Domains Explained

One of the most vital preconditions for building a successful web presence is the domain name. It is what people will discern first when they visit your site and what they will identify you with. The domain name should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that notifies your visitors what the web site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain name typically is composed of 2 constituents - 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 Name and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain. There are a couple of categories of TLDs that you should contemplate before you choose the domain name you want. Your decision should depend on the intention of your web site and on its target viewers. Let's have a peek at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domains - these are the most common Top-Level Domain Names aimed to signify a particular purpose - .com (commercial organizations), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (businesses), .info (informative web sites), .org (non-profit organizations), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific region), .name (individuals or relatives), .pro (specific professions), etc. As you can perceive, these Top-Level Domains encompass most fields of life, so you should choose the one that would express the objective of your web page best. There is no limitation as to who can register such domain names, but some of them contain extra procedures to prove that you qualify to own such a Top-Level Domain Name (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific domain names. Each country has its own ccTLD. Selecting such a domain name is good if your target group of web page visitors is from a particular country. Many individuals would like to buy goods or services from a local site, and if your aim is Canada, for example, getting a .ca domain name could increase the visits to your website.

Domain Redirects

You can register several Top-Level Domain Names, which can send your site's visitors to a certain web page such as domain.com, for instance. This would boost the traffic and lower the probability of somebody snatching your web page visitors by using the same name with a different Top-Level Domain - if you are not utilizing a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each and every TLD has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) indicate where the domain name is hosted, i.e. they point to the hosting provider whose name servers (NSs, also known as DNSs) it is utilizing at the moment. You can substitute the NSs of your domain whenever you want. You can have your domain registered with one provider and get the website hosting service itself from another. Hence, if you register your domain name and find decent website hosting solutions someplace else afterwards, you can point your domain name to the present company's NSs at once.

Domain Name Server Records (DNS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain uses a particular pair of DNSs, all its domain name records will lead to the same web hosting provider. Some web hosting firms, though, permit you to modify certain domain name server records, including the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which shows on which hosting server your web page is hosted, while the MX records show which hosting server handles the email address accounts associated with your domain name. For example, if you appoint a new site designer and he creates an .ASP web page that will be hosted on his private Windows server, you may want to alter only 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 web server, but your email mailbox accounts or any sub-domain names like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux website hosting account. The .ASP environment is created by Microsoft and requires a Windows web hosting server, even though a Linux web server would be way more stable.

Cheap Top-Level Domains Courtesy of 'Nova Webhosting'

Just a few web hosting suppliers allow you to modify certain domain records and very often this an additional paid service. With us, you get a large assortment of TLDs to choose from and you can modify all domain name records or forward the domains via a forwarding tool at no extra cost.