Domains Defined

One of the most vital preconditions for creating a successful online presence is the domain. It is what people will notice first when they chance upon your site and what they will relate you with. The domain should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that tells your site's visitors what the website is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain usually has 2 constituents - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain. There are a couple of sets of Top-Level Domain Names that you should consider prior to choosing the domain you desire. Your choice should depend on the goal of your web page and on its target viewers. Let's take a glimpse at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most popular Top-Level Domains aimed to signify a particular purpose - .com (business organizations), .net (networks), .biz (companies), .info (informative web sites), .org (not-for-profit organizations), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific region), .name (individuals or families), .pro (given professions), etc. As you can perceive, these Top-Level Domains cover most realms of life, so you should pick the one that would indicate the aim of your website best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domains, but some of them contain additional steps to show that you qualify to possess such a domain name (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domain Names, are country-specific TLDs. Each country has its own ccTLD. Selecting such a domain is good if your target group of web site visitors is from a specific country. Many people would elect to purchase commodities or services from a local website, and if your target is Canada, for example, settling on a .ca domain could boost the visits to your site.

Domain Name Redirection

You can register several TLDs, which can forward your site's visitors to a particular website such as domain.com, for example. This would increase the traffic and reduce the likelihood of someone snatching your visitors by registering the same SLD with another TLD - if you are not availing of a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each Top-Level Domain Name has domain records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) specify where the domain is hosted, in other words they point to the web hosting vendor whose name servers (NSs, also known as DNSs) it is utilizing now. You can switch the DNSs of your domain name whenever you like. You can have your domain registered with one firm and get the web hosting service itself from another. In this way, if you register your domain name and stumble upon good website hosting solutions somewhere else at a later time, you can point your domain to the new company's NSs right away.

Domain Server Records (DNS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain uses a specific set of DNSs, all its DNS records will point to the same web hosting company. Some web hosting suppliers, though, permit you to edit certain domain records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which discloses on which web server your web page is hosted, while the MX records reveal which web server tackles the e-mailbox accounts related to your domain name. For instance, if you engage a new web designer and he build an .ASP site that will be located on his own Windows web server, you may want to edit solely the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. In this way, www.domain.com will point to the Windows server, but your e-mailbox 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 environment is developed by Microsoft and requests a Windows web hosting server, even though a Linux hosting server would be far more secure.

Cheap TLDs Courtesy of 'Comnet Cloud Solutions'

Only a few web hosting providers enable you to edit certain name server records and very often this an additional paid service. With us, you have a big array of Top-Level Domain Names to select from and you can modify all NS records or forward the domain names using a forwarding tool at no additional charge.