What is hosting?

Hosting is some space on a machine that is connected to the internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Once your website has been written, it is uploaded to this machine. Most web design companies will host your website themselves as there are many companies who for a small fee will manage your web space and email, spam filters etc for you. Your domain name points to this space.

What is a domain name?

A domain name name is how your customers can find you. Normal internet addresses are numeric such as 123.234.121.100 which is very unfriendly. You can register a name to use instead of the number. For example, if your shop name was Smiths Flower Shop you might want to register www.smiths-flowers.co.uk.

What is a pop3 e-mail account?

A pop3 e-mail account is an on-line storage area which holds your email until you can retrieve it to your local machine for reading.

What is a search engine?

A search engine is a website that allows you to type in keywords and it will give you a list of websites that best match. Getting your business 'higher' on these lists is an artform in it'self.

What is active scripting?

Active scripting (as against static html) is a method of changing the contents of a web page dynamically depending on one or more parameters. An example of this might be an e-commerce site showing a product. The page that shows the product could show the amount of this item in stock. This requires active scripting.

What is a database?

A database is where you can store your data for your active web pages. Most hosting packages include a database.