The term ‘domain name’ is often used when people talk about the internet … but sometimes there is confusion about what it really means. Every time you look up a website or send an email, you do it via a domain name.
A domain name is the ‘address’ of a particular website on the internet and identifies where specific data lives, just like a postal address you might use when sending letters. This domain name tells your browser where to look to access the page you want to see.
Anyone can choose and register a domain name, as long as it hasn’t been taken by someone else. You can use a domain registrar to do this or get your website designer to do it for you and an annual fee for each domain name you register will also be required. It’s best to choose a fairly short and easy to remember word that relates to what you are wanting to sell, discuss or offer to your potential visitors. If it’s for a business, using your business name will often help with search engine traffic as well.
A domain name should cost less than $20 per year to register and renew.
What Is A Sub Domain?
We use a sub domain to organize our content into separate websites. Our main domain name is lifegames.com.au. This particular website is actually a sub-domain called websites.lifegames.com.au. Also included are photos.lifegames.com.au and panoramas.lifegames.com.au.
Another great example of a site that uses subdomains to organize their content is about.com. If you visit their site, you will notice that they use different subdomains for each of the different topics they cover (e.g., “movies.about.com” and “toys.about.com”).
One point to note is, unlike domains, subdomains can be created at any time without having to register another new domain name. For any domain, you can generally create as many subdomains as you like; you do not have to go to a registrar and pay an annual fee for each of them.
What Is An IP Address?
Each COMPUTER that is connected to the Internet also has a clearly identifiable address made up of numbers, called the IP address. It is made up of four sequences of digits that are separated by three dots. They look like this: 124.150.81.122.
You can check what your own IP address is by going HERE.
A domain name also has an IP and is the word version of this address, making it simple for people to understand and remember. It is much easier to remember a domain name instead of recalling the numbers in the IP address.
What Is A Domain Name System?
To make the process more universal, the web uses a system known as the Domain Name System (DNS), which orders each section of a domain name from the broadest part (ie. the ‘au’ which represents Australia), right down to the most specific part (ie. the ‘lifegames’). This helps computers read the name in a logical order.
