Definition

DNS

DNS, the Domain Name System, is the internet's address book. It translates a human-readable domain like example.com into the numeric IP address a browser needs to reach the server. A DNS misconfiguration can take a site offline even when the server is fine.

Related terms

TTFB

Time to First Byte: how long until the first byte of a response arrives.

Uptime

The proportion of time a site is reachable and serving requests.

Latency

The delay between a request being sent and a response beginning.

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