What is a domain name and why would I want one?

In this article we will cover the basics of what acompanies or non profit organizations and sometimes
domain name is, how they work and why you needgovernments. In the domain business these
to have at least one. I am going to try and avoidorganisations are referred to as the registries. Each
complicated computer terms and stick toregistry looks after it's own part of the domain name
explanations that should be easily understood bysystem.
someone without a computer science degree.If you decide you want to use a domain name in the
What is a Domain Name? Before we can go intotop level domain com, like you would have to have
what a domain name is I'm going to tell you why wethis name assigned by the registry that manages that
need them as the answers compliment each other.top level domain (for .com a US company called
The Internet is just a really big collection ofVeriSign). The process of being assigned a domain
connected computers (a network). For the purposename is called domain registration.
of explaining domain names you can think of theDomain registration is more like a lease than a
Internet a bit like the phone system and just like thepurchase. You are renting the second level domain
phone system every computer on the Internet has(the mycompany bit) from Verisign for a specific
it's own phone number except an Internet phoneamount of time normally between 1 and 10 years at
number is called an IP addresses. This address isa time. Most of the organizations that allow you to
made up of up to 12 digits in the formregister a second level domain charge a fee for each
123.123.123.123, computers use these IP addresses toyear that you register the domain for. With almost all
send information to each other over the Internet.domain names you are also given the option to
When the Internet was first created it quicklyrenew your registration (lease) when it is close to
became clear that these IP addresses were not easyrunning out (expiring).
to remember and another method was need toOnce you have registered a second level domain you
make these addresses more human friendly. Theare free to create as many third level domains
solution to this was the Domain Name System (DNS).(sometimes called sub domains) as you like. In our
Basically the DNS is a really really big phone book forprevious example the www is a sub domain of Most
computers. When you type a web site address intoof the registries that manage these top level domain
your web browser it checks the DNS for thatnames do not allow individuals or businesses to
website name and finds the IP address. Once it hasregister domains directly with them. To register a
the IP address it can then send a message to thatdomain you need to use a company like itXcel. We
computer and ask it for the web page you wanted.act as a registrar and send all the required
Ok so you know a domain name is part of a webinformation and the registration fee to the registry.
site address but which part? Lets look at a websiteRegistrars are useful as they hide the differences
address so we can identify and discuss what bit of itthat exist in each of the registries from the
is a domain name.customer and provide a simple step by step process
The above address is the home page of the itXcelfor registering a domain. A registrar also allows you
web site. It can be split into 3 main parts. The firstto manage and track all your domains from one place
part is http:// this just tells your web browser whatrather than having to deal with a different company
kind of information it is going to get and how to getfor each top level domain.
it. The last part is /index.html this is name of the filesOK so I know what a domain name is, Why do need
on the remote computer that you want yourone? Can you image what a nightmare it would be if
browser to get. The bit in the middle is a domainyou had an email address like
name. This is the name that your computer sends tomyname@123.246.128.255 or a web site address
the DNS to get back the IP address.These addresses are possible but not very easy to
So you know what a domain name is and that thereremember. Now if you register a domain name you
is a phone book called the DNS to change your easycould create an email address like and a web site
to remember domain name into an IP address thataddress like These are much easier to remember and
you computer can understand. The Internet phonelook 100 times more professional.
book (DNS) is special in that everyone on theOne of the important points about registering a
Internet needs to be able to use it. This makes thedomain is that once done you have an exclusive right
DNS very very big (100+ million addresses big). Dueto use that domain for as long as you keep the
to the size of this phone book it needed to have adomain registered in your name. If you do not renew
carefully organised and managed structure.a domain at the end of it's registration period it will
Domain names themselves are split into differentagain become available for registration by someone
levels like a hierarchy. The DNS system uses thiselse. For this reason even if you don't want or need
hierarchy to search the DNS for the IP address ofa web site at the moment, it's still a good idea to
the domain name it is trying to find. The last bit of aregister a domain as soon as possible. Just imagine if
domain, in the previous example the com part isyour competition registered the domain name of
called the top level domain. There are a largeyour company or product. Although there is a
selection of top level domains like com, net, org andprocess in place to retrieve these domain it can be
info. There are also very similar endings called countrylong and complicated. It is definitely simpler to spend
level domains like uk and de. Each of the top levela little money up front to secure your chosen domain
and country level domains are managed by anames.
different organization, sometimes these are