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What is a Domain Name? Previous to we can go into what a
domain name is I’m going to tell you why we need them as
the answers compliment each other. The Internet is just a really
huge collection of connected computers (a network). For the
purpose of explaining domain names you can reckon of the Internet
a bit ike the phone system and just like the phone system every
computer on the Internet has it’s own phone number apart from an
Internet phone number is called an IP addresses. This address is
made up of up to 12 digits in the form 123.123.123.123,
computers use these IP addresses to send information to each
other over the Internet.

When the Internet was first produced it quickly became clear that
these IP addresses were not simple to remember and a further method
was need to make these addresses more human friendly.The
solution to this was the Domain Name System (DNS). In the end the
DNS is a really really huge phone book for computers. When
you type a web site address into your web browser it checks the
DNS for that website name and finds the IP address. Once it has
the IP address it can then send a message to that computer and
question it for the web page you wanted.

Ok so you know a domain name is part of a web site address
but which part? Lets look at a website address so we can
identify and discuss what bit of it is a domain name.

http://www.allwebhosts.com.ru/indexhtml

The above address is the home page of the this web site. It can
be split into 3 main parts. The first part is http:// this just
tells your web browser what kind of information it is going to
get and how to get it. The last part is /index.html this is name
of the files on the remote computer that you want your browser
to get. The bit in the middlewww.allwebhosts.com.ru is a
domain name. This is the name that your computer sends to the
DNS to get back the IP address.

So you know what a domain name is and that there is a phone book
called the DNS to exchange your simple to remember domain name into
an IP address that you computer can know. The Internet
phone book (DNS) is special in that everyone on the Internet
needs to be able to use it. This makes the DNS very very huge
(100+ million addresses huge). Due to the size of this phone book
it needed to have a carefully organised and managed structure.

Domain names themselves are split into different levels like
a hierarchy. The DNS system uses this hierarchy to search
the DNS for the IP address of the domain name it is trying to
find. The last bit of a domain, in the previous example the com
part is called the top amount domain. There are a large selection
of top amount domains like com, net, org and info. There are also
very similar endings called country amount domains like uk and
de. Each of the top amount and country amount domains are managed
by a different organization, sometimes these are companies or
non profit organizations and sometimes governments. In the
domain business these organisations are referred to as the
registries. Each registry looks after it’s own part of the
domain name system.

If you choose you want to use a domain name in the top amount
domain com, like mycompany.com you would have to have this name
assigned by the registry that manages that top amount domain (for
..com a US company called VeriSign). The process of being
assigned a domain name is called domain registration.

Domain registration is more like a lease than a buy.
You are renting the second amount domain (the mycompany bit) from
Verisign for a specific amount of time normally between 1 and 10
years at a time. Most of the organizations that allow you to
register a second amount domain charge a fee for each year that
you register the domain for. With nearly all domain names you
are also given the option to renew your registration (lease)
when it is close to running out (expiring).

Once you have registered a second amount domain you are free to
make as many third amount domains (sometimes called sub
domains) as you like.

Once you have registered a second amount domain you are free to
make as many third amount domains (sometimes called sub
domains) as you like. In our previous example the www is a sub
domain of itxcel.com.

Most of the registries that manage these top amount domain names
do not allow individuals or businesses to register domains
frankly with them. To register a domain you need to use a
company like Allwebhosts. We act as a registrar and send all the
required information and the registration fee to the registry.
Registrars are useful as they hide the differences that exist in
each of the registries from the customer and provide a simple
step by step process for registering a domain. A registrar also
allows you to manage and footstep all your domains from one place
rather than having to deal with a different company for each top
amount domain.

OK so I know what a domain name is, Why do need one? Can
you image what a nightmare it would be if you had an email
address like myname@123.246.128.255 or a web site address
http://123.246.128.255/? These addresses are possible but not
very simple to remember. Now if you register a domain name you
could make an email address like myname@mycompany.com and a
web site address like mycompany.com. These are much simpler to
remember and look 100 times more qualified.

One of the vital points about registering a domain is
that once done you have an exclusive right to use that domain
for as long as you keep the domain registered in your name. If
you do not renew a domain at the end of it’s registration period
it will again become available for registration by a name else.
For this reason even if you don’t want or need a web site at the
moment, it’s still a excellent thought to register a domain as soon as
possible. Just imagine if your competition registered the domain
name of your company or product. Even if there is a process in
place to retrieve these domain it can be long and complicated.
It is certainly simpler to spend a small cash up front to
secure your chosen domain names.