Understand hosting and infrastructure
A website depends on services that can belong to different providers. Map the chain between domain name, DNS resolution, server, files, data and email. This helps diagnose an outage and plan a transfer without confusing responsibilities.
63 concepts to explore with their definitions and practical advice.
Search the full glossary
A reading path
1. Name and destination
Identify the domain owner and records connecting services. A hosting change should not be confused with transferring the domain.
2. Execution and storage
The server supplies resources and can execute processing. Identify files, database and media requiring backup or transfer.
3. Versions and availability
A cache can serve a previously received response. Availability metrics and logs help observe the service with a known period and scope.
Useful distinctions
DNS / Web hosting
DNS helps reach a name’s destination; hosting supplies website resources. Correct resolution does not guarantee that the server serves the correct page.
Browser cache / CDN
Browser cache concerns a copy on the device. A CDN distributes resources through intermediary infrastructure. Review update rules for each layer.
Use the vocabulary to make a decision
Situation
A corrected page still shows old content for some visitors.
Before deciding
Compare the response without a local copy, cache rules and possible variants. Do not change DNS to solve merely cached content.
A concrete check
Check an HTML page, medium and related journey response before and after the fix.
All concepts in this topic
Links open the full definition on its alphabet page. Acronyms and synonyms remain searchable from the main glossary.
- 307 redirect
- 308 redirect
- Bandwidth
- Browser cache
- Cache
- Cache revalidation
- Cache-Control
- CDN
- Cloud computing
- CNAME
- Compression
- Data center
- Dedicated server
- DNS
- DNS TTL
- Domain ownership
- Edge computing
- Email deliverability
- Error budget
- ETag
- Extranet
- FaaS
- FTP
- Gateway
- GPU
- gzip
- HTTP 103 Early Hints
- HTTP/2
- HTTP/3
- IaaS
- Infrastructure as Code
- IP address
- Kubernetes
- Load balancing
- Log file
- MX record
- Name server
- Network latency
- Nginx
- Object storage
- Observability
- PaaS
- Proxy
- QUIC
- Rate limit
- Registrar
- Reverse proxy
- Root domain
- SaaS
- Server
- Server log
- Serverless
- SMTP
- Streaming
- Subdomain
- Time to First Byte
- Uptime
- Vary
- Virtual host
- VPS
- Web hosting
- Web server
- WHOIS
Frequently asked questions
Does moving files transfer email?
Not necessarily. Email has its own services and records. Identify it separately, then verify receiving and sending after planned changes.
Does a backup prove recoverability?
It is a copy to examine. A tested restoration checks that required files and data are present and compatible with the recovery environment.
Primary reference documents
These documents explain the technical concepts. The reading paths and decision examples are editorial methods to adapt to your project.