Domains Explained

One of the most essential requirements for setting up a successful online presence is the domain name. It is what visitors will observe first when they come across your web site and what they will relate you with. The domain name should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that notifies your web page's visitors what the web site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain name as a rule consists of two parts - 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 Name. There are a few sets of TLDs that you should consider prior to selecting the domain name you desire. Your selection should depend on the goal of your web site and on its target spectators. Let's examine the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most popular Top-Level Domain Names intended to show a given purpose - .com (business enterprises), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (firms), .info (informative websites), .org (organizations of a non-commercial character), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific), .name (persons or families), .pro (given professions), and so on. As you can perceive, these TLDs cover most fields of life, so you should choose the one that would depict the objective of your web site best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domain names, but some of them contain extra procedures to show that you qualify to possess such a TLD (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domains, are country-specific TLDs. Each country has its own ccTLD. Registering such a domain name is good if your target group of web page visitors is from a particular country. Many guys would sooner buy commodities or services from a local web page, and if your target is Canada, for instance, picking a .ca domain name could boost the visits to your web page.

URL Forwarding

You can register a number of Top-Level Domains, which can send your site's visitors to a particular site such as domain.com, for example. This would boost the traffic and reduce the chance of someone snatching your visitors by registering the same name with a different TLD - if you are not availing of a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each and every TLD has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) indicate where the domain name is hosted, i.e. they point to the hosting vendor whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is using at the moment. You can substitute the NSs 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. So, if you register your domain name and stumble upon good website hosting services somewhere else later, you can point your domain name to the current company's DNSs instantaneously.

Domain Name Server Records (NS Records)

In general, as long as your domain uses a given pair of name servers, all its NS records will lead to the same website hosting provider. Some website hosting distributors, however, enable you to edit certain records, including the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an IP address, which exhibits on which web server your web page is situated, while the MX records display which web server handles the mail addresses related to your domain name. For instance, if you hire a new web designer and he creates an .ASP website that will be located on his private Windows server, you may wish to change just the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. Hence, www.domain.com will point to the Windows web server, but your email boxes or any sub-domains like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux web hosting account. The .ASP platform is built by Microsoft and requests a Windows web server, even though a Linux web hosting server would be far more dependable.

Cut-Price Top-Level Domains Offered by 'Innovative Technology Concepts'

Only a small number of web hosting companies permit you to modify specific domain records and quite often this an extra paid service. With us, you get a wide assortment of Top-Level Domain Names to pick from and you can edit all records or redirect the domain names through a redirection tool at no extra cost.