Why do I need a web site?
The main reasons a company would want a web site are to improve customer service, develop their corporate image, find new prospects, increase visibility, perform transactions, expand their market, meet their customers expectations, reduce their costs, and to catch up and surpass the competition.
How do people find out about my web site?
The best way for the public to find out about your web site is to add your URL to all of your advertising media and collateral. Make sure you put your web site address on your business cards, brochures, magazine ads, radio ads, newspaper ads, TV ads, press releases, and trade show publications. Internet users utilize “Search Engines” to find things on the web. We can add you to the most popular search engines so that people can find your site based on key words (meta tags) you choose. In addition, there are a number of paid solutions. We can get you set up on a submission campaign so your site will come up on Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, Overture and more.
How do I get my own web address?
This is also known as a domain name. A company called InterNIC controls the names to make sure there are no duplicates. There is an initial fee to register your domain name and an annual fee to keep your domain name registered. You will also need a place to host your site. There are a few different options and where you host your site often depends on the type of site you have. We have a number of solutions and can help arrange this for you.
How do I get my pictures on the Internet?
Your pictures need to be in a digital format. If you do not have one, we can scan in the image for you. A scanned in image is when a photograph or drawing must be digitized and processed by us. We scan in the image, size it, adjust the color, brightness, and contrast as necessary, then save it in digital format for use on the Internet.
How do I “refresh” a page to see the changes?
Your computer saves (caches) web sites that you have downloaded so that when you want to view it again, your computer doesn’t have to spend time downloading. When this happens click on the Reload or Refresh button in your menu bar which forces a new download. You will then be able to see the changes.
Who owns the work when the project is completed?
When the project is finished and all parties are completely satisfied you, the client, will own everything except source files, which can be made available to you. We will make these files available for download on our extranet where you can login at any time.
I don’t know all of the computer lingo. Can you please translate?
Of course we can, here is list of Terminology:
ActiveX Control: A component that can be inserted into a page to provide functionality not directly available in HTML, such as animation sequences, credit-card transactions, or spreadsheet calculations.
Address Bar: The long, thin box near the top of a web browser window, which contains the web address of the web page currently being viewed.
ASP: Active Server Pages technology allows the site developer to create dynamic web pages through the use of ActiveX. ASP pages are used for numerous tasks including form handling, database connectivity, even putting a date and time on a page. (Note: We are referring to ASP in the context of dynamic web pages, ASP can also refer to Application Service Provider.)
Browser: Client software that is used to look at various kinds of Internet resources. (i.e. Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator)
Cache: A section of a computer’s memory, which retains recently accessed data in order to speed up repeated access to the same data. Your computer and browser use cache memory to load web pages more quickly. Your ISP also uses a cache for this purpose. If you ask your computer to view a page, and it finds the page in the cache, it will read the cached page instead of the page from the Internet, unless you reload the page.
Cookie: The most common meaning of ‘Cookie’ on the Internet refers to a piece of information sent by a Web Server to a Web Browser. The Browser software is expected to save and to send back to the Server whenever the browser makes additional requests from the Server. Cookies might contain information such as login or registration information, online ‘shopping cart’ information, user preferences, etc. When a Server receives a request from a Browser that includes a Cookie, the Server is able to use the information stored in the Cookie. For example, the Server might customize what is sent back to the user, or keep a log of particular user’s requests. Cookies are usually set to expire after a predetermined amount of time and are usually saved in memory until the Browser software is closed down, at which time they may be saved to disk if their ‘expire time’ has not been reached. Cookies do not read your hard drive and send your life story to the CIA, but they can be used to gather more information about a user than would be possible without them.
CSS: Cascading Style Sheets. Style sheets when attached to documents describe how the document is displayed or printed. For example, a CSS is attached to an HTML document to influence its layout when accessed by a browser to keep the look uniform. CSS supports cascading, i.e. a single document may use two or more style sheets that are than applied according to specified priorities.
DNS: Domain Name System/Domain Name Service.
DNS Transfer: To point a domain name to a different name server in order to make another company responsible for its hosting services.
DTD: Document Type Definition is a collection of XML declarations that defines the legal structure, elements, and attributes that are available for use in a document that complies with the DTD.
Download: To receive information from another computer over a network.
E-Commerce: Electronic Commerce is the general exchange of goods and services on the Internet.
Firewall: A method of protecting one network from another network. A firewall blocks unwanted access to the protected network while giving the protected network access to networks outside of the firewall. A company will typically install a firewall to give users access to the Internet while protecting their internal information.
FTP: File Transmission Protocol
HTML: Hypertext Markup Language is the language used to code most web sites. It is a language that all browsers on all computers are able to read.
HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol is the set of rules for exchanging files (text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the Internet.
Hyperlink: A jump from text or from an image map to a page or other type of file on the Internet. On Internet pages, hyperlinks are the primary way to navigate between pages and among websites.
Hypertext: Originally, any textual information on a computer containing jumps to other information. The hypertext jumps are called hyperlinks. On Internet pages, hypertext is the primary way to navigate between pages and among web sites. Hypertext on Internet pages has been expanded to include hyperlinks from text and hyperlinks from image maps
Image Map: An image containing one or more hotspots (a.k.a. invisible regions), which are assigned hyperlinks. Typically, an image map gives users visual cues about the information made available by clicking on each part of the image. For example, a geographical map could be made into an image map by assigning hotspots to each region of interest on the map.
Internet: The global computer network, composed of thousands of Wide Area Networks (WANs) and Local Area Networks (LANs), that uses TCPIP to provide worldwide communications to homes, schools, businesses, and governments. The World Wide Web runs on the Internet.
IP Number: Internet Protocol Number, sometimes called a dotted quad. It is a unique number consisting of 4 parts separated by dots, (for example 64.68.82.168). Every machine that is on the Internet has a unique IP number.
JAVA: An object oriented programming language specifically designed for use on the Internet. Java classes compile into Java-byte code. This code can be executed on any platform that implements the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
Markup: Markup refers to the string of characters or symbols that you insert at specific places in a text or word processing file to specify how the file should look when it’s printed or displayed, or to describe the document’s logical structure. The markup indicators are often called “tags.”
Meta Tag: An HTML tag that must appear in the header portion of the page. Meta tags supply information about the page but do not affect its display. “Generator” is a common meta-tag used to specify which editor created the page.
Namespaces: W3C activity concerning XML to enable documents to use names specified in foreign DTD’s. A namespace declaration within an XML document points to a namespace ‘ns’ via a URI.
PDF: Portable Document Format. Adobe defined this format for platform independent transmission of digital documents.
Perl: Scripting Language
POP 3: Post Office Protocol, Version 3; A protocol that allows a user to retrieve e-mail from a mail server by way of an Internet connection. POP e-mail is most useful for users who lack a permanent network connection since it provides a virtual “post office” that will hold e-mail until it can be retrieved. POP3 does not specify a particular means of writing or sending mail; this function is handled by a mail transfer protocol such as SMTP.
Script: A type of computer code that can be directly executed by a program that understands the language in which the script is written.
Server: A computer used to transfer files via an Internet connection.
SMTP: Simple Mail Transport Protocol is the main protocol used to send electronic mail on the Internet. SMTP consists of a set of rules for how a program sending mail and a program receiving mail should interact. Almost all Internet e-mail is sent and received by clients and servers using SMTP, so if you wanted to set up an e-mail server on the Internet you would look for e-mail server software that supports SMTP.
Spam (or Spamming): An inappropriate attempt to use a mailing list, or other networked communications facility as if it was a broadcast medium (which it’s not) by sending the same message to a large number of people who didn’t ask for it. Although uncertain, the term probably comes from a famous Monty Python skit that featured the word spam repeated over and over. The term may also have come from someone’s low opinion of the food product with the same name, which is generally perceived as a generic content-free waste of resources. (Spam is a registered trademark of Hormel Corporation for its processed meat product.)
SQL: Structured Query Language is a specialized programming language for sending queries to databases. Most industrial-strength and many smaller database applications can be addressed using SQL. Each specific application will have its own version of SQL implementing features unique to that application, but all SQL-capable databases support a common subset of SQL.
SSL: Secure Sockets Layer is a protocol designed by Netscape Communications to enable encrypted, authenticated communications across the Internet. SSL used mostly (but not exclusively) in communications between web browsers and web servers. URL’s that begin with ‘https’ indicate that an SSL connection will be used. SSL provides 3 important things: Privacy, Authentication, and Message Integrity. In an SSL connection each side of the connection must have a Security Certificate, which each side’s software sends to the other. Each side then encrypts what it sends using information from both its own and the other side’s Certificate, ensuring that only the intended recipient can de-crypt it, and that the other side can be sure the data came from the place it claims to have come from, and that the message has not been tampered with.
TCP: Transmission Control Protocol. Internet networking software that controls the transmission packets of data over the Internet. Among its tasks, TCP checks for lost packets, puts the data from multiple packets into the correct order, and requests that missing or damaged packets be resent. Computers must run TCP to communicate with World Wide Web servers.
TLD: Top Level Domain. The rightmost part of a domain name. Generic TLD’s include .com, .net, and .org; country code TLDs include .jp (Japan), .uk (United Kingdom) and .au (Australia). Others include .edu (Education), .biz, .us, .mil (Military) and .gov (Government).
Upload: To transmit information to another computer over a network.
URI: Universal Resource Identifier, either a URL or a URN. A URI is a way of identifying content in the web, whether it is a page of text, a video or sound clip, an image, or a program.
URL: Universal Resource Locator is the unique address of a document on the Internet. For example ours is https://www.armandgilbert.com.
URN: Uniform Resource Name
W3C: World Wide Web Consortium
Web: Often used as a short way to refer to the World Wide Web or the Internet.
Web Address: A domain name or URL
Web Browser: Software that gives a user access to the Internet. Web browsers provide a graphical interface that lets users click buttons, icons, and menu options to view and navigate through Web pages. (i.e. Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator).
Web Host: a company responsible for hosting a web page.
Web Hosting: A service that allows you to upload and store a site’s HTML documents and related files on a Web server. This makes the files available on the Internet to be viewed by the public. (a.k.a. called site hosting)
Web Page: A document written in HTML that can be accessed on the Internet.
Web Server: A computer that stores Web documents and makes them available to the rest of the world. A server may be dedicated, meaning its sole purpose is to be a Web server, or non-dedicated, meaning it can be used for basic computing in addition to acting as a server.
Web Site: A group of pages on the World Wide Web that are developed and maintained by a company, organization, or individual, usually to convey information.
World Wide Web: The information available on the Internet through interconnected sites that are accessible with a web browser.
XHTML: Extensible Hypertext Markup Language is a reformulation of HTML 4.0 in XML 1.0. XHTML is a new language for building web pages that has recently been proposed as a W3C Recommendation. This proposed recommendation has caused a lot of debate on account of XHTML’s usage of XML namespaces.
We hope that you found our list of FAQ’s helpful and that we were able to answer most of your questions. Please contact Armand Gilbert Web Design today for answers to any of your other questions and to get started on your project today!