What are Domain Names

One of the most vital preconditions for building a successful web presence is the domain name. It is what people will mark first when they visit your web site and what they will relate you with. The domain name should be easy to remember, but should also be something that notifies your site's visitors what the site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain name as a rule is composed of 2 fragments - 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 Name and "domain" is the SLD. There are a few groups of Top-Level Domains that you should examine prior to picking the domain name you want. Your pick should be built upon the purpose of your site and on its target visitors. Let's examine the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most typical TLDs meant to indicate a specific purpose - .com (commercial establishments), .net (networks), .biz (businesses), .info (informational web pages), .org (not-for-profit organizations), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific region), .name (individuals or families), .pro (certain walks of life), etc. As you can perceive, these TLDs cover most fields of life, so you should select the one that would signify the objective of your web page best. There is no limitation as to who can register such domain names, but some of them involve additional requirements to prove that you qualify to own such a domain (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific domains. Each country has its own ccTLD. Settling on such a domain name is good if your target group of web page visitors is from a particular country. Many persons would like to buy goods or services from a local site, and if your target is Canada, for example, settling on a .ca domain name could boost the visits to your site.

URL Redirects

You can register several TLDs, which can forward your visitors to a certain web page like domain.com, for instance. This would raise the traffic and decrease the possibility of someone pinching your site visitors by using the same Second-Level Domain with another TLD - if you are not using a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Every domain has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) indicate where the domain name is hosted, i.e. they point to the hosting distributor whose name servers (NSs, also known as DNSs) it is utilizing at the moment. You can change the name servers of your domain name at any moment. You can have your domain name registered with one company and get the web hosting service itself from another. In this way, if you register your domain and encounter good website hosting plans someplace else later, you can point your domain name to the current provider's name servers straight off.

Domain Name Server Records (NS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain name uses a specific pair of DNSs, all its records will direct to the same web hosting distributor. Some website hosting vendors, though, allow you to modify given domain name server records, like the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an IP address, which exhibits on which web server your site is located, while the MX records exhibit which server handles the mailbox accounts related to your domain name. For instance, if you engage a new web site designer and he develops an .ASP site that will be located on his personal Windows web hosting server, you may wish to change just the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. Hence, www.domain.com will point to the Windows web server, but your email address accounts or any sub-domains like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux website hosting account. The .ASP platform is created by Microsoft and calls for a Windows web server, even though a Linux server would be far more dependable.

Moderately Priced TLDs Courtesy of 'The Hosting Dudes'

Only a small number of web hosting distributors enable you to edit certain domain name records and quite frequently this an extra paid service. With us, you get an extensive selection of Top-Level Domains to choose from and you can modify all domain name records or forward the domain names via a redirection tool at no added charge.