P2P - Peer to Peer
Peer to Peer. Term used by file sharing networks such as Kazaa, Limewire, etc.

Packet Switching
The method by which most data is exchanged throughout the Internet. Most data is broken down in to smaller "packets" prior to transfer, and then reassembled at the destination.

Page
Name for a basic web document. Websites usually consist of many (web) pages.

Page views
When discussing web site statistics - Page views are the number of times people view pages on your site. This should not be confused with visits, visitor count, or unique hits. Page views can range greatly depending on user habits and if a search engine bot has recently visited your site.

Paid inclusion
Paid inclusion programs were popular before Pay Per Click. Some still exist such as Yahoo's paid inclusion. At one time, Inktomi (now owned by Yahoo) was the largest followed by : Altavista, Excite, Lycos, AskJeeves, Etc. It seemed almost everybody had some variation of paid inclusion.

PAP - Password Authentication Protocol
Password Authentication Protocol. Authentication protocol that allows PPP peers to authenticate one another. The remote router attempting to connect to the local router is required to send an authentication request. Unlike CHAP, PAP passes the password and host name or username in the clear (unencrypted). PAP does not itself prevent unauthorized access, but merely identifies the remote end. The router or access server then determines if that user is allowed access. PAP is supported only on PPP lines.

Parked page
A domain that is not in use usually points to a parked page (usually a coming soon page from the registrar).

Password protected
Areas of a site, services, etc that require a pass code to gain access.

Pay per click
Search engines have almost all gone to some variation of this type of model. Users bid on specific terms and associate a maximum bid for a clickthrough. Overture, Google, and FindWhat are the largest.

Pay per lead
Pay per lead has become popular through affiliate networks such as Commission Junction. Insurance companies will usually pay for an insurance lead or inquiry for their services.

Payment gateway
A software usually provided by a third party such as Authorize.Net that allows a website to be integrated to a merchant account. Most major merchant account providers include a gateway with their services.

Peer-to-Peer network
A peer-to-peer network is a collection of computers that can communicate and share information, but that don't have any kind of hierarchical structure. This is the opposite of the client/server model.

Perl
Open source CGI scripting programming language. Written in 1987. Still one of the most popular web programming languages mostly due to its powerful text-manipulation facilities. A huge number of Perl scripts are available for download.

Phishing scams
Internet spammers use this method to get people to give up personal details by acting like the actual provider. Example : You get a spam email saying that Visa needs to verify your information with a link to verify. This link will usually go to a similar looking URL or a plain IP address with the look and feel of the Visa website, but in fact it is a scam.

PHP - Hypertext Preprocessor
PHP is an free open-source server-side scripting language. PHP code can be embedded in HTML. PHP files usually have extensions like .php or .php3. PHP language style is similar to C and Java. Here is the PHP group web site. Other popular server-side scripting languages are ASP, Perl, ColdFusion, TCL, Python, and JSP.

phpMyAdmin
Free mySql administration tool that is written in the php scripting language. This tool makes it easy to create database driven sites with almost no knowledge of sql code.

phpneo
A free content management system that is written in the php scripting language. Some web hosting plans come with the ability to install this with ease.

phpnuke
A content management system written in the php scripting language. Similar to phpneo.

Ping
Packet Internet Groper : a utility used to determine whether a particular computer is currently connected to the Internet. It works by sending a packet to the specified IP address and waiting for a reply.

PKZIP or PKUNZIP
Popular compression and decompression programs.

Platform
The type of computer operating system being used. The word "platform" is also used to describe a collection of disparate programs, programs and operating systems, or hardware and software configurations. In web hosting - usually linux or windows.

Plesk
A web server administration tool for web hosting companies to manage web sites hosted and resellers. Similar to Ensim, Cpanel, etc.

Plone
A free content management system that is run on ZOPE servers.

Plug-in
An add-on piece of software that can extend the features of an existing application. For example Netscape browser plug-ins allow displaying of new types of web content, that the browser can't display on its own.

POP - Post Office Protocol
Short for Post Office Protocol. An e-mail protocol that mail software such as Eudora and Outlook use to communicate with web hosting email servers.

Pop-under
Usually a java script built into a web page triggers a new window to open without coming to the foreground of the page. It is hidden behind the current window and is only visible with you close out of the other window or select that window.

Pop-up
Usually a java script built into a web page triggers a new window to open in front of the current window. See pop-under.

Port
A socket on the computer or other network device used to connect it to the network.

postgreSQL
PostgreSQL is an object-relational database management system that allows you to store and retrieve data according to various parameters given in a query.

Power backup
Usually a web hosting company will have "redundant power supply" this is acheived with various power backups. These can include a UPS backup or in larger cities a different power provider.

PPP - Point to Point Protocol
A network protocol widely used to connect computers to the Internet. Most often used on a telephone line.

PRI - Primary Rate Interface
One of the two ISDN access methods. 23 of 64 Kbps B channels and 1 64 Kbps D channel constitute a PRI.

Primary field
The first field of an SOA record. This field is informational only and has no function. It is intended to hold the hostname of the primary server.

Primary Server
The name server that will be used first and will be relied upon before any of the other name servers that may be listed when a domain name is registered with the registry. When obtaining names with the NSI Registry, registrars must provide the name and IP address of a primary server for the name.

Privacy policy
Fine print on a website that specifies what will happen with any user information gathered during your web visit or session.

Private FTP access
Usually accessed with a private user / pass through ftp.your-domain-name.com/.net/.org.

Private registration
A more recent phenomenon that allows people to protect their private information through the use of third party information to include in the WHOIS database of the domain registrar.

Propagation
The process where name servers throughout the Internet add new domains and remove expired ones from their records. This can be a lengthy process, which is why connecting to a new domain name can often take three or four days.

Protocol
A set of rules by following which two parties can communicate. The TCP/IP protocol suite is the basis of todays Internet.

Proxy
A firewall mechanism that replaces the IP address of a host on the internal (protected) network with its own IP address for all traffic passing through it. A software agent that acts on behalf of a user, typical proxies accept a connection from a user, make a decision as to whether or not the user or client IP address is permitted to use the proxy, perhaps does additional authentication, and then completes a connection on behalf of the user to a remote destination.

PSTN - Public Switched Telephone Network
The standard telephone service that most homes use. It is also referred to as POTS, or Plain Old Telephone Service.

PTR Record
Pointer Record. Also called a reverse record. A PTR record associates an IP address with a canonical name. PTR records should point to a name that can be resolved back to the IP address. The name of the pointer record is not the IP address itself, but is the IP address’ four IP octets in reverse order followed by IN-ADDR.ARPA.

Putty
A program that is used to Telnet or SSH to a web server.

Python
Interpreted programming language, sometimes offered by hosts for server-side scripting. Here is the Python home page.