Many of our clients want to better understand some of the technology terms they are hearing so we have compiled a list of terms and placed them here so that you can understand them.
A website URL. For example Dan Pinto's Domain Name is DanPinto.com and we get to it by typing www.danpinto.com.
Domain Name Servers are like the phone books of the internet. When you are looking for a web site your web browser makes a request to the DNS server that your company or internet provider has specified. If this DNS server can't find the internet listing that you are looking for it forwards the request to other DNS servers that it knows until it finds a DNS server that knows the web site you are looking for and this DNS server provides your browser the address of the website so that it can retreive the requested information.
The Domain Registrar is the company that your Domain Name is registered with. Domain Names must be registered with a Domain Registrar in order to be used on the internet in order to prevent other people from taking your domain. They funtion like a licensing body and regulate who can register and own a domain name.
Name Servers are the servers that know where your web site is located and manage that information for all other servers on the internet. The Name Server information is used by your Domain Registrar and points to your DNS servers. There are normally at least 2 Name Servers for every domain to ensure redundancy.
POP email tends to be more robust than Web Email but requires a 3rd party program like Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Outlook Express in order to work. It is also normally configured on only 1 computer.
POP is a protocol used for email. POP allows you to retreive emails that are maintained on another server (usually outside your company) over the internet. It is only used for retreiving email.
SMTP is a protocol used for sending your email across the internet to an email server. It is only used for sending your emails outbound.
This is the address to an actual website. Dan Pinto's Domain's URL is www.danpinto.com.
Web Email is browser based meaning that you can access it from anywhere you have an internet connection and a web browser.
Domain Name