Bandwidth: A measurement of the volume of information that can be transmitted over a network at a given time. Think of a network as a pipe - the higher the bandwidth (the larger the diameter of the pipe), the more data can pass over the network.

Disk Space: Disk Storage - The space on the web hosting company's servers/computers that your web site's content is allowed to utilize.

DNS On the Internet, computers have an IP address which is a purely numerical address (e.g. 216.71.173.244). These addresses are not easy for people to remember and are not descriptive of the website. The Domain Name System was set up which converts meaningful domain names into numerical addresses. As the number of websites increases the current 12 digit IP addresses are running out. ISPs have a pool of IP addresses which are dynamically allocated to users each time the connect and then returned to the pool when then disconnect.

Domain: There are Top Level Domains such as .com, .net, or .org, and then there are midlevel domains such as GTE (gte.com gte.net or gte.org). Domain is a generic term to describe any of these levels and is most often used to refer to the mid level domain (gte.com).

Domain Name: Allows you to reference Internet sites without knowing the true numerical address.

Home Page: The entry page to a web site, also known as index page.

Hosting: The service provided when an internet provider acts as the host of a internet service such as web sites, e-mail, Telnet, and FTP.

Hosting Provider: A company which provides web space to individuals and businesses.

HTTP: Hypertext Transport Protocol - The communication protocol used by web browsers and web servers to transfer html and other files.

ICANN: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - The non-profit corporation that was formed to assume responsibility for the IP address space allocation, protocol parameter assignment, domain name system management, and root server system management functions previously performed under U.S. Government contract by IANA and other entities.

Internet: A place for holding information, personal webpages, and online jobs.

InterNIC: The project name given when domain name registration services in com, net, org, and edu began. It is now completed and other companies are licensed to offer domain registration.

IP Address: Whenever you connect to the Internet, you are giving a unique 4 number Internet Protocol Address (IP Address). Your IP address is how data from your computer finds its way back and forth to a website.

ISP: Internet Service Provider - An organization providing Internet access via dial-up connections.

NIC Handle: A unique identifier comprised of numbers assigned to each domain name record, contact record, and network record. It can be up to10 alpha-numeric characters.

Portal: A popular, highly-frequented Web page. Originally entry pages to the WWW and are intended to aid in navigating the internet.

Primary Server: The designation of primary indicates that this domain name server is to be used first and will be relied upon before any of the other name servers.

Secondary Server: The name server will be used as a backup for the primary name server in the event that the primary server becomes disabled, down or unavailable.

Server: A computer, which is designed to generate information for, connected users. A server delivers web pages to users. A server can also be called a host or node.

Third Level Domain: The next highest level of the hierarchy underneath second level domains. In a domain name, the portion of the domain name that appears twosegments to the left of the top-level domain,(ex. the nyc in nyc.ny.us).

Top-level Domain: The highest level of the hierarchy after the root. The portion of the domain name that appears to the far right after the .com (ex. the NorthShoreSolutions in NorthShoreSolutions.com).

Up-time: The amount of time that a web site is live, functional, or active and without problems loading pages, graphics, etc. A 99.9% up-time means that there is a .1% chance that the site will go down if something happens to the server that the site is sitting on or something happens to the connection along the way, this is the normal and expected average.

URL: Uniform Resource Locator - The method by which Internet sites are addressed. An example would be "http://www.domainnamesregistrationcenter.com", the address of this home page.

Web Server: A computer that services web sites.

whois: An Internet program which allows users to query a database of people and other Internet entities, such as domains, networks, and hosts. The information for people shows a person's company name, address, phone number and email address.