An 'administrative contact' is authorised to act on behalf of the registrant of the domain name. The administrative contact does not have the right to change the registrant of a domain name, but may change any of the other contacts. This contact may also make technical settings to the domain such as updating the DNS or zone file.

Apache is a HTTP server that allows your website to be visible on the internet by interpreting your web pages (.html, .php, etc.). (read more about this)

The billing contact of a domain name is only authorized to access invoices of the domain name, and renew the domain name.

A botnet consists of many hijacked hosts, sometimes speculated to amount to thousands. Usually botnets are used to send spam, but they can also be used to launch powerful DDoS attacks. Another common use of botnets by spammers is botnet hosting.

ccTLD is "country code Top Level Domain", that means the domains that pertain to a certain country or similar entity. See also: TLD

This status is applied to domain names that use EPP (the gTLD) after they have expired. To remove this status, you just need to renew the domain name.

This status is also used for suspending gTLD domains in cases of abuse.

Computer contaminants are malicious programs such as viruses or Trojans that once installed on your computer will cause your system to be corrupt.

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS attack) happens as numerous computers access a resource (typically a website) simultaneously, slowing down or even preventing the legitimate use of the website.

A 'disk', in the context of your Gandi server, is additional storage space that can be added or removed from your server.

A Distribution is a version of an operating system that contains its own applications and characteristics.

DNS can refer either to 'Domain Name System' or 'Domain Name Server'.

A domain name is alpha-numeric Internet address, formed by the name that you have chosen, and a TLD. A domain name is most often used to name a website (such as www.gandi.net) or an email address (example@gandi.net). In these examples, "gandi.net" is the domain name; "gandi" the chosen name and "net" the TLD (read more about this).

File Transfer Protocol. This is an unencrypted way to upload, download, and manipulate files on your server read more about this).

Gandi OS is a version of the Ubuntu Linux distribution.

Game servers are servers that allow many gamers to play the same game over the internet via a game client (read more about this).

A glue record is the association of a host name (name server, or DNS) with an IP address at the registry.

In order for a name server to to “work” it needs to be able to be found first. this is done by creating a glue record. (read more about this)

"Greylisting" is a relatively new method of blocking email spam messages.

The technique involves temporarily blocking messages from untrusted sources and waiting for them to automatically resend the message; spam software typically doesn't resend, while legitimate mail servers do.

The term host name can take on several meanings depending on the context. It is generally used to mean the name of a server (as opposed to an IP address) so as to help identify it (read more about this).

This is a code (login, ID) used to identify a person who manages one or several domain names. Each registrar uses their own handle system. A Gandi handle looks like AB123-GANDI (read more about this)

A hijacked host is a server that has been hacked and is then used by a third party without the knowledge of the the server administrator (read more about this)

Hypertext Transfer Protocol. This is a protocol that allows for communication between clients (ex. web browsers) and servers.

Like HTTP but encrypted for added security.

Internet Engineering Task Force, www.ietf.org. The IETF is a large open international community, which is concerned with the evolution of the Internet's architecture, and with the smooth operation of the Internet. The IETF defines web standards.

Internet Network Information Center, www.internic.com. Registered service mark of the U.S. Department of Commerce, licensed to ICANN.

An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a numerical name (ex. 123.123.123.123) that is assigned to a machine so that other machines can find it and communicate with it over the internet. (read more about this)

Internet Protocol version 4 (ipv4). This is the most commonly used version of IP address, and takes the form of 123.123.123.123. (read more about this)

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, www.icann.org. ICANN is the technical administrator for the Internet, and regulates the use of domain names.

Internationalized Domain name. This is a domain name that contains accented letters (read more about this)

Joe job is a spammed smear campaign. It's spam meant to convince other people that it was sent by the victim.

LART stands for "Local Abuse Response Team". This is a term for the department within an organization that receives and acts upon abuse reports.

See: computer contaminants

MySQL server is a database that is commonly used in web applications such as forums, blogs, etc, to store and retrieve information (read more about this)

Also known as DNS. A name server is responsible for handling requests for a domain name. Name servers are what allow a domain name to point to its web, e-mail, or other servers where the content is hosted (read more about this)

Operating System (OS). This is what drives the server. Some examples of operating systems is Linux (and its various distributions such as Ubuntu, GandiStrib, Kubuntu, etc.), Mac OS X, and Windows.

The term “path” refers to the name of the location of something on your computer’s hard drive. It can be thought of as a map of where to find something.(read more about this)

PostFix is one of the most widely-used open source e-mail servers. Postfix allows you to host e-mail accounts on your Gandi server (read more about this)

This status is applied to a domainname after the end of the client hold period. Domains in this status cannot be renewed, transferred, or have any other operations performed except for a restoration (read more about this)

Phishing means trying to get valuable data from unsuspecting people - for example bank account passwords. A successful phishing attack is comprised of spam, a spoofed website and the means to take the information from a victim and steal money or an identity for personal gain.

Typically, in a phishing scam, spam is sent out to potential victims spoofing a bank or other online financial organization. The victim clicks on a link redirecting him to a fraudulent website pretending to the bank or financial institution. A few recipients fall for the unsuspected scam by giving out personal information to the phisher by filling out the information on the fraudulent website.

ProFTPd is an open source FTP server.

The term Pump and dump is a term used to define a particular type of stock fraud or stock market manipulation. It briefly means that a perpetrator buys cheap shares of a company, then makes somebody promote it. If there are enough victims to believe the hype and buy the stock, the price of the shares goes up, and the perpetrator sells them at a profit.

Python is a programming language like Perl. It is being used by an increasing number of developers.

Organization like Gandi, accredited by the competent authorities in assigning and managing domain names (read more about this).

Organization that manages the centralized database of domain names registered in a TLD zone. It is the authoritative source of information, which updates whois and root nameservers for the TLD with the content of its database (read more about this).

Rebooting is when you need to restart your operating system. This may be necessary after performing some changes to the configuration of your server, or if you need to unblock a frozen system.

A domain name (.com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .us) is placed on redemption period if:

• the domain has expired and has not been renewed for 30 days
• the owner has explicitly requested to delete the domain before expiration.

If your domain is on RedemptionPeriod status at Gandi, it can be restored. (more)

Rsync is an application that facilitates file exchanges.

Ruby is an object-oriented programming language.

ROKSO (Register of Known Spam Operations) is a database about known professional spammers, kept by Spamhaus.

A 'Share' is 1/64th of the machine used at this time (a quadri-bi processor with 8GB of RAM). We divided our machines do that the smallest part (share) corresponds to the average requirements of a standard website (read more about this)

The security of your website depends on a good relationship between your webmaster and server administrator. The webmaster needs to assure that the code does not contain security vulnerabilities that would allow a hacker to gain unauthorized access, and the server administrator must see that the hacker cannot gain control over the server and thus the content of the website.

Choosing passwords (more), careful scripting (more), and configuring your servers (more) must all be done in a way that prevents others from gaining access.

SFTP is a secure protocol for transferring and manipulating files to and from your server. This method is preferred over FTP, which sends sensitive information unencrypted over the internet. (read more about transferring and manipulating files via SFTP)

The legal definition of spam varies from one country to another. Spamhaus, a partner of Gandi in the fight against spam, defines spam as "unsolicited bulk e-mail" (read more about this).

To 'spamvertise' means to promote a site through spam.

Many such sites reside on hijacked hosts, but there are also "server farms" that offer their services for a price.

Typically spamvertized sites claim to sell medicine (ex. My Canadian Pharmacy), counterfeit items (ex. Replica Watches), or bootlegged software (ex. OEM Soft Store).

SQLite is a small library written in C that provides a simplified SQL database engine.

SSH is a program that will let you log into any remote machine and execute commands on that machine from a distance in a way that is secure and encrypted. (read more about this)

Final part of the domain name, that comes after a dot. TLD (Top Level Domain) refers to the Internet zone in which your domain name is located. It is also known as "extension" (read more about this).

A transfer is a change of registrar. This is different from an ownership change, from a change of contacts, or from a change of web host (also called DNS redelegation).

A Trojan is a program that superficially does something it has been advertized to do, or promises to do. But it has a hidden agenda: it may be harmful to your computer, or make it a 'bot', for example to send spam or transmit viruses.

Entity that defines and regulates the conditions of assignment and use of domain names, applying to each particular TLD. The Trustee authority for generic TLDs is ICANN : a non-profit corporation that, for historical reasons, reports to the U.S. Department of Commerce (read more about this).

UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy) is a standard procedure for disputes over domain names at gTLDs. It is generally evoked when the dispute pertains to the use of a domain name that infringes upon intellectual or trademark property rights.

Usenet is "Internet news", newsgroups about specific topics that are distributed to lots of news servers. People can post their own articles and read others'. GandiGroups is an example of a usenet (groups.gandi.net), as is the popular anti-spam usenet, NANAE (news.admin.net-abuse.email).

A user in the context of a server or operating system is the account name of a person who has access rights.

VFTPD (Virtual FTP server Daemon) is an application that allows you to connect to your Gandi server via your FTP client (read more about this)

Also known as VM (virtual machine). A virtual dedicated server (VDS) is an emulation of a dedicated server hosted on a larger machine. The characteristics are exactly those of a dedicated server; you can install an operating system, re-boot it, and assign it is own IP Address, etc..

In the context of a FTP server, a virtual host is a login account that grants access to the server to non system administrators.

See: virtual dedicated server

Also known as an HTTP server. This is the server (ex. Apache) that is responsible for making your web pages visible online.

When a domain name is registered, the registrant must provide the registrar of the domain name with valid and up-to-date contact information for the domain (read more about this).

Zombie is another name for hijacked host.

This is the text file that contains the records of the primary DNS that tell the nameserver how to resolve requests for the domain. If you are using Gandi's DNS, you can access your zone file via the "Manage DNS zone file" link in your domain's control panel.