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Domains Explained

One of the most important requirements for setting up a successful web presence is the domain name. It is what people will mark first when they discover your site and what they will associate you with. The domain name should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that tells your web site's visitors what the web site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

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A domain name usually has two constituents - 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. There are a few categories of TLDs that you should consider prior to choosing the domain name you wish. Your choice should rest on the purpose of your web site and on its target viewers. Let's explore the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most common Top-Level Domains aimed to signify a specific purpose - .com (commercial entities), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (firms), .info (informative sites), .org (non-profit organizations), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific region), .name (persons or families), .pro (given professions), etc. As you can see, these Top-Level Domains cover most spheres of life, so you should select the one that would show the purpose of your web page best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domain names, but some of them contain extra requirements to demonstrate that you qualify to keep such a domain (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domains, are country-specific domain names. Each country has its own ccTLD. Choosing such a domain name is good if your target group of site visitors is from a certain country. Many people would elect to buy commodities or services from a local web page, and if your goal is Canada, for example, picking a .ca domain name could boost the visits to your web page.

URL Redirection

You can register a number of TLDs, which can redirect your site's visitors to a particular web site such as domain.com, for example. This would boost the traffic and decrease the probability of somebody snatching your web page visitors by using the same SLD with a different Top-Level Domain Name - if you are not using a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Every domain has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, also known as DNS records) exhibit where the domain name is hosted, in other words they point to the web hosting company whose name servers (NSs, a.k.a. DNSs) it is using now. You can change the DNSs of your domain whenever you want. You can have your domain name registered with one firm and get the website hosting service itself from another. In this way, if you register your domain name and stumble upon decent website hosting plans somewhere else at a later time, you can point your domain name to the present provider's name servers at once.

Domain Name Server Records (NS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain name uses a given set of NSs, all its domain records will direct to the same web hosting company. Some website hosting vendors, though, permit you to edit specific NS records, such as the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which exhibits on which hosting server your website is hosted, whereas the MX records designate which server handles the electronic mail accounts related to your domain name. For example, if you hire a new web designer and he sets up an .ASP site that will be located on his own Windows web server, you may want to modify just the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. Hence, www.domain.com will direct to the Windows web server, but your e-mails 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 designed by Microsoft and demands a Windows hosting server, even though a Linux web server would be way more dependable.

Inexpensive Top-Level Domains Distributed by 'Malta Hosting'

Just a few web hosting companies allow you to modify certain domain name records and quite frequently this an additional paid service. With us, you get a huge collection of TLDs to choose from and you can modify all domain name server records or forward the domains using a forwarding tool at no additional cost.