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Glossary of Web Hosting, Networking, and Server Terminology

Last reviewed October 20, 2026

Summary: Short, accurate definitions of the hosting and infrastructure terms used across our guides, arranged A to Z.

Anycast: A routing method where one IP address is announced from many locations, so users reach the nearest one. Common for DNS and CDNs.
Bandwidth: Strictly, the capacity of a connection; in hosting plans, usually the total data transferred per month (data transfer).
Bandwidth throttling: Deliberate slowing of a connection by a host once a limit or fair-use threshold is reached.
CDN: Content delivery network: servers around the world that cache and serve your static files close to visitors.
cPanel: A widely used commercial web hosting control panel. Compared in our control panel guide.
Dedicated server: A physical server leased to a single customer.
DNS: Domain Name System: translates domain names into IP addresses and other records.
DNSSEC: Extensions that cryptographically sign DNS records so resolvers can detect tampering.
Egress: Data leaving a provider's network; often billed per GB on cloud platforms.
EPP code: The authorisation code required to transfer a domain between registrars.
Hypervisor: Software (such as KVM) that runs multiple virtual machines on one physical server.
Inode: A filesystem entry for each file or directory. Shared hosts often limit the number of inodes per account.
IOPS: Input/output operations per second: a measure of how many small reads/writes storage can handle.
KVM: Kernel-based Virtual Machine, the Linux hypervisor used by most VPS providers.
Latency: The delay for data to travel between two points, usually measured as round-trip time in milliseconds.
Nameserver: A server that answers authoritative DNS queries for a domain.
NVMe: A fast storage interface for SSDs that connects directly over PCIe.
PIPEDA: Canada's federal private-sector privacy law. See our PIPEDA hosting guide.
Reverse proxy: A server (such as Nginx) that receives requests and forwards them to backend applications.
Root access: Full administrative control of a server's operating system.
SLA: Service level agreement: a contractual uptime or performance promise, usually with service credits if missed.
TLS: Transport Layer Security, the protocol behind HTTPS encryption (successor to SSL).
TTFB: Time to first byte: how long until the browser receives the first byte of the response.
TTL: Time to live: how long DNS resolvers may cache a record, in seconds.
Uptime: The percentage of time a service is available. 99.9% allows about 43 minutes of downtime per 30-day month.
VPS: Virtual private server: a virtual machine with its own OS and dedicated memory on shared hardware.

Explore the topics behind these terms in server infrastructure, domains and DNS and our hosting FAQs.

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