In this article I will quickly explain what a domain name is and why they are used.

What is a domain name?

A domain name is way in which a resource can be uniquely identified on the Internet. In most cases these resources are web sites. Each domain name is unique, there can never be two identical domain names.

When you surf around the Internet going from web site to web site, you will see and type many domain names into your web browser.

Domain names in this form are more commonly known as web addresses or URL's.

A domain name consists of three parts. The first part is the known as the sub domain field, the second is the domain and the third is the domain name extension.

So What's What in a Domain Name?

Most domain names you see will look like:

WWW.ANYDOMAIN.EXT - (I'm using .ext to show the domains extension, but as I mentioned earlier, it could be any of the .com, .net .org etc extensions).

As I just mentioned, a domain name consists of three parts, the sub domain name field, displayed here as WWW, the domain field, shown here as ANYDOMAIN and the domain name extension, the .EXT bit.

The Sub Domain field.

This part of a domain name is commonly called the sub domain field. The term 'sub domain' is used because you can create different, or 'sub' domains that all live within the parent domain (ANYDOMAIN.COM).

These sub domains can be anything you like. This part of the domain acts like a pointer. It points your web browser to a certain location on your web site and your web browser shows you what is located there or may even redirect you to another web page or web site.

For example, our site ANYDOMAIN.COM could have WWW.ANYDOMAIN.COM, HELP.ANYDOMAIN.COM, 271.ANYDOMAIN.COM and so on, it doesn't matter what is in this first part of the domain name as it just redirects or points your web browser to a particular location within a web site.

The Domain Name field.

The second part of the domain name, the ANYDOMAIN part, is known as the domain name field. This is the part of the domain name that people use to create an identity for their web site.

Most companies place their company name in this part of the domain name. This second part of the domain name really identifies the domain to everyone on the Internet.

For example, the Ford Motor Company use FORD.COM. Microsoft use MICROSOFT.COM and so on.

The domain name part of the domain name can be anything created from the following characters:

The letters from A to Z
The numbers from 0 to 9
The hyphen or dash

So a domain name such as - cdbsdh73738-44.com - is a valid domain name.

The Domain Name Extension field.

The third part of the domain name is the domain name extension. The domain name extension can consist of several different preset types.

You cannot create the extension, it must be chosen from an already existing list of extensions. New domain name extensions are created from time to time but the most common extensions are:

.COM - signifies a commercial organisation
.NET - signifies a computer network
.ORG - signifies a non profit or similar organisation
.INFO - signifies an informational resource

There are many more domain extensions in existence, including extensions that indicate a country of origin, such as:
.AU - Australia
.NZ - New Zealand
.UK - United Kingdom

By far the most common domain name extension is .COM.

Here's a Special Note.
As I just mentioned above, there are domain name extensions that can be used to indicate where a web site may originate from.

For example, a domain name that ends in .COM.AU may indicate that the web site contains information relevant to Australians or that the company that runs the web site is based in Australia.

These 'country specific' domain names tend to have four fields (WWW.ANYDOMAIN.COM.AU) and not three.

In the early days if you had a web site that resided, or was hosted or housed outside the United States your domain name had to have a country specific extension (eg: .AU), however these days that is not so important.

In fact back then, web sites housed or hosted in the United States did not need a country specific extension. This was due to the fact that the US invented the Internet and therefore any site without a name extension was considered to be housed or hosted within the US.

However now you can register a domain name with a .US extension, so all that has changed now.

Originally domain name extensions were used to identify the type of operation or function the company that owned the domain name might perform. Today however, this is so much the case.

If you have the money and the domain name you want is available, then you are able to register and use it.

By using a different extension you are ale to create almost identical domain names. For example, using our domain of ANYDOMAIN we can get:

ANYDOMAIN.COM
ANYDOMAIN.NET
ANYDOMAIN.ORG
Plus several other variations.

Each domain looks very similar but each domain name is unique and could point you at completely different web sites run by completely different people or organisations.

So, in summing up, we now know that domain names consist of three parts.

The first part is like a pointer, it points to a particular location within a web site.

The second part is the name of the web site. It identifies, in most cases, the company or individual who runs or owns the web site. The third part is the extension, which is used to help identify the function or type of company that have registered the domain name.

Article © Matt Western - deTechnify.com

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Matt Western has been working in the electronics and IT areas since 1983. These days he heads up deTechnify.com a web site aimed at clearing away the technical haze surrounding computers computing and the internet.
You can contact Matt via http://www.detechnify.com