The 95th percentile is the value below which 95 percent of the observations may be found. When ISPs bill "Burstable" Internet bandwidth, the 95th or 98th percentile usually cuts off the top 5% or 2% of bandwidth peaks in each month, and then bills at the nearest rate. In this way infrequent peaks are ignored, and the customer is charged in a fairer way.

The variation of DSL that is most familiar to home and small business users. ADSL is called "asymmetric" because most of its two-way or duplex bandwidth is devoted to the downstream direction, sending data to the user. Only a small portion of bandwidth is available for upstream or user-interaction messages.

Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred over the network in a fixed amount of time. Usually expressed in bits per second (bps) or in higher units like Mbps (millions of bits per second). For example, a modem line often has a bandwidth of 56.6 Kbps, and an Ethernet line has a bandwidth of 10 Mbps (10 million bits per second).

This is where the customer server equipment is hosted at the data centre of the web hosting provider. The web host company will typically take care of power and connectivity, while the customer takes care of all the data and work on the server.

A channel access method in which computers vie for time on the network. For example, if you have a high contention ratio, you are more likely to experience a slower connection during peak/popular periods. Most ISPs offer a contention ratio of 50:1.

A dedicated server refers to the rental and exclusive use of a computer that includes a Web server, related software, and connection to the Internet, housed in the Web hosting company's premises. A dedicated server is usually needed for a Web site (or set of related company sites) that may develop a considerable amount of traffic. The server can be configured and operated remotely from the client company.

The system that translates Internet domain names into IP numbers. A "DNS Server" is a server that performs this kind of translation.

Your "Domain" is your web address & should look something like this "goscomb.net". A domain is normally used as a more memorable way of pointing to an IP address.

While web pages are designed and developed on a single computer, they must be transferred to a server, or host, so that they are available to the rest of the world over the Internet. A host is simply a computer that has a constant, high speed connection to the Internet.

The numbers that are translated into a domain name (eg, goscomb.net). The address is a string of four numbers separated by periods (such as 111.22.3.444) used to represent a computer or other device on the Internet.

An ISP is a company that provides access to the Internet to individuals or companies. ISPs provide local access from your personal computer to their computer network and their network connects you to the Internet.

One e-mail anti-spam technique is to check the domain names in the rDNS to see if they are likely from dialup users, dynamically assigned addresses, or home-based broadband customers. Since the vast majority, but by no means all, of e-mail that originates from these computers is spam, many mail servers also refuse e-mail with missing or "generic" rDNS names.

SDSL is called "symmetric" because its two-way or duplex bandwidth allows for equal downstream & upstream connections, sending data to & from the user at equal rates.

A contract between the vendor and the user that specifies the level of service that is expected during its term. SLAs are used by vendors and customers as well as internally by IT shops and their end users. They can specify bandwidth availability, response times for routine and ad hoc queries, response time for problem resolution (network down, machine failure, etc.).

A sub-domain is a useful way of pointing part of your site to another location, yet staying on the same domain. eg, www.goscomb.co.uk & customer.goscomb.co.uk

A method of partitioning one physical server computer into multiple servers that each has the appearance and capabilities of running on its own dedicated machine. Each virtual server can run its own full-fledged operating system, and each server can be independently rebooted.

The "WHOIS" database is like the the internet telephone directory, providing contact details for the owner of a domain or IP.