Game Server & Hosting Glossary

Performance & Lag

TPS (Ticks Per Second): How many times per second a game server updates the world. The healthy target for Minecraft is 20 TPS; when it drops, everything runs in slow motion. See fixing low TPS.
Tickrate: How often the server processes and broadcasts the game state per second. Higher tickrate (e.g. CS2 servers) means more responsive hit registration and movement, but needs more CPU.
Ping / Latency: The round-trip time, in milliseconds, for data to travel between you and the server. Lower is better — it's dominated by distance and routing, which is why server location matters.
Packet Loss: Data packets that never arrive. It causes rubber-banding and warping even on a low ping. See what causes packet loss.
Lag: A catch-all term for poor responsiveness. It can actually be high ping, packet loss, or a low server TPS — three different problems with different fixes.

Networking & DNS

Game Port: The network port your game server listens on for players (e.g. 25565 Minecraft, 27015 Source/CS2, 28015 Rust). Players connect with ip:port.
Query Port: A separate port some games use so server browsers can read live status (players, map). It can differ from the game port — see our status checker.
Port Forwarding: A home-router rule that sends incoming game traffic to the right PC. Not needed on a hosted server. See how to port forward.
CGNAT: Carrier-Grade NAT — when your ISP shares one public IP across many customers, so you have no real public IP and port forwarding can't work. A hosted server avoids it entirely.
A Record: A DNS record that maps a domain to an IPv4 address. Pointing a domain at your server means setting its A record. See A record guide.
SRV Record: A DNS record that lets players connect to a Minecraft server using just a domain, without typing the port — the SRV record hides the port behind the hostname.
DDoS: A Distributed Denial-of-Service attack — flooding a server with traffic from many sources to knock it offline. Game servers are the #1 target. See our Anti-DDoS write-up.
Anti-DDoS / Mitigation: Filtering attack traffic before it reaches your server. Real protection means always-on, multi-Tbps capacity at the network edge — not a checkbox you flip mid-attack.

Hosting Types & Hardware

Shared Hosting: Many websites share the resources of one server. Cheapest option, good for small sites; you don't control the server itself.
VPS / VDS: A Virtual Private (or Dedicated) Server — your own isolated slice of a machine with full root access. A VDS guarantees its resources aren't shared. Great for bots, panels and custom setups.
Dedicated Server: A whole physical machine rented just for you — maximum performance and control, for large communities or demanding workloads.
NVMe: A very fast type of SSD storage. It means quick world loads, saves and backups with no stutter — far faster than older SSDs or hard drives.
Uptime: The percentage of time a server stays online. "99.9% uptime" means only minutes of downtime per month. Anti-DDoS and good hardware keep it high.
Backup: A saved copy of your server's data (world, database, configs) you can restore after a crash, grief or mistake. Automatic, scheduled backups are essential.

Game-Server Terms

Slot: One player's capacity on a server. A "24-slot" server holds 24 players at once. More slots need more RAM and CPU.
MOTD: "Message Of The Day" — the text shown next to your server in the in-game server list. Your first impression to players browsing.
RCON: Remote Console — a protocol that lets you send admin commands to a server remotely (kick, ban, restart) without being in-game.
Whitelist: An allow-list of players permitted to join. Turning on a whitelist keeps a server private to approved players only.
Mod vs Plugin: A mod changes the actual game (new items, mechanics) and usually must be installed by players too. A plugin adds server-side features (ranks, protection) without changing the client.
Modpack: A curated bundle of mods designed to work together as one experience (e.g. All The Mods, RLCraft). Bigger packs need more RAM.
Wipe: Resetting a server's map and/or player progress — standard on Rust servers (monthly/weekly) to keep things fresh and fair.
FastDL: A fast HTTP download host for Source-game content, so players grab custom maps/models quickly instead of at the engine's slow default speed. See GMod addons.
Proxy (BungeeCord / Velocity): Software that links several Minecraft servers behind one address, so players move between them (lobby, survival, minigames) without reconnecting.
Crossplay: Letting players on different platforms or stores play together on the same server — important for games like Valheim and Minecraft (Java/Bedrock via Geyser).

Now put it into practice