Congratulations. You figured out a way to get to this site, without knowing what a domain name is. I’m not stupid (^), I know you know what a domain name is and you just came here for a better understanding. Right?
If you REALLY don’t know what a domain name is, make sure you comment below and let me know exactly how you got here.
… And here we go …
A domain name is the same as a Uniform Resource Locator (or URL) which is the human friendly version of a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). Both are contained in a Domain Name Server (DNS) directory with your Internet Service Provider. There are open DNS directories out there too which contain the same information.
To fully understand these terms, and to know why DNS propagation takes 72 hours, you’ll need to know how things on the internet work. So here’s a quick run down:
Uniform Resource Identifier (URL)
Every website on the net is associated with a unique number which theoretically ranges from 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255. Thus, each dot separated value ranges from 0 to 255. So if you wanted to access Google, you could type http://209.85.231.104/ in your web browser and visit Google. Each page on each website has a unique number too, and it’s located after the forward-slash ( / ). Each of these unique addresses is a URL. Since the numbers would be tiresome to remember, considering there are millions of websites out there each with a unique number, it would be better just to remember the name of each site. Here’s where Domain Names come in.
Domain Name
A domain name is just the word equivalent of a Uniform Resource Identifier. It’s used to replace a website address, or domain name (the words that follow http://). It usually ends in a .com but there might be many more endings to a domain name. Domain names are assigned on a first-come-first-serve basis by domain registrars. A great domain name is usually worth a lot of money and since domain names are the real-estate of the internet, having a great one is essential for your website.
Domain Registrar
A domain has to be registered or booked before it can be accessed. A domain registrar books the domain for you for a fee. Depending on the registrar, they might offer several additional services to manage your domain better.
Domain Name Server (DNS)
The DNS server is something that stores the human understandable domain names and corresponding machine understandable numbers. When you type in a website address in your browser or click a link, almost instantaneously a search is performed on this server to locate the corresponding machine address. Then the page is retrieved from the requested page and displayed in your browser.
Internet Service Provider (ISP)
These are the guys who promised you a great price on a high speed internet connection but mostly either failed to deliver or over-charged you. I’m a victim too.
The ISP’s role in the whole shebang of things is to maintain the DNS server and to let you communicate with the rest of the web (don’t mind my Oriental friends). Since there are so many ISPs in the world with as many DNS servers, when you register a new domain, it takes upto 72 hours for all of them to update their database with your domain and corresponding machine address. This is also called domain propagation.
How to register a domain name?
Head on to GoDaddy, the world’s no. 1 domain booking site, and search for one. The great thing about GoDaddy is that if your chosen domain is not available, it will suggest a large number of closely matching names and will give you price options on each one. If the domain is up for sale, they will try to arrange a transfer to you at a reasonable cost. If you have good money, send me some, and then try the premium domains for sale at GoDaddy.
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