{ "kind": "glossary", "license": { "name": "CC BY 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" }, "attribution": "HostDir — https://hostdir.net", "pagination": { "page": 1, "per_page": 100, "total": 270, "total_pages": 3, "next": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary.json?page=2" }, "items": [ { "slug": "2fa", "term": "2FA", "aliases": "Two-Factor Authentication", "summary": "Two-factor authentication (2FA) is a security method that requires a user to present two distinct types of evidence to verify their identity, typically a password and a time-based one-time code from an authenticator app or hardware key.", "category": "Security", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/2fa", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/2fa.json" }, { "slug": "a-record", "term": "A Record", "summary": "A DNS resource record that maps a hostname to a 32-bit IPv4 address. It is the most fundamental record type for translating domain names to numeric addresses on the Internet.", "category": "DNS", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/a-record", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/a-record.json" }, { "slug": "aaaa-record", "term": "AAAA Record", "aliases": "Quad-A Record", "summary": "A DNS resource record that maps a hostname to a 128-bit IPv6 address, analogous to the A record for IPv4.", "category": "DNS", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/aaaa-record", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/aaaa-record.json" }, { "slug": "acid", "term": "ACID", "aliases": "Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability", "summary": "ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) is a set of properties guaranteeing reliable database transaction processing, ensuring data integrity despite concurrent access or failures.", "category": "Databases", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/acid", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/acid.json" }, { "slug": "acme-protocol", "term": "ACME Protocol", "aliases": "ACME", "summary": "ACME (Automated Certificate Management Environment) is a protocol that automates the issuance, renewal, and revocation of TLS certificates, defined in RFC 8555.", "category": "TLS & PKI", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/acme-protocol", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/acme-protocol.json" }, { "slug": "anycast", "term": "Anycast", "summary": "Anycast is a network addressing and routing method where a single IP address is assigned to multiple servers, and routers send traffic to the nearest server based on routing protocol metrics.", "category": "Networking & Routing", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/anycast", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/anycast.json" }, { "slug": "apdex-score", "term": "Apdex Score", "summary": "The Apdex Score is a standardised metric that measures user satisfaction with application performance by comparing response times against predefined target and tolerable thresholds.", "category": "CDN & Performance", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/apdex-score", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/apdex-score.json" }, { "slug": "as-path", "term": "AS Path", "summary": "A BGP path attribute that lists the sequence of autonomous system numbers a route has passed through, used for loop detection and path selection.", "category": "Networking & Routing", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/as-path", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/as-path.json" }, { "slug": "asn", "term": "ASN", "aliases": "Autonomous System Number", "summary": "A globally unique 16 or 32 bit number assigned to an autonomous system for use in BGP routing between organizations on the Internet.", "category": "Networking & Routing", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/asn", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/asn.json" }, { "slug": "auth-code", "term": "Auth Code", "aliases": "EPP Code, Transfer Key", "summary": "A unique, per-domain secret code that the losing (current) registrar must provide so the gaining (new) registrar can authorize a domain transfer.", "category": "Domains", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/auth-code", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/auth-code.json" }, { "slug": "authoritative-dns", "term": "Authoritative DNS", "summary": "An authoritative DNS server holds the definitive resource records for a specific domain and responds to queries with the final answer for that zone, not a cached copy.", "category": "DNS", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/authoritative-dns", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/authoritative-dns.json" }, { "slug": "autonomous-system", "term": "Autonomous System", "aliases": "AS, ASN", "summary": "An Autonomous System (AS) is a group of IP networks under a single administrative routing policy, identified by a unique ASN (Autonomous System Number) for exterior gateway routing.", "category": "Networking & Routing", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/autonomous-system", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/autonomous-system.json" }, { "slug": "availability-zone", "term": "Availability Zone", "aliases": "AZ", "summary": "An Availability Zone is an isolated, fault-tolerant data centre within a cloud region, with independent power, cooling, and networking to prevent single points of failure.", "category": "Cloud Computing", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/availability-zone", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/availability-zone.json" }, { "slug": "b-tree-index", "term": "B-Tree Index", "summary": "A B-Tree index is a self-balancing tree data structure that maintains sorted data for efficient insertion, deletion, and range queries in database systems.", "category": "Databases", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/b-tree-index", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/b-tree-index.json" }, { "slug": "bandwidth", "term": "Bandwidth", "summary": "Bandwidth is the maximum rate of data transfer across a network connection, measured in bits per second, and in hosting plans often refers to the total monthly data transfer allowance.", "category": "Hosting Types", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/bandwidth", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/bandwidth.json" }, { "slug": "bandwidth-throttling", "term": "Bandwidth Throttling", "summary": "Bandwidth throttling is the intentional reduction of data transfer speed by a network operator or service provider to manage congestion, enforce usage policies, or control costs.", "category": "CDN & Performance", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/bandwidth-throttling", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/bandwidth-throttling.json" }, { "slug": "bare-metal-cloud", "term": "Bare-Metal Cloud", "summary": "Bare-metal cloud is a service model that provisions dedicated physical servers on demand via API, giving users direct access to hardware without a hypervisor.", "category": "Hosting Types", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/bare-metal-cloud", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/bare-metal-cloud.json" }, { "slug": "base", "term": "BASE", "aliases": "Basically Available, Soft state, Eventual consistency", "summary": "BASE is a design philosophy for distributed databases that prioritizes availability and partition tolerance over immediate consistency, making it a looser alternative to ACID in NoSQL systems.", "category": "Databases", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/base", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/base.json" }, { "slug": "bcp-14", "term": "BCP 14", "aliases": "RFC 2119", "summary": "BCP 14 defines the normative meaning of MUST, SHOULD, MAY, and related keywords used in RFCs to specify requirement levels in Internet standards.", "category": "Standards & Compliance", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/bcp-14", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/bcp-14.json" }, { "slug": "bcp-38", "term": "BCP 38", "aliases": "Source Address Validation", "summary": "BCP 38 (RFC 2827) is a Best Current Practice that defines ingress filtering to prevent packets with spoofed source IP addresses from leaving a network.", "category": "Standards & Compliance", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/bcp-38", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/bcp-38.json" }, { "slug": "bgp", "term": "BGP", "aliases": "Border Gateway Protocol", "summary": "BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) is the path vector routing protocol that networks use to exchange reachability information between autonomous systems on the public internet.", "category": "Networking & Routing", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/bgp", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/bgp.json" }, { "slug": "bimi", "term": "BIMI", "aliases": "Brand Indicators for Message Identification", "summary": "BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is a DMARC-aligned standard that lets email senders publish a verified logo for display in supporting mail clients.", "category": "Email", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/bimi", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/bimi.json" }, { "slug": "block-storage", "term": "Block Storage", "summary": "Block storage is a storage architecture that presents raw fixed-size chunks (blocks) to a computer, which the operating system partitions and formats before use, commonly used for virtual machine disks and database volumes.", "category": "Storage", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/block-storage", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/block-storage.json" }, { "slug": "bot-management", "term": "Bot Management", "summary": "Bot management detects automated web traffic and distinguishes it from human users, using behavioral fingerprinting and other signals to block malicious bots while allowing benign ones.", "category": "Security", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/bot-management", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/bot-management.json" }, { "slug": "bounce-message", "term": "Bounce Message", "aliases": "NDR", "summary": "A bounce message, or non-delivery report (NDR), is an automated email sent to the originator when delivery cannot be completed, including a status code and failure reason.", "category": "Email", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/bounce-message", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/bounce-message.json" }, { "slug": "brotli-compression", "term": "Brotli Compression", "summary": "Brotli is a lossless compression algorithm developed by Google, offering higher text compression ratios than gzip, used by CDNs to reduce page load times.", "category": "CDN & Performance", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/brotli-compression", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/brotli-compression.json" }, { "slug": "burstable-billing", "term": "Burstable Billing", "aliases": "95th Percentile Billing", "summary": "Burstable billing (95th percentile billing) charges customers based on the 95th percentile of their traffic, sampled every 5 minutes over a billing month, discarding the top 5% of data points.", "category": "Hosting Types", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/burstable-billing", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/burstable-billing.json" }, { "slug": "caa-record", "term": "CAA Record", "aliases": "Certification Authority Authorization", "summary": "A CAA (Certification Authority Authorization) DNS record lets domain owners specify which certificate authorities are permitted to issue SSL/TLS certificates for their domain.", "category": "DNS", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/caa-record", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/caa-record.json" }, { "slug": "cache-hit", "term": "Cache Hit", "summary": "A cache hit occurs when a requested resource is found in a CDN edge cache and served directly to the client, bypassing the origin server entirely.", "category": "CDN & Performance", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cache-hit", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cache-hit.json" }, { "slug": "cache-invalidation", "term": "Cache Invalidation", "aliases": "Cache Purge", "summary": "Cache invalidation is the explicit removal of stored web objects from a cache so that new requests must revalidate or refetch them from the origin server.", "category": "CDN & Performance", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cache-invalidation", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cache-invalidation.json" }, { "slug": "cache-miss", "term": "Cache Miss", "summary": "A cache miss occurs when a requested resource is not found in a CDN or proxy cache, forcing the request to be forwarded to the origin server and then storing the response for future requests.", "category": "CDN & Performance", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cache-miss", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cache-miss.json" }, { "slug": "cap-theorem", "term": "CAP Theorem", "summary": "CAP theorem states that a distributed data system cannot simultaneously provide consistency, availability, and partition tolerance; it can only guarantee two of the three.", "category": "Databases", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cap-theorem", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cap-theorem.json" }, { "slug": "carrier-hotel", "term": "Carrier Hotel", "aliases": "Carrier-Neutral Facility", "summary": "A Carrier Hotel is a physical facility where multiple telecommunications carriers co-locate equipment and tenants can cross-connect directly to any carrier's network without using a third-party provider.", "category": "Data Centers", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/carrier-hotel", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/carrier-hotel.json" }, { "slug": "carrier-neutral", "term": "Carrier Neutral", "summary": "A data center facility owned by an operator that does not sell network transit, allowing tenants to connect to multiple competing carriers and internet service providers.", "category": "Data Centers", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/carrier-neutral", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/carrier-neutral.json" }, { "slug": "catch-all-email", "term": "Catch-All Email", "summary": "A catch-all email account receives all messages sent to invalid or nonexistent addresses at a domain, preventing bounce-backs but attracting spam.", "category": "Email", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/catch-all-email", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/catch-all-email.json" }, { "slug": "cctld", "term": "ccTLD", "aliases": "Country-Code Top-Level Domain", "summary": "A ccTLD is a two-letter top-level domain assigned to a country or territory based on the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code, such as .us for the United States or .jp for Japan.", "category": "Domains", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cctld", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cctld.json" }, { "slug": "cdn", "term": "CDN", "aliases": "Content Delivery Network", "summary": "A CDN (Content Delivery Network) is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and data centers that deliver web content to users from the nearest edge location, reducing latency and offloading origin servers.", "category": "CDN & Performance", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cdn", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cdn.json" }, { "slug": "certificate-authority", "term": "Certificate Authority", "aliases": "CA", "summary": "A Certificate Authority (CA) is a trusted entity that issues digital certificates after verifying that the requester controls the domain or identity named in the certificate.", "category": "TLS & PKI", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/certificate-authority", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/certificate-authority.json" }, { "slug": "certificate-chain", "term": "Certificate Chain", "summary": "A certificate chain is an ordered list of certificates, starting with the server certificate and ending with a root CA, that a client validates to establish trust in the server's identity.", "category": "TLS & PKI", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/certificate-chain", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/certificate-chain.json" }, { "slug": "certificate-pinning", "term": "Certificate Pinning", "summary": "A security technique where an application trusts only a specific, pre-selected certificate or public key for a given server, bypassing the standard chain of trust.", "category": "TLS & PKI", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/certificate-pinning", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/certificate-pinning.json" }, { "slug": "cidr", "term": "CIDR", "aliases": "Classless Inter-Domain Routing", "summary": "CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) is a method for allocating IP addresses and routing packets using variable-length subnet masks (e.g., /24) instead of fixed classful boundaries.", "category": "Networking & Routing", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cidr", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cidr.json" }, { "slug": "cipher-suite", "term": "Cipher Suite", "summary": "A cipher suite is a named set of cryptographic algorithms negotiated during a TLS handshake, specifying key exchange, authentication, encryption, and integrity protection for secure communications.", "category": "TLS & PKI", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cipher-suite", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cipher-suite.json" }, { "slug": "cloud-bill-shock", "term": "Cloud Bill Shock", "summary": "Cloud bill shock is an unexpectedly high invoice caused by unmonitored resource usage, often from data egress fees, autoscaled compute instances, or orphaned storage volumes.", "category": "Cloud Computing", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cloud-bill-shock", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cloud-bill-shock.json" }, { "slug": "cloud-bursting", "term": "Cloud Bursting", "summary": "Cloud bursting is a hybrid cloud deployment that automatically scales an application from a private cloud to a public cloud during demand spikes.", "category": "Hosting Types", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cloud-bursting", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cloud-bursting.json" }, { "slug": "cloud-cost-optimization", "term": "Cloud Cost Optimization", "aliases": "FinOps", "summary": "Cloud cost optimization is the continuous practice of measuring, analyzing, and reducing cloud spending through rightsizing instances, purchasing reservations, and eliminating waste.", "category": "Cloud Computing", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cloud-cost-optimization", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cloud-cost-optimization.json" }, { "slug": "cloud-hosting", "term": "Cloud Hosting", "summary": "Cloud hosting provides on-demand access to pooled compute, storage, and networking resources that can be scaled up or down as needed, typically billed per use.", "category": "Hosting Types", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cloud-hosting", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cloud-hosting.json" }, { "slug": "cloud-migration", "term": "Cloud Migration", "summary": "Cloud migration is the process of transferring applications, data, and workloads from on-premises infrastructure or another cloud to a target cloud platform.", "category": "Cloud Computing", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cloud-migration", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cloud-migration.json" }, { "slug": "cloud-native", "term": "Cloud-Native", "summary": "Cloud-native is an approach to building and running applications that exploit the elastic, distributed, containerized, and immutable nature of modern cloud infrastructure.", "category": "Cloud Computing", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cloud-native", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cloud-native.json" }, { "slug": "cname-record", "term": "CNAME Record", "aliases": "Canonical Name Record", "summary": "A DNS record that maps an alias hostname to the true or canonical hostname, allowing multiple names to resolve to the same IP address without duplicating A or AAAA records.", "category": "DNS", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cname-record", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cname-record.json" }, { "slug": "cold-storage", "term": "Cold Storage", "aliases": "Archive Storage", "summary": "Cold storage is a low-cost, slow-retrieval data tier for infrequently accessed information, such as backups, archives, or compliance records, with retrieval times ranging from minutes to hours.", "category": "Storage", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cold-storage", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cold-storage.json" }, { "slug": "colocation", "term": "Colocation", "aliases": "Colo", "summary": "Colocation is a service where a provider rents physical space, power, cooling, and network connectivity in a data centre for customer-owned servers and hardware.", "category": "Hosting Types", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/colocation", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/colocation.json" }, { "slug": "concurrent-maintainability", "term": "Concurrent Maintainability", "summary": "Concurrent maintainability is the ability to perform planned maintenance on any single component inside a datacenter without disrupting the IT load.", "category": "Data Centers", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/concurrent-maintainability", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/concurrent-maintainability.json" }, { "slug": "configmap", "term": "ConfigMap", "summary": "A ConfigMap is a Kubernetes API object used to store non-confidential configuration data in key-value pairs, which pods can consume as environment variables, command-line arguments, or configuration files.", "category": "Containers & Orchestration", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/configmap", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/configmap.json" }, { "slug": "connection-pool", "term": "Connection Pool", "summary": "A managed cache of database connections that applications reuse rather than opening and closing a connection for each query, reducing latency and server load.", "category": "Databases", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/connection-pool", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/connection-pool.json" }, { "slug": "container", "term": "Container", "summary": "A container is a lightweight, isolated runtime that packages an application with its dependencies using OS-level virtualization, enabling consistent execution across environments.", "category": "Containers & Orchestration", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/container", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/container.json" }, { "slug": "container-image", "term": "Container Image", "aliases": "OCI Image", "summary": "A container image is a lightweight, standalone, executable package that includes everything needed to run a piece of software: code, runtime, system tools, libraries, and settings. It is the unit of distribution in container ecosystems like Docker and Kubernetes.", "category": "Containers & Orchestration", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/container-image", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/container-image.json" }, { "slug": "container-registry", "term": "Container Registry", "summary": "A container registry is a service that stores and distributes container images, enabling developers to push, pull, and version images across environments.", "category": "Containers & Orchestration", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/container-registry", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/container-registry.json" }, { "slug": "container-runtime", "term": "Container Runtime", "aliases": "runC, containerd", "summary": "A container runtime is the low-level software that creates, starts, and stops containers according to the OCI runtime specification, enabling process isolation and resource management.", "category": "Containers & Orchestration", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/container-runtime", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/container-runtime.json" }, { "slug": "core-web-vitals", "term": "Core Web Vitals", "summary": "Core Web Vitals are a set of three real-world user experience metrics (LCP, INP, CLS) defined by Google to quantify loading, interactivity, and visual stability on web pages.", "category": "CDN & Performance", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/core-web-vitals", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/core-web-vitals.json" }, { "slug": "cors", "term": "CORS", "aliases": "Cross-Origin Resource Sharing", "summary": "CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) is a browser security mechanism that lets servers explicitly allow web pages from one origin to request resources from a different origin via HTTP response headers.", "category": "Web Protocols", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cors", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cors.json" }, { "slug": "credential-stuffing", "term": "Credential Stuffing", "summary": "Credential stuffing is a cyberattack in which automated tools use username-password pairs leaked from one site to try logging into other sites, exploiting password reuse.", "category": "Security", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/credential-stuffing", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/credential-stuffing.json" }, { "slug": "cumulative-layout-shift", "term": "Cumulative Layout Shift", "aliases": "CLS", "summary": "Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is a Core Web Vital metric that measures the sum of all unexpected layout shift scores during a page's lifespan, quantifying visual stability.", "category": "CDN & Performance", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/cumulative-layout-shift", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/cumulative-layout-shift.json" }, { "slug": "data-center-tier-classification", "term": "Data Center Tier Classification", "aliases": "Tier I-IV, Uptime Tiers", "summary": "The Uptime Institute's Data Center Tier Classification is a standard methodology for rating data center infrastructure based on redundancy, capacity, and availability, ranging from Tier I (basic) to Tier IV (fault-tolerant).", "category": "Data Centers", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/data-center-tier-classification", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/data-center-tier-classification.json" }, { "slug": "ddos", "term": "DDoS", "aliases": "Distributed Denial of Service", "summary": "A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack overwhelms a target server, service, or network with massive traffic from many compromised computers, making it unavailable to legitimate users.", "category": "Security", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/ddos", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/ddos.json" }, { "slug": "ddos-scrubbing", "term": "DDoS Scrubbing", "summary": "DDoS scrubbing diverts attack traffic to a specialized filtering facility that removes malicious packets and forwards only legitimate traffic to the target network.", "category": "Security", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/ddos-scrubbing", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/ddos-scrubbing.json" }, { "slug": "dedicated-server", "term": "Dedicated Server", "aliases": "Bare Metal", "summary": "A dedicated server is a physical machine leased exclusively to one customer, offering full hardware control and no virtualization overhead for high-performance workloads.", "category": "Hosting Types", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/dedicated-server", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/dedicated-server.json" }, { "slug": "dkim", "term": "DKIM", "aliases": "DomainKeys Identified Mail", "summary": "DKIM is an email authentication method that lets a domain claim responsibility for a message by attaching a cryptographic signature validated against a DNS public key.", "category": "Email", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/dkim", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/dkim.json" }, { "slug": "dmarc", "term": "DMARC", "aliases": "Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance", "summary": "DMARC is an email authentication policy protocol that builds on SPF and DKIM to tell receiving mail servers how to handle messages that fail authentication checks.", "category": "Email", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/dmarc", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/dmarc.json" }, { "slug": "dns", "term": "DNS", "aliases": "Domain Name System", "summary": "The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical, distributed naming system that translates human-readable domain names (like example.com) into IP addresses and other resource records used by internet protocols.", "category": "DNS", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/dns", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/dns.json" }, { "slug": "dns-anycast", "term": "DNS Anycast", "summary": "DNS Anycast uses one IP address served from multiple geographically distributed nameservers; queries are routed to the nearest or healthiest node, improving resilience and reducing latency.", "category": "DNS", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/dns-anycast", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/dns-anycast.json" }, { "slug": "dns-caching", "term": "DNS Caching", "summary": "DNS caching stores resolved domain name query results for the specified TTL duration to avoid repeated queries to upstream authoritative servers.", "category": "DNS", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/dns-caching", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/dns-caching.json" }, { "slug": "dns-hijacking", "term": "DNS Hijacking", "summary": "DNS hijacking is an attack or misconfiguration that returns forged DNS responses, causing users to connect to attacker-controlled hosts instead of the intended server.", "category": "DNS", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/dns-hijacking", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/dns-hijacking.json" }, { "slug": "dnsbl", "term": "DNSBL", "aliases": "DNS Blocklist, RBL", "summary": "A DNSBL is a real-time IP reputation database published via DNS, used by mail servers at SMTP time to reject or flag senders known for spam or abuse.", "category": "Email", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/dnsbl", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/dnsbl.json" }, { "slug": "dnssec", "term": "DNSSEC", "aliases": "DNS Security Extensions", "summary": "DNSSEC (DNS Security Extensions) add cryptographic digital signatures to DNS records, enabling resolvers to verify that responses have not been tampered with or spoofed.", "category": "DNS", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/dnssec", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/dnssec.json" }, { "slug": "docker", "term": "Docker", "summary": "Docker is a platform and toolchain for packaging, distributing, and running applications inside lightweight, portable containers, popularising the technology from 2013 onward.", "category": "Containers & Orchestration", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/docker", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/docker.json" }, { "slug": "doh", "term": "DoH", "aliases": "DNS over HTTPS", "summary": "DNS over HTTPS (DoH) encrypts DNS queries and responses inside HTTPS traffic, preventing on-path observers from seeing or tampering with DNS lookups.", "category": "DNS", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/doh", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/doh.json" }, { "slug": "domain-lock", "term": "Domain Lock", "aliases": "Registrar Lock", "summary": "A registrar-level status that prevents unauthorized domain transfers, modifications, or deletions until the registrant explicitly removes the lock.", "category": "Domains", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/domain-lock", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/domain-lock.json" }, { "slug": "domain-privacy", "term": "Domain Privacy", "aliases": "WHOIS Privacy", "summary": "An optional service that replaces the domain registrant's personal contact information in WHOIS records with the registrar's proxy details to shield the owner from spam and unwanted disclosure.", "category": "Domains", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/domain-privacy", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/domain-privacy.json" }, { "slug": "domain-validation", "term": "Domain Validation", "aliases": "DV", "summary": "Domain Validation (DV) is the lowest level of certificate validation used in TLS/SSL, where the certificate authority verifies only that the applicant controls the domain name, typically via an HTTP or DNS challenge.", "category": "TLS & PKI", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/domain-validation", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/domain-validation.json" }, { "slug": "dot", "term": "DoT", "aliases": "DNS over TLS", "summary": "DNS over TLS (DoT) encrypts DNS queries and responses using Transport Layer Security on a dedicated port 853, preventing eavesdropping and tampering.", "category": "DNS", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/dot", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/dot.json" }, { "slug": "ech", "term": "ECH", "aliases": "Encrypted Client Hello", "summary": "Encrypted Client Hello (ECH) is a TLS extension that encrypts the Client Hello message, including the Server Name Indication (SNI), to prevent on-path observers from learning the target hostname during the handshake.", "category": "TLS & PKI", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/ech", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/ech.json" }, { "slug": "edge-computing", "term": "Edge Computing", "summary": "Edge computing is a distributed computing model that processes data and runs application logic at Points of Presence (PoPs) close to end users, minimizing round-trip latency and bandwidth usage compared to centralized cloud regions.", "category": "CDN & Performance", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/edge-computing", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/edge-computing.json" }, { "slug": "edge-data-center", "term": "Edge Data Center", "summary": "An edge data center is a small, distributed facility located close to end users to minimize latency and support real-time applications, often deployed as prefabricated units and operated remotely.", "category": "Data Centers", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/edge-data-center", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/edge-data-center.json" }, { "slug": "edge-location", "term": "Edge Location", "aliases": "PoP", "summary": "An edge location is a data center or point of presence deployed by a cloud provider at the network edge to serve content and run compute workloads closer to end users than a full parent region.", "category": "Cloud Computing", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/edge-location", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/edge-location.json" }, { "slug": "egress-fees", "term": "Egress Fees", "aliases": "Data Transfer Out", "summary": "A per-gigabyte charge imposed by cloud providers on network traffic that leaves their data center, availability zone, or internet boundary.", "category": "Cloud Computing", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/egress-fees", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/egress-fees.json" }, { "slug": "epp", "term": "EPP", "aliases": "Extensible Provisioning Protocol", "summary": "EPP (Extensible Provisioning Protocol) is an XML-based application protocol used by domain name registries and registrars to provision domain names, manage contacts, and transfer registrations.", "category": "Domains", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/epp", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/epp.json" }, { "slug": "erasure-coding", "term": "Erasure Coding", "summary": "Erasure coding is a data protection method that splits data into fragments (shards) and adds parity, allowing reconstruction from a subset of fragments; it is commonly used in cloud object storage to tolerate failures efficiently.", "category": "Storage", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/erasure-coding", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/erasure-coding.json" }, { "slug": "extended-validation", "term": "Extended Validation", "aliases": "EV", "summary": "Extended Validation (EV) is the highest level of TLS certificate assurance, requiring the certificate authority to perform rigorous, human-verified checks on the legal identity and operational existence of the requesting organization before issuance.", "category": "TLS & PKI", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/extended-validation", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/extended-validation.json" }, { "slug": "faas", "term": "FaaS", "aliases": "Function as a Service", "summary": "FaaS (Function as a Service) is a cloud computing model where users deploy small, stateless functions that the provider executes on demand, automatically scaling and billing per invocation.", "category": "Cloud Computing", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/faas", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/faas.json" }, { "slug": "failover", "term": "Failover", "summary": "Failover is the process of automatically or manually promoting a replica database to primary when the active node fails, ensuring continued availability.", "category": "Databases", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/failover", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/failover.json" }, { "slug": "fibre-channel", "term": "Fibre Channel", "aliases": "FC", "summary": "Fibre Channel is a high-speed networking standard primarily used to connect storage devices in storage area networks, operating as a dedicated protocol stack separate from Ethernet.", "category": "Storage", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/fibre-channel", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/fibre-channel.json" }, { "slug": "file-storage", "term": "File Storage", "aliases": "NAS", "summary": "File storage exposes data as a hierarchical filesystem over network protocols like NFS and SMB, commonly delivered via network-attached storage (NAS) appliances for shared access.", "category": "Storage", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/file-storage", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/file-storage.json" }, { "slug": "firewall", "term": "Firewall", "summary": "A network security device or software that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing traffic based on predetermined security rules, acting as a barrier between trusted and untrusted networks.", "category": "Security", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/firewall", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/firewall.json" }, { "slug": "foreign-key", "term": "Foreign Key", "summary": "A column or set of columns in a database table whose values must match a primary key in another table, ensuring referential integrity between the two tables.", "category": "Databases", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/foreign-key", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/foreign-key.json" }, { "slug": "free-cooling", "term": "Free Cooling", "summary": "Free cooling uses outside air or water that is cooler than the return temperature to reduce or eliminate the need for mechanical refrigeration in data center cooling systems.", "category": "Data Centers", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/free-cooling", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/free-cooling.json" }, { "slug": "gdpr", "term": "GDPR", "aliases": "General Data Protection Regulation", "summary": "The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is an EU law that governs the processing of personal data and applies to any organization worldwide that handles data of EU residents.", "category": "Standards & Compliance", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/gdpr", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/gdpr.json" }, { "slug": "geo-dns", "term": "Geo DNS", "aliases": "GeoDNS, Geographic DNS", "summary": "Geo DNS is an authoritative DNS configuration that returns different resource records based on the geographic location of the requesting client, enabling traffic routing to nearby servers.", "category": "DNS", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/geo-dns", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/geo-dns.json" }, { "slug": "glue-record", "term": "Glue Record", "summary": "A type of DNS record (A or AAAA) placed in a parent zone to give resolvers the IP address of a nameserver whose name is inside the child zone, breaking the circular dependency that would otherwise prevent resolution.", "category": "DNS", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/glue-record", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/glue-record.json" }, { "slug": "grace-period", "term": "Grace Period", "summary": "The grace period is a window after a domain expires during which the registrant can renew at the standard renewal fee, without incurring additional redemption costs.", "category": "Domains", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/grace-period", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/grace-period.json" }, { "slug": "graphql", "term": "GraphQL", "summary": "GraphQL is a query language and runtime for APIs that lets clients request exactly the data they need in a single round trip, reducing over-fetching and under-fetching.", "category": "Web Protocols", "url": "https://hostdir.net/glossary/graphql", "data_url": "https://hostdir.net/data/glossary/graphql.json" } ] }