CN2 GIA
China Telecom's premium international network product (Global Internet Access). CN2 GIA routes traffic entirely through China Telecom's CN2 backbone (AS4809), bypassing the congested 163 backbone. It offers low latency, minimal packet loss, and high stability — the best routing option for connecting to China, but at a higher price point.
CN2 GT
CN2's lower-tier product (Global Transit). Unlike CN2 GIA, CN2 GT only uses the CN2 network for the international segment, while the domestic segment in China still traverses the regular 163 backbone. Performance is between standard routing and CN2 GIA.
163 Backbone
China Telecom's original international backbone network (AS4134). Due to massive user volume, it becomes congested during peak hours, resulting in higher latency and increased packet loss. Most budget VPS providers route through 163.
Triple-Network Direct
When a VPS has direct peering connections with all three major Chinese ISPs (China Telecom, China Unicom, China Mobile). This ensures good access speeds regardless of which ISP the end user is on.
Native IP
An IP address whose Whois registration country matches the server's physical location. For example, a US-based server with a US-registered IP. Native IPs can unlock geo-restricted streaming services (Netflix, Disney+, etc.).
Broadcast IP / Non-Native IP
An IP whose Whois registration country differs from the server's physical location. For example, a Hong Kong server with a US-registered IP. These typically cannot unlock region-locked streaming content.
BGP
Border Gateway Protocol — the standard protocol for exchanging routing information between autonomous systems (AS) on the Internet. BGP multi-homed data centers can intelligently select optimal routes, delivering better speeds across different ISPs.
QoS
Quality of Service — the ability of network equipment to prioritize different types of traffic. In VPS context, CN2 GIA achieves its superior performance partly through QoS mechanisms that assign higher transmission priority.
NVMe SSD
Solid-state drives using the NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) protocol, connected directly to the CPU via PCIe bus. NVMe SSDs deliver 3-5x higher random IOPS and up to 7000 MB/s sequential speeds compared to SATA SSDs. Now the default storage on most major VPS providers (Vultr, Hetzner, etc.).
RAID
Redundant Array of Independent Disks — combining multiple drives for improved performance and/or reliability. Common configurations: RAID 1 (mirroring, protects against single drive failure), RAID 10 (striping + mirroring for speed and safety). Reputable VPS providers use RAID at the infrastructure level to protect your data.
KVM
Kernel-based Virtual Machine — a hardware virtualization solution built into the Linux kernel. KVM provides each VPS with its own virtual hardware (CPU, RAM, disk, NIC), ensuring strong isolation and support for any operating system. It's the preferred virtualization technology of most major VPS providers.
Overselling
When a VPS provider sells more total resources than a physical server actually has. For example, creating 128GB worth of VPS instances on a 64GB server. OpenVZ/LXC containers are prone to overselling; KVM has much less room for it. Heavy overselling leads to unpredictable performance.
DDoS Protection
Measures against Distributed Denial of Service attacks. Most VPS providers include basic protection (typically 10-20 Gbps). High-protection VPS can handle 100 Gbps+. If your site or application may be targeted, verify your provider's DDoS mitigation capacity.
IPv4 / IPv6
IPv4 is the current mainstream address protocol (e.g., 203.0.113.1), but the global pool is exhausted and addresses are increasingly expensive. IPv6 is the next generation (e.g., 2001:db8::1) with virtually unlimited addresses. Many VPS providers include free IPv6; some charge extra for IPv4.
Snapshot
A complete disk image of your VPS at a point in time. You can create snapshots before risky operations and restore instantly if something goes wrong. Vultr, DigitalOcean, and others offer snapshot features — some free, some charged by storage used.