Domain Names Explained

One of the most crucial requirements for running a successful Internet presence is the domain. It is what visitors will note first when they stumble upon your web page and what they will link you with. The domain should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that informs your web page's visitors what the web site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain traditionally contains 2 parts - 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 SLD. There are a few sets of Top-Level Domains that you should contemplate before you choose the domain you desire. Your choice should rest on the goal of your website and on its target audience. Let's check the gTLDs, or generic TLDs - these are the most popular Top-Level Domain Names meant to show a particular function - .com (commercial enterprises), .net (networks), .biz (corporations), .info (informational web sites), .org (organizations of a non-commercial character), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific), .name (persons or families), .pro (given walks of life), and so on. As you can perceive, these TLDs cover most fields of life, so you should go for the one that would signify the objective of your web page best. There is no limitation as to who can register such domains, but some of them involve extra steps to prove that you qualify to possess such a Top-Level Domain Name (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domain Names, are country-specific Top-Level Domains. Each country has its own ccTLD. Registering such a domain is good if your target group of site visitors is from a particular country. Many guys would elect to buy goods or services from a local web page, and if your target is Canada, for example, picking a .ca domain could increase the visits to your web site.

Domain Redirects

You can register a bunch of Top-Level Domains, which can send your site's visitors to a specific website like domain.com, for instance. This would raise the traffic and decrease the possibility of someone pinching your site visitors by using the same name with a different TLD - if you are not using a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each and every domain name has domain records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) reveal where the domain is hosted, i.e. they point to the web hosting vendor whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is utilizing now. You can modify the NSs of your domain at any time. You can have your domain registered with one company and get the website hosting service itself from another. Hence, if you register your domain name and encounter good website hosting solutions someplace else later, you can point your domain to the new company's NSs right away.

Domain Server Records (DNS Records)

In general, as long as your domain name uses a specific set of name servers, all its name server records will lead to the same web hosting company. Some web hosting distributors, however, allow you to modify given records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which reveals on which web hosting server your web page is situated, while the MX records show which web hosting server handles the electronic mail accounts related to your domain name. For example, if you take on a new web designer and he sets up an .ASP web page that will be situated on his personal Windows server, you may wish to edit solely the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. Thus, www.domain.com will point to the Windows web server, but your e-mail boxes or any sub-domains such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux hosting account. The .ASP platform is created by Microsoft and requests a Windows web server, even though a Linux web hosting server would be far more secure.

Moderately Priced Domain Names Provided by 'IPguide'

Only a small number of web hosting distributors allow you to modify specific domain name records and quite frequently this an extra paid service. With us, you have a huge array of Top-Level Domains to select from and you can edit all domain records or forward the domain names through a forwarding tool at no added charge.