Internet Terminology - Web Jargon Explained
We constantly hear web jargon but its not often that terms are defined in plain English without a lot of technobabble
. I remember years ago trying to find information on the Internet about how domains and hosting work together and almost every article I came across was full of geek speak. I consider myself a technical person, but even so, was having trouble understanding the convoluted explanations so I can only image the frustration of someone that doesnt consider themselves a techie. Hopefully, this article will clear up some of the basics.
First, a little history. When most people think of the Internet, they think of the World Wide Web which came into common use in the early 1990s but the fact is that that Internet was created in the 1960s by DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), which is an agency of the United States Department of Defense. The idea was to create a computer network which would be able to survive even if parts of it were destroyed (remember, this was during the cold war when Americans were worried about the commies and the imminent threat of nuclear war).
Before the web, each piece of the Internet had to be accessed separately. There was no common interface like a browser. Special client software had to be used for each application. For example, if you wanted to look at newsgroups, youd use a newsreader application. Then when you wanted to check your e-mail, youd use email client software. If you wanted to send a large file across the Internet, youd use an FTP client. Having to know all of this and be able to work with different programs and protocols is beyond the capabilities of the average Joe (or Jane) so it wasnt long before the different pieces were incorporated into the web browser, which is used as the Interface for pretty much everything these days. One notable exception is the FTP client. Many of these (such as FileZilla) are still used for large file transfers.
The URL
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator and it provides the location to a specific address on the Internet (and the mechanism for retrieving it). What mechanism means refers to how the URL starts. The most common one were used to seeing is http but they can also start with https or ftp, among others. If it starts with http, thats usually a regular web page. If it starts with https then thats a secure web page (https, also called secure http is a protocol developed for secure transactions over the Internet). A URL can also start with ftp (FTP stands for file transfer protocol and is whats normally used when a file is too big to be sent as an e-mail attachment). URLs can be short and easy like www.yahoo.com or they can be incredibly long, like the URLs generated by shopping carts or Google searches.To make a long story short: the URL is the string of characters that you see in the address bar of your web browser.
The URI
This stands for Uniform Resource Identifier, which is a string of characters used to identify a name or resource on the Internet. A URL is a URI, but the term URI isnt something that the average web user comes across that much. Its geek speak and usually not something you need to be concerned with.
The domain
Domains are classified as top level domains like .com .org or .net and second level domains, which are the ones that can be chosen and reserved (like RecordAndGrowRich). The reason this system was invented is because behind the scenes, all domains are actually represented with a string of numbers. Since humans dont do very well remembering strings of numbers, a system was created for assigning words to these numbers so we can use language instead. Domain names are reserved through a domain name registrar like GoDaddy.com Reserving a domain should cost about about $10 a year. Once its reserved, the domain is parked at the company that you reserved it from. In other words, that company (the registrar) has provided a very small amount of hosting space on one of their servers to display that page to the public. Its not enough to run a real website; youll need to purchase a hosting plan for that (see below).
ISPs
ISP is an acronym for Internet Service Provider. Basically, these are companies that provide you with a connection to the Internet. These days there are many companies offering multiple services from Internet access to domain name registration to hosting to web design not to mention a whole bunch of other services. This can be very confusing to someone that doesnt understand the difference between each service (hopefully this article is helping). Internet access can be broadband (also called high speed), which are most new connections nowadays or dial up, which is the old-style (slow) connection using a phone modem over a regular phone line. Some services (such as video playback) are almost impossible to access over a dial-up connection because of the sheer amount of data that needs to be transmitted, although there have been great inroads lately in data compression and technologies like Flash, which enable video playback and graphic animation through a browser using a much smaller amount of data. Often, people in rural areas only have a dialup connection, so you may want to think about this when designing a website. Making a site with tons of video and graphics can make loading times unbearable for people on dial-up connections, so you risk alienating those users.
Broadband service generally comes in 3 flavors: DSL, cable and satellite. DSL is a technology that is an add-on to a regular phone line. What it does is piggyback a data signal on the same copper wire thats already coming into your home or business. When you have DSL service, you need to put a DSL filter on every device connected to your phone line. The advantage to DSL service is that you have guaranteed minimum upload and download rates. Cable Internet service comes into your home or business through the same type of coaxial cable used in cable television. The cable will connect to a cable modem and then to your computer with a USB or Ethernet cable.
The disadvantage to cable service is that youre sharing bandwidth with other people in your area, so if you have a neighbor thats constantly downloading video, you might have to suffer slower uploading and downloading speeds. The third option is satellite service, which is more expensive, but sometimes is the only high-speed option for people in remote areas.A satellite connection is usually more expensive and can be prone to service interruption from electromagnetic interference like solar storms, etc.
Hosting
A hosting company or web host is basically a company that provides the space for where your website lives on the Internet. Specialized computers called servers keep all the files for your website together and display your web pages to visitors. A hosting plan should cost about $10 per month. E-mail accounts associated with your domain are usually set up through your hosting service.
Key pieces
To have a website, there are two key pieces you need: a domain name and hosting. Once youve reserved your domain name and purchased a hosting plan, you point your domain to your web host. The procedure for this is really very simple and you can do it yourself as follows: First, log into your HOSTING control panel and look for something called name servers. Copy those numbers to a text file. There should be at least two of them (one is a backup). Then, log into the control panel for your DOMAIN and look for something called DNS setup, modify name servers or Transfer DNS to web host. Paste the numbers which you copied earlier (from your hosting) into that space. Thats pretty much all there is to it. It may take up to 24 hours for this to take effect and in the meantime, you may see some generic pages that looks like someone has hijacked your website. This is usually nothing to worry about and just temporary. Once the changes have taken effect, you should see a generic page saying something like this site is being hosted by (your webhost company). After that, you can either have a web designer implement your website, or install a WordPress blog yourself.
by: Ian Rich
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