Hosting basics

Modern web infrastructure typically consists of:

  1. Origin server — where your actual content lives (traditional hosting, VPS, or object storage)
  2. CDN layer — caches and serves content from edge locations worldwide
  3. DNS — routes requests to the right place

For static sites, this can be simplified to a single service (Cloudflare Pages, Netlify) that handles all three layers.

DNS fundamentals

DNS translates human-readable domain names to IP addresses. Key concepts:

  • A record — points domain to IPv4 address
  • AAAA record — points domain to IPv6 address
  • CNAME — alias to another domain (not allowed at apex)
  • MX — mail server records
  • TXT — text data (SPF, DKIM, verification)

TTL determines how long records are cached. Lower TTL (300-900s) allows faster changes but increases query load.

CDN overview

CDN edge servers cache your content closer to visitors:

  • Reduces latency (faster page loads)
  • Offloads traffic from origin
  • Can absorb DDoS attacks
  • Provides WAF capabilities

Critical: configure cache TTL appropriately for different content types. HTML might be 1 hour, images 30 days, versioned assets 1 year.

Serving old paths reliably

When maintaining historical URLs (for citations, backlinks, or user bookmarks):

  1. Exact path preservation — serve content at the original URL when possible
  2. 301 redirects — when consolidating, use permanent redirects
  3. Pattern consistency — don't randomly change URL structures
  4. Test regularly — verify old paths still resolve

This approach ensures links remain functional over time without breaking references in academic papers, documentation, or bookmarks.