Hosting Glossary : Part 1

Terms: Anonymous FTP - Cloaking

• Anonymous FTP
  This method of FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a method of moving files to the public. No dedicated username or password is required, the user will simply use the name: anonymous, and use their email address as a password. This makes public files easy to share and access to these files is not regulated.
• ASCII
  ASCII files are unformatted text files comprised of a uniform set of 128 characters. Each character is represented by a number, between 0 and 128. ASCII was developed to allow computers from different systems and regions to communicate in a structured method.
• Autoresponder
  An autoresponder is an email that is automatically sent out after it is triggered by an incoming email. Commonly used with disabled or unmonitored email addresses.

• Bandwidth
  This term is used in two different ways, regarding the same subject. Bandwidth can mean the amount of transfer data you can move across a network, normally measured in bytes or kilobytes - or it can mean the total amount of data you can move across your network or web site over the course of a set time period (1 gigabyte of site transfer data a month, for example).
• Binary Mode
  This is a term used with FTP software while moving data from your computer to the host. Non-ASCII files are normally transferred through Binary Mode to prevent attempted translation of the data.
• Bot
  Search Engines create and utilize small robot programs that are known as bots, spiders and web crawlers. The bots are directed to a site and will gather page information such as hyperlinks and URL structure. The bot can then navigate the site and index the information contained within.
• ccTLDs
  Top Level Domains (TLDs) are easily recognizable as .com, .net and .org. ccTLDs are Country Code Top Level Domains with the domain suffix representing the country name - for example .us or .uk for United States or United Kingdom.
• Certificate Authority
  A certificate authority is the company that issues security certificates which enable SSL and HTTPS protocols typically found when submitting forms or confidential data.
• CGI
  Common Gateway Interface, or CGI is the term used for a program that runs from within the HTTP protocol - unlike a web page which simply displays stored data, the CGI is a program that receives and returns data.
• cgi-bin
  This is the directory that holds CGI scripts and programs. The CGI scripts also run from these locations and there can be multiple cgi-bin directories on a server. There is normally one cgi-bin per web site.
• Cloaking
  Also known as masking or hidden text, cloaking is the act of hiding code or text within the code so that a user, browser or search engine bot can not locate the information.