Domain Names

If you are on the Internet, domain names play a huge role in your day to day life whether you realize it or not. So what exactly is a domain and how can you use them? That's up to you.

On paper, a domain name, like uniteddomains.com, is just a unique address on the Internet indicating resource ownership. Each domain name consists of one or more parts arranged hierarchically and separated by dots. Moving from right to left, each part is a subdivision of the part to its right. Each of these parts helps to identify the domain as a unique address on the Internet, and thus, helps to ensure that Internet traffic is always running smoothly.

But in the real world, a domain can be much, much more than that.

Because each domain must be completely unique to function properly in the Domain Name System (or DNS), some domains are extremely valuable. In fact, domain reselling is such a potentially lucrative market that some people have made thousands re-selling the domains they've registered to other buyers. With a keen eye and a little luck, anybody can start making money reselling their domains.

Types of Domains

The Top Level Domain (or TLD) makes up the last section of a domain name. The best-known TLDs, like .COM, .NET, .ORG, .BIZ and more, are all known as generic TLDs (or gTLDS) because they can be used internationally. Country code TLDs (or ccTLDs) are typically affiliated with the website of a particular country, such as .FR in France and .UK in Britain. Some ccTLDs can apply to more than just countries. A .TV domain, for example, could represent the country of Tuvalu on one site while covering an American television sitcom on another.

Domain Registrars

Just as you'd register your car through your local Department of Motor Vehicles, you register your domain name with a domain registrar. Every domain name registrar must be accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an international organization that oversees certain Internet related issues, including domain names and the DNS.