Domain Names Explained

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

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain as a rule is composed of two components - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain. There are a couple of groups of TLDs that you should consider before you select the domain you want. Your choice should depend on the goal of your web page and on its target spectators. Let's investigate the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most typical TLDs intended to show a specific purpose - .com (business organizations), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (corporations), .info (informative websites), .org (organizations of a non-commercial character), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific region), .name (persons or relatives), .pro (certain walks of life), and so on. As you can perceive, these TLDs cover most fields of life, so you should pick the one that would show the purpose of your site best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domains, but some of them involve additional procedures to show that you qualify to possess such a TLD (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domains, are country-specific domains. Each country has its own ccTLD. Picking such a domain is good if your target group of web page visitors is from a specific country. Many guys would want to buy goods or services from a local web site, and if your aim is Canada, for instance, picking a .ca domain could boost the visits to your web page.

URL Redirection

You can register a number of Top-Level Domain Names, which can send your website's visitors to a certain site such as domain.com, for example. This would increase the traffic and decrease the likelihood of someone stealing your web site visitors by registering the same Second-Level Domain Name with a different Top-Level Domain - if you are not using a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each and every domain has domain records. The name server records (NS records, also known as DNS records) exhibit where the domain is hosted, in other words they point to the web hosting distributor whose name servers (NSs, also known as DNSs) it is utilizing now. You can modify the NSs of your domain at any time. You can have your domain name registered with one firm and get the web hosting service itself from another. Therefore, if you register your domain name and find decent website hosting solutions someplace else at a later time, you can point your domain to the current provider's DNSs instantly.

Domain Server Records (NS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain name utilizes a particular set of DNSs, all its NS records will lead to the same website hosting company. Some web hosting suppliers, however, permit you to edit specific name server records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an IP address, which designates on which web hosting server your site is located, whereas the MX records specify which web hosting server tackles the mailbox accounts related to your domain name. For example, if you hire a new website designer and he devises an .ASP web site that will be located on his own Windows web server, you may desire to change just the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. So, www.domain.com will direct to the Windows hosting server, but your mailbox accounts or any sub-domains like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux website hosting account. The .ASP environment is invented by Microsoft and requires a Windows web hosting server, even though a Linux web server would be way more secure.

Cut-Rate TLDs Brought by 'HostWorldServices'

Just a small number of web hosting suppliers enable you to modify certain domain name server records and very often this an extra paid service. With us, you have a wide selection of Top-Level Domain Names to choose from and you can edit all domain name records or forward the domain names via a redirection tool at no added charge.