ActiveX - A programming interface (API) that allows web browsers to download and execute Windows programs.

Apache - An open source web server. Mostly for Unix, Linux and Solaris platforms. The most common web server (or HTTP server) software on the Internet.

Applet - A small Java program that can be embedded in an HTML page. Applets differ from full-fledged Java applications in that they are not allowed to access certain resources on the local computer, such as files and serial devices (modems, printers, etc.), and are prohibited from communicating with most other computers across a network. The common rule is that an applet can only make an Internet connection to the computer from which the applet was sent.

ASP (Active Server Pages) - A  Microsoft's server-side scripting technology. An Active Server Page has an .asp extension and it mixes HTML and scripting code that can be written in VBScript or JScript. ASP.NET is the next version of ASP. Other popular server-side scripting languages are Perl, PHP, ColdFusion, TCL, Python, and JSP.

AVI (Audio Video Interleave) - File format for video files. Video compression technology developed by Microsoft.

Banner Ad - A (most often graphic) advertisement placed on a web page, which acts as a hyperlink to an advertiser's web site.

Bandwidth - A measure for the amount of data you can send through an Internet connection. The greater the bandwidth the more information that can be transferred over that network at one time, the faster the connection. The term bandwidth also broadly includes throughput, meaning the amount of data sent.

Blog (weB LOG) - A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently

Client - A software program that is used to contact and obtain data from a Server software program on another computer, often across a great distance. EachClient program is designed to work with one or more specific kinds of Server programs, and each Server requires a specific kind of Client. A Web Browser is a specific kind of Client.

Cookie - Information from a web server, stored on your computer by your web browser. The purpose of a cookie is to provide information about your visit to the website for use by the server during a later visit. Cookies might contain information such as login or registration information, online "shopping cart" information, user preferences, etc. Cookies are usually set to expire after a predetermined amount of time and are usually saved in memory until the Browser software is closed down, at which time they may be saved to disk if their "expire time" has not been reached. Cookies do not read your hard drive and send your life story to MI5, but they can be used to gather more information about a user than would be possible without them.

CMS (Content Management System) - software which allows a layman to change the content (but not design) on a web site. A blogging tool is an example of a Content Management System.

Codec (coder/decoder) - A software package that allows the conversion and compression of audio and video files. Codecs are generally used when large file formats need to be viewed over the internet.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) - A W3C recommended language for defining style (such as font, size, color, spacing, etc.) for web documents.

Database - Data stored in a computer in such a way that a computer program can easily retrieve and manipulate the data.

DHTML (Dynamic HTML) - A term commonly to describe HTML content that can change dynamically.

DNS (Domain Name Service) - A computer program running on a web server, translating domain names into IP addresses

Domain Name - The name that identifies a web site. (like: webmagik.co.uk or google.com)

E-mail Forwarding - A service that directs e-mail messages sent to one address to another address. E-mail forwarding is analogous to call forwarding for telephones.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) - FAQs are documents that list and answer the most common questions on a particular subject. There are hundreds of FAQs on subjects as diverse as Pet Grooming and Cryptography. FAQs are usually written by people who have tired of answering the same question over and over.

Firewall - Software that acts as a security filter that can restrict types of network communication. Most often used between an individual computer (or a LAN) and the Internet.

Flash - A vector-based multimedia format developed by Macromedia for use on the web.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) - One of the most common methods for sending files between two computers. It is the method that Web Magik uses to upload websites to the host.

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) - A compressed format for storing images developed by CompuServe. One of the most common image formats on the Internet.

Filename extension - Last three or four letters of a file name that appear after the dot. Used to designate the type of file and the format used.

Flash - Software by Macromedia that enables designers to use simple vector graphics to create computer animations, which can be viewed by any browser with the correct plug-in. A bandwidth friendly and browser independent vector graphic animation technology. As long as different browsers are equipped with the necessary plugins, Flash animations will look the same. With Flash, users can draw their own animations or import other vector based images.

Hits - The number of times a web object (page or picture) has been viewed or downloaded. (See also Page Hits).

Home Page - The top-level (main) page of a web site. The default page displayed when you visit a web site.

Host - See Web Host.

Hosting - See Web Hosting.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) - HTML is the language of the web. HTML is a set of tags that are used to define the content, layout and the formatting of the web document. Web browsers use the HTML tags to define how to display the text.

HTML Form - A form that passes user input back to the server.

HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) - The main protocol used to transfer and receive data over the World Wide Web. The latest version of HTTP is 1.1. Basic HTTP transaction involves a WWW browser connecting to a server, browser sending a request to the server specifying its capabilities and which document is requested, server responding with the required data, and closing of the connection.

HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) - Same as HTTP but provides secure Internet communication using SSL. (see also SSL)

Hyperlink - A pointer to another document. Most often a pointer to another web page. A hyperlink is a synonym for a hotlink or a link, and sometimes called a hypertext connection to another document or web page.

ICANN (Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers) - The non-profit organization under U.S. Government contract that manages the domain name system, accredits and oversees domain name registrars, and manages root servers.

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) - A standard communication protocol for retrieving e-mails from an e-mail server. IMAP is much like POP but more advanced.

Intranet - A private (closed) Internet, running inside a LAN (Local Area Network).

IP (Internet Protocol) - See TCP/IP.

IP Address (Internet Protocol Address) - A unique number identifying every computer on the Internet (like 197.123.22.240). Every machine that is on the Internet has a unique IP number.

IPS Tag (Internet Provider Security Tag) - Nominet is the registry for UK domain names and all hosting companies that host .uk domains will have an IPS tag (also known as a Nominet Provider tag or IPS Key) which signifies membership of Nominet. The tag is used to identify the company responsible for the management of a .uk domain. It is a single alpha-numeric sequence, in uppercase, sometimes hyphenated.

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) - An Internet system that enables users to take part in on-line discussions.

ISP (Internet Service Provider) - Someone that provides access to the Internet and web hosting.

JavaScript - The most popular scripting language on the internet, developed by Netscape. It is a programming language that is mostly used in web pages, usually to add features that make the web page more interactive.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) - The organization that promotes the JPG and JPEG graphic formats for storing compressed images.

JPEG and JPG - Graphic formats for storing compressed images.

LAN (Local Area Network) - A network between computers in a local area (like inside a building), usually connected via local cables.

Meta Tags - Tags inserted into documents to describe the document. Typical uses of Meta tags are to include information for search engines to help them better categorize a page.

MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3) - An audio compression format specially designed for easy download over the Internet.

MP3 File - An file containing audio compressed with MP3. Most often a music track.

MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group) - An ISO standard codec for computer audio and video.

MPG - Common file extension for MPEG files.

MySQL - Free open source database software and the most frequently used database used on the web. A fast and efficient database accessed by PHP.

Name Server - A computer that maps domain names (such as "mycompany.com") to IP addresses (such as "123.123.4.5"). For a domain name to be functional, it must be associated with at least one name server.

Page Hits - The number of times a web page has been visited by a user.

Page Impressions - The same as Page Hits.

Page Views - The same as Page Hits.

PDF - see Portable Document Format.

Perl (Practical Extraction and Reporting Language) - A scripting language for web servers. Most often used on Unix servers.

PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) - A technology allowing the insertion of server executable scripts in web pages. Mostly for Unix, Linux and Solaris platforms. It allows webpages to be truly interactive. PHP is a programming language used almost exclusively for creating software that is part of a web site. The PHP language is designed to be intermingled with the HTML that is used to create web pages. Unlike HTML, the PHP code is read and processed by the web server software (HTML is read and processed by the web browser software.)

Ping - A method used to check the communication between two computers. A "ping" is sent to a remote computer to see if it responds.

Platform - In web terms: The computer's operating system like Windows, Linux, or OS X.

Plug-In - An application built into another application. In web terms: A program built in (or added) to a web browser to handle a special type of data like e-mail, sound, or movie files. (See also ActiveX)

PNG (Portable Network Graphics) - A format for encoding a picture pixel by pixel and sending it over the web. A W3C recommendation for replacing GIF.

POP (Post Office Protocol) - A standard communication protocol for retrieving e-mails from an e-mail server. The current version is POP3. (See also IMAP).

Port - A number that identifies a computer IO (input/output) channel. In web terms: A number that identifies the I/O channel used by an Internet application (A web server normally uses port 80).

Portable document format (PDF) - PDF refers to the Adobe Acrobat’s file format. Using Adobe Acrobat PDF documents can be created from any hardware or software platform. This means that your documents are viewed exactly as they were created without the user having that program on their computer.

Proxy Server - An Internet server dedicated to improve Internet performance. A Proxy Server sits in between a Client and the "real" Server that a Client is trying to use.

QuickTime - A multimedia file format created by Apple.

Redirect - In web terms: The action when a web page automatically forwards (redirects) the user to another web page.

Registrar - A company that is able to register ".com," ".net," and ".org" domain names by directly accessing the Central Domain Name Database. NameSecure is a registrar.

Registrar Transfer - To give a different registrar the responsibility for maintaining the ownership of a domain name.

RSS (Rich Site Summary or RDF Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication) - A commonly used protocol for syndication and sharing of content, originally developed to facilitate the syndication of news articles, now widely used to share the contents of blogs. Mashups are often made using RSS feeds. RSS is an XML-based summary of a web site, usually used for syndication and other kinds of content-sharing. There are RSS "feeds" which are sources of RSS information about web sites, and RSS "readers" which read RSS feeds and display their content to users.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - The practice of designing web pages so that they rank as high as possible in search results from search engines. There is "good" SEO and "bad" SEO. Good SEO involves making the web page clearly describe its subject, making sure it contains truly useful information, including accurate information in Meta tags, and arranging for other web sites to make links to the page. Bad SEO involves attempting to deceive people into believing the page is more relevant than it truly is by doing things like adding inaccurate Meta tags to the page.

Server - See Web Server.

Shockwave - A format (technology) developed by Macromedia for embedding multimedia content in web pages.

Shopping Cart - Software that allows users to select products from a Web catalog, modify their choices, calculate prices, review their choices, and order them. Many hosts with e-commerce plans offer installed shopping carts, but you can always get a shopping cart of your choice instead.

SHTTP (Secure HTTP) - A version of HTTP protocol that uses encryption to assure that the traffic between the server and the browser cannot be eveasdropped on. Should be considered mandatory for all e-commerce applications.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) - A standard communication protocol for sending e-mail messages between computers.

SPAM - Unsolicited email sent in mass quantities to multiple recipients, most often for marketing purposes. Highly annoying and constituting one of the most serious netiquette violations.

Spider - An automated software that retrieves webpages and follows the hyperlinks contained in them. Used to generate indexes used by search engines.

SSI (Server Side Include) - A type of HTML comment inserted into a web page to instruct the web server to generate dynamic content. The most common use is to include standard header or footer for the page. Instructs the server to include some dynamic information in a Web page before it is sent to a client. This dynamic information could be current date, an opinion poll, etc. Many hosts require that SSI pages have .shtml extension to reduce the load on servers by not having to parse non-SSI pages.

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) - Software to secure and protect web site communication using encrypted transmission of data.

Static IP (address) - An IP address that is the same each time connect to the Internet. (See also Dynamic IP).

Streaming - A method of sending audio and video files over the Internet in such a way that the user can view the file while it is being transferred.

Streaming Format - The format used for files being streamed over the Internet.

Subdomain - Subdomain is a way to divide your site into sections with short and easy to remember names. For example, a section of this site for clients could be at clients.webmagik.co.uk. Other use of subdomains might be to let somebody else use your account (but this may not be allowed by your host's terms of use). Large websites might make their subdomains point to another server to reduce load on the main www site.

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) - See TCP/IP.

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) - A collection of Internet communication protocols between two computers. The TCP protocol is responsible for an error free connection between two computers.

TLD (Top Level Domain) - The last (right-hand) part of a complete Domain Name. For example in the domain name www.webmagik.co.uk ".co.uk" is the Top Level Domain.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) - A web address. The standard way to address web documents (pages) on the Internet (like: http://www.webmagik.co.uk/)

W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) - The organisation responsible for managing standards for the WWW.

Web-Based E-mail - A service that allows users to send and receive e-mail (and usually to store e-mail and manage accounts) via a Web interface.

Web Host - A web server that "hosts" web services like providing web site space to companies or individuals which houses their website.

Web Hosting - The action of providing web host services. A service that allows you to upload and store a site's HTML documents and related files on a Web server. This makes the files available on the World Wide Web for viewing by the public. Also called site hosting.

Webmaster - A person responsible for the maintenance of a particular website.

Web Server - A server is a computer that delivers services or information to other computers. In web terms: A server that delivers web content to web browsers.

XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) - HTML reformulated as XML. XHTML is the latest version of HTML. Developed by W3C.

XML (Extensible Markup Language) - A simplified version of SGML especially designed for web documents, developed by the W3C.