Basics information about domain name
A domain name is an identification label that can be used to locate an organization or an entity on the Internet. Every computer on the Internet has a unique IP (Internet protocol) address. There are millions and billions of computers on the Internet so it is hard to memorize the IP addresses of each one. Hence, assigning a name (domain name) utilizes the domain name system (DNS).
This makes it very easy for everyone to remember the website address. The DNS maintains a directory, which consists of the names of the corresponding IP address, the name of the company that registered it and the persons using it arranged in a hierarchical manner. For example, in the URL http://www.sports.com, the domain name is sports.com. So when you type the URL, it will search for the corresponding IP address registered in the DNS (Domain Name System).
Domain names have two parts separated by a dot. The suffix commonly "com" is called the top-level domain (TLD) and it basically represents the purpose of the organization. Some of the most common used TLDs are GOV (Government), EDU (Educational Institutions), COM (Commercial), MIL (Military), ORG (Organization) and NET (Networks). Apart from these, there can be top-level domains based upon the country code also like .uk (United Kingdom), .us (USA), .fr (France) etc.
The second level domains are the names present on the left of the top-level domains. The second level domain names must be unique and can have only letter, digit and hyphen from the ASCII character set. The name can contain a maximum of 24 characters. Like in the example above "sports" is the second level domain name. You can create the second level domain based upon the company's name or the product or the type of service.
The third level domains are present on the left of the second level domain and it represents the host server handling the internet requests. For example, in the above said example "www" represents the host name of the World Wide Web server. If it had been "mail.sports.com" then it would be an email server. There can be fourth, fifth or sixth level of domains. Basically there is no limitation to it.
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is responsible for the management of DNS. The domain names must be registered by the registrars, who have been approved by ICANN. If the domain name has to be registered under a particular country code, then you must contact the registrar of that particular country.
You should proactively register your name pertaining to your business or product. If you do not take an action instantly, there are cyber squatters who would take advantage of it and register it in the name desired by you. Then later on they would try to sell you the same domain name at an exorbitant price. It is advisable to do a thorough research on the available names and register one if you are thinking of launching a product or any kind of service.
