A domain is an address of your assets on the web. It is a name that is universally understood by web servers. The domain name is unique, no two domains can be the same. A Domain name has two parts separated by a dot, the left of the dot is called the name of the domain and right of the domain is called extension or TLD. A domain name can be any combination of letters and numbers. Special characters like – is also allowed in domain name.
For example, ingenioustechies.com is a domain name, in which ingenioustechies is name and com is the extension.
Facts about a domain name:
- It is unique in nature, no two domain names can be the same with the same name and extension. The domain name should always need to be read as name + extension.
- A domain name can be used to identify a single IP address or group of IP addresses.
- A domain name is used as the base of a URL to identify a website.
- A domain name is an address that you type into the address bar of web browser, to get to open a website.
- The domain name must be registered before you can use it.
- Domain names come with an expiry date. If you don’t renew a domain name before expiry that domain will be up for sale again, anyone can buy that domain. You will lose the domain name if someone else registers that domain name.
- You can transfer one domain from one registrar to another registrar.
Does it cost to register the domain name?
YES, there is a cost involved in registering a domain. Cost of domain depends on the name and extension of the domain you want to register. There is various domain registrar available with whom you can book your domain. Generally, the cost of domains will be similar on all registrar, but you may find some ongoing offers from registrars on a certain extension. Below is some popular domain registrar:
Who manages domain names?
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is responsible to maintain a domain name. All registrar pays a small fee to ICANN to register your domain as part of the domain registration process. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), is a non-profit organization. It was established in the year 1998 to help maintain the usability of the internet and to regulate the necessary security of the Internet. Since all domain names registration is regulated by ICANN, there are no chances of having domain names with the same name.
Does it matter who you register your domain with?
Once you have decided and registered a domain, it becomes your property. It is yours till it expires and it will remain yours if you keep renewing it. In short, you are the owner of the domain till it expires. It doesn’t matter from which domain registrar you are purchasing or purchased your domain. If a domain is available, you can usually buy it from any domain registrar where you’d like. However, some domain registrars offer better services, advantages, discounts, offers that others don’t.
How to register a domain name?
The very first step to register a domain is to search for its availability. Whatever domain you want to register needs to be available (not registered by someone else). To find for an available domain name, go to any domain registrar and search for your domain name with its extension. Example: mybusinessname.com or mybusiness.net. Once the availability is there you can proceed for payment and do the registration, in the process of registration you need to provide various details like your personal detail, one email address, your address, business address, etc. Most of the domain registrar accepts online payment through credit cards. Some registrars also accept cheque and other modes of payments. Below is some popular domain registrar you can consider to buy your domain:
Are Domain and Website Same?
NO, Domain is the address of your website. The actual website needs to be hosted on a web server. The domain will take you the address, but what user will get on that address is your website. Take an example of Physical address and home, Your physical address is the domain name and your house is the website. A domain name can exist without a website, similar to a physical address can exist without a home. As you can renovate your home as many times you can, you can do the same with your website, without changing the address, the domain.
Once you purchased a domain, it’s time to host it, the popular web hosting service providers as below:
We will discuss more about Web hosting in future articles.
What are the Sub Domains?
A sub-domain is an extension of a domain. Generally, a subdomain will look like webhost.ingenioustechies.com. In this example, the webhost is a subdomain of the parent domain ingenioustechies.com. Some service provider offers free subdomain on their main domain to host your website, If you do not own a domain, you cannot own subdomain associated with it. If the main domain gets expired, all its subdomain will get expired.
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