTP account?
To publish your files on the web, you need to upload them to our server, via FTP (File Transfer Protocol.) Your allotment of space on the server, where your files will be stored, is often referred to as FTP space.
All DreamHost hosting plans come with FTP access.
What's PHP?
PHP is a scripting language like ASP, which allows you to make dynamic web pages quickly and easily.
PHP support is a standard feature for all DreamHost web hosting accounts.
What's a POP3 account?
A pop3 (or just pop) account is an email account. This is where mail will sit until you download/read it and decide to file it, delete it, etc.
What is the definition of SSI?
SSI (Server Side Includes) allows you to dynamically access and import pieces of data outside of your HTML file (for example, getting the current time and date from the server and displaying it on the site).
All DreamHost hosting customers may use SSI to create their webpages.
What's a sub domain?
Any extension of a domain: i.e. my.domain.com is a subdomain of domain.com. Whoever registers the domain also gets all possible subdomains.
What is telnet/ssh/a shell?
Telnet allows you to open a shell on the server to interact with the command line (we strongly recommend using SSH as a secure alternative to Telnet).
PuTTY is a nice free SSH client for windows.
In Mac OS X or linux, you can just open up a terminal window and run:
ssh username@domain.com
(note, unless you've activated shell access from the "Users > Users" area for your ftp user, you won't be able to telnet or ssh in to your server).
