Domain Names Defined

One of the most important requirements for running a successful web presence is the domain name. It is what visitors will discern first when they come across your web site and what they will link you with. The domain name should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that informs your website's visitors what the web page is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain name usually contains two parts - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the TLD and "domain" is the SLD. There are a few groups of Top-Level Domain Names that you should examine prior to picking the domain name you wish. Your decision should be built upon the goal of your web page and on its target visitors. Let's take a peek at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domains - these are the most common TLDs meant to show a particular function - .com (business enterprises), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (corporations), .info (informative web sites), .org (organizations of a non-commercial character), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific region), .name (individuals or families), .pro (specific walks of life), and so on. As you can see, these Top-Level Domain Names cover most fields of life, so you should pick the one that would depict the objective of your site best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domain names, but some of them contain additional steps to prove that you qualify to have such a Top-Level Domain Name (.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. Getting such a domain name is good if your target group of site visitors is from a certain country. Many persons would like to buy commodities or services from a local web site, and if your aim is Canada, for instance, picking a .ca domain name could increase the visits to your web page.

URL Forwarding

You can register a number of domain names, which can forward your visitors to a specific web site such as domain.com, for example. This would raise the traffic and lower the chance of someone pinching your web site visitors by using the same name with a different Top-Level Domain - if you are not utilizing a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each and every Top-Level Domain has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, also known as DNS records) reveal where the domain name is hosted, i.e. they point to the hosting company whose name servers (NSs, a.k.a. DNSs) it is using at present. You can change the NSs of your domain name at any moment. You can have your domain name registered with one company and get the web hosting service itself from another. In this way, if you register your domain name and detect decent website hosting services somewhere else later, you can point your domain name to the new provider's NSs right away.

Domain Name Server Records (DNS Records)

In general, as long as your domain name utilizes a particular set of name servers, all its domain name server records will direct to the same web hosting company. Some hosting distributors, though, enable you to edit specific domain name server records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an IP address, which indicates on which server your web site is situated, while the MX records show which web hosting server tackles the email mailbox accounts associated with your domain name. For example, if you engage a new web site designer and he build an .ASP web site that will be accommodated on his own Windows web server, you may want to edit only the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. So, www.domain.com will point to the Windows web hosting server, but your email box accounts or any sub-domain names like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux website hosting account. The .ASP environment is designed by Microsoft and calls for a Windows server, even though a Linux server would be way more reliable.

Moderately Priced Top-Level Domains Offered by 'Stable disks Hosting'

Only a few web hosting suppliers permit you to modify specific domain name records and very frequently this an additional paid service. With us, you get a huge array of Top-Level Domain Names to choose from and you can edit all NS records or forward the domains via a redirection tool at no added cost.