This page is a list of terms it is helpful to know such as 'bandwidth', 'domain' and 'hosting'.

Domain - A domain or domain name is a registered name, such as www.itsbusiness.net, www.goodenterprises.com or www.mykazi.co.ke, which when typed in a browser, 'points' or directs it to the website. Domains are registered internationally with licenced Registrars. For this reason, wherever in the world you type a domain name, you will see the correct website in the browser. A domain name can only be registered to one party. Domains can be registered for 1 year, 2, 5 or more. Another term for domain, more technical, is 'url' (plural urls; pronounced you-are-ells).

Subdomains - Subdomains are domain names inside other domains. www.rita.safaricom.co.ke is a subdomain: it is within www.safaricom.co.ke for example. Subdomain names at africlub.net are free of charge for sites that do not want to go to the cost of registering a domain of their own.

Hosting - Websites consist of a group of files linked together to show in a browser window. These files are basically information written in a language called HTML. Sometimes they are written in other languages such as php, asp and so on.
These files are hosted or stored on computers called 'servers' and wherever the website's files are stored is known as the host or 'hosting service'. Different companies in Kenya and around the world offer hosting services. They offer diffent packages that enable payment monthly, annually, for 2, 5 years and so on. The cost depends on the company, the amount of space, the bandwidth and the added features and support services.

Content - Content is simply the information on the website: this can be text, photos/images, sound files (mp3 or other), video files (such as on YouTube), or other kinds of information media. All of this is called 'content'.

Bandwidth - is the amount of information the hosting service is able to convey at any one time. If very many people are looking at a website at one time (like Google), then the site needs very much bandwidth. Also if a site is transmitting video which is very heavy information in size terms (measured in bytes, KB, MB, GB, etc) it also requires high bandwidth.
Bandwidth also refers to the speed of the Internet Service Provider's service in connecting us to the internet. The lowest bandwidth is usually represented by 'Dial-Up services' over phone lines. The faster services are the lease lines normally used by Cybercafes, and Broadband offered by some telecommunication services and most Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

MB/GB - This is the size of files and information packets on the internet all a variation of the basic unit: a byte. Thousands of bytes are Kilobytes or KB, thousands of KB are MB or Megabytes, 1000MB = 1GB (gigabyte), 1000GB = 1 terabyte and 1000TB = 1 petabyte, etc.

Kbps/mbps - refer to kilobytes/second and megabytes per second respectively.

Animation - This is moving image on a website that is not video but just a file made of images (and text sometimes) that move around. The most popular type is Flash animation, though animated gifs are also sometimes popular also. There are other types of animations as well.

Broadband - This just means high bandwidth connection or broad-bandwidth as opposed to narrow-bandwidth or narrowband (what most of us are used to).

Form-mail - This is a page on a website that allows you to input information (called a 'form'). Form-mail allows us to type text into a box and 'submit' by pressing a button; it then sends this text directly into an email inbox. It is therefore a very convenient type of contacting the websites owner(s) or administration.

Webmail - This is email such as Yahoo, Hotmail or GMail that we access through the internet. (The alternative is the mail we access through programs like Microsoft Outlook and such.)

Information Architecture - This refers to how information is organised on a website, which pages link to which ones and so on.

"Layout" - This is merely the design on a webpage.

Update/Updating - This is exactly what it sounds like, updating content on a webpage or entire website.

Publishing - The correct term for putting a website up on the internet, as in "the website was published to the web on Tuesday". This would mean people could start viewing that site on Tuesday.

HTML - stands for hypertext mark-up language, the language most websites are created in.

Hyperlink - This is a feature of websites that allows one word or section of text to direct us to another page by clicking.