Hosting and networking, defined.

An A record is the DNS entry that maps a domain name to an IPv4 address, telling browsers exactly which server hosts the website.

An AAAA record maps a domain name to an IPv6 address, the IPv6 equivalent of an A record used for modern internet addressing.

Apache is a mature, widely deployed open-source web server known for its module system and flexible per-directory .htaccess configuration.

An ASN is a unique number identifying a network of IP ranges under one operator, used by BGP to route traffic across the internet.

Caching stores copies of data or pages so repeat requests are served instantly, reducing server work and dramatically speeding up websites.

A CDN is a worldwide network of edge servers that cache and serve your site close to visitors, cutting latency and absorbing traffic spikes.

Cloud hosting runs your site across a pool of virtual servers that scale on demand, billed by usage for elasticity and high availability.

A CMS is software that lets you create and manage website content through an interface, without hand-coding each page in HTML.

A CNAME record is a DNS alias that points one hostname to another, so the target resolves the destination name instead of an IP address.

Core Web Vitals are Google’s user-experience metrics — LCP, INP, and CLS — that measure loading, interactivity, and visual stability of a page.

cPanel is a popular web-based control panel for managing hosting accounts, including domains, email, databases, and files, without the command line.

A datacenter is a secure facility housing servers, storage, and networking with redundant power and cooling, where your website is physically hosted.

A DDoS attack floods a server with traffic from many sources to overwhelm it and knock a website offline; mitigation absorbs or filters the flood.

A dedicated server is an entire physical machine rented by one customer, delivering maximum performance, isolation, and control.

DKIM cryptographically signs outgoing email so receivers can verify it truly came from your domain and was not altered in transit.

DMARC builds on SPF and DKIM to tell receivers how to handle mail that fails authentication and sends you reports on abuse of your domain.

DNS is the internet phone book that translates human-readable domain names like example.com into the IP addresses computers use to connect.

DNSSEC adds cryptographic signatures to DNS records so resolvers can verify answers are authentic and have not been forged or tampered with.

Gzip and Brotli are HTTP compression methods that shrink text-based responses before sending, cutting transfer size and speeding up page loads.

HSTS is a security header that tells browsers to only ever connect to a site over HTTPS, preventing downgrade and cookie-hijacking attacks.

HTTP/2 is a major revision of HTTP that multiplexes many requests over one connection, reducing latency versus the older HTTP/1.1.

HTTP/3 is the latest HTTP version, built on the UDP-based QUIC transport to cut connection setup time and eliminate head-of-line blocking.

HTTPS is HTTP layered over TLS encryption, so data exchanged between browser and website stays private, authenticated, and tamper-proof.

An IP address is the unique numeric label assigned to each device on a network, used to route data to the right destination across the internet.

IPv4 is the original 32-bit internet addressing scheme, written as four dotted numbers, now exhausted and supplemented by IPv6.

IPv6 is the 128-bit internet addressing scheme that replaces scarce IPv4, offering a virtually unlimited supply of addresses.

LiteSpeed is a high-performance web server compatible with Apache configs, popular in hosting for its built-in caching and efficiency.

A load balancer distributes incoming traffic across multiple servers to improve capacity, reliability, and uptime for a website or application.

Managed hosting is a service where the provider handles server administration, updates, security, and backups so you can focus on your site.

An MX record is the DNS entry that directs a domain’s email to the correct mail servers, with priority values choosing primary and backups.

MySQL is the most common open-source relational database for web apps; MariaDB is its drop-in fork, both storing content for sites like WordPress.

A nameserver is a server that answers DNS queries for a domain, storing its zone records and telling the internet where the domain points.

Nginx is a high-performance, event-driven web server and reverse proxy prized for handling many concurrent connections with low memory use.

PHP is a widely used server-side scripting language that powers WordPress and much of the web, generating dynamic pages on the server.

RDAP is the modern, structured successor to WHOIS, returning domain and IP registration data as JSON over HTTPS with standardized fields.

Reverse DNS resolves an IP address back to a hostname using a PTR record, commonly checked to verify mail servers and identify hosts.

A reverse proxy sits in front of web servers, forwarding client requests to them while adding caching, TLS termination, and load balancing.

Shared hosting places many websites on one server that pools its CPU, memory, and disk, making it the cheapest but least isolated option.

SPF is a DNS TXT record listing which servers may send email for your domain, helping receivers reject forged messages and spam.

SSL/TLS is the encryption protocol that secures connections between browsers and servers, enabling HTTPS and protecting data in transit.

TTFB measures how long after a request the first byte of the response arrives, reflecting server, network, and backend processing speed.

TTL is the number of seconds a DNS record may be cached before resolvers must fetch a fresh copy, controlling how fast changes propagate.

A TXT record stores arbitrary text in DNS, widely used for domain verification and email authentication policies like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.

Uptime is the percentage of time a service is available; an SLA is the provider’s contractual guarantee of that level, with credits if missed.

A VPS is a virtual machine with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and disk carved from a physical server, giving root access and isolation at modest cost.

A WAF inspects incoming HTTP traffic and blocks malicious requests like SQL injection and XSS before they reach your web application.

WHOIS is a query protocol that returns registration details for a domain or IP, such as the registrar, nameservers, and creation date.

WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system, powering a large share of websites with themes, plugins, and a PHP/MySQL stack.