Under
each category below you will find answers to hopefully
all the questions you have. If you cannot find the
answer please feel free to email us with your question
sales@compila.com
A
domain name is a unique
name that is registered
to you, and only you are
allowed to have a web site
and receive emails in this
name. Domain names are paid
for and registered for you,
by web hosting and domain
name registration companies.
Domain names are allocated
to you for a certain period
of time from 1 - 10 years,
and after this period they
are renewable. If you want
to keep the name then you
must pay a renewal fee.
Examples of domain names
are compila.com and compila.co.uk.
What
is a web hosting company?
A
web hosting company, provides
you with all the services
you need to publish and
maintain a web site on the
Internet. A basic service
should provide you with
web space to store your
site, a domain name (such
as yourname.co.uk) and email
facilities. Compila Limited
is an example of a web hosting
company.
What
is a domain name registration
company?
These
companies are a little more
specialised, as they only
deal with registering domain
names and providing the
additional services such
as web and email forwarding.
However, nowadays it is
quite rare to find a company
that only provides this
service.
What
is a search engine?
Search
engines store millions of
web site addresses in their
databases, and they are
often the best places to
visit, if you are trying
to find information on the
Internet. Examples of search
engines are Lycos, AltaVista
and Google.
What
is a directory?
A
directory is very similar
to a search engine. The
fundamental difference being,
a search engine uses automated
software to find and index
web sites, whereas a directory
will have people visiting
your site and assessing
it's suitability. Examples
of directories are Yahoo
and Dmoz.
What
is web site promotion or
submission?
A
good way of getting visitors
to your site, is to submit
or promote your web site
to search engines. You can
visit each search engine
manually and follow their
procedure, or you can use
services that promote your
web site to 1000's of search
engines in one go. Both
methods have their pros
and cons. To find out more
information on this subject
please click
here.
What
is a web server?
A
web server is a computer
that is permanently connected
to the Internet. One of
the uses of these servers
is to host your web site.
What
is an IP address?
IP
addresses are numbers such
as 272.255.193.177, that
are allocated to computers.
They are very similar to
your house or flat number,
in that the postman knows
where to deliver your mail,
computers can deliver information
to other computers depending
on the unique IP address.
What
is a browser?
A
browser is a piece of software
that enables us to browse
the World Wide Web. Examples
of browsers are Microsoft's
Internet Explorer and Netscape's
Navigator.
What
is a domain name server?
Most
people are not able to remember
large amounts of IP addresses,
but we can remember domain
names. However, computers
cannot read domain names.
A domain name server (DNS)
changes the domain name
(compila.com), that we enter
in our browsers, into an
IP address and then forwards
us to the web server that
hosts that web site.
What
is Ecommerce?
Ecommerce
is the name for selling
over the Internet. This
is where companies or individuals
sell you their products
or services via a web site,
with little or no human
intervention.
What
is a Free ISP?
A
free ISP provides you with
access to the Internet,
from your home or office
computer, and all you have
to pay is your local rate
telephone call. An example
of a free ISP is STserve.com.
What
is a domain name?
A
domain name is a unique
name that is registered
to you, and only you are
allowed to have a web site
and receive emails in this
name. Domain names are paid
for and registered for you,
by web hosting and domain
name registration companies.
Domain names are allocated
to you for a certain period
of time from 1 - 10 years,
and after this period they
are renewable. If you want
to keep the name then you
must pay a renewal fee.
Examples of domain names
are compila.com and compila.co.uk.
What
is web forwarding?
If
a site or domain name has
web forwarding set up, then
visitors will be automatically
redirected to another web
site. This is useful if
you want to have a domain
name, that you own, redirected
to another web site, without
the visitor having to do
anything.
What
is email forwarding?
Email
forwarding will redirect
email for a specific domain
name to your ISP account.
This is useful if you have
multiple domain names and
you only want to set up
one ISP account in your
email software, such as
Microsoft's Outlook Express.
What
is Domain Parking?
Parking
is where your domain name
registration company will
store (or park) your domain
name for you, until you
have decided what to do
with it.
What
are Naming Authority Fees?
Through
out the world you have various
naming authorities. These
companies are responsible
for the managing of the
domain names that are registered
in that country. In the
UK, Nominet is the naming
authority and they charge
a fee for each domain name
that is registered.
What
are transfer fees?
If
you want to transfer your
domain name from one hosting
company to another, then
either company may charge
you a fee to do so.
What
is a POP3 Mailbox?
A
POP3 mailbox is similar
to your letterbox at home.
It is a specific area on
your hosting company's server,
that stores the email that
you receive.
What
is an email alias?
An
email alias is the part
of your email address before
the @ sign. i.e. info, sales,
webmaster, john, peter etc.
What
is a catchall email alias?
This
is where any email received,
with any email alias, is
stored in one POP3 mailbox.
This saves having to set
up multiple POP3 mailboxes
for different aliases.
What
is a mailing list?
A
mailing list is a facility
that can be set up, for
groups of people that have
a common interest. For instance
Ferrari cars. This way any
email sent to the list is
automatically sent to all
the list's subscribers.
What
are auto-responders?
An
auto-responder is a system
that will automatically
reply to people that have
sent you emails, with a
preformated email message.
For instance, if you are
away on holiday, you could
set up an auto-responder
that tells people that you
are away, and that you will
deal with their email when
you return.
What
is web space?
Web
space is where your web
site is stored. It is an
allocated amount of hard
drive space (i.e. 50Mb),
on your hosting company's
web server.
What
is a cgi-bin?
A
cgi-bin is a directory on
your web space, where you
can store and execute CGI
scripts.
What
are Perl, C++, PHP and Java?
These
are all programming languages,
that can be run on a web
server. Programs or scripts
written in these languages,
can provide your web site
with additional functionality
and higher levels of dynamic
content.
What
are Server Side Includes
(SSI)?
SSI
are HTML tags that are inserted
into HTML pages, and when
this page is opened in someone's
browser, these tags are
executed. Some of there
uses are to log statistics
or run other programs, such
as an advert banner rotation
script.
What
are Frontpage Extensions?
These
are only necessary for users
of Microsoft Frontpage.
They are a set of programs
that are loaded onto the
web server, that enable
you to publish your web
site from within FrontPage
and take advantage of all
the web site features that
are included within the
software. These features
include animation, site
searching and forums.
What
is mySQL?
mySQL
is a very fast and efficient
database system. For more
information please visit
http://www.mysql.com
What
is a Secure Socket Layer
(SSL)?
You
may have noticed that when
you visit some web sites,
that the URL changes from
http:// to https://, and
a padlock appears in your
browser. SSL is a system
that enables you to obtain
confidential information
from visitors, in a safe
and secure method. SSL encrypts
any data that is entered
and is therefore more difficult
for potential hackers to
intercept.
What
are Password Protected Directories?
If
you only want paid customers
or site members, to enter
a certain part of your web
site, then you can password
protect this area. When
visitors try to enter this
protected part of your web
site, they are asked to
enter a username and password,
and only if they enter valid
details are they allowed
to proceed.
What
are Graphical Web Site Statistics?
Your
web hosting company should
be able to automatically
log visitors to your web
site. If they can, they
should be able to provide
you with detailed statistics
in a graphical format. You
should be able to see statistics
such as, the amount of people
that are visiting, what
countries they are coming
from, what search engines
are sending people to your
site, and lots, lots more.
To see an example of Compila's
web site statistics package,
please visit http://www.compila.com/stats
What
is FTP?
FTP
stands for File Transfer
Protocol. Its the method
used to transfer files from
one computer to another.
What
is a Web Control Panel (WCP)?
A
WCP, is a service that should
be provided by your hosting
company, and enables you
to manage your hosting package
form the web. You should
be able to set up features
such as email forwarding,
additional users, set up
mailing lists and auto-responders,
as well as doing backups
and a range of other features.
What
is Bandwidth?
Bandwidth
can be described or measured
in two ways. The first is
speed or capacity, and is
the amount of data, that
can be uploaded or downloaded
a telephone line or network
cable in a given amount
of time. For instance, if
you have a 64K line, then
64,000 bits of information
can be passed down this
cable every second. If on
the other hand, you have
a 2Mb line, then 2,000,000
bits of information can
be passed down this cable
every second. So, obviously
the 2Mb line is faster.
The second, which is more
relevant when you are buying
hosting, is the amount of
bandwidth that your web
hosting company allocates
you in a given period, often
monthly. This is the amount
of data that is allowed
to pass to or from your
web space in a monthly period,
measured in Megabytes or
Gigabytes.
What
is SendMail and SMTP?
These
are programs used by your
web site hosting company
to send you emails.
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