Domain Names Defined

One of the most essential prerequisites for having a successful online presence is the domain. It is what people will mark first when they stumble upon your website and what they will identify you with. The domain should be easy to remember, but should also be something that tells your website's visitors what the web page is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain traditionally contains 2 parts - a Top-Level Domain (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 Name. There are a few groups of TLDs that you should consider prior to picking the domain you desire. Your choice should depend on the aim of your web site and on its target audience. Let's take a peek at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most popular TLDs meant to indicate a given function - .com (commercial entities), .net (networks), .biz (businesses), .info (informative sites), .org (non-profit organizations), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific), .name (individuals or relatives), .pro (certain walks of life), and so on. As you can perceive, these Top-Level Domain Names encompass most realms of life, so you should select the one that would signify the aim of your web page best. There is no limitation as to who can register such domains, but some of them include additional requirements to show that you are eligible to keep such a Top-Level Domain Name (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domains, are country-specific TLDs. Each country has its own ccTLD. Settling on such a domain is good if your target group of site visitors is from a specific country. Many people would elect to purchase commodities 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 page.

Domain Name Redirection

You can register different Top-Level Domain Names, which can redirect your web site's visitors to a specific web site like domain.com, for example. This would boost the traffic and decrease the possibility of somebody pinching your web site visitors by registering the same Second-Level Domain Name with a different TLD - if you are not utilizing a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each and every domain has domain records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) indicate where the domain is hosted, in other words they point to the hosting supplier whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is utilizing now. You can replace the DNSs of your domain name at any time. You can have your domain registered with one provider and get the website hosting service itself from another. Thus, if you register your domain and stumble upon decent website hosting services somewhere else at a later time, you can point your domain to the new company's name servers straight off.

Domain Server Records (DNS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain utilizes a particular set of DNSs, all its NS records will direct to the same web hosting company. Some website hosting vendors, though, enable you to modify specific DNS records, such as the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an IP address, which details on which web hosting server your web site is hosted, while the MX records display which server tackles the mail aliases associated with your domain name. For instance, if you engage a new web site designer and he develops an .ASP website that will be situated on his private Windows hosting server, you may desire to modify only the Internet Protocol 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-mailbox accounts or any sub-domain names such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux hosting account. The .ASP environment is developed by Microsoft and calls for a Windows hosting server, even though a Linux web server would be way more reliable.

Low-Priced Domains Delivered by 'GreatHosts.biz'

Just a number of web hosting distributors enable you to modify certain name server records and very often this an additional paid service. With us, you get a large selection of Top-Level Domains to select from and you can edit all DNS records or forward the domains through a forwarding tool at no extra cost.