This page contains terms related (but not limited to) website hosting. We provide this service in an attempt to demystify these sometimes confusing topics.
Monthly Bandwidth Allowance
Bandwidth refers to the amount of data transferred in a number of situations not only limited to the web. In relation to your website, it refers to how much “action” your site will see; how many people visit your site and what they download when they are there.
Itomic has packages that allow between 1 Gigabyte (GB) and 25 Gigabytes of data transfer, per month. This is something you only need worry about should you expect a very large amount of traffic to your site on a constant basis.
Web Storage Space
Just as on your home or work computer, website files are all measured in Bytes(B) andKilobytes(KB), sometimes even Megabytes(MB). These values refer to the size of documents on your computer or website.
Itomic has hosting packages that allow between 10MB and 1GB of storage space. This means all of your website (ie the pages themselves, the graphics, the .pdf documents etc) cannot exceed this limit or else incur an extra cost. We can also create customised packages if you require further flexibility.
Something to consider with the amount of web storage space is that this refers to all data on your website. Emails sent to you@yourwebsite.com remain on your website, or server, until you check your email.
Sub-Domains
A Sub Domain is like a hierarchy to your website’s structure. An example of your main web site would be www.yourcompany.com, an example of sub-domains for your site would be www.shoes.yourcompany.com, www.hats.yourcompany.com etc. You might choose to utilise multiple sub-domains if perhaps your company has several franchises or core parts to its business.
Itomic offers between 1 and 25 sub-domains.
FTP Accounts
Short for File Transfer Protocol, FTP is used for downloading and uploading files (and web pages) between servers and computers. In relation to the hosting accounts we offer, your FTP account can be used for such things as offering files to clients for download, and uploading web pages to your website. To upload to an FTP account you will need a username and password, that we can supply on request.
PHP 4 (scripting language)
PHP is a script language much like HTML. Used in conjunction with HTML, PHP is used to generate dynamic websites.
PHP forms the basis of our Content Management System (CMS), which gives you the ability to manage your website content yourself.
MySQL Databases
MySQL (pronounced “my ess cue el”) is a web application for processing the data within a database. PHP (above) is used to talk with the database and draw elements from the database, for display on your web page.
A simple example of the usefulness of a MySQL Database is that of a dynamically updating ‘news’ page. News that you enter into our CMS, is placed into the database, and drawn out onto your website via PHP. Itomic can supply you with between 1 and 10 MySQL databases to enable us to develop your dynamic website.
Mailing List
A Mailing List is a group of email addresses identified by a single address, such as mail-list@yourcompany.com. When an email message is sent to the this address, it is automatically forwarded to all the addresses in the list.
A Mailing List can be used to send out company brochures or notes about site updates to your clients. Itomic offers between 1 and 20 Mailing list options
Secure Server
A Secure Server allows for a website that supports major web security protocols to protect against third party tampering. A Secure Server is an essential requirement for an E-Commerce enabled website that accommodates transactions across the web.
All Itomic Hosting packages come with the option of a Secure Server (at an additional cost).
Further Resources
Visit Webopedia: Online Directory for Computer and Internet Terminology