Terms Letter: U
Unicode
A 16-bit character set defined by ISO 10646. It maps digits to characters in languages around the world. Because 16 bits covers 32,768 codes, Unicode is large enough to include all the world’s languages, with the exception of ideographic languages that have a different character for every concept, like Chinese.
Unix
A multi-processing, multi-user, family of operating systems that run on a variety of architectures. It is a basis for the Linux, which is one of the most commonly used Operating system for web hosting servers.
UPS
Uninterruptible Power Supply. It is a device with a battery that will turn on in case of power failure. Depending on its capacity, a web hosting server can work from several minutes to several hours using a UPS.
URL
Uniform Resource Locator A URL is the distinct address that identifies each resource on the Internet. More formally, a URL is the networked extension of the standard filename concept that can exist on any machine on the network and served via any of several different methods. An example of a URL is http://www.besthostratings.com/hostingplansdir.html
Usenet
Network of all the newsgroups in the Internet
UTP
Unshielded Twisted Pair – Copper wire cabling used to connect network devices to each other and to a network. Made of 8 strands of copper, twisted in four pairs.
UUencode
A method for converting files from Binaryto ASCII (text) so that they can be sent across the Internet via e-mail