DNS records explained simply
DNS is the phone book of the internet: it translates your domain name into a server address. In practice a handful of record types is all you need.A and AAAAThe…
Read more →Blog
Explanations, comparisons and practical tips, written by the people who run the technology at WWW4 themselves.
My website is suddenly slow: where do you look?
"Suddenly" is the most important clue. If a site was fine yesterday and drags today, something changed, and it is almost always one of these things.An updateA p…
Read more →"Not secure" in the browser: what now?
The "Not secure" warning appears when the connection between the browser and your site is not encrypted, or not fully encrypted. There are five possible causes:…
Read more →How much disk space do you actually need?
For an ordinary business site or blog the smallest hosting plan is almost always enough: most of those sites stay under one gigabyte. What takes up space is not…
Read more →Domain name or hosting: what is the difference?
A domain name is the address of your website and your email; hosting is the server where the site and the mailboxes actually live. They are two separate service…
Read more →Preventing a domain name from expiring
An expired domain is the one hosting incident that can cost you your name permanently. And it almost always happens through inattention.How it happensThe invoic…
Read more →When do you move from shared hosting to a VPS?
The question is not whether a VPS is better, but whether your situation justifies one. Four signals beat theory.You are hitting limitsMemory, processes or execu…
Read more →What exactly is a DDoS attack?
In a DDoS attack so much traffic is sent to a server that it can no longer serve real visitors. Nothing is hacked: it is a deliberate traffic jam.How it worksTh…
Read more →Which PHP version should you choose?
Which PHP version should you use? Choose the newest PHP version that your CMS, your theme and all your plugins support, and stay away from versions that no long…
Read more →Recognising phishing around domain names
You can recognise a phishing email about your domain name by three things: the sender is not the registrar where your domain name is actually held, there is tim…
Read more →Emails from my contact form do not arrive
This is the most expensive hosting problem, because you do not notice it: enquiries simply disappear.The most common causeThe form sends the email with the visi…
Read more →What is caching and why does it make a site faster?
What is caching? Caching means storing a result so that it does not have to be built or fetched again every time. Without caching, your server builds every page…
Read more →Choosing a good domain name
You keep a domain name for years. A few extra minutes of thought saves a decade of explaining.Pronounceable over the phoneThat is the best test. If you have to…
Read more →What is a 301 redirect and when do you use one?
A 301 redirect says permanently that an address has changed. That word "permanently" is what sets it apart.What it doesVisitors land in the right place and sear…
Read more →Why choose servers in Belgium?
Your server's location affects three concrete things, and two of them matter to almost every Belgian organisation.SpeedThe distance to your visitor determines l…
Read more →FTP or SFTP: the difference and why it matters
Both transfer files to your server. Only one does it securely.FTPEverything travels in the clear: your username, your password and your files. On a shared netwo…
Read more →The .htaccess file explained
A small configuration file that handles redirects, security and access rules. Powerful, and easy to break.What it is forRedirecting addresses, forcing https, pa…
Read more →Why have a staging environment?
Staging is a copy of your site where you can break anything without consequence. It sounds like a luxury until the first time you need it.What you use it forTes…
Read more →Core Web Vitals explained
Three measurements Google uses to judge how fast your page feels. They measure experience, not technology.Loading the main contentHow quickly does the largest v…
Read more →Mailbox or alias: which do you choose?
Both give you an address. The difference is whether it has its own storage and its own password.A mailboxA full account with a password, storage and its own log…
Read more →DNS propagation explained
After a DNS change not everybody sees the new value immediately. That is not a fault but how the system works.Why it takes timeServers around the world keep a c…
Read more →When is a wildcard certificate useful?
A wildcard certificate covers all subdomains of a domain in one go. That sounds like the obvious solution, but it is not always the best choice.When it is worth…
Read more →Setting up a scheduled task (cron job)
A scheduled task runs a script at a fixed interval. Simple to create, and easy to set up badly.What it is forBackups, sending email, cleaning up, synchronising…
Read more →Preventing hotlinking of your images
Hotlinking is when another site displays your images by loading them from your server. You pay the bandwidth for somebody else's content.How to spot itHigh traf…
Read more →A backup strategy that holds up
Almost everybody has backups. Far fewer people have usable backups. The difference comes down to four questions.How often?Look at how much work you can afford t…
Read more →