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Catch-all Email Account:
An email account which allows any email of the form, anything@your-domain.com, to be forwarded or placed into a single email address. For example, webmaster@you.com, info@you.com and anything@you.com, will all be sent to the same email address. Often hosts allow you to also specify particular email addresses to be forwarded to different email addresses, in addition to the catch-all email which sends any other email address to one designated email address.
Disk Space
Everything related to your Web site is stored on disk: your regular html files, images, multimedia files, anonymous ftp files, POP mail messages, cgi-scripts and so on.
Domain Name
Computers connected to the Internet identify each other using numerical IP addresses, which are very difficult for humans to remember. A Domain Name is an easy-to-remember Internet address in plain alphabet (such as "greentreewebhosting.com") which is translated automatically into the IP address. Here is a more formal definition :
"An addressing construct used for identifying and locating computers on the Internet. Domain names provide a system of easy-to-remember Internet addresses, which can be translated by the Domain Name System (DNS) into the numeric addresses (Internet Protocol (IP) numbers) used by the network. A domain name is hierarchical and often conveys information about the type of entity using the domain name. A domain name is simply a label that represents a domain, which is a subset of the total domain name space."
Domain Registration
In order for visitors to find your Web site using the domain name of your choice GreenTree Webhosting has to register that domain with a Domain Registrar, so that the name is reserved for your use for the period of your registration. This is so that the IP address for your domain name can be propagated accross the Internet.
GreenTree Webhosting offers Managed Domain Registration, which means we deal with all the headaches and problems that come up, allowing you to focus on your business rather than technical issues.
E-mail
E-mail (electronic mail) is the exchange of computer-stored messages by telecommunication. (Some publications spell it email) E-mail messages are usually encoded in ASCII text. However, you can also send non-text files, such as graphic images and sound files, as attachments. E-mail was one of the first uses of the Internet and is still the most popular use. A large percentage of the total traffic over the Internet is e-mail. E-mail can be distributed to lists of people as well as to individuals. A shared distribution list can be managed by using an e-mail reflector. Some mailing lists allow you to subscribe by sending a request to the mailing list administrator.
A popular protocol for sending e-mail is Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and a popular protocol for receiving it is POP3.
For help with E-mail setup see GreenTree Webhosting's support pages.
Email Forwarding
An email service in which your email is automatically sent (forwarded) from one email address, to another specified email address.
Hosting
Every webpage, email, file, or online service is stored ("hosted") on a computer (called a "server") that is connected to the Internet. Also called "webhosting".
GreenTree offers managed hosting packages to meet your needs for online space (diskspace where your webpages and files are hosted) and traffic (Bandwidth: the capacity of the server to quickly send your webpages to visitors who view your website) GreenTree Webhosting has adopted a policy of selling our clients what they need, and not pushing extravegant ammounts of diskspace and bandwidth which they may not need. We're here to meet your needs, not "over-sell" our services.
GreenTree Webhosting offers Managed Domain Registration, which means we deal with updates, changes and all the headaches and problems that come up with hosting, allowing you to focus on your business rather than technical issues.
'Minor changes' As defined for the purposes of GreenTree Webhosting:
For a limited number of months (depending on your contract) after your website is designed by GreenTree Webhosting, we offer free "minor changes" to our clients.
Why GreenTree Webhosting offers 'Minor changes':
- Clients may not be able to finalize all the content (i.e. mailing address/ toll-free phone number) within the timeline for the project, and should have some means to get those 'minor' details added in.
- Clients may have chosen text content that they now feel isn't appropriate, or as effective as another text, and they may wish to correct that.
- Clients may notice a typographical error or other minor correction that visitors to their website shouldn't see.
- To provide clients with the peace of mind that their website will be designed and fine-tuned to their satisfaction.
- To provide clients with value for their money and eliminate "nickel & diming" clients as a means of respecting them.
'Minor changes' are NOT:
- Website updates
- New graphics posted to the website
- New downloadable resources posted to the website
- New pages that are added to the site
- Re-design of pages that have already been approved or completed.
- Free website design and maintenance.
Examples of 'Minor changes':
- A client is unable to finalize their toll free phone number, and a month later wishes to add this number to their website.
- A client originally communicated that the descriptive paragraph for a section on the website was unavailable and would be communicated to GreenTree Webhosting at a later date. 3 weeks later, the content is emailed to GreenTree so that it can be placed in the empty section.
- A client realizes that the information they provided to GreenTree Webhosting is inaccurate or misrepresentative of the work they do, and they request that specific details in one paragraph be re-worded from the old reading to a new reading.
POP3 Email
POP (Post Office Protocol) is a standard protocol for receiving email. POP3 is the most recent version of the protocol. POP3 is a client/server protocol in which email is received and held for you by the mail server. Periodically, you and/or your email program connect to the mail server to see if you have any mail waiting and download a copy of the messages. Each POP3 account has its own password to ensure privacy. You can check your email from anywhere around the world that you have access to the Internet. You can check POP3 mail in Netscape Communicator, MS Outlook, or Eudora to name a few applications.
See Email
Spam
An inappropriate attempt to use email, USENET, or another networked communications facility as if it was a broadcast medium (which it isn't) by sending the same message to numerous people who didn’t ask for it. Many email services have "spam filters" to help reduce the amount of spam emails.
see Unsolicited Commercial Email
For tips to fight spam and protect your email inbox, see our NOSPAM page.
Unsolicited Commercial Email
"Unsolicited Commercial Email" refers to an electronic mail message intended,
directly or indirectly, to promote the sale or other distribution
of products or services to the recipient, that is (A) addressed to
a recipient with whom the initiator of the mail does not have an existing
business or personal relationship and (B) not sent at the request
of, or with the express consent of, the recipient."
What is DNS Propagation?
Many people question why it takes so long for their domain name to to point to their site live on the Internet. Most people think that they paid for it and it should be available right then and there. There are two parts to every web transaction. There is the web hosting company and the domain registrar. If you are lucky enough to have a company that can do both for you, your troubles will be few.
You may be asking “Why is DNS Propagation so important to systems administrators and developers?” and most of all, “Why do I have to wait 3 days for my domain to appear on the World Wide Web?”
The fact of the matter is you are working with thousands of web servers there require a simple IP routing and DNS entries and need to be propagated or updated throughout all of the DNS servers on the web. Before anyone can reference your URL www.yoursite.com and go there in an instant this information must filter outwards.
A single server housed by your registrar creates a “table” with contact information as well as how to route people to your website through an IP address which is associated with your domain name server. It is popularly seen as a NS.YOURDOMAIN.COM entry. You are usually required to add 2 hostnames for each domain.
Your Hosting Company provides the DNS entry to your registrar which acts as a pointer directly to the domain name server directory and follows the path directly to your website.
Thus when a person types in your web address their request goes throughout the internet looking for a DNS table that houses your website. Once it finds a match it follows the IP address of your Domain Name Server and is routed directly to the front door of your web server. Your web server in turn uses internal information to route the traffic to your home page housed in a specific directory.
Even though the process sounds difficult to understand it actually isn’t. The fact of the matter is that people do not understand thoroughly how often web servers update their tables throughout the Internet. This is part of the reason that it takes so long to get the latest information updated and your website found.
The Domain Name Server populates a complete listing of all websites housed on any specified server. By creating a name server entry it knows exactly which one to go to once a request has been made. People do not realize how many servers a single request must go through before one server stands up and says “Hey, it’s over there!”
Usually Domain Name Servers are updated daily on both the registrars part as well as the hosting company. Your hosting company will be quick to make sure they have a directory created and a unique IP address associated with it. There are occasions that there can be a lapse between the two of them. If one party fails to get the update done sooner or a directory created sooner, it will take longer for these changes to occur. Your registrar’s part is vital in ensuring that you exist. Your host only reacts to inbound request and routes them according to these tables.
A popular occurrence and nuisance is when you purchase a domain name and need to switch to another web hosting company. Let’s say that you move from your current provider to greentreewebhosting.com. greentreewebhosting.com in turn take your registration and associate itself with a predetermined IP address. They then propagate or update their DNS (Domain Name service) tables with the new information. It takes time to filter out the registrar’s new information into the World Wide Web. Your website will continue to reside on the previous server unless you pull it off of their ftp site totally.
A good way to see if your website has been propagated in windows or Unix is the nslookup command. This command will let you know what IP Address and Domain name are. Thus you will know for sure that your website has been filtered throughout the net should somebody search for you. There are times when you will find your site available on AOL and not on your ISP, this is commonplace again depending on how often they update their information.
Remember that there are literally thousands of domain servers across the Internet that continuously updates their entries daily. There is very little that can be done to increase the time factor.
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