Terminology

HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language (content)
CSS: Cascading Style Sheet (design)
Client: Computer that person uses; computer that browser runs on
Server: Machine that contains and "serves" or makes webpages or other applications available
URL: Uniform Resource Locator uniquely defines a page on the web - e.g.: http://www.wwu.edu/index.shtml
Protocol: a predefined communication method between two computers. http:// or ftp:// part of url determines the protocol being used
Host Name: www part of www.wwu.edu
Domain: wwu part of www.wwu.edu
Top-Level Domain: edu part of www.wwu.edu
Page name: the part of the url that follows the domain name defines the folder and file that the webpage is found at
Home page: the default filename that comes up when you type a url with no page name: www.wwu.edu is actually www.wwu.edu/index.shtml ; usually index.html or default.asp - determined by the webserver

IP Address: a number that represents a server name i.e. 140.160.201.236 represents a machine on the wwu.edu domain . 140.160 uniquely identifies a wwu-domained machine
Domain or Server Name: Text for IP Address: www.wwu.edu
Port: a numbered service for a specific type of internet traffic - web pages are usually served on port 80, email on port 25, ftp on 21 etc http://www.wwu.edu:80 is the western web site
Static page: a page that is written out and stored on the server and is the same for everyone that sees it e.g. www.wwu.edu
Dynamic page: a page that is written on the fly by a piece of computer code - it can be tailored for each viewing e.g. amazon.com pages
Name Server: a specific type of server that maps urls to IP addresses. When you type in a url, the browser passes the url to a name server which passes back the ip address to your machine
ISP: Internet Service Provider connects between the internet and a user's machine.

Page Updated 12.08.2009