Add‑on Domain: Another domain (domain2.com) added to a cPanel account that acts as if it is separate from the main domain that cPanel manages (domain.com).
Anonymous FTP: This allows people without FTP accounts to access a special directory to upload or download files.
Apache Handlers: Handlers tell the web server itself how to handle certain types of files (.html, .cgi, .pl, and so on).
Apache: Common, free web page serving software.
Backup: The process of copying important data in case the original data becomes damaged or goes missing for some reason. Used as a noun it refers to the data that has been backed up.
Bandwidth: A measure of how much data is transferred to or from your website, e-mail, or FTP hosting account. Typically, this is measured in computer gigabytes (1 GB = 1,024 MB).
Bounced E‑mail: E‑mail messages that get returned to the sender because there was some sort of problem and the e‑mail could not be delivered.
CGI (Common Gateway Interface): The interface that allows external applications to access web servers. Depending on the setup of the web server, some programming languages can only be accessed via CGI (for example, Perl or Python).
ClamAV: A free open‑source virus scanner.
cPanel: A popular web‑based hosting control software package. The company that develops this software also goes by the same name. It is called cPanel Inc.
Cron Jobs: Commands or web scripts that the web server executes at a particular time.
Database (MySQL or PostgreSQL): Databases are used to store information for quick retrieval. Many web scripts require the use of at least one database.
Dedicated Server: An entire web server (physical machine) with no accounts on it that you can use to sell shared or reseller hosting or use for some other purpose if you choose.
Disk Space: This is a measure of how much stuff you can store on a server or in your hosting account. Disk space is usually measured in computer megabytes (1 MB = 1024 Kb).
DNS (Domain Name Service): The system that allows domain names to be translated into their corresponding IP addresses (111.111.111.111).
Domain Name: The name of a website or location on the Internet. A domain name resolves to an IP address via DNS.
DOS (Denial of Service) Attack: This sort of attack uses many computers to flood your web server with fake requests for information with the hope of taking the server or your site off the Internet.
E‑mail Address: This is what people type in to send an e‑mail to you. For example,< [email protected]>. E‑mail addresses always include the @ (at sign).
E‑mail Alias/Forwarder: An e‑mail address that sends e‑mail automatically to another e‑mail address or addresses without storing the e‑mail.
E‑mail Body: The main section of the e‑mail with whatever text you have written.
E‑mail Filter: A filter takes action by redirecting, deleting, or storing incoming e‑mail based on criteria you set.
E‑mail Headers: Several lines of information that appear prior to the body of an e‑mail message. The headers contain a lot of information about where the mail has come from and which mail server received it. Most e‑mail programs don’t show full headers by default since there can be so many of them. If you are having problems with spam or bounced e‑mail messages, the full headers of the message contain information that can help track down the problem.
E‑mail: Electronic messages.
FrontPage Extensions: Special code that runs on a web server to enable additional features in Microsoft’s FrontPage HTML editor program. Do not enable the FrontPage extensions unless you plan to use Microsoft FrontPage exclusively to edit your website. The extensions interfere with other features that cPanel and Apache offer.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol): A protocol for transferring and working with files and directories on a remote server.
FTP Client: A program used to work with files on a remote server via FTP or SFTP.
FXP (File eXchange Protcol): FXP is FTP directly between two separate FTP accounts you are logged into in via your FTP client.
Hacker: Individuals who attempt to disrupt websites and computer systems illegally.
Hit: A request for a web page or other content on your website.
Hotlink Protection: Stops other people on other websites linking directly to your files unless they have approval from you to do so.
HTML: The programming language most web pages are written in.
IMAP: This is a protocol for fetching e‑mail from a remote web server. IMAP is designed to manage all mail on the remote mail server. IMAP is a good protocol to use if you travel a lot and want to be able to access all of your mail from anywhere. However, if your mail server is having problems you likely won’t be able to access any mail (even old mail) until the server comes back online.
Index Page: On most websites, the index page (index.html, index.htm) is the first page accessed when someone visits that domain or subdomain.
IP Address: The number assigned to an item accessible on the Internet (or on a private network). IP addresses currently are a series of four three‑digit numbers separated by periods (111.111.111.111).
Kernel: The core of the Linux operating system.
Leech Protection: Stop users with valid user logins from giving out their access to anyone else. Leech Protection disables a user’s access if it is used too many times to access your site or protected material. It works with the Apache password-protected directory feature.
Mailbox: The location where mail is stored for an e‑mail address.
MIME Types: MIME stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. MIME types let a user’s web browser know what a given file is so that it knows how to handle that file (display it, download it, pass it to a browser plug‑in, and so on).
MX (Mail Exchange) Record: An MX record tells the server where e‑mail for a particular domain should be sent.
Parked Domain: A domain that mirrors the content of the main domain managed in cPanel.
Password Authentication: This is one method you can use to prove that the e‑mail account is yours. You enter your account username and password.
Password Protected Directories: Apache can require that users log in before accessing a particular directory of your website. People without valid log-in credentials will be denied access.
Perl: A programming language used by some web scripts.
PGP (Pretty Good Privacy): A highly secure encryption system with public and private keys.
PHP: A programming language that a lot of web‑based scripts use.
phpMyAdmin: Web‑based program that allows you to manipulate MySQL databases.
phpPgAdmin: Web‑based program that allows you to manipulate PostgreSQL databases.
Ping: The amount of time (typically listed in milliseconds) that it takes for a server to respond to a request. Longer times mean the connection will be slower. Ping times can be affected by a wide range of issues, like the physical distance between you and the server itself, routing issues somewhere between the server and your current location, problems on the server or problems locally (perhaps with your ISP).
POP3: This is a protocol for fetching e‑mail from a mail server. This method was designed to retrieve mail from a remote mail server and store the e‑mail locally. Mail fetched via POP3 typically gets removed from a server once your e‑mail client has fetched the mail (though you can change this behavior). Since mail is removed from the server, you typically can only read old mail in the e‑mail program used to download the messages. If your mail server goes down, you will still be able to access old mail locally without an Internet connection.
POP‑Before‑SMTP Authentication: An alternative SMTP (send mail) authentication method. To use this method, you must log in to your e‑mail account via POP3 and check your e‑mail. If you do that successfully then you will be able to send e‑mail from that account for 30 minutes via SMTP without having to enter the account username and password again. This is a somewhat less secure than password authentication and not all web hosts support it.
Proxy: A program, service, or script that allows you to access content from one location through another. The cPanel proxy script allows accessing cPanel, webmail, and WHM via the standard web port (80) so you can access them in locations that don’t allow access to the standard ports.
Python: A programming language some web scripts are written in.
Raw Web Log: The log created by Apache as users access websites on the web server.
Redirect: A redirect sends anyone who accesses a web page to a new location. Redirects come in two forms, temporary and permanent. A temporary redirect is used for content that may have moved to a new location, but isn’t going to be there forever (useful for search engine indexing). A permanent redirect tells search engines that the new location is permanent and they should update their records and stop linking to the old URI for that resource.
Reseller Hosting: Reseller hosting is similar to shared hosting, except that you are allowed to resell shared hosting accounts to others.
Session: The entire contiguous period of time that a user visits your website before leaving it to go elsewhere.
SFTP: A secure (encrypted) version of the FTP protocol.
Shared Hosting: Many websites hosted on a single web server.
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol): SMTP is the protocol used when you need to send someone e‑mail from your account.
SSH (Secure Shell): A secure protocol for interacting remotely with a computer via a text‑based interface. SSH is a secure version of Telnet.
SSL (Secure Socket Layer): SSL is also referred to as TLS or Transport Layer Security. It is the main protocol used on the Web to ensure that traffic to and from a website is encrypted so third parties cannot intercept data (like your credit card information).
SSL Certificate: A special file that enables SSL communication between a website and the user’s web browser.
Subdomains: Subdomains are addresses like subdomain.domain.com. A subdomain can either act as if it were an entirely different site, not part of your primary domain (using the Add‑on Domain feature discussed in Chapter 10) or it can serve as a shortcut to redirect you to another place either in your site or to anywhere on the Internet.
Telnet: An insecure (unencrypted) protocol for interacting remotely with a computer via a text‑based interface. Telnet has largely been subsumed by SSH, a secure version of the Telnet protocol.
Theme: A unique visual look to a program or web page. A cPanel theme also can offer additional features and functionality.
TLS (Transport Layer Security): See the definition for SSL.
Traceroute: The traceroute command lists the route your data would take between your computer and the domain that you type in. Each stop on the trip will list the response time (ping) from each server in milliseconds. Lower numbers are better; high numbers mean your connection may be adversely affected.
VPS/VDS Hosting: VPS (Virtual Private Server) or VDS (Virtual Dedicated Server) hosting are different names for the same type of hosting accounts. Such accounts use special software to take a single physical web server and divide it into 2 or more separate virtual web servers. Each virtual server acts as if it is a completely separate machine.
Web Mail (Client): A program that allows you to access your e‑mail from a web browser.
Web Scripts: Programs that run via a web browser over the Internet.
Web Server: A machine that serves web pages and other content on the Internet. Also the software (like Apache) that actually does the serving.
Web Stat(istics) Program: A program like Analog, Webalizer, or AWSTATS that interprets the raw data in the Apache raw web logs and condenses that information into useful charts and graphs.
Web Statistics: Basic information about where your visitors came from, how they found your site and what sort of computer and browser they used during the visit. This information comes from the Apache raw web log.
Webmaster: The person (or people) responsible for the content and running of a website.
WHM (Web Hosting Manager): This is a companion program that comes with cPanel that allows server administrators to manage the server and accounts and allows resellers to manage accounts.