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Quick glossary

Acronyms you will see around the site

Every three-letter mystery, decoded. Type to filter.

HTTP
HyperText Transfer Protocol

The plain-text language browsers and servers use to request and serve pages.

HTTPS
HTTP Secure

HTTP over an encrypted (TLS) connection. The S stands for Secure.

SSL / TLS
Secure Sockets Layer / Transport Layer Security

The cryptography behind HTTPS. SSL is the older name; the protocol used today is really TLS.

DNS
Domain Name System

The phone book that turns domains into IP addresses.

TCP
Transmission Control Protocol

The transport layer underneath HTTP.

TTFB
Time To First Byte

Server processing time, end to end.

HSTS
HTTP Strict Transport Security

The header that locks browsers to HTTPS.

CSP
Content Security Policy

A header that limits what your page is allowed to load.

CORS
Cross-Origin Resource Sharing

Rules about which other domains may read your responses from JavaScript.

OG
Open Graph

Meta tags that control how your link looks when shared on social platforms.

SERP
Search Engine Results Page

What Google or Bing returns for a query.

WAF
Web Application Firewall

Filters incoming traffic and can block scrapers, bots, or attacks.

2xx to 5xx
HTTP status families

2xx is success, 3xx is redirect, 4xx is a client error (like 404), 5xx is a server error.

Webhook
HTTP callback

A POST request your monitoring sends to a URL you own when something happens, so your own code can react to events like downtime.

HMAC
Hash-based Message Authentication Code

A signature computed from a shared secret. Webhook payloads carry one so receivers can prove the sender is genuine.

Incident
A confirmed problem window

The period from a confirmed failure to recovery. Status pages list incidents; uptime percentages are calculated from them.

Escalation
On-call backup

If an alert isn't acknowledged within a set time, a second contact is notified automatically so outages never sit unseen.

Status page
Public uptime page

A shareable page showing live state, 30-day uptime, and incident history for chosen sites.

SAN
Subject Alternative Name

The list inside an SSL certificate of every hostname it covers. www and non-www must both be listed (or use a wildcard).

See these acronyms in action

Definitions only get you so far; the acronyms come alive in the guides. SSL, TLS, HSTS, CSP, HMAC and SAN get the full story in the security guide, while DNS, TCP and TTFB are timed stage by stage in the performance guide.

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