Administrative Contact

The administrative contact is an individual authorized to interact with the registrar on behalf of the domain name registrant. The administrative contact should be able to answer non-technical questions about the domain name's registration and the domain name registrant. It is strongly recommended that the administrative contact be the registrant or someone from the registrant's organization. top

Billing Contact

The billing contact is the person designated to receive the invoice for domain name registration and re-registration fees. The billing contact should be in a position to ensure prompt payment of fees. top

Browser

A program which allows a person to read hypertext. The browser gives some means of viewing the contents of pages and of navigating from one page to another. top

ccTLD

country code Top Level Domain. Also referred to as non-US ISO country codes. TLDs in domain names which reflect a specific country, such as .co.uk (United Kingdom), .co.jp (Japan), .com.tw (Taiwan), et cetera. If you are interested in such a name, you should check out this list of domain name registeries around the world: http://www.norid.no/domreg.html. top

DNS

A distributed database of information that is used to translate domain names, which are easy for humans to remember and use, into Internet Protocol (IP) numbers, which are what computers need to find each other on the Internet. People working on computers around the globe maintain their specific portion of this database, and the data held in each portion of the database is made available to all computers and users on the Internet. The DNS comprises computers, data files, software, and people working together. top

Domain Name

In short, a domain name is nothing more than an alias for a numeric web address.
Each web site on the internet has a numeric address that functions like coordinates on a map. Instead of pointing to a geographic location on earth, these numeric addresses, called IP addresses, point to a geographical location on the Internet. Computers have no problems with locating and remembering numeric addresses. In contrast, most humans have trouble remembering long, complicated sequences of numbers. So, to make surfing the web easier, the domain name system was invented. This system allows people to use easy to remember names for web sites instead of those number sequences. top

FTP

File Transfer Protocol. The Internet engineering standard for transferring files from one computer to another, i.e. from a web creator's computer files to the virtual server or vice versa. Such a transfer is made via a special FTP software program such as WS_FTP or CuteFTP. There are many Internet sites that have established publicly accessible repositories of material that can be obtained using FTP, by logging in using the account name anonymous, thus these sites are called anonymous ftp servers. top

gTLD

generic Top Level Domain. In the US, gTLDs used to describe organizational and political structures and are usually given three-letter names. Over the past few years, a number of these gTLDs have become "unrestricted", i.e. anyone can register a domain in that gTLD. You do not even have to reside in the US or be a business entity. For domains outside the US, two-letter ISO (International Organization For Standardization) country codes are used.
Here are the current gTLDs. Over the next few months, there will likely be new additions to this list:

Top level Domain	What it used to be for	Who can register?
.COM	Commercial Companies	Anyone - Unrestricted
.EDU	Educational Institutions	4 Year Universities only
.GOV	Government Agcy's	Restricted
.MIL	Military Agencies	Restricted US Military
.NET	Network Providers	Anyone - Unrestricted
.ORG	Not-for-profit organizations	Anyone - Unrestricted
.ARPA	A historical holdover	No longer used

HTML

Documents on the World Wide Web are written in a simple "markup language" called HTML, which stands for HyperText Markup Language. HTML looks a lot like old-fashioned typesetting code, where you surround a block of text with codes that indicate how it should appear, additionally, in HTML you can specify that a block of text, or a word, is linked to another file on the Internet. HTML files are meant to be viewed using a browser, such as Netscape or Internet Explorer. top

HTTP

HyperText Transfer Protocol. The protocol for moving hypertext files across the Internet. Requires a HTTP client program on one end, and an HTTP server program on the other end. HTTP is the most important protocol used in the World Wide Web (WWW). top

Hypertext

Term coined by Ted Nelson around 1965 for a collection of documents containing cross-references or "links" which, with the aid of an interactive browser program, allow the reader to move easily from one document to another. top

IANA

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
The function that currently oversees registration for various Internet Protocol parameters, such as port numbers, protocol and enterprise numbers, options, codes, and types. The IANA function is currently located at the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California in Marina del Rey, CA. top

ICANN

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. ICANN is the new non-profit corporation that is assuming responsibility from the U.S. Government for coordinating certain Internet technical functions, including the management of Internet domain name system. More information about ICANN can be found at their web site, which is posted at: http://www.icann.org. top

InterNIC

http://www.internic.net
The InterNIC is a concept for an integrated network information center that was developed by several companies, including Network Solutions, in cooperation with the U.S. Government. Currently, the term "InterNIC" is being used in conjunction with a neutral, stand alone web page (located at http://www.internic.net) that is established for the purpose of providing the public with information regarding Internet domain name registration. InterNIC is a registered service mark of the U.S. Department of Commerce. top

IP Address

Every machine that is on the Internet has a unique IP number - if a machine does not have an IP number, it is not really on the Internet. Most machines also have one or more Domain Names that are easier for people to remember IP addresses are numerical, often 32-bit addresses that are expressed as four numbers between 0 and 255, separated by periods, for example: 216.168.224.69 For more information, HowStuffWorks.com has an easy to comprehend article on How IP Addresses Work as a part of its larger article on How Domain Name Servers Work. top

IPP (Internet Presence Provider)

Also called a virtual host. In order to establish a full-time presence on the internet, one needs to have computers that are connected continuously to the Internet. Special hardware and software are needed as well as constant maintenance of a full-time high speed connection to the internet. An IPP provides services to relieve an entity from the burden of dedicating costly hardware/software and valuable human resources to its web presence effort. Because the electronic frontage (or web site) actually resides on the IPP's computers, and not that of the entity, it's virtual.top

ISP (Internet Service Provider)

Internet Service Provider. While rather a generic term, ISP generally refers to a person, organization, or company that allows its users access to the Internet. In addition to Internet access, many ISPs provide other services such as web hosting, DNS and other services. top

Nameserver

Sometimes called a "host." A computer (server) that has both the software and the data (zone files) needed to resolve domain names to Internet Protocol (IP) numbers. Domain names must be programmed into a minimum of two nameservers hosted on separate networks. HowStuffWorks.com has an excellent article about How Domain Nameservers Work. It's a great read! top

NIC

Generally, any office that handles information for a network. The most famous of these on the Internet is the InterNIC, which is where new domain names are registered. top

NIC fee

The charge for registering a domain name. The NIC fee covers the cost of processing the initial registration. After the initial registration period, the domain name is subject to re-registration. If the registrant wishes to renew the domain name's registration, the re-registration fees will be due on an annual basis. top

NIC handle

Basically, key words (or nicknames, if you will) used by the registrars' WhoIs database search software for locating information related to them quickly. NIC handles are assigned to each domain name record, contact record, and network record in the registrars' domain name databases. top

Parking

Colloquialism. A domain name that is not being used with any web server may be programmed into nameservers and left inactive, put "on hold" until the domain is used in conjunction with a server or site. Many registration services offer this service, sometimes it is included in the registration fee, while others may charge an additional DNS fee for this service. top

Registrant

The individual or organization that registers a specific domain name. This individual or organization holds the right to use that specific domain name for a specified period of time, provided certain conditions are met and the registration (NIC) fees are paid. This person or organization is the "legal entity" bound by the terms of all applicable domain registration Service Agreements. top

Registrar

An entity with a direct contractual relationship with, and special access to, a registry, that inserts records on behalf of others. top

Registry

A database associating DNS information with some person, legal entity, operational entity, or other referent. top

Root

The top of the Domain Name System hierarchy. Often referred to as the "dot." top

Second-Level Domain

In the Domain Name System, the next lower level of the hierarchy underneath the top level domains. In a domain name, that portion of the domain name that appears immediately to the left of the top-level domain. For example, the domainsforbeginners in domainsforbeginners.com. Second-Level Domains are the focus of domain speculators and have been the root of a good portion of internet name disputes on the internet. It's important that your second-level domain does not infringe upon the registered trademark of another entity. top

Server

A computer, or a software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece of software, such as a WWW server, or to the machine on which the software is running, e.g.Our mail server is down today, that's why e-mail isn't getting out. A single server machine could have several different server software packages running on it, thus providing many different servers to clients on the network. top

Technical Contact

The technical contact is the person or organization who maintains the primary domain name server. When you register your domain name with us, we provide our primary nameserver automatically and assume the role of Technical Contact. The technical contact should be able to answer technical questions about the domain name's primary domain name server and work with technically-oriented people in other domains to solve technical problems that affect the domain name. top

TLD

Top Level Domain. In the Domain Name System (DNS), the highest level of the hierarchy after the root. In a domain name, that portion of the domain name that appears furthest to the right. For example, the com in domainsforbeginners.com. top

URL

Uniform Resource Locator. An internet "address." A draft standard for specifying the location of an object on the Internet, such as a file or a newsgroup. They are used in HTML documents to specify the target of a hyperlink which is often another HTML document (possibly stored on another computer).
Examples of URLs:
http://www.domainsforbeginners.com/htmls/definitions.html

http://www.azc.com/index.html

http://www.domainsforbeginners.com/images/header.gif

The first part of the URL, before the colon (often http), specifies the access method. The part of the URL after the colon is interpreted specific to the access method. top

URL Forwarding

URL Redirection or Website Redirection
In short, when the user types in one address (URL) for a web site and is then redirected to a site, often on a different server than the domain. Often the URL name entered will be short, easy to remember URL while the destination page is actually defined by a much longer, harder to remember URL.
It occurs when a Web server tells the client browser to obtain a certain requested page from a different location. The new URL may be on the same server or a different one and may itself be subject to redirection. The user is normally unaware of this process except that it may introduce extra delay while the browser sends the new request and the browser will usually (although not always) display the new URL rather than the one the user originally requested.

Virtual host

Also called an IPP. In order to establish a full-time presence on the internet, one needs to have computers that are connected continuously to the Internet. Special hardware and software are needed as well as constant maintenance of a full-time high speed connection to the internet. A virtual host provides services to relieve its hosted customers from the burden of dedicating costly hardware/software and valuable human resources to its web presence effort. Because the electronic frontage (or website) actually resides on the IPP's computers, and not that of the entity, it's virtual. This is where the name "virtual host" comes from. top

Web Page

Simply, a block of information running on a world-wide server process identified by a specific URL. Such pages are most often written in HTML. It is also possible for a server to create a dynamic web page via special scripts.top

Web Site

Simply put, a block of information running on a world-wide server process. A web site may or may not of a group of pages related to one another, and is identified by its Second-Level Domain. top

WhoIs

A searchable database maintained by the registrar, which contains information about networks, networking organizations, domain names, and the contacts associated with them for respective domains. Also, the set of rules that describes the application used to access the database. This site uses fasterWhoIs, an advanced engine that quickly searches all registrars' databases for domain name availability. top

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