The following glossary defines terms related to the IT Industry.  
You should not reproduce this terms without permission.

S/MIME

Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions - a way of making email messages more secure. S/MIME uses digital certificates to attest the message origin and encryption to ensure that message could not be read while in transit.

Scripting Language

A programming language in which programs are the series of commands that are interpreted and then executed one by one. Doesn't require the compilation phase, for the price of lower performance.

Search engine

An Internet service that stores a vast number of web pages and allows for fast searching among them. Also, a piece of software that implements a website search functionality.

Search form

An online form in which a query to the webpages database is specified.

search indexer

A search engine uses search indexer to provide faster search.

Self-extracting Archive

An archived file that is also an executable program. The original archived file is decompressed when that program is run.

Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP)

Another network protocol used to connect computers to the networks. Similar to PPP.

Server

A networked computer that handles client requests for Web pages.

Service Provider

A company that provides access to the Internet, usually for a fee.

Session

All the data exchange between two parties, starting when the connection is established and ending when connection terminates.

Setup fee

Initial fee charged by a host to set up your hosting account.  Át Vittox we only charge setup fees when needed to configure some special application server or services. Our Reliable Hoststing plans are totally Free from setups.

SFTP

Secure FTP transfers using (SSH) communication protocols to encrypt data during the transfers are also known as FTPS working normally at port 22. It is functionally similar to FTP, but because it uses a different protocol, you can't use a standard FTP client to talk to an SFTP server, nor can you connect to an FTP server with a client that supports only SFTP.

Firefox from Mozilla has an extention names FireFTP where you can configure various FTP clients, SFTP among others.

Shopping Cart

Software that allows users to select products from a Web catalog, modify their choices, calculate prices, review their choices, and order them.  Many hosts with e-commerce plans offer installed shopping carts, but you can always get a shopping cart of your choice instead.

SHTTP

Secure HTTP. A version of HTTP protocol that uses encryption to assure that the traffic between the server and the browser cannot be eveasdropped on. Should be considered mandatory for all e-commerce applications.

Signature

A few lines of text that are automatically attached at the end of each email message by the email client. Usually it's some personal identification or an (un)interesting quote.

Signed applet

An applet that has a digital signature to confirm that it originates from the legitimate server.

SLIP

Serial Line Internet Protocol - a standard way of connecting a computer to the internet via the telephone line.

Smileys

Characters used in text-only communications to convey emotions. Example :) :-) ;-) :O :(...

SMTP

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.  Very popular protocol used to transfer email messages across the Internet mail servers.

Snail Mail

A normal paper mail delivered by the Post Office.

SNMP

(Simple Network Management Protocol). A most widespread protocol used for network management.

SOA

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a business-centric IT architectural approach that supports integrating your business as linked, repeatable business tasks, or services. With the Smart SOA approach, you can find value at every stage of the SOA continuum, from departmental projects to enterprise-wide initiatives.

Spam

Unsolicited email sent in mass quantities to multiple receipents, most often for marketing purposes. Highly annoying and constituting one of the most serious netiquette violations.

Spider

An automated software that retrieves webpages and follows the hyperlinks contained in them. Used to generate indexes used by search engines.

SPX

(Sequenced Packet Exchange). A proprietary Novell network protocol used in conjunction with IPX.

SQL

Structured Query Language.  Limited programming language used for updating and performing queries on relational databases.  All databases share a common subset of SQL.  Most popular SQL databases available with hosting plans are MySQL and MS SQL.

SSH

Secure Shell.  Developed by SSH Communications Security, it is a standard for encrypted terminal Internet connections.  SSH programs provide strong authentication and encrypted communications, replacing less secure access methods like telnet.

SSI

Server-Side Includes.  Instructs the server to include some dynamic information in a Web page before it is sent to a client.  This dynamic information could be current date, an opinion poll, etc.  Many hosts require that SSI pages have .shtml extension to reduce the load on servers by not having to parse non-SSI pages.

SSL

Secure Sockets Layer.  Protocol developed by Netscape to provide encryption for commercial transactions data that should be protected while traveling over the Internet, like credit card numbers.  SSL uses https protocol.  Before using SSL in commerce, you'll also need to get is a certificate from a Certificate Authority.

Static (or dedicated) IP

If a host offers a static IP, it means that your site will be assigned a unique and unchanging IP address.  See the FAQ for some possible advantages of using a static IP.

STP

Shielded Twisted Pair. Cabling consisting of pairs of insulated wires wrapped in metal to minimize interference.

Streaming

Playing multimedia files (audio and video) without requiring a full download.  Audio and video are compressed but they still may require a lot of bandwidth.  Most popular streaming media formats are Real Audio/Video.

Subdomain

Subdomain is a way to divide your site into sections with short and easy to remember names.  For example, a section of this site for new users could be at newbies.webhostingratings.com.  Other use of subdomains might be to let somebody else use your account (but this may not be allowed by your host's terms of use).  Large websites might make their subdomains point to another server to reduce load on the main www site.

Surfing

Using world wide web is often referred to as "surfing the web".

Switch

A switch is a network device that forwards packets. Switches are more intelligent than hubs in a sense that they forward packets only to the necessary ports and not to all the ports.