Glossary
Unsure of any of the technical terms relating to hosting? The definitions below explain most of the common terms, but please feel free to contact me if you're not sure or would like further explanations.
Web space: This is the amount of disk space allocated to your website, including email quotas (POP3 accounts only) and FTP files. 100Mb is generally more than sufficient, but if you find that you require more space, this can be arranged.
Bandwidth: Each time someone requests a file from your site, whether it be a web page or an image, it uses up an amount of network capacity equal to the size of the file. Since network capacity is a finite resource (as is disk space), sites are restricted to how much they can use over a period of time. In all my hosting packages, your bandwidth useage is reset at the end of each month.
PHP and Perl/CGI support: These are ways of creating dynamic pages that can interact with visitors on your site.
MySQL databases: Databases facilitate managing information on your web site in a structured way. MySQL is a fast and reliable database server that integrates well with PHP and Perl.
Forwarding/POP3 accounts: These are the two types of email addresses you can use, both of which are unlimited in number (although POP3 accounts are limited by your disk space quota). Forwarding addresses simply act as an alias for another address - e.g. everything at help@example.com might be forwarded to support@example.com. POP3 accounts actually store your email on the server, and you can collect it either from an email client or through the provided web-based interface.