Additonal Domains
Some hosting plans allow you to host more than one domain. Additional domains may be entirely different (ex.www.yourcompany.com and www.yourpersonalsite.com). These have different DNS registries and each domain name must be registered and renewed. In contrast, subdomains are merely an extension of an existing domain or a "domain within a domain" (such as clientname.yourcompany.com). Some companies offer unlimited subdomains whereby you can give many different users or divisions their own subdomain. You must pay for and register only one top level domain.

Billing Cycle
This is the frequency that you must pay for hosting services. This can range from monthly to every four years. Typically, you will recieve a monthly discount, free setup or free domain name registration with a longer prepayment period (One year or more).

BLOG (Web Log)
A BLOG is a publication of personal thoughts, experiences, and web links. It is updated frequently and is usually a mixture of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the web or in the media. This medium is gaining popularity and thousands of people use blogging services such as Blogger (blogger.com). Alternatively, some web hosting providers include easy to use blogging software that can be customized and integrated within your own website.

Data Transfer (Bandwidth)
The amount of data that can be transmitted at a given moment to a server. The higher your bandwidth, the larger amount of traffic your site can handle at one time. The total amount of data transfer allowed for a website is the cumulation of all two-way communication between your site and all its users (including uploading). So if your website recieves 5,000 visitors a day with each visitor viewing three 150KB pages, than your data transfer for the month would be about (5000 x 150 x 3 x 30 days = 67,500,000KB or 67.5GB). This is greatly simplified, but useful for bandwidth estimations.

Disk Space (Data Storage)
This refers to the amount of server disk storage your account is allocated. This space is used to store your html files, graphics, audio/video files and all other files that make up your web site. Email storage is often stored on a seperate mail server, and thus not included in the disk space allowed for each p

Dedicated Hosting
A hosting feature that allows a Web site to have its own server. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as webmasters typically have full control over the back end of the server, including choice of Operating System (Windows or Unix) and Webserving Software (IIS or Apache). Administration, however, is still handled by the hosting company.

Domain Name
Domain names are the word sequences users enter in their URL bar to visit your site. They are attached to a DNS, short for Domain Naming System, which is used to translate numeric addresses (known as IP, or Internet Protocol, addresses) into words. Each site you visit on the net has a numeric IP address behind its name. Some hosting providers will register a domain name (www.yourcompany.com) free of charge. Others will charge a fee. You have the option of using many different types of domains such as .net, .info, or .biz.

Email Accounts
The number of email accounts permitted for hosting plans varies from one to unlimited. These email addresses will typically look like (user@yourcompany.com or department@yourorganization.com). Each POP email account can be accessed and managed by an assigned user. An administrator will have control over user permissions and access controls.

FrontPage Support
FrontPage is a popular site design and management tool developed by Microsoft. To fully utilize the site uploading and managing capabilities of Frontpage, your web hosting provider must have Frontpage server extensions enabled for your site.

Hosting Platforms
The majority of websites hosted on the World Wide Web are hosted on a UNIX platform. UNIX is a text-based, multitasking Operating System suitable for Web and network administration. Unix has spawned numerous popular spinoffs, including Linux and FreeBSD. Most Unix-based Operating Systems are open source, meaning the source code to the Operating System has been made freely available to the public for modification. Most Web hosting companies and resellers offer Unix-based hosting in some capacity or other.

Windows NT/2000 These are graphic-based, multitasking Operating Systems developed over the past few years by Microsoft. Both can act as standalone OS for personal computers/workstations, or can serve as an OS for a Web site/network. Many Web hosting companies and resellers offer Windows-based hosting in some capacity or other. Because the hosting company must pay a high fee for licensing the Windows Operating System, Windows-hosted plans are usually slightly more expensive than Unix-hosted plans. Unless your site requires integration with special applications such as .NET architecture or Active Server Pages, Unix is a more flexible and cheaper solution.

Internet Connection
This is the physical connection between your hosting provider and The Internet. There are numerous ultra-high speed backbones that handle internet communication across North America. The faster and more numerous the connections between your provider and The Internet, the faster your website can be accessed by users and the more reliable the connection will be. The ultimate speed and reliability of your hosted site is influenced by the server hardware, software, number of sites hosted on each server, climate and power of the facilities, and ability of the technicians. All of this is in addition to the connection to major Internet backbones.

Scripting (Programming)
Many websites incorporate some form of scripting language. Simple Php scripts may be used to process forms or facilitate interaction between the user and the website. More complex dynamic sites may use C++, Perl, or Python to present large amounts of data in attractive, customizable html layouts. If your site uses a database such as MySQL, Oracle, or MS SQL you will likely need a hosting plan that provides the scripting support for these databases to function properly.

Shopping Cart
A program designed to handle the e-commerce section of a Web site. Shopping cart software lets users browse for and purchase products online.

SQL (Standard Query Language)
A standard protocol used to request information from databases. Servers which can handle SQL are known as SQL servers. MySQL is often offered with Unix-hosted plans while Microsoft's SQL2000 may be offered with Windows-based plans.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)
SSL is a protocol for transmitting private documents via the Internet. SSL works by using a private key to encrypt data that's transferred over the SSL connection. Many web sites use this to obtain confidential user information, such as credit card numbers. Shared web hosting plans may have access to a shared SSL certificate. A dedicated SSL certificate can be purchased and renewed on a yearly basis.

Web Hosting Reseller
A reseller operates components of a Web hosting operation using services, infrastructure and equipment provided by another Web hosting service. Some resellers operate full-fledged businesses using the hardware, software, network and logistical support of another Web hosting firm, while others simply operate as sales agents for other Web hosting companies, offering discounts and providing low-level technical support.

Website Statistics
Allow you to graphically track visitors to your site. Programs such as Webalizer, and AWstats provide you statistics on how long visitors stay at your site, what pages they visited and the order in which they were visited. They also show the most popular operating system, web browser, referers, and other geographic information about website visitors.