100 Best Web Hosts Terms

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. FAQs are often listed on a website to answer the most commonly asked questions with regards to the content of the site. This prevents someone from having to answer the same questions over and over for different people.

Fast Ethernet
Fast Ethernet is any of several 100Base-T standards as defined by the IEEE 802.3. Fast Ethernet simply reduces the amount of time it takes for a "bit" of information to transfer. Regular Ethernet transfers at a 10 mbit (megabit) per second rate. Fast Ethernet transfers 10 times faster at a 100 mbit rate.

FCC - Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the government of the United States of America. The main role of the FCC is to regulate the use, rates, and standards of telecommunication devices such as radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable

FDDI - Fiber Distributed Data Interface
A Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) is a token ring network that provides standards for data transmission over an optical fiber within a local area network (LAN). It can cover large geographical areas, up to 100 kilometers (about 124 miles) and can support thousands of users.

Fiber Optic Cable
Fiber Optic Cables are used to transmit data or voice signals. They differ from other cables in make-up and method of transmission. Fiber optic cables are made of glass or plastic fibers that send digital signals as light pulses. This allows for data to be transferred greater distances at a higher rate of speed.

File manager
A file manager is a software program that allows you to manage the files on your system. You can use the file manager to create, print, edit, open, view, play, rename, copy, delete, etc. Some file managers allow for network connectivity such as FTP, NFS, and SMB.

Filename Extension
A filename extension is the ending to a filename, typically 3 characters long and found after a period. It can indicate a file format such as .jpg or .gif. The length of the filename extension, or whether or not one is even required, depends on the program you are using.

Filtering
Filtering is the process by which something passes through a set of standards or a medium and then is either caught and held back or is allowed to proceed through. In web hosting this may refer to allowing certain content on a site or finding specific components within a set.

Finger
A Finger program is a protocol, or set of standards, that allows a user to view the status of another user within a computer network system. Typically you will find information such as name and last login, if you are looking for information on a particular user, or a general status report on an overall system.

Firewall
A firewall is a part of a network or computer system that prevents unauthorized access to a computer system, or certain files within a computer system, to outside users. A firewall is set up using specific criteria to meet the local area network (LAN) requirements for what is allowed and not allowed through the firewall. This can be done with hardware, software, or both. A firewall can be used to prevent unwanted applications from coming in or to prevent secure information from going out.

Flame
Flame, or flaming, is the practice of using mean or hostile behavior on the internet. Flame can be done through forums, email, discussion boards, video sharing websites, etc. Flamers typically have strong feelings about a subject and want to share their opinions with everyone. Flame messages are often angry or insulting messages.

Flash
Flash is a multimedia platform developed by Adobe Systems. Flash has been around since 1996 and is used for adding animation and interactive applications to your website. Flash allows you to add a lot of fun creative content to your websites that will make it more interesting and entertaining for your visitors.

Forward Domain
Same as Forward Zone

Forward Zone
aka Domain Zone. Any zone that isn't a reverse zone. Root is an exception; root is not a domain zone. Sometimes called a forward domain, or forward zone.

Forwarding
Forwarding can be done in a number of ways and with a number of different applications. To forward something is to send it on to another place. Any example of domain forwarding may be if you have a registered domain under "example.net" but people are always looking for your site under "example.com". You may also need to use domain forwarding if you misspelled a url when you created it. “exampel.com” should have been “example.com”. Using domain forwarding will allow you to redirect one site to another location. In Email, forwarding usually means you are re-sending a message on to a different email address for yourself or to someone else.

FPU - Floating Point Unit
FPU stands for Floating Point Unit. A floating point is a digit that represents a real number. FPU is a computer system that carries out mathematical operations such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, and square roots. Most computers today have FPU integrated with the CPU making it much faster than having a separate system for FPU functions.

FQDN - Fully Qualified Domain Name
Fully Qualified Domain Name or absolute domain name is the full name of a website. For example you may not know if the website you are looking for ends with .net or .com all you know is that it is "mysite" and then dot something. There may be more than one site with the same name but a different ending. A fully qualified domain name includes the entire URL "mysite.com" would be a fully qualified domain name where "mysite" would not.

Frame
A Frame is a specific area. You can have a split frame where one screen will show two separate areas that can be scrolled through independently. On the world wide web a frame is an entire browser window.

Frame Relay
Frame relay is a type of data transmission. Digital information or bundles of data known as frames are sent through this message forwarding service from a main starting point to a number of different end points. Frame relay is often used to connect local area networks (LANs) within a wide area network (WAN).

FrontPage
FrontPage is an administrative tool used in creating a web site. FrontPage is a Microsoft product that allows a user to edit a webpage in a "What You See is What You Get" or WYSIWYG (pronounced wiziwig) environment. What this means is that all the HTML coding is hidden so that what you see when you are editing your content, is very similar to what it will actually look like on your website.

FrontPage Extensions
FrontPage Extensions or FrontPage Server Extensions is a software program used with Microsoft FrontPage that allows communication between clients and web servers. FrontPage extensions use HTTP protocol and is mainly used for file management and functionality.

FTP - File Transfer Protocol
FTP or File Transfer Protocol is a network protocol that allows a user to upload, exchange, and manipulate files over a network such as the internet. FTP is built on a client/server basis and has separate control features and connections allowing the user to control whether or not anyone else can download or manipulate any of the files uploaded on the FTP server.

FTPmail
FTPmail is when one uses a proxy server to gain access to ftp files over the internet. An FTP server responds to an email request and sends the requested files back as an email attachment. This service is useful if you are unable to start an FTP session for yourself because of internet restrictions.

Fully Qualified Domain Name
Fully Qualified Domain Name or absolute domain name is the full name of a website. For example you may not know if the website you are looking for ends with .net or .com all you know is that it is "mysite" and then dot something. There may be more than one site with the same name but a different ending. A fully qualified domain name includes the entire URL "mysite.com" would be a fully qualified domain name where "mysite" would not.

Fully Qualified Host Name
See fully qualified domain name.