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Internet Terms You Should Know

If You Have A Website!

by Paula Apynys, July 8, 2010

The Internet
The internet is the word used to describe the collection of computers and servers that form a world-wide network. The network is informal, not “controlled” by anyone, and is accessible by any computer with an internet connection. Information moves through the Internet’s network through the use of a collection of programming languages and protocols.

Protocols
“An agreed-upon format for transmitting data between two devices. The protocol determines: the type of error checking to be used; data compression method, if any; how the sending device will indicate it is finished sending a message and how the receiving device will indicate that it has received the message.” Courtesy of Webopedia

The Internet makes use of several protocols, including HTTPS (for the World Wide Web); SMTP (for Email); Usenet (for newsgroups); Instant Messaging; FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to move files between computers and servers.

The World Wide Web
Or the web is the part of the Internet that distributes or shares information via the HTTP protocol. These include websites and browsers as well as many programs that use HTTP in order to be able to function on the web.

Web Host
Web Hosts provide groups of servers that house websites and provide access to those websites 24/7. Professional hosts also have back-up servers in case individual machines have problems. They offer a variety of support services, usually on a month to month fee basis.

Internet Service Provider (ISP)
This is the company that connects your computer to the internet. These can be dial-up, cable access, Wi-Fi, DSL, T1, etc. Basically the end providers are Telephone and Cable TV companies, although you may be working through an intermediary company that packages internet access.

Server
Servers are where websites “live”. They are computers that house websites and related files, and when someone calls on a file by entering a URL into a browser, the server “serves the web page” up (sends it) to your individual computer.

IP Address
This is a numeric address that is assigned to any computer or device that interacts with the Internet. (The IP address is assigned by your Internet Service Provider.) So when you enter a domain name into a browser, the browser locates the server where the specific web page is housed, then that server uses the IP address of YOUR device to send the web page back to you. IP addresses are broken into 4 sets of numbers, each ranging between 0 and 255. IP addresses look like this: 12.23.123.234 (2 sets of 2 numbers and 2 sets of 3 numbers.)

IP addresses can be fixed or dynamic (a dynamic IP is one that changes every time a device accesses the web). You do not decide whether your IP is fixed (always the same) or dynamic, your Internet Service Provider decides that.

Domain Name
This name(s) you chose for your website or page, followed by the extension you chose, such as .com, .org, .biz, .gov, .net. This functions as your “web address” and tells all the other computers and servers on the web where your site can be reached. Example: www.yourcompanyname.com.,

It is possible to own multiple domain names and “point them” to one website, so sometimes people will purchase multiples such as: www.mycompany.com, www.mycompany.net, www.mycompany.biz. Then, if anyone enters any of those three domains into a browser, they’ll come to the same website/web page.

Transferring a Domain Name
Domains can be purchased through many services and it’s not uncommon for people to buy a domain through one company and hosting through another. This can be confusing when renewal time comes around, or if you need to move to a new hosting service for some reason. Ideally you purchase your domain through your hosting service (hosts often provide a domain for free for the first year).

You can transfer a domain from one host or domain registrar to another. The benefit of transferring is to get things under one roof — one less login and password to keep track of, and one less separate bill to pay. But, you will have a few hours to a few days of downtime when you make a transfer. Basically your new domain’s address needs to “propagate throughout the internet” and the internet is a big place. So for a short period your site may not be accessible. Pick a time of low traffic to do transfers.

The company you bought the domain through will have an “admin” portal you can sign-in to, and there should be instructions on how to transfer your domain and the company you’re transferring towill have instructions for bringing a new domain to them.

DNS
Domain Name System is a database system that translates a computer’s domain name into an IP address. (Definition courtesy of Indiana University Knowledgebase: http://kb.iu.edu/data/adns.html

Since people remember domains better than numbers, we type domains into browsers (like www.amazon.com) and that domains gets translated into a set of numbers for the computers to use (an IP address).

You care about a DNS primarily when you change website hosts. When you buy a hosting package (which is to say, when you buy server space) your host has to let the DNS database know that when someone types in the domain name you’ve selected, it refers to the website they have on their server. The term is “pointing the DNS”.If you move to a new host you have to point the DNS to the new server space. Your new host will have an “admin” portal that you can go through and there should be instructions on how to point a DNS.

URL/URI
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator and is the full address of a page on the web.

An example would be http://www.thdesigninc.com/articles.html.

Http is the protocol being used here and is what you will see most often with respect to web pages. Other protocols may be Https (for secured pages), FTP (for file transfers).

www is the subdomain and means the page is being served on the world wide web.

thdesigninc.com is the domain or web address. Sometimes you will see a set of numbers called an IP address, which represents the domain in numeric form.

articles.com is the actual page on the website.

URI stands for Uniform Resource Identifier, and is the same as a URL.

FTP File Transfer Protocol is a tool/language used for transferring files, usually from a computer to a server.

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HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

HTML is the basic programming language of the web. It has evolved over the last several years and the current version in use is HTML 4.01. HTML5 is being developed as we speak. HTML is always the first-level language that pages are built in, even if the pages are dynamic or database-driven. Dynamic languages that might be used are PHP, ASP, JSP, PERL, Cold Fusion and others.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics (that is, the look and formatting) of a document written in a markup language (HTML/XHTML). (courtesy of Wikipedia)

CSS is actually a very important topic and you can learn more by reading our article: The Adoption of CSS and Why You Should Care If You Have A Website – Or are going to!. But the basic idea is that any new websites going forward should be built using CSS for layout and HTML for content, where previously (it’s a long story) websites were built using HTML for both content and layout.

Those with older websites should plan on updates to CSS based layouts for a number of reasons, including the fact that CSS based layouts make page sizes much smaller (while still looking just as snazzy) thereby reducing load time dramatically (something Google is now factoring into it’s algorithms when deciding how to rank webpages).

Search Engines

Search Engines are programs that scan web pages, index their contents into massive databases, then serve up selected pages from those databases when people do a search in the search engine. Google is the most significant search engine at this time, followed by Bing (formerly MSN), Ask, and AOL Search. People often refer to Yahoo as a Search Engine but Yahoo is actually a Directory.

SERPS

Stands for Search Engine Results Page. So when you enter a search term into Google and it comes back with page after page of listings, those pages are called SERPs.

Directories

Whereas search engines index pages all over the web by moving from page to page via links, search directories like Yahoo are a closed database — you have to be entered into Yahoo’s directory whereas any page on the web that is linked to at least one other page with links will be found by Google.

Browsers

Browsers are software programs that display web pages, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization

SEO refers to a collection of techniques and strategies that help websites and web pages rank well in search engine SERPs. Learn more about SEO on our SEO and SEM page.

SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

SEM refers to marketing programs available through search engines. Learn more about SEM on our SEO and SEM page.

PPC (Pay Per Click)

PPC are online advertisement programs in which you pay for the ad only if it is “clicked” on. Google Adwords is one of many such programs.

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