Web site Hosting Glossary
Hosting Glossary & Control Panel Features Descriptions:
Below is a glossary of a few of the many features identified on the hosting plans page. See the pre-installed software, programs and scripts page for details on them. If you have any additional questions, please contact us.
24/7 Monitoring
The server is monitored internally and externally on all the standard ports. On the rare occasion that the monitor cannot automatically reactivate a deactivated port, a local technician is notified and attends to the problem immediately.
30-Day Satisfaction Guarantee
Try the hosting service risk-free. If you wish to cancel your hosting account for any reason within the first 30 days, you will receive a full refund. This is a no-questions asked money back guarantee. This offer applies to the initial term and does not include domain name registration.
99.9% Uptime Guarantee
If at anytime, we are unable to have our servers up and available to serve your website, we will issue a credit of 10x the downtime. The amount is prorated on a monthly basis and covers all problems within MCGWD's control. Please see the policies page for additional details.
Agora Shopping Cart
The Agora Shopping Cart is a full-featured shopping cart that can be installed with the click of a button. The product is fully documented at the Agora website. Please refer to the Agora website if you have any questions about using the shopping cart.
Apache Handlers
Apache is the web server software used to serve your site. Apache Handlers tell the server how to deal with web files that need to be processed on the server. For example, Apache is set up to process files with .pl extensions using Perl. However, if for some reason you also wanted to process files with .script extensions using Perl, then you can easily configure that using the Apache Handler tool in your control panel.
ASP - SunONE/Chili!Soft
Active Server Pages (ASP) enables the development of dynamic, interactive Web pages. Sun ONE Active Server Pages (formerly Chili!Soft ASP) allows Web developers to easily transform static Web sites into Web pages that interact with databases and other applications.
Backup
The Archive Manager will allow you to backup and compress your website files. This is an excellent and free way of versioning your website code, images and more.
Bandwidth Usage
The amount of incoming and outgoing network traffic specific to your domain. Most sites have less than 1 gigabyte (GB) of traffic per month. If you require more, additional bandwidth usage can be added as an option.
CGI-BIN Directory
For your site to be truly interactive you need to be able to run computer programs/scripts in your own cgi-bin. This is standard with all packages.
CGI Wrapper
Allows you to run secured CGI scripts from a special directory that executes the scripts under the privileges of your master user ID.
Chat Rooms
Implementing the pre-installed chat rooms on your web site is easy, just add a simple HTML code to your website, then you can have chat room enabled for your website, it's that simple.
Counters & Clocks
Page counters and clocks that can be installed on as many pages as you choose at no extra charge.
Cron Job Manager
Cron jobs allow you to automate repetitive tasks on the server that hosts your web site. Our Cron Job Manager is a powerful web-based tool available in your control panel that allows you to take a hands-free approach to repetitive tasks. For example, you could add a cron job that automatically copies a MySQL database to a separate location on your site as a backup; or one that automatically retrieves a closing stock price daily and adds it to a database.
Custom Error Pages
Instead of having the standard browser-generated error pages appear when someone encounters some problem with your site or files, you can create your own error pages with a simple tool in your control panel.
Daily Server Backups
Full server backups are performed once every night. Our backups are intended to restore servers in the event of a catastrophic failure. They are not intended to provide customers with their own personal backups. You can make a backup of your website through the included control cPanel control panel.
Disk Storage Space
One megabyte (MB) of disk storage space can hold several hundred text pages or images. Most sites use less than five MBs of disk space. If you require more then the standard plans 50 MBs, additional disk storage space can be added as an option.
Domain Name Registration
Every hosting package comes with the option of registering a domain name. We can host domain names with most extensions, including: .com, .net, .org, .biz and .info.
Domain Parking
You can have more than one domain name resolving to your master site. For example, you can park yourname.net to yourname.com.
Email Aliases & Forwarding
Allows you to route all email coming to a specific address on your domain to another address inside or outside your domain. For example, you can set up an aliases/forwarder called info@domain.com that will forward all of its incoming mail to another internal address, like sales@domain.com (aliasing), or to an external address like joe@anotherdomain.com (forwarding). Aliasing and forwarding eliminate the need to create additional POP3/Autoresponder accounts when one person should be receiving all of those emails.
Entropy Search & Entropy Banner
Entropy Search is a script that enables a nice, quick search engine that can help your visitors find information that they are interested in more easily. If your site requires a local search engine, this is great way to start. EntropyBanner is a script that allows you to create a set of revolving banner images, normally used for advertising. You can upload and delete files, set priority on the images, and set URLs to which each image points.
Fast, Free Account Setup
There are no setup fees for any hosting services. Setup is always free and fast. As long as you have ordered during normal business hours, your account will be set up the same day.
File Manager
The File Manager allows you to manipulate all the files in your web site. You are able to create, delete, and move your files. You can also upload files from your local PC to the server in File Manager; all via the web browser, without the need for an FTP client.
FormMail
Form to email program takes the contents of a form submission and emails you the results to the address you specify.
FrontPage Extensions
FrontPage is a Microsoft page creation tool that requires special server extensions to function properly. All packages come with these extensions, but disabled by default as enabling them results in other features of the site needing to be disabled. This feature is activated through your control panel.
FTP Accounts / Anonymous FTP
If you choose to create your website using HTML or web site creation software such as PageMill, or Dreamweaver, we offer FTP access with all account packages. To upload your files, you will need a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program. If you'd like for us to suggest a product, simply contact us and let us know what platform you are on (i.e., Windows, MacOS, Linux). Please note that you need to be logged in on your Internet Service Provider to connect to your site with FTP.
Anonymous FTP allows visitors to your site to download files via FTP without a password. It is disabled by default, and you activate it through your control panel. Only available on Professional and eCommerce packages.
Macromedia Shockwave & Flash
Macromedia Shockwave and Flash allows you to bring your web content to life with unique animated capabilities.
MIME Type Manager
The ability to manage mime types gives you full control of which software programs will work with your site. Mime types are managed through the control panel.
MX Record Modification
Many hosting providers will charge set up fees or monthly fees if you wish to set up a custom MX record (if they even offer it). You can enter any MX record of your choice for no charge.
MySQL DB WebAdmin
This interface is located in your control panel and allows you to create and manage MySQL databases, user accounts and more.
Network Troubleshooting Tools
The Network Troubleshooting Tools allow you to perform domain lookups and trace routes. These tools can be very useful during the transfer of your domain and if a customer/user is experiencing problems accessing your site from a remote location.
osCommerce
A full-featured shopping cart that can be installed with the click of a button. The product is fully documented at the osCommerce website. Please refer to the osCommerce website if you have any questions about using the shopping cart.
Page Hits
Page Hits include every requested element of every page on your website. Your service is not limited on the basis of page hits.
Password-Protected Directories
You can use the control panel to specify which users are allowed to access certain areas on your site. When visitors click on a certain URL, they are requested to enter a username and password which you have configured.
PHP
PHP is a very robust scripting language, similar in mechamism to ASP and is compiled as a module with MySQL support.
phpMyAdmin Web Interface
This is a web-based tool that allows you manage your MySQL databases. You can create/edit/delete/replicate tables and fields, backup your data and schemas, add/modify/delete data and more.
POP3/Autoresponder Accounts
Your email addresses are very flexible. You can set them up as POP3 accounts which store mail for remote retrieval or as Autoresponders, which respond to incoming emails with a pre-determined message.
Raw Access Logs
You can download the raw access logs that contain all the recorded hit information that your site has received. These logs are only really useful if you have a preferred reporting that is not included in the control panel's site statistics.
Real Audio/Video Streaming
We support RealMedia (Audio/Video) streaming via HTTP at no extra charge.
Search Engine Submission Tool
The Search Engine Submission option allows you to quickly list your website on some popular web search indexes.
Secured Private SMTP Server
It is recommended that you use your ISP's SMTP (outgoing mail) server. However, you can have your own private and secured SMTP server (mail.domain.com). We do require you to use authentication to access it, and as always, please try to use it only when necessary. Your local ISPs SMTP server is always the quickest route since you are physically on their network. In addition, if you are using a mail client on a local machine, the sending of mail through the servers SMTP port actually counts 2x against your bandwidth utilization since the email has to come into our server and then back out again.
SSL Shell Access
Your control panel provides you with an online SSL (Secure Sockets Layer, which is a means of providing encrypted communications on the Internet) Shell that allows you to log in to the Linux server that is your web server and make changes at the server side. The SSL Shell utilizes a tunneled-Telnet session encrypted with SSL (the Internet standard protocol for remote login) to execute commands remotely.
Statistics
Statistics about the usage of your web site are available through the Site Statistics option in the control panel. It allows you to view how many hits your pages receive, the number of page views, what web site referred your visitors, and which of your pages is visited most often. These tools track your site's statistics over time so you will always know how many visitors your site has and where they are coming from. Use this information to analyze your marketing strategy or plan your next advertising campaign. This vital information is always available and updated daily.
Subdomains
A subdomain is essentially a secondary virtual server for your primary domain. It follows the pattern similar to 'subdomain.domain.com' (assuming your domain is 'domain.com'). Each subdomain is mapped to directory in the root of your primary domain's website. Subdomains are available as a paid option.
Telnet/Shell Access (via SSH)
Telnet allows you to get a shell on our Linux servers. The implementation of telnet that we use is called SSH, which stands for 'Secure Shell'. It requires the use of an SSH client. The most popular freeware SSH client for Windows is called PuTTY.
URL Redirection
URL Redirection allows you to redirect Internet traffic from one web page to another. This is usually used when a web page has been moved to another location or in instances where you need to submit a dynamic web page that uses parameters in the URL to a search engine that does not support them.
Web-Based Control Panel
The Control Panel (cPanel) gives you the capability to manage all aspects of your account and is included with every hosting package. With the click of a button you can create email accounts, manage directories, or even view your site statistics. You can even add additional features to your site the minute you need them.
WebMail (Web-Based Email)
WebMail allows you to check your email from any computer with just a browser and an Internet connection. All the email users under your domain name will be able to send, receive, delete, and compose email with this user-friendly, web-based program.
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