Glossary of Internet Service Related Terms

Clicks

Every time a visitor clicks on an advertising banner to access the advertiser's Web site, it is counted as a "click" or "click-through."

Client

A client is a program that uses the services of another program. The client program is used to contact and obtain data or request a service from the server.

Clipboard

A section of a computer's memory where you can temporarily copy chunks of text, data, graphics, or pictures. Once in the clipboard, the item can be pasted into another part of a document, or transferred to any other application. The clipboard normally holds one object at a time.

Cloaking

A method to deliver different content to different agents. Used to send optimized pages to specific search engines

Clustering

Clustering is the use of multiple computers and storage devices to create what seems to be a single system. Clustering is often used to increase a system's availability and for load balancing on highly-trafficked Web sites. NetFirms uses an advanced server clustering system to provide the most efficient service to their clients.

Co-location

Co-location refers to the practice of having your own private server, but housing the actual hardware with a hosting provider.

Command prompt

The C:\> sign in DOS at which codes are typed. These commands control the computer. For many people, this system has been replaced by the Graphic User Interface [GUI] of Windows.

Commercial online services

A company that, for a fee, allows computer users to dial in via modem to access its information and services, which can include Internet access. Examples are America Online, CompuServe, Delphi, and Prodigy.

Commission

Another name for the payment an affiliate receives for sending leads, traffic, or sales to merchant sites. Commissions can be figured on percentages, specific dollar amounts, second tier pay structures or other methods.

Commission Junction

Affiliate Network leader acts as the trusted third party that tracks and reports each ad, sends a monthly payment to publishers (affiliates), and provides a suite of online tools to help publishers optimize their performance.

Compression

A technique to reduce the size of a file in order to make it more manageable and quicker to download. Compressed files have to be extracted using a utility such as PKZip or WinZip. Such files usually have a .zip extension.

Computer Virus

A computer virus is a program created specifically to invade computers and networks and wreak havoc on them. The mischief caused can be very minor, such as causing a funny image or cryptic message to be displayed on your screen, or it can do some serious damage by altering or even destroying files.

Contact Record

In the case of many registries, contact information for technical, billing and administrative purposes are maintained in their database. It is important to keep your contact records updated to ensure that billing and renewal can proceed without problems.

Control panel

This is where many of Window’s settings can be viewed. Here you will find icons for most functions including printers, modems and sound.

Cookie

A cookie is a file sent to a web browser by a web server that is used to record one's activities on a website. For instance, when you buy items from a site and place them in a so-called virtual shopping cart, that information is stored in the cookie. When the browser requests additional files, the cookie information is sent back to the server. Cookies can remember other kinds of personal information, such as your password, so you don't have to re-enter it each time you visit the site; and your preferences, so the next time you return to a site, you can be presented with customized information. Some people regard cookies as an invasion of privacy; others think they are a harmless way to make websites more personal. Most cookies have an expiration date and either reside in your computer's memory until you close your browser or saved to your hard drive. By the way, cookies cannot read information stored in your computer. You can use a text editor to view cookie files. For Windows users of Netscape Navigator, the file is called cookies.txt and is located in the same folder as Netscape. Macintosh users can find it in the Netscape folder in the System/Preferences folder. Internet Explorer creates separate files for each cookie and stores them in folders named Cookies or Temporary Internet Files

Counter

A number on web pages, or hidden in stats software, that will count the number of hits or count the number of times the page has been accessed. Basically, it counts the number of people that have visited that page.

CPA - Cost Per Action

Cost per action for banner ads. This is the best type of rate to pay for banner advertisements, and the worst type of rate to charge. Advertisers only pay for the visitors who click on their banner and then sign up, fill out a form, or purchase something on their website. This is most common for Affiliate Programs.

CPL - Cost Per Lead

The cost an advertiser pays per lead. This is a very common method of selling advertising. A lead can be anything from an e-mail address for a newsletter to a complete survey that needs to be completely filled out and verified in order to get credit. CPL prices can range greatly depending on the program.

Crawler

A crawler is much like a spider except it is programmed to constantly surf the web, following any and all links it comes across. As it visits new websites, it checks its own database to see if the site is listed. If the site is already listed, it makes note of any changes and calculates a search engine ranking for the site. If the site has not been previously listed, the crawler will record all important information, add the website to the database, and assign a ranking to it.

Credit Card Processing

The ability to accept credit card numbers for payment, submit them through a merchant account, and consequently receive payment from the creditor for the amount specified.

Cron Jobs

Cron Jobs are programs that are run and rerun during a specified time period. Many hosts will allow cron jobs to be run during certain ours of the day, usually off-peak hours. Cron jobs can be automated to run based on the system clock.

Cross Linking

When a group of domains that are most often owned by the same individual inner links to each other. This is often for the purpose of increasing its popularity with search engines.

Cryptography

The process of securing private information that is passed through public networks by mathematically scrambling (encrypting) it in a way that makes it unreadable to anyone except the person or persons holding the mathematical "key" that can unscramble (decrypt) it. The two most common types of cryptography are "same-key" and "public-key." In same-key cryptography, a message is encrypted and decrypted using the same key, which is passed along from one party to another in a separate transmission. A more secure method is public-key cryptography which uses a pair of different keys (one public, one private) that have a particular relationship to one another, such that any message encrypted with one key can only be decrypted with the other key and viceversa.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

A way of assigning visual style to the content of Web pages. The style sheet deals with colour, fonts, and the position of text - leaving HTML code to describe the structure of the content.

Cyberspace

Cyberspace is a term coined by science fiction author William Gibson to describe the whole range of information resources available through computer networks

Cybersquatter

The illegal act of buying up domain names and “sitting” on them with the intent of making a large profit off the sell. Cybersquatters will often buy out large quantities of names, trademarks, or highly marketable names to try to make a buck or prevent others from lawful use of the name.