Bandwidth: The amount of information that can be transmitted within a certain amount of time. Internet speed is measured by bandwidth (dial-up speeds are generally 54 kilobytes or less; DSL and cable offer much higher transmission). With blogs, bandwidth is the amount of data transmitted from the server to viewers’ computers in a given time. The best web hosting plans offer unlimited bandwidth, for times when numerous visitors may be viewing your blog. Blogs with little traffic may not need large amounts of bandwidth, unless a blog post experiences large amounts of traffic or large bursts of traffic (such as, if a blog post is Stumbled).
Blog Authoring Tool: Special software designed for the purpose of writing blogs and managing blog posts and blog media. Some of the more popular blog authoring tools are: Blogger, WordPress, Windows Live Writer, Movable Type, and Typepad.
Blogger: The popular and free blog-hosting program. Created by Pyra Labs in 1999, it was purchased by Google in 2003. The Blogger servers were completely moved to Google servers by 2007. It remains the most popular platform for blogging. All domain name suffixes have “blogspot.com” affixed to them. Read more about The Story of Blogger.
cPanel: Stands for Control Panel. A cPanel is a graphical interface designed for the management of a website. They are usually Linux-based. The cPanel allows you to easily manage your web host account, your websites’ database files, scripts, FTP, web statistics, server status, and more.
CSS: Stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It is a relatively new development for web page design, allowing developers to implement more complex and artful designs and styles to web sites. CSS can define how various design elements (such as headers, sidebars, etc) blend together and appear.
Database: A collection of files that have been assembled and organized in such a way that a computer can read the segments of data quickly and easily. A website or blog is a visual display of an organized database– filled with bits of digital information in files that computers read and interpret. The most common type of database for blogs is the MySQL database, because it is easily read and reliable. Databases get larger over time as more data is added to them, and this may slow down the speed at which computers can read them.
Dedicated Hosting: See Web Host. Dedicated hosting is a service offered by web hosts; the web host provides a specific and reserved server for the customer. Large businesses and newsgroups make use of dedicated servers, because such websites hold vast amounts of data coupled with massive amounts of traffic from Internet viewers. Dedicated hosting is usually more secure from hacking than Shared Hosting, because a dedicated server is under the control of that one customer or corporation. Dedicated hosting is more expensive than Shared Hosting.
Domain Name: A name that identifies a web address. Just as you have a home address (for example, 123 Main Street), every web page has a domain name address. Usually the domain name that you see (http://theoldergeek.com) is alphabetical and not numerical. Technically, every domain name has an IP number assigned to it (The Older Geek’s IP number is 174.132.166.91). But since it is more difficult for people to remember numbers than letters or word phrases, domain names are issued as letters and not as IP address numbers. Your computer translates 174.132.166.91 to http://theoldergeek; this is called DNS (Domain Name System) translation.
Every domain name has a suffix (such as .com or .net) that shows it’s TLD (Top Level Domain). Once, there were only a limited number of TLD domains, but the gates have been opened by ICANN (the governing bureau that regulates domain names) to allow any suffix. The most popular suffixes are .com, .net, .gov, .edu, .mil. Some suffixes are associated with the country (.ca for Canada, .th for Thailand, .ru for Russia, etc).
Domain Privacy Protection: This is a service, usually at an added cost, provided by a domain name registrar. Domain Privacy protects your personal domain name account information from being viewed publicly. Your information is replaced by dummy “Whois Privacy Protection Service” information. Domain Privacy is not true anonymity; however Domain Privacy keeps your name, residential or business address, email, and other personal information concealed from the public at large. All domain names, their owners (that would be you), and the registrar information is stored in the WHOIS database according to ICANN regulations. You can read more about Domain protection and WHOIS at Wikipedia. I highly recommend that you purchase Domain Privacy when purchasing a domain name.
Downtime: The term used when your blog(s) are not available for viewing across the Internet. There are many reasons for downtime: it may be because your blog has been Stumbled and therefore your web host’s server cannot handle the traffic (this is temporary downtime); it may be because your web host’s server is being upgraded or maintenance is being performed; it may be because of server malfunctions at your web host’s location; it may be because of faulty coding or database problems, or etc. Most web hosts guarantee a certain percentage of “uptime”; all servers experience downtime at some time or another.
Footer: A blog footer is the visual design element a viewer sees at the “bottom” of the website page. Sometimes they are very elaborate, involving graphic designs or a photograph; sometimes they are plain and simple. Usually in the footer are linked references to the website graphic designer, the blog’s web host, and other various elements.
FTP: Stands for File Transfer Protocol. It is the “language” that one computer speaks with another for the purpose of transferring files. A specific FTP program is required for the uploading and downloading of files; for bloggers, the web host usually provides an FTP capability that can be accessed through the cPanel (usually called File Transfer). But for the transfer of larger files, an independent program is installed on the user’s computer (the most popular free FTP software is Filezilla). With a program such as Filezilla, you must enter into the program your FTP host name (your blog URL), and your username and password; Filezilla will remotely connect to your account, allowing you to manage your blog files through the Filezilla program.
Header: A blog header is the visual design element a viewer sees at the “top” of the website page. Sometimes they are very elaborate, involving graphic designs or a photograph; sometimes they are plain and simple. Usually headers offer a visual clue about the topic of the overall blog, since it is usually the first thing a viewer sees when visiting a blog. It is helpful but not obligatory) to have the blog’s name/title in the header, and to make the header “clickable”; that is, when a user clicks the header, the website redirects the user back to the home page of the blog.
ICANN: Stands for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. It’s a non-profit, global organization that regulates and monitors Internet address space and domain name system management, the allocation of it, and more. It was originally created in 1998, after the U.S. Department of Commerce called for a body to regulate and manage the Internet name and address system. According to the Webopedia, ICANN is a board consisting of “nineteen Directors, nine At-Large Directors, who serve one-year terms and will be succeeded by At-Large Directors elected by an at-large membership organization.”
MySQL: It’s the “language” that your website’s database speaks. SQL stands for Structured Query Language. It is the most common “language” for databases, because it is speedy and reliable. MySQL databases hold all your website’s files– all the information that makes your website what it is– and they can get quite large over time with bigger blogs.
Name server: It translates domain names into IP addresses. It allows websites to use alphabetical symbols for domain names instead of numbers. Every domain name has two or more name servers applied to it when the domain is registered with a host. The name servers are usually the name of the server at the web host; for example, ns1.bluehost.com or ns1.hostgator.com. The name servers “serve” the domain name to the viewing public. When you buy a domain name from a registrar, the registrar sets up an account for you to issue your host’s name servers for your domain.
PHP: Stands for Hypertext Preprocessor. It’s a scripting language for dynamic web pages, such as are used for WordPress blogs.
Registrar: An ICANN-accredited retailer that has been given permission to “sell” and register domain names. Some notable registrars are GoDaddy.com, eNom,com, etc.
Server: Basically, a server is a hard drive in a computer that stores and manages database files for websites or networks. You can have a home server– that is, a computer that stores and manages files and other data for all the other computers in your home network to access and/or manage. With website hosting, companies maintain and manage computers that store and manage your website data on a server. An Internet connection makes it possible for you and other people to view these files remotely. The data in these files are usually organized into specific modes (databases) so as to make sense to the viewer (in a graphic or alphabetical organization).
Shared Hosting: See Web Host. Most blogs have Shared Hosting accounts. It is a service offered by a web host, usually for a very reasonable price, where your blog data is on the same server as other websites and blogs. This has pros and cons: pros because shared hosting is a fraction of the cost of Dedicated Hosting. Cons because Shared Hosting has greater liability: your server may experience downtime because of problems from another user/website on your server; other websites/blogs may be hacked or their security weakened, thus making the chances of your security becoming weakened. These instances are rare enough to make Shared Hosting the most popular choice for bloggers and webmasters of smaller websites.
Stumbled: The term used when a blog or website post or page has been submitted to the popular website, StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon is a popular website that allows registered users to notify other registered users of exceptionally good (or bad) web pages or blog posts. A Stumble can sometimes generate a tremendous increase in traffic for a blog. This is good and bad: good, because your blog post is well-liked and is being seen by multitudes of people; bad because this exponential increase in traffic may be more than your server can handle, and your blog may experience temporary downtime.
TLD: Stands for Top Level Domain. The TLD for this website is http://theoldergeek.com. It is the highest level the domain can be; all other pages are below this level. This blog post, http://theoldergeek.com/blogging-how-to-glossary-of-blogging-terms is not a TLD (rather, it’s a sub-level URL). A TLD is the main, highest level URL for a website.
URL: Stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It is the address of any website, document, file, or other resource on the World Wide Web. The URL for The Older Geek is theoldergeek.com.
Virtual Hosting: Also known as Shared Hosting.
Web Host: A web host is a company that provides space on their computers’ hard drives (called Servers, see definition) for your website data. They have special Internet connections that allow for the transfer of large amounts of data to stream through the Internet. Besides server space, the web host usually provides server maintenance and limited technical support. The best web hosts (in my opinion) offer a cPanel system (see definition) to help you easily organize and manage your website’s database files. Web Hosts offer various types of hosting: Shared, Dedicated, etc.
WordPress: An open-source blogging platform software. It was created by Matt Mullenweg in 2003. Read About WordPress. It is one of the most popular blogging platform software programs ever. The WordPress blogging software has evolved into a content management system that is extremely reliable and versatile. WordPress.com is different than WordPress.org.
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