A domain name, like www.coolexample.com, is a lot like a street address for a house or business. Let's use the White House as an example. The street address, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, is an exact location — like an IP address. You might not know the exact street address, but when you visit Washington, D.C., you can tell [...]
An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a unique identifying string of numbers, like 216.27.61.137, given to every individual computer, server, and network on the Internet. Like a license plate is used to help identify vehicles, an IP address is used to identify and locate information online. Additionally, they allow for communication over the internet between devices and [...]
The www before your domain name is a subdomain, not part of the domain name itself. Therefore, if you set up your www CNAME record to point to your primary A record, your site will resolve both at www.coolexample.com and coolexample.com. If you can reach your website by typing in your domain without the www but cannot reach it when you type the www, then your [...]
When visitors enter your domain name into a Web browser, the browser request uses your domain name to find the domain name's associated IP address and, therefore, the website. People use domain names instead of IP addresses because it is easier to remember a name rather than a series of numbers. Your domain name and its [...]
A URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is the address of an Internet website or webpage. Think of a URL as a street address for the location of information on the Internet. For instance, a complete URL like http://coolexample.com/music, points you to the music page of the coolexample.com website. Take a look at the anatomy of this [...]
Nameservers are the Internet's equivalent to phone books. A nameserver maintains a directory of domain names that match certain IP addresses (computers). The information from all the nameservers across the Internet is gathered in a central registry. Nameservers make it possible for visitors to access your website using a familiar domain name, instead of having to [...]
Registering a domain name does not automatically activate a website that displays when visitors enter your domain name into a Web browser. The domain name must have a hosted website that includes a numeric address, called an IP address, for visitors to access the website using your domain name. Besides setting up a website, there are [...]
If you're thinking about registering more than one domain name, you've got the right idea. Registering and using multiple domains names is great for building your business, protecting your brand name, and creating a dynamic online identity. When you register multiple domain names, you can: Keep your competition from registering a similar domain name drawing customers [...]
Usually, a domain name is not available for re-registration as soon as it expires. Most registrars allow a grace period that can be as short as one or two weeks or as long as a year for registrants to renew expired domain names. The actual grace period can be different for each individual registrar and domain [...]