Terms Letter: M
MAC
Media Access Control. A protocol operating at the data link layer used to manage a station’s access to the network.
MAC Address
Media Access Control address (also hardware or physical address). Unique hardware serial number that uniquely identifies a device on a local area network.
Mailing List
An e-mail based discussion group. Sending one e-mail message to the mailing list’s list server sends mail to all other members of the group. Users join a mailing list by subscribing. A Mailing list can have owner and/or moderators which control what is being distributed across the list.Some web hosting plans allow creation of mailing lists.
Mailserver
A set of programs running on a web hosting server that handle the process of email delivery, sending, forwarding, etc. Mail servers are responsible to for routing our email messages to their recipients.
Mainframe Computer
A large, centralized computer with a great deal of memory and computing power.
Megabyte (MB)
A million bytes. Actually, 1024 kilobytes.
MHz
Abbreviation for megahertz. One MHz represents one million cycles per second. The speed of microprocessors, called the clock speed, is measured in megahertz.
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Access is a database which comes bundled in Microsoft Office® Products. Access is fully compatible with Active Server Pages (ASP) scripting which is only available only on our NT virtual servers. back to top. Windows web hosting plans sometimes include MS Access database.
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft’s enterprise level SQL database running on Windows systems. More expensive web hosting plans offer access to MS SQL server.
MIME
The Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions protocol (MIME) is used in Internet communications to transmit documents of varying formats. It is used by World Wide Web (WWW) Servers to identify the types of files they send to WWW Clients. The protocol provides a means of specifying the type of file being transmitted (e.g., a motion video file) and the method that should be used to return it to its original form for display. MIME types have been defined for many types of non-text files, including: graphic and image files (jpeg, gif, tif), sound files (au, wav), and motion video files (mpeg).
Mirror site
A server, which contains a duplicate of another WWW or FTP, site. Mirror sites are created when the traffic on the original site becomes too heavy for single server. Often mirror sites are located in different geographic areas allowing users to choose the site closest to them.
Miva Empressa
Miva Empresa installs on most Unix and Windows web servers and enables the server to run Miva Merchant and other Miva Script applications. XML-based Miva Script is a robust scripting language with e-commerce and database capabilities. Miva Script applications running under Miva Empresa execute in a sandboxed data and runtime environment. Special virtual domain and shared server features let busy site administrators create per user and per domain runtime environments
Miva Merchant
Miva Merchant is a dynamic browser based storefront development and management system that allows merchants to create and administrate multiple online stores from anywhere in the world.
Modem
A device that enables a user to dial into another computer via telephone lines to send and receive data. The most common use of modems is for dialing into an Internet service provider to access the Internet or World Wide Web, though they can also be used to send faxes and transmit data directly from one computer to another. Modems do not provide high bandwidth, and as a result, they do not provide high speed Internet access
MP3
Stands for MPEG audio layer 3. A popular compressed audio format widely used to transfer music over the internet. An MP3 file is much smaller than a wave file.
mSQL (Mini SQL)
Light-weight relational database.
Multicast
A one-to-many connection in which multiple clients can receive the same stream from a server. To receive a multicast, a client must have access to a multicast-enabled network. In contrast, a unicast is a one-to-one connection in which one client receives a distinct stream from a server.
MySQL
MySQL is a true multi-user, multi-threaded SQL database server. MySQL is fast and flexible enough to allow you to store logs and pictures in it. Its main goals are speed, robustness, and ease of use. It is a freely available database server capable of running on Unix and Windows servers. Many web hosting plans have support for MySQL