Hosting Glossary

Every hosting, domain, and web term explained in plain English.

A Record

A DNS record that points your domain name to a specific IP address (the server where your website lives).

Bandwidth

The amount of data that can be transferred between your website and visitors in a given period. More visitors = more bandwidth needed.

CDN (Content Delivery Network)

A network of servers around the world that stores copies of your website so visitors load it from the nearest location for faster speed.

CNAME Record

A DNS record that creates an alias, pointing one domain name to another (e.g., www.yourdomain.com to yourdomain.com).

cPanel

A web-based control panel for managing your hosting account — files, databases, email, domains, and settings all in one interface.

DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)

An attack that floods your server with fake traffic to overwhelm it and take your site offline. DDoS protection filters out malicious traffic.

DNS (Domain Name System)

The system that translates human-readable domain names (rhixo.com) into IP addresses (104.19.168.112) that computers use to find each other.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

A method of uploading and downloading files to/from your hosting server. Like a file manager but accessed via dedicated software.

MX Record

A DNS record that tells the internet where to deliver email for your domain. Points to your email server.

NVMe SSD

The fastest type of storage available. 100x faster than traditional hard drives and 10x faster than regular SSDs. Makes websites load almost instantly.

PHP

The programming language that WordPress and most websites are built with. Your hosting server runs PHP to generate web pages.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)

Encryption technology that secures data between a visitor’s browser and your server. Shown as the padlock icon and “https://” in the address bar.

TTFB (Time to First Byte)

How long it takes for a visitor’s browser to receive the first byte of data from your server. A key measure of server speed. Under 200ms is good.

Uptime

The percentage of time your website is accessible and working. 99.9% uptime = maximum 44 minutes of downtime per month.

WAF (Web Application Firewall)

A security layer that inspects incoming web traffic and blocks malicious requests (SQL injection, XSS attacks, etc.) before they reach your website.

WHOIS

A public database showing who owns a domain name. WHOIS privacy protection hides your personal details from this database.

WordPress

The world’s most popular website platform, powering 43% of all websites. Open-source, highly customisable with 60,000+ plugins available.