Open-source web server software, and the most widely deployed of its kind. Dependable, though LiteSpeed handles PHP and WordPress sites faster.
A record
Points a domain at an IPv4 address, for example example.co.ke → 192.0.2.10. It is the simplest kind of DNS record, and its IPv6 counterpart is called AAAA.
B
Backup
A separate copy of your site's files and database, kept so you can put things back if data is lost. SiteBoma takes daily backups on every plan and keeps them for 7 days.
Bandwidth
How much data your hosting account may send to visitors in a month. Most hosts now advertise it as "unmetered" under a fair-use policy.
C
CDN
Short for Content Delivery Network: servers spread around the world that hold copies of the static parts of your site, such as images and CSS, and deliver them from whichever location is nearest the visitor. Cloudflare runs the most popular free one.
CNAME
A DNS record that makes one name an alias of another, such as www.example.co.ke pointing to example.co.ke. Handy for redirecting subdomains.
cPanel
A commercial control panel for hosting that was the industry standard for many years. At SiteBoma we prefer DirectAdmin, a modern and faster alternative.
CSR
Certificate Signing Request: an encoded block of text produced as part of ordering a paid SSL certificate. Hosts that use Let's Encrypt spare you the CSR step altogether.
D
DDoS
Distributed Denial of Service: an attack that floods a server with so much traffic that it goes offline. Defending against it takes firewalls, rate limiting or a service such as Cloudflare.
DirectAdmin
The control panel on every SiteBoma hosting plan. It is modern, lightweight, quick and secure.
DKIM
DomainKeys Identified Mail: a DNS record used to put a cryptographic signature on the email you send, so receiving servers can check that it genuinely came from your domain. It matters a great deal for getting mail delivered.
DMARC
Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance: a DNS record telling receiving mail servers how to treat messages that fail SPF or DKIM checks.
DNS
Domain Name System. Think of it as the internet's phone book: it turns a name such as example.co.ke into the IP address that computers actually connect to.
Domain
Your website's name in human-friendly form, such as yourbiz.co.ke. It is separate from hosting, and it is registered a year at a time through a registry such as KENIC.
E
EPP code
Also known as an auth code: the "transfer authorisation code" your current registrar issues when you move a domain to a different registrar.
F
FTP
File Transfer Protocol, the long-established way to upload files to a web server. Its modern, encrypted replacement is SFTP, which runs over SSH. Both work on SiteBoma.
H
Hosting
The disk space, bandwidth and processing power your website needs, on an internet-connected server. A domain is the address; hosting is where the site actually lives.
HSTS
HTTP Strict Transport Security: a response header instructing browsers to use HTTPS on every later visit. This guards strongly against downgrade attacks.
HTTPS
HTTP sent over TLS/SSL, so the connection is encrypted. Every modern website needs it, and Let's Encrypt provides it free.
I
IMAP
Internet Message Access Protocol: lets you read email that stays on the server, so every device sees the same mailbox. It is the modern replacement for POP3.
K
KENIC
The Kenya Network Information Centre, the official registry behind every .ke extension, including .co.ke, .or.ke, .ac.ke and .sc.ke.
L
Let's Encrypt
A certificate authority that hands out SSL certificates automatically and free of charge. It secures millions of sites with HTTPS, every SiteBoma hosting plan among them.
LiteSpeed
A commercial web server built for speed. It can replace Apache directly and usually runs PHP and WordPress 5 to 10 times faster. SiteBoma's servers use it.
M
M-Pesa
Mobile money from Safaricom. Any SiteBoma invoice can be paid with M-Pesa on Paystack's secure checkout page.
MX record
Mail exchanger record: the DNS entry that tells the rest of the internet which server receives email for your domain. Without one, incoming mail has nowhere to go.
N
Nameserver
A server that responds to DNS lookups for a domain. Each domain uses at least two. SiteBoma's nameservers are ns1.siteboma.co.ke and ns2.siteboma.co.ke.
NVMe SSD
A newer kind of solid-state drive that is much quicker than older SATA SSDs. Every SiteBoma hosting tier runs on NVMe.
P
Paystack
The payment provider behind SiteBoma's checkout. Card payments (Visa, Mastercard) and M-Pesa payments both go through Paystack's secure checkout page.
PHP
A programming language that runs on the server. WordPress, Magento and Laravel are built with it, and so are roughly 75% of all websites. SiteBoma supports every version from PHP 7.4 to 8.3.
POP3
Post Office Protocol, an older way to collect email: it downloads messages to a single device and deletes them from the server. Today IMAP is the usual choice.
R
Reseller hosting
Hosting that lets you create separate accounts carrying your own brand, then sell them on to your clients. Details at /hosting/reseller.
S
SAN
Subject Alternative Name: the part of an SSL certificate that lists every hostname it protects, for instance example.co.ke, www.example.co.ke and mail.example.co.ke.
SFTP
SSH File Transfer Protocol: encrypted file uploads that replace plain FTP. You can use SFTP on all SiteBoma hosting, logging in with your DirectAdmin details.
Shared hosting
Hosting in which many websites share the resources of one server. It costs the least and is the most popular type. Details at /hosting/shared.
Sitemap
An XML file that lists every page on your site so search engines can crawl it efficiently. SiteBoma builds its own sitemap dynamically at /sitemap.xml.
SOA record
Start of Authority: the DNS record that stores a zone's administrative details, such as its serial number and refresh interval.
Softaculous
A one-click app installer found in DirectAdmin (and in cPanel). It sets up WordPress, Joomla and more than 400 other apps in a single click.
SPF
Sender Policy Framework: a TXT record in DNS naming the servers that may send email on behalf of your domain. You need it for reliable email delivery.
SSD
Solid State Drive: storage with no moving parts, quicker than old spinning hard disks. Modern hosting treats it as the bare minimum.
SSH
Secure Shell: an encrypted way to reach a server's command line remotely. Included with SiteBoma's VPS and dedicated plans.
SSL
Secure Sockets Layer, the encryption that HTTPS was first built on. Strictly speaking TLS has replaced it, yet people still call it SSL.
STK Push
Sim Toolkit Push: Safaricom's way of sending a prompt to an M-Pesa customer's phone so they can approve a payment there and then.
Subdomain
A name added in front of your main domain: mail.example.co.ke, for example, is a subdomain of example.co.ke. Create one in DirectAdmin or with a CNAME record.
T
TLD
Top-Level Domain: the ending of a domain name, such as .co.ke, .com or .org. Registries run them, and for .ke that registry is KENIC.
TLS
Transport Layer Security, which took over from SSL and now secures HTTPS. The current version is TLS 1.3.
TTFB
Time to First Byte: the delay before a server begins sending its response. The best modern hosts aim to keep it below 200ms.
TXT record
A DNS record that carries free-form text. SPF, DKIM, DMARC and domain ownership checks all rely on it.
U
Uptime
The share of time a service stays online. At 99.9% uptime, 8.7 hours of downtime a year are allowed; at 99.99%, only 52 minutes.
V
VPS
Virtual Private Server: part of a physical server with CPU and RAM reserved for you. The next step up from shared hosting. Details at /hosting/vps.
W
webmail
Email you read in a web browser, with nothing to install. SiteBoma gives you Roundcube webmail at yourdomain.co.ke/webmail.
WHOIS
The public record of a domain's registration: who holds it, through which registrar, and when it expires. Our /tools/whois tool looks up any domain.
WordPress
The most widely used content management system in the world, behind roughly 43% of all websites. Every SiteBoma plan runs it well.
X
XML sitemap
The same thing as a sitemap. Look under "Sitemap" above.
Stuck on a term? Ask us.
Our team in Nairobi is on live chat and glad to explain any hosting word in plain English. No question is too basic.