Domain Names Explained

One of the most vital preconditions for establishing a successful online presence is the domain name. It is what visitors will note first when they chance upon your web page and what they will associate you with. The domain name should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that tells your site's visitors what the site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain name typically contains two constituents - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for instance, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain Name and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain. There are a couple of groups of TLDs that you should examine before you pick the domain name you wish. Your choice should be based on the goal of your web page and on its target spectators. Let's have a look at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domains - these are the most popular TLDs intended to designate a particular intention - .com (business organizations), .net (networks), .biz (businesses), .info (informative websites), .org (organizations of a non-commercial character), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific region), .name (persons or families), .pro (qualified professionals), etc. As you can see, these TLDs encompass most fields of life, so you should pick the one that would depict the objective of your web page best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domain names, but some of them include additional steps to confirm that you are eligible to register such a Top-Level 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 given country. Many guys would rather buy commodities or services from a local web site, and if your aim is Canada, for example, registering a .ca domain name could boost the visits to your web site.

Domain Name Forwarding

You can register a bunch of Top-Level Domain Names, which can send your web site's visitors to a particular website such as domain.com, for instance. This would increase the traffic and decrease the likelihood of somebody pilfering your visitors by using the same name with a different TLD - if you are not utilizing a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each TLD has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) indicate where the domain name is hosted, in other words they point to the hosting company whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is using now. You can modify the name servers of your domain at any moment. You can have your domain registered with one company and get the website hosting service itself from another. So, if you register your domain name and discover good website hosting services someplace else later, you can point your domain name to the present company's NSs instantly.

Domain Name Server Records (DNS Records)

In general, as long as your domain utilizes a certain pair of name servers, all its domain name server records will direct to the same web hosting distributor. Some web hosting distributors, though, enable you to modify given name server records, like the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which indicates on which hosting server your web site is hosted, while the MX records reveal which web hosting server handles the email addresses associated with your domain name. For instance, if you hire a new website designer and he constructs an .ASP web site that will be accommodated on his private Windows web hosting server, you may want to change only the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. Hence, www.domain.com will point to the Windows web server, but your email box accounts or any sub-domain names such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux website hosting account. The .ASP platform is devised by Microsoft and demands a Windows hosting server, even though a Linux hosting server would be far more dependable.

Modestly Priced Domain Names Provided by 'PC Helper'

Only a number of web hosting vendors enable you to modify certain domain records and very often this an additional paid service. With us, you get a big assortment of TLDs to select from and you can edit all NS records or forward the domain names through a redirection tool at no extra charge.