Glossary

The following definitions are not inclusive, but provide a good starting point for terminology related to hosting technology, e-commerce and domain management.

Internet Terminology

Domain Terminology

E | R | Z

Area	Definition
Domains	.EDU - The top-level domain reserved for educational institutions. The institutions must be four-year degree-granting colleges or universities.
Domains	.GOV - The top-level domain reserved for agencies, departments, and branches of the United States Federal Government. Registration of .gov domains is handled by the General Services Administration (GSA).
Domains	.MIL - The top-level domain reserved for use by the United States military. This TLD is maintained by the Department of Defense Network Information Center.
Domains	A Record - Address Record; by adding an A Record line to a DNS listing, you are adding an address for a domain that resolves to more than one network interface. A Records are entered as an IP address (111.22.333.45) and have their own line in the DNS entry.
Domains	Accredited Registrar - A domain name registrar accredited by ICANN and allowed to use the SRS (Shared Registry System) to directly register domain names. Non-accredited registrars must register domain names through an accredited registrar.
Domains	Address Bar - The long, thin box near the top of a web browser window which contains the Web address of the Web page currently being viewed.
Domains	Administrative Contact - The individual responsible for maintenance of a domain name. This individual is authorized to interact with the registrar on behalf of the domain name registrant. Usually the Administrative Contact is the registrant.
Domains	Alias - One of several alternative hostnames with the same IP address.
Domains	API - An acronym that stands for “Application Program Interface.” As used in this Agreement, “API” means the set of technical specifications and routines that allow Customer’s computer systems to access and carry out certain operations on Tucows’ computer systems.
Domains	Appraisal - An evaluation of the potential market value of a domain name.
Domains	Authoritative - A name server is considered authoritative for a domain name when it has the best source of information that can be found inside a given zone. Authoritative servers usually include a SOA (Start of Authority) record in their zone file for a domain name. For instance, if a zone file says: "@ IN SOA dns1.namesecure.com", this means that dns1.namesecure.com is considered authoritative for the domain. Only one SOA record can be contained in a zone file.
Domains	Billing Contact - The individual responsible for a domain name's registration fees.
Domains	Browser (see Web Browser)
Domains	Cable Modem - A device that uses a cable TV signal to connect a computer to the Internet. Cable modems offer download speeds of up to 56Mbps and upload speeds of up to 10Mbps.
Domains	Cache - A section of a computer's memory which retains recently accessed data in order to speed up repeated access to the same data. Your computer and browser use cache memory to load Web pages more quickly. Your ISP also uses a cache for this purpose. If you ask your computer to view a page, and it finds the page in the cache, it will read the cached page instead of the page from the Internet, unless you reload the page.
Domains	Central Domain Name Database (see Registry)
Domains	Change DNS Information - To make a new set of name servers responsible for resolving a domain name.
Domains	Change Registrar - To make a new registrar responsible for maintaining your ownership of a domain name.
Domains	CNAME (Canonical Name) - A CNAME record maps an address to its canonical name. The name server handles CNAME records in a different manner than aliases are handled in the host table. When a name server looks up a name and finds a CNAME record, it replaces the name with the canonical name and looks up the new name.
Domains	Contact (see Administrative Contact, Billing Contact, Technical Contact, or Zone Contact)
Domains	Cookie - A unique identifier sent to a user's computer during a visit to a Web site. Cookies can be used to remember information such as user names and passwords (so a users don't have to enter them every time they visit a site) or to track future visits to a Web site.
Domains	Country Code - A top-level domain name that corresponds to a particular geographical area. Country code domain names are alternatives to ".com," ".net," or ".org" domain names. Examples of Country codes are ".it" for Italy and ".cn" for China. The registrar in charge of registering the different country codes varies.
Domains	Database File - The file from which a primary master name server loads zone data. See also zone file.
Domains	db File - (see Database File)
Domains	Deactivation - The process of turning off forwarding services and domain name service for a particular domain name. This is the same thing as putting a domain name "on hold." A domain name that has been deactivated still remains registered and in NameSecure's database.
Domains	Delegate - To instruct a server in how to resolve a domain or sub-domain.
Domains	Deleted Domain - A previously registered domain name whose registration has been cancelled by the registrar, possibly due to a dispute over ownership or a breach of contract. A dropped domain is available for registration by the public.
Domains	Dial-Up Connection - A connection to the Internet via an analog modem over regular phone lines. Analog modems can typically connect at speeds of up to 56Kbps.
Domains	DNR (see Domain Name Registration)
Domains	DNS - An acronym that can stand for both Domain Name System and Domain Name Service.
Domains	DNS- An acronym that refers to the Internet’s “Domain Name System.”
Domains	DNS Transfer - To point a domain name to a different name server in order to make another company responsible for its hosting and/or forwarding services.
Domains	Domain - A group of computers whose hostnames share a common suffix, the domain name. The last component of this is the top-level domain.
Domains	Domain Name - A meaningful, easy-to-remember "handle" for addressing computers and information on the Internet. Domain names typically end with a suffix that denotes the type or location of a resource (for instance, ".com" for commercial resources or ".jp" for resources based in Japan).
Domains	Domain Name Dispute - A disagreement concerning the ownership of or legal right to a domain name. While domain name disputes are usually handled by ICANN, lawsuits involving domain names are becoming increasingly common in the courts.
Domains	Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy - The ICANN policy which dictates how to resolve domain name disputes.
Domains	Domain Name Hosting - Maintaining the forwarding of a domain name and ensuring that it resolves.
Domains	Domain Name Owner (see Registrant)
Domains	Domain Name Record - An entry usually contained within a zone file.
Domains	Domain Name Registration - The process of alloting a new, specific domain name to an owner.
Domains	Domain Name Service (DNS) - The process by which text-based domain name addresses are translated (or resolved) into numeric IP addresses by way of name servers. Many registrars, Web hosts, and ISPs offer domain name service to customers. Note that the acronym DNS can stand for both Domain Name System and Domain Name Service.
Domains	Domain Name System (DNS) - The hierarchical referencing system by which easy-to-remember domain name addresses (such as "mycompany.com") are mapped to numeric IP addresses (such as "123.123.4.5") on the Internet. Note that the acronym DNS can stand for both Domain Name System and Domain Name Service.
Domains	Download - To receive information from another computer over a network. The opposite of upload.
Domains	Dropped Domain - A previously registered domain name whose registration was allowed to lapse by the original owner (often times because the registration fees were not paid). A dropped domain is available for registration by the public.
Domains	DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) - A relatively new type of high-speed Internet connection that allows high-speed data communications over existing copper telephone lines. The speed of DSL communications ranges from about 128Kbps to over 8Mbps.
Domains	Dynamic DNS - A DNS set up to allow users to attach a domain name to a server which uses a dynamic IP Address.
Domains	Dynamic IP Address - A variable IP address that is delegated to a computer or server each time it is connected to the Internet. Many ISPs use a dynamic IP address system in order to reduce the number of IP addresses they need to maintain. Each time a computer connects, it will be assigned an available IP address from the ISP's bank of IP addresses and will use that IP address until it disconnects. Use of this system greatly reduces the number of unused IP addresses at any given time, but, because a computer's address continually changes, a dynamic IP address system can cause difficulty in accessing a computer online.
Domains	E-mail - Electronic mail. Transmitted through the Internet.
Domains	E-mail - IMAP (see Internet Message Access Protocol)
Domains	E-mail - POP3 (see Post Office Protocol, Version 3)
Domains	E-mail - Web-based (see Web-Based Email)
Domains	E-mail Forwarding - A service that directs e-mail messages sent to one address to another address. E-mail forwarding is analogous to call forwarding for telephones.
Domains	Expired Domain - A domain name whose renewal date has passed, but which has not yet been dropped from the domain name system.

Additional:

General: A Record to Expired Domain | Forwarding to Root Server | Secondary Name Server to Zone File

Domains: Adware to ISP | Local Name Server to Sub-Domain | T1 to Zone File

E-Com: Application-to-Application to XML