The entire world wide web and the internet is made up by this overlay of domain names. With the increasing number of websites, webpages and online resources, having a domain name has been a crucial need for any organization or person, in order to sustain in the internet with the competitive market. So, this blog targets on giving you a complete understanding on what domain names are, and why they are important. This blog also talks about the Domain Name Systems, and finally this provides the necessary steps on purchasing you own domain name.
Following are the main topics for this blog,
What is a Domain Name
Why do I need a Domain Name
Domain Name System
How the Domain Registration Happens
Step by Step guidance on purchasing your own Domain Name
What is a Domain Name?
A Domain name is part of your network address, which identifies it as belonging to a particular domain. In simple terms, it is the part of your internet address that comes after the letters WWW. For example the domain name of Facebook is: facebook.com.
Domain names are usually organized from right to left. It is like you full name, when read from right to left. Your surname describes the top level, middle name is the middle level and first name is like the most specific level. Similarly with web domains, the "Top Level Domains" (TLD or Parent Domain) is at the right end of the address. The middle level domains are usually in the middle of the address.
Domain names are addresses that internet users use to access your website. Normally, when you want to locate a computer on the internet, you would refer to its IP (Internet Protocol) address. Since it is very hard to remember these internet protocols, we built Domain Name Server's (DNS) that would map the domain names of websites to specific IP addresses. Any name registered with the DNS, is a domain name. We shall not go deep into what domain names are and Domain Name Servers, but we shall look at how domain names can be obtained or purchased by different vendors on the internet.
Why do I need a Domain Name?
Anyone can host anything on the internet without a domain name. But the major problem that users would face is to remember IP addresses of these websites instead of a simple nickname like the domain name. This makes it very less user-friendly, leading it to be a website the people dislike to visit. Following are a few reasons for you to have a good domain name for your website.
If you have a business website or a personal website, the domain name gives you credibility. People can easily lookup and reach out to you.
If you plan on changing your web-host, your domain name can still remain the same. Under the hood, you can easily switch from one host to another, without letting the users know about it.
If you can obtain a domain name that suits your company or your purpose, people will easily remember your website. People can easily return to your website whenever they wish to. Sometimes by luck, even a product search on the internet my lead to your domain name.
Also if you wish to find good sponsors or advertisers, it is always better to have a good domain name to give your website the respectability it needs.
Domain Name System
Domain Name System is also known as DNS, which explains how the internet as a whole is structured with respect to domain names and IP addresses. This is indisputably the most important and overlooked parts of the internet. To give a clear and concise understanding, this section will talk about what DNS is, how it works and how it affects our life of regular internet users.
We all know that, computers that make up the internet are set up in large networks, that communicates with eachother via underground wires, and each of these networks are identified using strings of numbers, known as IP addresses. Remembering these IP addresses is impossible and hence, Domain Name Systems were introduced. The DNS is actually used to translate between actual names and IP addresses. The image given above, is an abstract view on how the Domain Name System works.
But how does it really work. Just imagine you type "www.google.com" in your web browser. you wish to go to the Google Search Site. Initially, you browser and your Operating System, will first determine whether they know what the IP address is. It could be configured in memory, or it could be stored in cache.
If the browser or the Operating System is aware of what "www.google.com" is, they will return the IP address and redirect the browser to the necessary address. But if they don't know it, the Operating System is configured to ask a resolving name server, for IP addresses, it does not know. The resolving name server is the workhorse of the DNS Lookup. This is either configured manually or automatically within your Operating System.
Once the Operating System asks the Resolving Name Server, it may or may not have this in memory or in cache. The only thing any Resolving Name Server should know is the Root Name Server. The Root Name Server will reply and say, "I don't know, but i know where to find the COM name servers."
The COM name servers are known as the Top Level Domain (TLD) name servers. The Resolving Name Server, will take all these information from the Resolving Name Server, and puts it in its cache, and goes directly to the COM TLD name servers. When the resolving name server queries, "www.google.com", the TLD name servers respond, "I don't know, but I know where to find the Google.com name servers. These name servers are known as the Authoritative Name Servers.
Again the resolving name server, takes the response from the TLD name server, and stores it in cache. And then it queries the Google.com name servers. At this point, the authoritative name server would say, "Hey i know where that is. Tell your browser to go to the IP address 192.168.1.5."
Again the resolving name server, takes the response from the Authoritative name server, and stores it in cache. Then it gives the reply to the Operating System. The Operating System will then give this to the browser, then the browser will make the connection to the IP Address and request for the webpage "www.google.com." Even though this process seems very long, it takes a very small time like a very small fraction of a second.
So as given above, a single DNS Lookup has to go through 4 different name servers. (Unless it is already in cache).
Resolving Name Server
Root Name Server
Top Level Domain Name Server
Authoritative Name Server
How the Domain Registration Happens
How did the Top Level Domain Name Servers know, where to find the Google.com name servers? This is with the help of the Domain's Registrar. When a domain is purchased, the registrar is told which authoritative name servers it should use. They notify the organization responsible for the TLD name servers (registry), and tell them to update their TLD name servers. The image given below, depicts this registration process.
When you are purchasing a domain name, you need to register it with ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). You will have to pay to the registrar for the domain name, and the rights for this domain name will be given to you, for a period of one year. Thereafter, you will have to pay the same amount and renew it annually.
Step by Step guidance on purchasing your own Domain Name
If you have your own website, of if you wish to build a new one, you should definitely register your domain name on the internet. A domain name is like the name that people will call your website. You don't need a company to get a domain name. What you need is a list of suitable domain names, and a credit card. Go through the following steps to get a clear understanding on what you need to do.
Step 1
Select a catchy and suitable domain name. This is more like a brainstorming process which involves a list of suitable domain names and checking its availability. Sometimes, the .COM TLD might be unavailable, where as the .ORG TLD might be available. You can use the following link to see the availability of you domain name.
Some companies, purchase all the available Top Level Domain names, in order to secure your domain name being used in different ways. For example, if my selected domain name is "keetmalin.com", I would also purchase, "keetmalin.org", "keetmalin.lk", "keetmalin.net" etc.
Step 2
The next step is to make the payment, by credit cards or a Paypal account. A payment has to be made to the registrar for you to get your own domain. Following list is a set of well known domain registrars.
Step 3
This is about setting up your hosting space with the domain name. You have to obtain the list of name servers from your hosting service provider, and enter then as name servers under your domain name. This is basically like redirecting your domain name address to a hosting space of your own. But if you don't have your own hosting space, don't worry. I will publish another blog, for further understanding on how to decide and setup your own hosting space.
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