What are Domain Names

One of the most essential prerequisites for having a successful Internet presence is the domain name. It is what people will observe first when they come across your web site and what they will associate you with. The domain name should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that informs your web site's visitors what the web page is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain name typically has 2 parts - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain Name. There are a few groups of TLDs that you should contemplate before you choose the domain name you wish. Your decision should be based on the intention of your website and on its target viewers. Let's take a look at the gTLDs, or generic TLDs - these are the most typical Top-Level Domain Names intended to designate a particular intention - .com (business entities), .net (networks), .biz (firms), .info (informational web sites), .org (not-for-profit organizations), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific region), .name (individuals or relatives), .pro (certain walks of life), etc. As you can see, these TLDs encompass most fields of life, so you should opt for the one that would illustrate the intention of your website best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domain names, but some of them include additional requirements to prove that you qualify to register such a Top-Level Domain Name (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific Top-Level Domains. Each country has its own ccTLD. Getting such a domain name is good if your target group of web site visitors is from a particular country. Many people would elect to buy commodities or services from a local website, and if your aim is Canada, for instance, settling on a .ca domain name could increase the visits to your web site.

Domain Name Redirects

You can register a number of Top-Level Domains, which can send your site's visitors to a given web site like domain.com, for instance. This would increase the traffic and lower the possibility of someone swiping your web site visitors by registering the same SLD with a different Top-Level Domain - if you are not availing of a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each domain name has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) specify where the domain name is hosted, in other words they point to the hosting company whose name servers (NSs, a.k.a. DNSs) it is using at the moment. You can swap the NSs of your domain name whenever you like. You can have your domain registered with one company and get the website hosting service itself from another. Hence, if you register your domain and find decent website hosting plans someplace else afterwards, you can point your domain name to the current company's name servers straight off.

Domain Name Server Records (DNS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain name uses a certain set of DNSs, all its domain records will direct to the same website hosting vendor. Some web hosting companies, though, enable you to edit specific NS records, including the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an IP address, which indicates on which hosting server your web page is hosted, while the MX records reveal which server handles the email mailbox accounts related to your domain name. For example, if you engage a new web page designer and he develops an .ASP site that will be located on his own Windows server, you may want to alter only the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. So, www.domain.com will point to the Windows hosting server, but your mail address accounts or any sub-domains like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux hosting account. The .ASP environment is developed by Microsoft and calls for a Windows hosting server, even though a Linux web server would be far more dependable.

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Only a small number of web hosting companies enable you to edit specific domain name records and very often this an extra paid service. With us, you get a big collection of Top-Level Domains to choose from and you can edit all DNS records or forward the domain names using a redirection tool at no added cost.