Before you can host any website online, you’ll need a domain name of your own.
Domain Name vs. your house address
Often, Internet newbies can’t seperate the differents between a domain name and web hosting.
While these two things might sounds confusing at the beginning, one shouldn’t mix them up at all as a web domain and a web hosting are referring to two totally different things.
Imagine Internet as the real world that you see/touch/feel all day. A web hosting is like a *space* (house) that you live (aka, a house); and web domain, is like the mailing address of that particular space you live in. One can understand the question ‘What is a domain name’ by referring domain name as an address of a website.
Now here’re some quick examples: Google.com is a domain name; so are Alexa.com, Linux.org,GoLearnForex.net, Billboard.biz, eLearningEuropa.info, as well as Yahoo.co.uk.
Top Level Domains (TLD)
As you might already noted, all of the examples above end with a different ‘extension’ – .com, .org, .net, .biz… etc. The part after the last dot in a domain name is known as top level domain (shortform:TLD). Some other TLDs are like .uk, .ws, .co.jp, .com.sg, .tv, .edu, and so on.
While most of these TLDs are open for public’s registration, there’re strict regulations on certain domain registration. For example the registration of country code top level domains (like .co.uk for United Kingdom) are restricted for the citizens of the corresponding country; and the activities with such domains website are ruled by local regulations and cyber laws.
Do I need to register the “WWW” in my domain as well?
Don’t be silly! WWW stands for world wide web and the existent of the word ‘WWW’ has nothing to do with your domain. So no, you don’t need to register “WWW” at your domain name.
To learn more about WWW, I suggest you to have a quick look on Google.
Domain vs Sub Domain
Take DishNetwork.GoSatelliteDeals.com for example – GoSatelliteDeals.com is the domain, DishNetwork.GoSatelliteDeals.com in this case, is the sub domain. A domain must be unique (for example there can only be one single Google.com) and must be registered with a domain agent (likeGodaddy); while for sub domains, users can freely add it on top of the existing domain as long as their web host provide the service.
How can a good web hosting company help in sub domain setup?
A good web hosting company should provide a convenient setup point for your sub domains. In fact, setting up sub domains should be easy, instant, and within a few clicks. Some hosting company like Gate.com don’t bother to provide such service and my suggestion to you as consumer is don’t bother to use their services at all!
There are a few good web hosting companies that offer easy setup for sub domains and in case you’re planning to have one, here are my recommendations: Host Monster, and Hostgator. The reason I’m telling this names to you is because they are reputable, reliable, offer good bargains, and more over in our case here, provide a very convenient function for subdomain installation. All you need to do is just some typing (for the sub domain name) along with a few clicks – and zaaaap~ your subdomain is ready.
Well, that’s all for my guides in domian names. Already can’t wait to have your own website hosted online? Why not check out some of these top rated web hosting companies: Host Monster,Hostgator.
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