123-reg.co.uk

Web hosting can be at bit overwhelming at times, so we’ve compiled a short glossary of the terms which regularly confuse our customers.

If there are any words you feel we’ve missed, please leave them in the comment field and we’ll add them to the glossary.

A Record – An A record is part of the zone file. It is used to point Internet traffic to an IP address. For example, you can use an “A record” to designate abc.yourdomain.com to send traffic to your web site at IP address 209.15.32.135. You can also designate xyz.yourdomain.com to go to a separate IP address.

ASP (Active Server Pages) – ASP is Microsoft’s server-side scripting technology.  An Active Server Page has an .asp extension. ASP mixes HTML and scripting code that can be written in VBScript or Jscript

Bandwidth – Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred over your server network in a fixed amount of time. With hosting, it is usually expressed over a monthly period

Browser – Computer program that allows users to view the World Wide Web and displays the content of the webpages. Examples are Firefox, Netscape, and Internet Explorer.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) – A CSS file contains a set of design styles to be used on multiple website pages. Using an external CSS file allows for easy formatting changes without the need to make changes on every page.

CGI (Common Gateway Interface) – CGI is a standard for interfacing web servers with an executable application.  A CGI program can be written in Perl or C/C++ and it is often stored in a special directory like /cgi-bin.  CGI is often used to process data from HTML forms.

CNAME (Canonical Name) – CNAME is a record in a DNS database that indicates the true host name of any computer that its aliases are associated with. A computer hosting a Web site must have an IP address in order to be connected to the World Wide Web. The DNS resolves the computer’s domain name to its IP address, but sometimes more than one domain name resolves to the same IP address. This is where the CNAME is useful. A machine can have an unlimited number of CNAME aliases, but a separate CNAME record must be in the database for each alias.

DNS (Domain Name System) – Internet service that directs domains names (see below) into corresponding IP addresses. The DNS database is distributed and replicated among many DNS servers, so when you change your domain’s IP address, the changes take a while to change on all DNS servers.

Domain name – A Domain name is an easy to remember address that can be translated by DNS (see above) into server’s IP address. Domain’s suffix indicates which TLD (Top Level Domain) it belongs to, for example .com, .gov, .org, .net, etc.

DPA (Data Protection Act) – The Data Protection Act gives you the right to know what information is held about you. It sets out rules to make sure that this information is handled properly. Read more information about the DPA here

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) – An interface used to download and upload files between your computer and your web hosting area.

Host – Refers to a company who provides web hosting services.

IP Address (Internet Protocol Address) - A unique number used to identify all of the individual devices connected to the Internet. This number is usually shown in groups of numbers from 0 to 255, separated by periods, for example 150.32.244.117.

LOL – Laughing Out Loud

MySQL - One of the most popular database systems.

MX Records – An MX (mail exchange) record is an entry in your DNS file which selects a mail server to handle your domain email. This means that when someone sends an email to you@yourdomain.com the email will be delivered to the mail server specified in the MX record for yourdomain.com.

Perl - Open source CGI scripting programming language. Perl is one of the most popular web programming languages, due to its powerful text-manipulation facilities.

PHP – PHP is a free, open-source server-side scripting language. PHP code can be embedded in HTML.  PHP files usually have extensions like .php.

Propagation - The process of updating the DNS to DNS servers. This process usually concerns those who have just updated/bought/transferred a domain and can take up to 72 hours.

Pending Delete – This is the final stage before the domain is released back on to the domain market, this only occurs after quarantine.

Quarantine -This is the period after the redemption period of a domain name (see below). During this period, the domain is no longer available to the original owner to re-register, but is not yet available to the general public to purchase yet.

Redemption – The redemption period is a domain registry period that occurs when a domain name is deleted after having expired. Rather than deleting your domain, the existing registry keeps a hold on the domain name. During this redemption period, the original owner of the domain can retrieve the domain from deletion by contacting their registrar (in your case, this is likely to be 123-reg).

Registrar - this is who you have bought, or technically registered, your domain with. And hopefully this is 123-reg!

Spam – Spam emails are sent to a big list unsolicited, usually selling something you have no interest in!

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) - SSL encrypts data that should be protected while transferring over the internet, such as credit card numbers, by using https protocol.

TLD (Top Level Domain) - This is the domain name extension, such as .com, .org or .gov.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) – URL is the web address you type in your web browser to reach a website. The domain name you choose makes up your URL along with your TLD.

Whois – An internet service that allows obtainment of information about domain name owners.

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Part of the challenge of buying a domain name is juggling alternative spellings and domain extensions to find a decent one.

But imagine if none were taken and you could pick any domain name you like. What would you have? And why?

CreativeMorning is a regular event which happens in New York. We’ve not been (it’s too far from London and we’d never get it through on expenses), but we noticed they used this simple concept as an icebreaker, asking people to scribble down the domain they’d most like to own.

You can see what people chose on Flickr. For such a simple idea, it offers a surprising insight into people’s personalities, priorities and motivations. Or we can pretend it does – the scientific basis of such judgements is probably flaky, to say the least.

Still, it’s a good game to play. You can take a guess at who doesn’t like early mornings, who’s got a cold, but definitely not swine flu – and who’s into buying and selling domain names for money.

So, over to you. If you could choose any domain you like, what would it be? And why would you pick it? Leave a comment and let us know.

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Jason Slater set up his website eight years ago, in an attempt to meet other people in his line of work. Now his technology blog receives 25,000 visitors a month and he’s been shortlisted for awards alongside Stephen Fry. We ask him how he’s got it so right.

Hi Jason. What’s your blog all about?
I started it because I work in IT. I’m normally one of the backroom boys and I’ve often been the sole person in the IT department, with no immediate network of colleagues to discuss issues with.

I wanted to use the site to reach out and talk to other people in the same industry, to try and be part of a community. For me, it’s a hobby – I have to fit it in around my work.

What do you write about?
The things I write about – because I work with IT all day long – are the things I touch and feel, most of the time. I tend to write about stuff I know, based on my own experiences.

A lot of blogs and sites cover things up to the point of purchase. They sell you on features, all the glitz and glamour. I try to cover what happens after that. There’s nothing like asking someone who’s used a piece of equipment what they think of it.

You get a lot of visitors now. How long did it take to get off the ground?
It’s only been in the last four years or so that blogs have had the attention they get now – and my traffic has taken off in the last four years too. I  get around 25,000 visitors a month now and there are lots of loyal readers who take part in the blog. Read the rest of this entry »

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Turbo charge your AdWords campaign with ‘Sitelinks’

If you use Google AdWords to drive visitors to your website, you might already be aware of an exciting new feature they released last week. Google are calling it ‘Sitelinks’, and it allows you to add lots more links onto your AdWords creative

What does it look like?

This is what an original version of a 123-reg AdWords creative looked like:

And with ‘Sitelinks’ enabled, this is what you get:

As you can see, on the original creative the only place that users can click is the headline. With ‘Sitelinks’ enabled, users can also click on the blue links along the bottom of the creative.

The headline links to the homepage. These ‘Sitelinks’ take users directly to the most relevant page on our website.

Why have Google done that?

A shortcoming of normal AdWords creative is that the person setting up the advert has to make an educated guess about the best page on their website to send visitors to.

That’s quite easy if the user is searching for a specific product. For example, if someone was looking for ‘men’s puma trainers’ then it would make sense to link the creative to the webpage where you actually sold ‘men’s puma trainers’.

In some cases however, it’s not always clear what the best page should be.

Let’s consider people who are searching using the term ‘123-reg’. We sell quite a few different products: Domain Names; Web Hosting; Email; SSL Certificates; Ecommerce packages, to name a few. Whilst all these products are related, someone who is looking for a domain name is clearly going to want to see different information to someone who is looking for an SSL certificate.

By adding ‘Sitelinks’ into our adverts we can let users choose the page that best suits them.

It’s the Google way

Google say that what they’re trying to do is create a better experience for the user. They’re giving the user the choice of where to go on a website. This is a typical piece of Google thinking. They let often let users decide what’s best for them, rather than trying to 2^nd guess their intentions.

Why this is good for your AdWords Campaign

Users will appreciate it
If you make it easy for users to navigate directly to the correct page on your website, those people are going to be more likely to buy from you. As any usability expert will tell you, positive user experience is about minimising the length of time it takes users to find the information they’re looking for. And positive user experiences will result in happy customers, and more sales on your bottom line.

You can take up more of the Search Engine Results Page
Do you have a problem with other adverts appearing when people search for your website? If you enable Sitelinks, your advert becomes twice as big – and uses up twice as much space on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). This means that your advert will dominate the eye-line of the user, and are far more likely to be clicked on. More traffic for you. Less for your competitors.

You can showcase more products

Adding Sitelinks let you show users that you sell lots of different products, before they’ve even arrived on your website. It’s possible that a user is searching for you because they want to buy some new socks. When they see a Sitelink to ‘tights’ or even ‘sandals’ they might take the opportunity to check out the other stuff you sell.

They sound awesome! How do I get going?

You can add Sitelinks from the Settings page of your Adwords Campaign, under ‘Ad extensions’.

Whether or not you’ve tried Sitelinks, let us know what you think about this development.

Author: Nick Leech of Euston Digital

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We imagine the people running the online branch of world famous toy shop Hamleys were feeling a little red-faced last week. Just as the whole world’s thoughts were turning to Christmas shopping and the festive lights in London’s West End were being switched on, the Hamleys website was looking a little, er, switched off.

Instead of being offered the chance to browse and buy a huge range of toys, visitors to hamleys.com were met with a standard holding page from a domain name registration company. The cause? The company let its domain name expire – meaning it no longer pointed to their website.

Although Hamleys seems to have acted fast to fix the problem and restore its website, a report in the Telegraph suggests it was still down for about a day and a half. Most of that downtime was probably caused by the time it takes for changes to a domain name to make their way through the whole internet.

Whatever the exact cause, for Hamleys, a day and a half’s worth of online sales must be significant, especially in the run-up to Christmas.

An elementary mistake?

Of all the mistakes to make, forgetting to renew your domain name seems like a pretty elementary one. Yet when you have loads of other things to worry about, it’s easy to overlook. The same thing happened to Emirates and GMTV in 2008, so it’s not only Hamleys who have suffered the embarrassment.

The solution? If your domain name is important, set it up so that when it comes close to expiring, it gets renewed automatically. All 123-reg customers can use this feature – go here to learn more about auto-renewal.

We can only assume Hamleys have learnt this lesson now. We’ll know for sure in October 2010, when their domain renewal will come round again.

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Big changes are afoot in the world of domain names. By the middle of 2010, the first domains in non-Latin scripts should be up and running.

This will make domain names written in Chinese, Cyrillic and Arabic a reality – up till now, domains have only been able to contain Latin characters.

This means we’ll start to see domain names containing all sorts of unfamiliar characters – well, unfamiliar to those of us who don’t understand those languages, at least.

What’s the point?

Billions of people across the world never use the Latin alphabet in their lives. This is a key step in making the internet more accessible and understandable to those people. That’s what makes it important.

The whole point of the changes is to create a universal address system that will work anywhere and everywhere – so every computer in the world can connect with every other.

But first things first: to begin with, the change will only apply to country code top level domains (like .uk) which are controlled by national governments. Read the rest of this entry »

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