Web Hosting Glossary

Terms Letter: I

IEEE

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. A professional organisation whose activities include the development of communication and network standards

IIS

Microsoft Internet Information Server. It is a web server, product of the Microsoft corporation. All Windows web hosting plans are using IIS as a web server software.

Image Map

It is an HTML attribute of an image placed on a web page. With image maps you can define certain areas of the image as hyperlinks. These hyperlink act the same way as the usual text based hyperlinks - when clicked they take the user browser to the linked web page.

IMAP

Internet Message Access Protocol. A way of accessing your email directly on the server. It differs from POP the way it reads messages on the server. While POP downloads the messages to your computer and deletes them from the server, with IMAP you can have your messages on the server, even organized in folders. IMAP is useful when you you use to read your email at several computers.

IMHO

Chat acronym for "In My Humble Opinion" (or: In My Honest Opinion)

IMO

Chat acronym for "In My Opinion"

Internet

A global network linking millions of computers for communications purposes.TCP/IP is the standard protocol set for Internet.

Internet Address

Also known as URL(Uniformed Resource Locator) is a unique identifier of a web site. For example our site Internet address or URL is http://www.besthostratings.com. Please note the http:// part. It tells your computer what type of address is that. All web pages start with http://. FTP site start with ftp:// followed by the site domain name.

Internet backbone

Well actually there are many backbones. These are extremely fast connections(T3 and higher) crisscrossing the globe from one major metropolitan area to another. They are operated by global telecommunication companies and all local ISP(Internet service providers) are connected to these backbone connection through access points.

InterNIC

A company that operates the .COM and .NET domain name registry.

Intranet

A private network within an organisation that uses internet technology. An Intranet behaves exactly like the internet in that you can retrieve pages from servers, the difference is that it is not part of the internet, and cannot be accessed from outside the organisation.

IP

Internet Protocol. The Internet Protocol (IP) is used in the TCP/IP set of protocols, which supports the Internet and many private networks.

IP Address

Internet Protocol Address. A unique number for a computer connected to TCP/IP network. The IP address is a numeric address written as a set of four numbers separated by dots, for example 212.5.221.11.

IPX

Internetwork Packet eXchange. A network protocol developed by Novell.

IRC

Internet Relay Chat. A service that allows users located anywhere to participate in discussions, usually in a virtual chat room where they can talk to each other exchanging text messages. To join an IRC service you need to have an IRC program. The most popular IRC client program is mIRC.

ISDN

Integrated Services Digital Network. It is a system of digital phone connections which allows voice and data to be transmitted simultaneously across the world using end-to-end digital connectivity. It has speed of 64Kbps.

ISO

International Standards Organization. The principal international group responsible for standards in many areas.

ISP

Internet Service Provider. Also referred to as local ISP. It is a company that provides access for its subscriber to the Internet. ISP companies provide dial-up, DSL, cable or LAN access. For example AOL, SBC, RoadRunner are ISPs.

ITU

International Telecommunication Union. A United Nations agency that coordinates matters of international telecommunications concern.