Domain Names Explained

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

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain name as a rule consists of 2 constituents - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (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 couple of categories of TLDs that you should contemplate before you pick the domain name you desire. Your pick should rest on the purpose of your site and on its target spectators. Let's have a glance at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domains - these are the most typical Top-Level Domains intended to designate a specific purpose - .com (business organizations), .net (networks), .biz (companies), .info (informational web sites), .org (organizations), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific region), .name (individuals or families), .pro (given professions), etc. As you can perceive, these Top-Level Domains encompass most fields of life, so you should select the one that would illustrate the intention of your web page best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domain names, but some of them involve additional requirements to ascertain that you qualify to register such a Top-Level Domain (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

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

Domain Name Redirection

You can register different TLDs, which can forward your website's visitors to a particular site such as domain.com, for example. This would increase the traffic and lower the possibility of someone pilfering your visitors by registering the same Second-Level Domain Name with another Top-Level Domain Name - if you are not using a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Every TLD has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) show where the domain name is hosted, i.e. they point to the hosting company whose name servers (NSs, also known as DNSs) it is utilizing now. You can change the name servers of your domain name at any time. 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 stumble upon good website hosting services someplace else later, you can point your domain name to the current company's NSs at once.

Domain Name Server Records (DNS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain utilizes a particular pair of NSs, all its DNS records will lead to the same web hosting firm. Some website hosting vendors, though, enable you to modify given DNS records, like the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an IP address, which discloses on which server your website is located, while the MX records indicate which web hosting server handles the email box accounts related to your domain name. For example, if you hire a new web designer and he constructs an .ASP site that will be accommodated on his private Windows hosting server, you may wish to modify solely the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. In this way, www.domain.com will point to the Windows web server, but your mail accounts or any sub-domain names such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux web hosting account. The .ASP environment is designed by Microsoft and requires a Windows server, although a Linux web hosting server would be way more secure.

Reasonably Priced Top-Level Domains Courtesy of 'Cyberdyne Communications Inc'

Only a number of web hosting vendors enable you to edit particular records and quite frequently this an additional paid service. With us, you get an enormous variety of Top-Level Domains to choose from and you can edit all NS records or redirect the domain names through a forwarding tool at no added cost.