Read on to know more information about the basics of Domain Name Servers or DNS…
Domain Names are a very technical sounding name for website addresses. For example www.buzzle.com
is the domain name for this website. There are many parts of this
address which make up the entire domain name. Let us see what these
parts are:
The ‘.com’ part of the website address is called a
First Level Domain or a Top Level Domain. Other such first level or top
level domains are ‘.edu’ (which are used by educational institutions),
‘.gov’ (which are used by government organizations), ‘.mil’ (reserved
for the United States Military), ‘.com’, ‘.net’ and ‘.org’ (which are
available for most people and are to be used by commercial
organizations, organizations related to the Internet, and non-profit
organizations respectively), ‘.biz’ (reserved for businesses), ‘.info’
(for websites providing information) and so on. There are also other top
level domains available by country codes such as ‘.uk’ (for the UK),
‘.us’ (for USA), ‘.au’ (for Australia) etc.
The Second Level
Domain is directly below the first level domain name. In our example,
‘buzzle.com’ would form a second level domain.
The Third Level
Domain is also known as the URL (Uniform Resource Locator). This is the
entire website address, which in the case of our example would be
‘http://www.buzzle.com’.
There are also Sub-Domains on a website.
For example, in the URL ‘http://www.personal.websitename.com’, the
‘.personal’ is a Sub-Domain. One can have many sub-domains on a website.
There
are other basic terms which one needs to know in order to understand
the concepts of Domain Name Servers or DNS. These are:
IP or Internet Protocol Addresses:
These
are a numerical form of the domain names of the websites. It is the
actual address that one computer uses to link to the website via the
Internet. These numbers are regulated by the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers or the ICANN.
Each computer on the
Internet also has an IP Address. This can be either static or dynamic.
The dynamic number is assigned every time a computer logs on to the
Internet. Computers such as servers use a static IP Address.
This
IP Address usually looks something like ‘12.345.678.91’. Ideally, one
can reach the website by typing either the website address or the IP
Address into the browser.
WHOIS Directory
This is a
directory of website domain names and the people or organizations who
own these website or domain names. It is a public directory and anyone
who wants to know more about the owners of a particular domain name can
find these relevant details in the WHOIS Directory. The IP Addresses of
these domain names can also be obtained from this directory.
Therefore,
anyone wanting to register a domain name needs to provide certain
details while registering. These details include the name, address,
contact telephone numbers in case of technical or other difficulties
etc.
Domain Host
These are the places on the Internet
which run the DNS for your domain. This includes your A Records (your
host records), MX Records (mail exchange records) and CNAME Records
(canonical name records or aliases for A Records).
Domain Registrars For Domain Name Registry
Domain
Registrars are companies which sell you the domain name that you want.
The process is known as Domain Name Registration. Most of these
companies will often offer a hosting solution. Hosting is actually the
specified amount of space on a server where you can store the data which
may or may not appear on your website.
One can purchase hosting
with another provider as well and have the IP Address of the Domain Name
point to the IP Address of the server space of the hosting company.
ICANN
maintains a list of Accredited Domain Registrars. A Domain Name can be
usually registered for different periods of time, such as anywhere
between a period of 1 Year to 10 Years. The Domain Name is thus
renewable after this period is over. This Domain Name is owned by the
buyer only for that specified period of time. If the Domain Name is not
renewed in a timely fashion, anyone else may be able to purchase it.
As such there are no limits to the number of Domain Names which a person can own. A person can also buy and sell domain names.
But
before you go and register Domain Names in your name, you need to be
aware of Cyber Squatting Laws and Intellectual Property Law. Cyber
Squatting involves registering a domain name with the aim of extorting a
large amount of money from the person who ends up buying it from you.
Also Intellectual Property Laws will come into force if you register
domain names with names similar to the names of famous people,
personalities and organizations as you may be penalized heavily if those
people, personalities or organizations happen to sue you for this.
By Madhavi Ghare
