Domain Names Explained

One of the most essential requirements for setting up a successful Internet presence is the domain name. It is what visitors will discern first when they discover your web page and what they will identify you with. The domain name should be easy to remember, but should also be something that informs your visitors what the site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain name as a rule is composed of 2 parts - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for instance, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain. There are a few sets of Top-Level Domain Names that you should consider prior to selecting the domain name you desire. Your choice should depend on the goal of your website and on its target spectators. Let's explore the gTLDs, or generic TLDs - these are the most common Top-Level Domain Names aimed to signify a given intention - .com (commercial enterprises), .net (networks), .biz (corporations), .info (informational websites), .org (organizations of a non-commercial character), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific), .name (persons or relatives), .pro (certain walks of life), and so on. As you can see, these Top-Level Domain Names encompass most realms of life, so you should pick the one that would depict the purpose of your site best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domain names, but some of them include additional steps to prove that you qualify to register such a 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 TLDs. Each country has its own ccTLD. Getting such a domain name is good if your target group of web page visitors is from a certain country. Many individuals would like to buy goods or services from a local site, and if your goal is Canada, for example, selecting a .ca domain name could increase the visits to your web page.

Domain Name Redirects

You can register several Top-Level Domain Names, which can forward your website's visitors to a particular web site like domain.com, for example. This would raise the traffic and decrease the chance of someone swiping your website visitors by using the same Second-Level Domain with another Top-Level Domain Name - if you are not utilizing a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Every domain has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) demonstrate where the domain name is hosted, in other words they point to the web hosting distributor whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is using at present. You can substitute the DNSs of your domain name at all times. You can have your domain registered with one provider and get the website hosting service itself from another. Therefore, if you register your domain and stumble upon good website hosting solutions someplace else at a later time, you can point your domain name to the present provider's name servers instantaneously.

Domain Name Server Records (DNS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain name uses a certain set of name servers, all its DNS records will lead to the same web hosting supplier. Some website hosting providers, though, enable you to modify specific domain name records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which details on which hosting server your web site is hosted, while the MX records designate which hosting server handles the e-mail addresses related to your domain name. For instance, if you engage a new web page designer and he sets up an .ASP site that will be hosted on his own Windows hosting server, you may desire to edit just the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. So, www.domain.com will point to the Windows hosting server, but your email mailboxes or any sub-domains like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux web hosting account. The .ASP environment is devised by Microsoft and requests a Windows web hosting server, although a Linux server would be way more secure.

Cut-Price Top-Level Domain Names Distributed by 'Host Magi'

Just a small number of web hosting providers permit you to modify particular domain records and very often this an additional paid service. With us, you get a large collection of TLDs to select from and you can edit all DNS records or forward the domains through a forwarding tool at no added cost.