Active Server Pages or ASP
Active Server Pages is the server-side scripting technology developed by Microsoft. It allows web developers to create dynamic sites with content which is database-driven. The code is written in VB script or Jscript and the succeeding version of ASP is ASP.Net.

Adult Sites Hosting
Depending on the web hosting companies, websites which contain adult content may or may not be blocked. If you wish to launch an adult-oriented website, make sure that the adult sites hosting feature is enabled.

Alias
Just like an alias which is assigned to a person or a place, alias in web hosting is used to make the website have an easy recall. With the use of aliases, the identity of a site will be protected.

Applet
Applets typically refer to a small Java program which is designed to run within a browser. For example, Java Applets run in a sandbox to prevent them from performing unauthorized functions like file reading or initiating a connection to other units from your computer.

Audio Streaming
As the name implies, audio streaming provides the audio content on a particular site. Remember that audio streaming uses up a significant amount of bandwidth – so check with your web hosting provider if this is allowed if you do not want to use up more than the bandwidth allowance provided for your site.

Auto Responder
This is an especially usable functionality if you want to make your website work for you on a 24/7 basis. With an auto responder, an automated program will acknowledge the receipt of an e-mail message and a pre-written e-mail message will be automatically forwarded to the sender with no further action required on your part. If this is a feature that you require, make sure to always check with your web hosting provider.

Availability or Uptime
99.9% is the typical uptime guarantee offered by most web hosting companies – which refer to the amount of time within a 24-hour period that the system will be active. This means that there will hardly be any downtime experienced by your site unless there are sever maintenance issues.

Backbone
Just like its function in the human body, the role of the backbone is to form a major pathway within a network. The network is composed or a high-speed line or series of connections. The higher the quality of the backbone is, the better it will be for your website.

Backups
Most web hosting companies do daily backups of data on their servers. The process is similar to backing up the most important personal and work files that you have on your own computer, only on a bigger scale. When looking for a web hosting company, make sure that they perform regular or daily backups.

Browser
Internet Explorer, Mozilla and Netscape are some examples of a browser. This is the client software which displays and interprets the HTML code received from the server.

C+/++
The C+ and C++ programming languages are under the Turbo C family. If you will be using this type of programming language for your website, make sure that the web hosting company provides access for C+ or C++.

Common Gateway Interface or CGI
Better known as CGI, Common Gateway Interface is a program which translates the data from a web server. The result of the translation process is the data being displayed on a web page or an e-mail. CGI also involves the transferring of data between a server and a script or a CGI program – which makes web pages interactive.

Chat Server/Software
When it comes to this aspect of web hosting, there are three types of companies: one which does not allow chat services at all; one which allows you to use the chat service and configure it yourself; and one which pre-configures the chat server or software for you. Look for the last two types if you think that you will need this type of functionality to maximize the potential of your website.

Click Through Rate or CTR
Click Through Rate, Click Through Ratio or CTR refers to the ratio of clicks to impressions made on an advertisement. For example, if a banner ad shown on a website 100 times got five clicks from online users, its CTR is 5%.

Cold Fusion
ColfFusion is an application whose goal is to simplify database queries. This is done by using a less complicated programming language to handle the functions between the browser, database and the server. You will only determine whether ColdFusion is a feature that you should be concerned with after your site has been developed.

Co-Location
Co-location refers to the act of housing a web server owned by an individual within the facilities of a web hosting provider. This is especially suitable for those who wish to purchase their own server without spending a significant amount of money on housing, cooling down the server and ensuring its physical and network security 24/7.

Control Panel
This is considered to be a web administrator's main tool – from where the different aspects of a website's operation can be managed, edited and modified. This is one of the most important features that you need to look for in a web hosting package, make sure that the control panel is efficient and user-friendly.

Cookie
A cookie is a bit of data which is saved in the user's browser by the web server. The purpose of a cookie is to customize or personalize an online user's browsing experience.

Credit Card Billing
If you have a sales oriented website, credit card billing is a necessary feature that you must have. For this, a merchant account needs to be created so that online users can pay for the product or service that they will be purchasing through your site. Credit card billing is typically processed by a third party provider.

Cascading Style Sheets or CSS
More popularly known as CSS, Cascading Style Sheets add more functionality and increases the aesthetics value of a web page by deviating from simple HTML pages.

Database Support
If you are running a business-oriented website, database support is something that you will require. Some of the most popular database programs are SQL, MySQL, Access, FoxPro and Oracle.

Data Transfer
Data transfer refers to the amount of data transferred by your website to the online users. If you have a site which includes a lot of multimedia content and you get thousands of hits per day, you might require unlimited data transfer so that your site will not be restricted by the web hosting provider. A good deal would be to look for 1GB of data transfer – which equates to about 40,000 page views.

Dedicated Server
Unlike shared web hosting, dedicated server hosting is more expensive because it is only one account owner who is using an entire server. In spite of the costs involved, dedicated server hosting is beneficial because your visitors will be able to view your pages faster. The website administrator will also have more freedom to tinker with the server, do some modifications, install applications and configure the server in such a way that the functionality of the website will be realized.

Disk Space
Just like bandwidth, web hosting providers typically place a limit on the amount of disk space that a website can use – unless the offer includes unlimited disk space. This refers to the amount of physical space which will be available for you on the host's server to store all the files that you have for your website.

Domain Parking
Domain parking refers to the option that web hosting companies provide website owners to "park" your domain even if your site is not running yet. This is especially useful if you want to reserve a particular domain name that you just acquired while the website is being constructed.

Domain Name
The domain name is what identifies an Internet Protocol or IP address. This is the unique name which identifies your website from all the other sites on the Internet. What it does is allow online users to identify your website by name without the need to remember complicated numerical IP addresses.

Domain Name Registration
Although web hosting companies do offer free domain name registration, experts recommend that website owners use a separate domain name registration for their site. Once your domain name is already registered, no other user will be able to use the unique domain name that you now own.

Domain Name System or DNS
What DNS or the Domain Name System does is to translate human-readable computer hostnames into IP addresses which networks need to deliver information. Technically, it translates hostnames into IP addresses. When an IP address is assigned to the domain that you bough, this will have a DNS record which points to a numeric IP address.

E-mail POP Account
POP refers to Post Office Protocol, and an e-mail POP account is an account which is located on the e-mail server of your webhost. Let's say that the name of your web hosting company is ABC.com – your unique e-mail POP account will be something like myname@abc.com.

File Transfer Protocol or FTP
File Transfer Protocol or FTP is a method of uploading or downloading files across the Internet. Typically, once a website is created, an FTP program is needed so that the site will be uploaded to the Internet.

FrontPage
FrontPage is Microsoft's HTML editor. This is one of the most popular programs used to create websites on the Internet. FrontPage Extensions
Since FrontPage is the flagship HTML program of Microsoft, it also developed FrontPage extensions which are mini-programs that allow features to work properly. You will know whether your site requires FrontPage extensions once it has passed the initial development stages.

Host Country
As the name implies, this piece of information determines which country a web hosting company is located. Depending on your target market, it usually makes sense to choose a web hosting company whose host country is where most of your potential and existing customers reside.

Host or Name Server
The host refers to the web hosting service providers which will give you access to the equipment and tools that you need for your site to be launched online. Subscribers pay a monthly or annual fee for the services offered by a hosting company.

Host Platform
Different web hosting companies use different web hosting platforms. The most common web hosting platforms available on the Internet today are Windows and Linux-based hosting environments.

HyperText Markup Language or HTML
HTML refers to the code in which web pages are originally written. Your browser will then interpret these codes for you so that the web pages can be readable on screen.

HyperText Transport Protocol or HTTP
HTTP is the most important protocol used in the Internet. It is required for transferring hypertext files from one website or online user to another.

Internet Protocol or IP Address
The IP address is that unique number which is used to specify hosts and networks. The number themselves correspond to the computer unit which is connected to the Internet. For example, the laptop computer that you are using may have an IP address of 216.118.82.206. Without the IP address, a computer may not be necessarily connected to the Internet.

Javascript
This is yet another scripting language which is popular to online users. What this scripting language does is enable web administrators to add dynamic and interactive elements to a website.

Java Servlets
This refers to a script written in Java. The application is then executed on a server, and Java Servlets are similar to CGI.

Mailing List Software
Mailing list software is used to start a discussion group which is very popular on the Internet. This type of software can be used for promotional purposes such as distributing newsletters, etc.

Open Data Base Connectivity or ODBC Sources
This is the generic way for an application to communicate to a database. The purpose of ODBC sources is to allow your website to point to the correct database located on the web server.

Practical Extraction and Report Language or PERL
Perl is a type of scripting language which is suitable for scanning arbitrary texts, extracting information from the text files and printing reports based from the data. Perl is a popular scripting language for system management tasks.

PHP
Another type of scripting language that you might want to learn about is PHP. Here, the commands are executed on the web server so they are not necessarily dependent to browsers.

Post Office Protocol or POP
POP refers to the process of retrieving e-mail messages from an e-mail server. The older version of POP is POP2 and the newer, more popular version is POP3. If you want to take advantage of POP e-mail messages, make sure that your web hosting provider offers this feature.

Price
Naturally, the price of a web hosting package refers to the monthly fees associated with it. Most web hosting companies offer discounted fees if you sign-up for their services for a longer amount of time – i.e, biennially, annually, quarterly.

Reseller Plans
There are web hosting companies which allow individuals to be resellers. If you are one, you can resell the web hosting packages under your own brand, which you will market to your own customers – and this is in return for a commission off the profit.

Root Server
The root server is one of the most important equipment in web hosting network. This is where the software and data needed to locate name servers are housed – which usually contain authoritative data for the most popular domains on the Internet today.

Setup Fee
Some web hosting companies charge new subscribers with a one-time setup fee for hosting your account. If this is something that you do not want to pay for, make sure to look for web hosting companies which offer a free setup.

Server
Server is a quite broad term which may refer to a software or a machine where the software is running. But to put it simply, a server is a computer which manages and shares network resources with other computers within a network.

Shell Account
This is a term which expert web administrators are familiar with. Shell accounts allow them to edit files online, real time – without the need to make your changes offline and then uploading the changes later on.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol or SMTP
SMTP is the main protocol used to send e-mail messages online. The free e-mail accounts used by those who sign-up for MSN, AOL, Gmail and similar free services typically use SMTP.

Server Side Includes or SSI
SSI is a command which is included in a web page as processed by the web server. This occurs when an online user requests for a file.

Secure Socket Layer or SSL
More popularly known as SSL, Secure Socket Layer is a protocol designed by Netscape Communications. Its purpose is to enable encrypted and authenticated communications across the Internet.

Shopping Cart Software
This feature is extremely important if you are running a sales oriented site. With a shopping cart software, online users will be able to use a virtual shopping cart where they can add and remove items, check out items for sale and pay for the purchases electronically.

Support
When looking for a web hosting company, make sure that all avenues of support are available: live chat, e-mail and telephone. The support department is the vein which makes the blood of a web hosting service flow – without good support, customers will not be satisfied with the level of web hosting services that they are receiving.

Statistics
Monitoring the performance of your site is made easier if the web hosting company offers a statistics feature. Here, you will be able to monitor the number of visitors that your website receives, which pages are most visited and how much time an online user actually spends on your site.

TCP/IP
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is a protocol suite which is the de facto standard on the Internet today. TCP is the higher level of protocol which runs on the IP suite.

Unix
This is an operating system which is designed to allow many users to gain access to it at the same time. Unix is a multi-user operating system which is the most common among the servers on the Internet.

Uniform Resource Locator
URL or the Uniform Resource Locator is a method of addressing used on the Internet. It consists of the type of service or protocol – the host name and the file name are identified by the host. An example of a URL is www.mywebsite.com.

Unique IP Address
This is a feature offered by some web hosting provider – wherein you will obtain a unique IP address. Its purpose is to provide a one-to-one relationship between your domain name and an IP address.

Video Streaming
Just like audio streaming, video streaming is something which takes up a lot of bandwidth. It is the process of providing video content through a web page.

Virtual Server
Here, a virtual server is used to host your website. This type of web hosting occurs when a web server shares its resources with multiple users.