Hosting Terms, for Name Holders
Dedicated server — Bare metal, and the addresses that come with it
You are weighing a dedicated server and the question that matters to you is not cores, it is which addresses your names will answer on.
The short answer
A dedicated server is one physical machine rented to one customer, and the part that matters to a name holder is the network identity: a block of addresses that nothing else answers on, reverse DNS you can have set to whatever your names require, and a reputation that is entirely your own doing.
That last point cuts both ways. Nobody else's behaviour can damage your addresses, and nobody else's good standing can carry them either.
By the Hosting & Domains team · Reviewed 24 August 2026
0
Terms left unexplained
100+
Entries, each linked to its neighbours
Real
Examples, taken from live zones
Free
To read, with no account needed
Nothing is sliced or shared. Every core, every gigabyte and every disk answers to one workload, and the addresses assigned to the machine answer only for the names you put on them. Bare metal also buys the shortest disk and network latency money can rent.
What it costs is flexibility, and one specific risk. A single machine is a single failure domain, so if the same machine is also serving DNS for every name you hold, one hardware fault takes the names down as well as the sites.
The addresses are the asset
On shared hosting the address is common property and its reputation is the platform's business. On a dedicated machine the block is yours, which means blocklist entries, mail reputation and any historical baggage attached to those addresses are yours too.
Worth doing on day one: check the assigned addresses against the major blocklists before you point a mail-carrying name at them. An address recycled from a previous tenant occasionally arrives with a history, and it is far easier to have it swapped in week one than explained in month six.
Reverse DNS, and the one record you cannot self-serve
PTR records live in the reverse zone for the address block, which is held by whoever owns the block — the provider, not you. So reverse DNS is a request, not an edit, however much root access you have. Ask for the hostname you actually want, and make sure the matching forward A record exists first.
Where a machine carries several names sending mail, decide on one sending hostname and point the PTR at that. Reverse DNS is one entry per address; trying to make it represent every name on the box is a category error.
Keep DNS off the machine it points at
The temptation on a dedicated server is to run everything, nameservers included. Resist it for the same reason you would not keep the only copy of a backup on the disk it protects: the moment the machine is unreachable, the names delegated to it are unreachable too, and you lose the ability to redirect traffic away from the outage.
Authority held elsewhere — a managed DNS provider, or the registrar's own nameservers — means a dead machine is a dead website with working email and a zone you can re-point in minutes.
How it is sold here
Dedicated machines here are built to order once payment lands, which is also why they sit outside the refund window that covers shared, business, WordPress and WooCommerce hosting. The current line starts at a Xeon E-2274G, and the platform runs from London.
Moving up from shared or a VPS is a change of plan rather than a rebuild, and if your names' delegation lives off the box, the move touches one A record per name and nothing else.
The entry that names which party holds the record
Reverse DNS is the standing example of a record everybody discusses and few can say who owns. It is not in your zone, it is not in the registry's zone, and no amount of root access will let you type it. Every definition here tries to answer that question first.
A backup is taken daily on every plan, and a restore is a click in the panel rather than a ticket.
- Registry, registrar, reseller and host kept distinct throughout
- The verifying command written out wherever one exists
- Neighbouring records and registry rules linked together
- Written by the people who answer the transfer tickets
Why Hosting & Domains
Standard on every plan
Address reputation, checked early
What to look up about your assigned block before a mail-carrying name is ever pointed at it.
Short enough to finish in time
Each entry is written to be read through before the window you are worried about closes.
One sending hostname, decided deliberately
How reverse DNS relates to the several names a single machine may serve, and why one entry is all you get.
No stake in your conclusion
The mechanism is described the same way whether the sensible answer sends any business here or somewhere else entirely.
DNS deliberately off the box
Why the machine your names point at should not also be the machine that answers for them.
Open to read
The whole glossary sits in front of the login, with nothing held back for an account or a mailing list.
Quick Start
Order placed to site online
- 1
Check the block before you use it
Look the assigned addresses up against the main blocklists on day one, while a swap is still a trivial request rather than an argument.
- 2
Fix the forward record, then ask for the reverse
Create the A record for your chosen sending hostname first, then request the matching PTR. In that order the request is granted the first time.
- 3
Leave authority somewhere else
Keep the zone with a provider whose only job is DNS, so an outage on the machine leaves you able to point the name elsewhere.
Built In
Fitted to every plan
- DDoS filtering absorbed at the network edge
- ImunifyAV+ sweeping every site on the account for malware
- WebP image optimisation built in, at no extra charge
- Free SSL on every plan, reissued before the old certificate lapses
- Auto-renew switched on or off name by name from the account
- Webmail in the browser, with IMAP, POP and SMTP for any client you prefer
- The latest cPanel, with people on the support desk at any hour
- Your site lifted off the old host and set down here, at no charge
- SSH on the developer plans, Git and Composer already installed
- 99.9% uptime as the target, watched around the clock
Frequently Asked
Questions we field again and again
Do I get reverse DNS control on a dedicated server?
You get to decide what it says, which is not the same as being able to type it. The PTR record sits in the reverse zone for the address block, and that zone belongs to whoever owns the block, so the change is made on request. Name the hostname you want, make sure its forward A record already resolves to the same address, and expect one entry per address rather than one per domain.
Does a dedicated server improve my names' email reputation?
It gives you sole responsibility for it, which is better only if you intend to use it. Sole tenancy means no neighbour can damage the address, but it also means the address starts with no history and builds one from your own sending. A well-run shared platform with a managed relay in front of it will out-deliver a new dedicated address for months.
What is the refund position?
Thirty days on shared, business, WordPress and WooCommerce hosting, and seven on reseller. VPS and dedicated servers are built to order the moment payment lands, so they sit outside the guarantee — and so do domain registrations, because the registry charges the instant the name is secured. Inside the window one request returns the hosting fee.
Is a name's renewal price the same as its first year?
For the hosting, yes: it renews at the figure you ordered at. For the name, not necessarily — each registry sets its own renewal rate, and on plenty of extensions the second year costs more than the first. The figure shown against the name at checkout is the one that will be billed, so read it before a cheap first year persuades you.
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