A web server is a computer program that delivers (serves) content, such as this web page, using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The term web server can also refer to the computer or virtual machine running the program.

The primary function of a web server is to deliver web pages to clients (i.e. web browsers). This means delivery of HTML documents and any additional content that may be included by a document, such as images, style sheets and JavaScripts. While the primary function is to serve content, a full implementation of a web server also includes a way of receiving content from clients. This feature is used for submitting web forms, including uploading of files.

Examples of web servers include the Apache HTTP Server and Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS).

Everybody knows you need a domain name to get on the Web, but which one? Well, if you're promoting a club, sports team or other non-profit group, you'll want a .ORG domain, e.g. somesportsclub.org. For Internet service firms — and people whose favorite .COM has already been registered by someone else — there's .NET. And .COM, the most widely recognized domain in the world, is perfect for anyone.

There are also region-specific domain names. For example, .BB domains are specific to Barbados, .CO.UK are ideal for UK-based businesses, and so on. Domain names from iSphere Technologies are not only affordable, each one is registered through the well-known, popular registrars including GoDaddy.com, Inc. and Network Solutions, making it easy to manage all aspects of your domain names.

For more information about domain names, including requests for domain name registration, please feel free to contact us.

A top-level domain (TLD) is the last part of an Internet domain name. For example in the domain name ispheretechnologies.com, the top-level domain is com, and in ispheretechnologies.co.uk the TLD is co.uk. TLDs for the same site usually contain the same content but may be promoted/marketed with different customer demographics in mind, e.g. the TLD co.uk is usually used to target UK-specific customers and website visitors.

Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials — typically, their source code. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology. Before the term open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; open source gained hold with the rise of a public, worldwide, computer-network system called the Internet, and the attendant need for massive retooling of the computing source code.

Opening the source code enabled a self-enhancing diversity of production models, communication paths, and interactive communities. Subsequently, a new, three-word phrase "open source software" was born to describe the environment that the new copyright, licensing, domain, and consumer issues created.

The open source model includes the concept of concurrent yet different agendas and differing approaches in production, in contrast with more centralized models of development such as those typically used in commercial software companies. A main principle and practice of open source software development is peer production by bartering and collaboration, with the end-product (and source-material) available at no cost to the public.

See full article on wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source.

PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML source documents. PHP generally runs on a web server. Any PHP code in a requested file is executed by the PHP runtime, usually to create dynamic web page content.

PHP was originally created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995 and has been in continuous development ever since. The main implementation of PHP is now produced by The PHP Group and serves as the de facto standard for PHP. The latest stable branch release of PHP is PHP 5.

Official PHP website

A Content Management System (CMS) is a software system designed to:

•  Allow for a large number of people to contribute to and share stored data
•  Control access to data, based on user roles, defining what information each user can view and edit
•  Aid in easy storage and retrieval of data
•  Reduce repetitive duplicate input
•  Improve the ease of report writing
•  Improve communication between users

In a CMS, data can be defined as almost anything - text information, documents, images, movies, phone numbers, etc. CMSs are frequently used for storing, controlling, revising, semantically enriching, and publishing documentation. Content that is controlled is usually industry-specific.

A 'Web Content Management' system, is a type of CMS designed to simplify the publication of Web content to Web sites and mobile devices, in particular, allowing content creators to submit content without requiring technical knowledge of HTML or the uploading of files.

At iSphere Technologies we specialize in the installation, development, customization and maintenance of websites built on the Drupal CMS and the Expression Engine CMS. Both of these software systems are highly stable, flexible, modular and affordable. Drupal is an open source software product while Expression Engine has a small price tag that is more than well worth it's investment for any serious business or company.

Link building is the process of increasing search engine rankings and traffic by generating inbound links to a particular website.  Search engine algorithms regard each link as a vote for the destination website’s content, so sites with the greatest link popularity (or number of high-quality inbound links) appear highest on search engine result pages (SERPs).  The three most practiced methods of building links include reciprocal linking, link baiting and natural linking.

Reciprocal linking is an exchange in which two related websites link to each other, increasing the link popularity of both sites and adding value for site users.  Link baiting involves creating attention-grabbing web content specifically for viral (exponentially increasing) exposure through social media and social bookmarking websites. Natural linking is the process of building one-way inbound links by optimizing website content and user experience without the explicit solicitation of a backlink.

Search algorithms are continuously updated to prevent black hat SEOs from deceiving search engines with automated linking software and links from directories or other low-quality websites.  One-way links from websites with strong, related pages are given greater weight than reciprocal links, links from sites with unrelated content or links from sites with low PageRank.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of designing and tuning your website to maximize your findability and improve your rankings in organic (non-paid) search engine results.  To maximize traffic, one needs to take into consideration how search engines work when you design your website.  There are two ways of employing SEO.  The first, known as white hat SEO, refers to methods that are approved by search engines, do not attempt to deceive the search engines, and produce quality, long-term results.  Top white hat techniques for SEO include:  offering quality content, using proper metadata and effective keywords, and having inbound links from relevant high-quality pages.  Black hat methods are used to deceive search engines.  Although they may result in temporary improvement in search engine results, these tactics could get your site banned by the search engines.  A “Google bomb” (or link bomb) is an example of a black hat method—it attempts to trick the Google algorithm into promoting a certain page (generally for humorous reasons).

Another important SEO-related technique is optimization of the coding architecture of the website’s pages crawled by search engines.  Although this does not directly increase or decrease your rankings in organic search engine results it can impact how easily your website is crawled.  In other words, by optimizing your website’s pages you can make it easier for your website to be accessed by search engines and maximize the number of pages that are indexed from your site.  An example of such coding optimization techniques include coding website pages with what is known as standards-compliant or valid HTML/XHTML, a concept introduced by the World Wide Web Consortium.  Coding errors in a page may hide large amounts of your page content from search engines - even though human visitors see the content with no problem.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is the method of promoting your website to increase traffic and search results by raising the site’s visibility on search engine results pages.  Danny Sullivan (founder of Search Engine Watch, see http://searchenginewatch.com for website) introduced the term “Search Engine Marketing” in 2001 to include SEO, managing paid listings, developing online marketing strategies and submitting sites to directories.

SEO is the most popular form of search engine marketing, which continues to take away business from other marketing channels (especially offline sources).  According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization’s annual State of Search Engine Marketing survey, North American advertisers spent $9.4 billion on search engine marketing in 2006, a 62% increase over 2005 spending.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP), a standard Internet protocol, is the simplest way to exchange files between computers on the Internet. Like the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which transfers displayable Web pages and related files, and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), which transfers e-mail, FTP is an application protocol that uses the Internet's TCP/IP protocols. FTP is commonly used to transfer Web page files from their creator to the computer that acts as their server for everyone on the Internet. It's also commonly used to download programs and other files to your computer from other servers.

As a user, you can use FTP with a simple command line interface (for example, from the Windows MS-DOS Prompt window) or with a commercial program that offers a graphical user interface. Your Web browser can also make FTP requests to download programs you select from a Web page. Using FTP, you can also update (delete, rename, move, and copy) files at a server. You need to logon to an FTP server. However, publicly available files are easily accessed using anonymous FTP.

Basic FTP support is usually provided as part of a suite of programs that come with TCP/IP. However, any FTP client program with a graphical user interface usually must be downloaded from the company that makes it.

You can find additional information on FTP at the following websites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Transfer_Protocol
http://www.tech-faq.com/ftp.shtml

A thin client (sometimes also called a lean or slim client) is a computer or a computer program which depends heavily on some other computer (its server) to fulfill its traditional computational roles. This stands in contrast to the traditional fat client, a computer designed to take on these roles by itself. The exact roles assumed by the server may vary, from providing data persistence to actual information processing on the client's behalf.

Thin clients occur as components of a broader computer infrastructure, where many clients share their computations with the same server. As such, thin client infrastructures can be viewed as the amortization of some computing service across several user-interfaces.