I am doing a research project for my class and I need to answer this question:
“What is a domain name and how do I go about getting one?”
I read a few articles, but no one gives me, an average computer dummy:), a simple and full answer.

Thanks in advance!

With the phenomenal growth of the Internet, information access and other communication has been made a simple thing. How information stored in the online world? They are interlinked to form a huge web thus World Wide Web. The way we access this information is by giving particular location or address to our software or in simpler terms, transport. The last part of this address is the domain that has been assigned to that particular section of information or web site.

So what exactly is a domain? A name that is entered into a computer (e.g. as part of a Web site or other URL, or an e-mail address) and then looked up in the global Domain Name System, which informs the computer of the IP address (The exact coded location of the information on the net) with that name.

Every domain name ends in a top-level domain (TLD) name, which is always either one of a small list of generic names three or more characters, (com, net and org) or a two characters territory code (ca) based on ISO-3166 (there are few exceptions and new codes are integrated case by case). We need to understand that although the I CAN or Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has the overall management of all the domains. Governments of each country manage all of the domains in each.

Why is it important? Without a domain like dot com, dot net and dot info it is impossible to own web sites and e-mail accounts. People need to purchase and reserve their domain names before they are taken. For example, if you wanted a site who’s address was world.com then you would have to register and reserve that address before some one else took it. When you are reserving the address, remember that you are only reserving the first part. That is world. The last few letters like com net and info are owned by every one as they are assigned by the I CAN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).

Now that you understand domains, let us look at on how to own one? Earlier, domains were expensive. They still are from some sites. However if you buy wisely, then you can save some big bucks.

First decide if you need a hosting package with your site. If you do so, buying everything together might be a good deal. Look for a good web host provider with all the features you want at a good price. I recommend squarebrothers.com. They are cheep and affordable. They offer a nice package of 25 mb of space and domain for $15 per year.

Now if you just want a domain and want to point it at a free web space provider like fsphost.com and c topcities.com, then you can choose adimeadozen.com or active-domains.com. They offer good rates and reliable features.

Domain registration has been becoming harder and harder of late, as interesting as it is, it seems that the available space on the internet has begun to shrink. While the mathematical permutations of how many domain registers and unique online names there can be are possibly limitless, there is the problem of the human overlap; where people are jostling for the same domain name. The entire .com revolution has seen a receding progress chart of late, as internet powers that be have decided to extend that into even more uniqueness. It is sort of adding another number to your telephone number so that another few million combinations can be achieved – but of course it is a little more complex than that.

When you are looking for a domain name register, you need to be aware of some technical limitations and features that you need to have on hand. One of them is how much security the domain name host is prepared to give you and with the rampant amount of hackers online, you need some security on your website, especially if you have secure information or sensitive bio data of your consumers. The last thing you need on your hand is some upstart hacker ploughing into your website and stealing all your information. Because of the nature of online transactions, residual information can be retrieved, and this includes stuff like credit card numbers, pass words and emails – things you need to keep under lock and key. Have a gander at what server they are using and the strength of the firewall that is going to back up your system.

The other thing that you need to look out for is the price versus performance. Many of the web hosting solutions out there are pretty standard fare when it comes to how much you have to pay for them, but it is always a question of you should get what you are paying for. If you just need a basic solution for your internet needs, some dot com real estate on the internet to place your pictures and detail your life in a personalised blog, then the price should be just as basic. But if it is a business solution, with an infrastructure that can complement payments, transactions and advanced software for things like customer tracking, then the server should cost quite a bit. The last thing, and the most important thing when it does come to getting a domain registration is of course the customisability of it.

Some of them seem pretty German in nature, straight to the point with zero flexibility in their packages, but people should be able to tailor their domain solutions to the type of things that they want. Of course the price will fluctuate from there, but at least the choice is there. With that, those are the three things anyone needs to look out for when getting domain registration on the internet for any type of solution – business or personal.

The pros and cons of having your own dedicated server to manage and the pros and cons of getting it from a dedicated hosting service? And what type of website would benefit for either of them?