Domains Explained

One of the most essential preconditions for running a successful web presence is the domain. It is what people will see first when they stumble upon your website and what they will associate you with. The domain should be easy to remember, but should also be something that notifies your site's visitors what the web page is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain typically has 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 TLD and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain Name. There are several categories of TLDs that you should examine prior to choosing the domain you want. Your decision should rest on the goal of your web page and on its target visitors. Let's examine the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most typical Top-Level Domains aimed to signify a specific intention - .com (business organizations), .net (networks), .biz (firms), .info (informative websites), .org (non-profit organizations), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific region), .name (persons or relatives), .pro (certain professions), and so on. As you can see, these Top-Level Domain Names cover most fields of life, so you should settle on the one that would signify the purpose of your site best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domains, but some of them involve additional procedures to show that you are eligible to register such a Top-Level Domain Name (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific domains. Each country has its own ccTLD. Getting such a domain is good if your target group of web page visitors is from a particular country. Many people would prefer to purchase commodities or services from a local website, and if your target is Canada, for instance, choosing a .ca domain could boost the visits to your web page.

Domain Name Redirects

You can register a bunch of domain names, which can forward your visitors to a specific website such as domain.com, for instance. This would boost the traffic and decrease the risk of someone pinching your visitors by registering the same name with a different TLD - if you are not utilizing a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each and every domain name has domain records. The name server records (NS records, also known as DNS records) show where the domain is hosted, i.e. they point to the hosting vendor whose name servers (NSs, also known as DNSs) it is utilizing now. You can modify the DNSs of your domain whenever you want. You can have your domain registered with one firm and get the website hosting service itself from another. Thus, if you register your domain and detect decent website hosting solutions someplace else later, you can point your domain to the current provider's DNSs straight off.

Domain Server Records (DNS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain utilizes a particular pair of DNSs, all its domain name server records will lead to the same web hosting supplier. Some web hosting vendors, though, enable you to modify given NS records, including the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which displays on which web server your website is hosted, whereas the MX records indicate which web hosting server tackles the email box accounts related to your domain name. For instance, if you take on a new web designer and he constructs an .ASP website that will be located on his own Windows server, you may want to edit only the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. Thus, www.domain.com will point to the Windows server, but your email address accounts or any sub-domains like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current 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 way more reliable.

Cut-Price Top-Level Domains Offered by 'Chicago Web Hosting'

Just a few web hosting suppliers permit you to edit specific DNS records and quite frequently this an additional paid service. With us, you get a large array of Top-Level Domains to select from and you can edit all DNS records or redirect the domain names using a forwarding tool at no additional charge.