What are Domain Names

One of the most essential requirements for establishing a successful web presence is the domain name. It is what visitors will mark first when they chance upon your website and what they will associate you with. The domain name should be easy to remember, but should also be something that tells your web page's visitors what the website is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain name traditionally consists of two fragments - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the TLD and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain Name. There are several groups of Top-Level Domain Names that you should contemplate prior to selecting the domain name you want. Your decision should depend on the aim of your web page and on its target viewers. Let's have a peek at the gTLDs, or generic TLDs - these are the most common TLDs aimed to denote a given function - .com (commercial entities), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (firms), .info (informative web sites), .org (not-for-profit organizations), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific), .name (individuals or families), .pro (specific walks of life), and so on. As you can see, these Top-Level Domain Names cover most realms of life, so you should opt for the one that would denote the objective of your web page best. There is no limitation as to who can register such domain names, but some of them include extra steps to prove that you qualify to keep such a domain name (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domains, are country-specific domain names. Each country has its own ccTLD. Picking such a domain name is good if your target group of visitors is from a specific country. Many people would like to buy commodities or services from a local web site, and if your goal is Canada, for example, registering a .ca domain name could boost the visits to your site.

URL Redirection

You can register different Top-Level Domain Names, which can forward your web site's visitors to a particular web page like domain.com, for example. This would increase the traffic and lower the probability of someone pilfering your website visitors by registering the same Second-Level Domain Name with a different Top-Level Domain Name - if you are not availing of a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Every TLD has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) show where the domain name is hosted, i.e. they point to the hosting supplier whose name servers (NSs, a.k.a. DNSs) it is utilizing at present. You can switch the DNSs of your domain at any moment. You can have your domain registered with one firm and get the web hosting service itself from another. So, if you register your domain name and find decent website hosting solutions somewhere else later, you can point your domain name to the new company's name servers at once.

Domain Name Server Records (NS Records)

In general, as long as your domain name utilizes a certain set of name servers, all its name server records will point to the same website hosting company. Some web hosting companies, though, permit you to modify certain DNS records, like the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which designates on which hosting server your web page is located, whereas the MX records display which server tackles the mail aliases related to your domain name. For example, if you engage a new web site designer and he creates an .ASP web page that will be situated on his personal Windows hosting server, you may desire to alter solely the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. So, www.domain.com will direct to the Windows server, but your electronic mail accounts or any sub-domains such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux website hosting account. The .ASP platform is designed by Microsoft and necessitates a Windows web server, although a Linux server would be far more reliable.

Cut-Price Domains Furnished by 'TheDedicatedHosting.com'

Only a few web hosting suppliers allow you to modify specific domain name records and very frequently this an extra paid service. With us, you have an enormous collection of TLDs to choose from and you can edit all DNS records or forward the domain names through a redirection tool at no added cost.