About Your Own Domain Name

What Is a Domain Name

Your domain name is the web "address" that other internet users can type to reach your web pages.  For example  the string "netcardbuilder.com" is the domain name that brought you to this site.

The combination of the words "netcardbuilder" and "com" form a unique name across the entire public  internet.

How Does It Work

In reality, all communication across the internet is based on special numbers called IP addresses,  NOT domain names.    Whenever a domain name is used it is first converted to its matching  IP number by referring to a a special table called a "Domain Name Service (DNS)".  

Registration

To get your own domain name into the Domain Name Service table(s) it is necessary to register it through a domain registrar.  Registration fees vary depending on which registrar is used, the type of domain being registered and what services the particular domain registrar may offer in addition to basic registration of the name.

Recommendations

For Net Business Cards we recommend simple ".com" domain names.     Generally this will be a "word" to identify your business plus .com.   For example "netcardbuilder.com".

These names are the easiest for clients to remember and also the cheapest to register.  Our preferred registrar also provides free domain redirection.  Domain redirection allows us to locate your web page on your own web space.   Most likely, you are already paying for web space as part of your internet account.

Domain redirection also leaves you with the flexibility to easily change internet providers without impact on your web presence.

Domain Name Availability

Perhaps the negative side of simple ".com" domain names is that your preferred name may already be taken by a similar business anywhere in the world.   

If this happens the best approach is to come up with a variation on your normal trading name but if this does not appeal we can investigate various other Top Level Domain options,  such as ".net",  ".com.au" or perhaps ".biz".   Refer to: More Notes On Domain Name Structure, below.

Note: Due to market demand registrars generally charge more for these top level domains.   We will need to pass on these extra costs in our invoice to you.

More Notes On Domain Name Structure

Domain Names have a structure and consist if a series of "words" separated by periods.  For example "www.netcardbuilder.com". The structure is best understood by reading the words in the name from right to left. 

The right-most word is known as the Top Level Domain (TLD) and defines the general grouping that the name belongs to.  

There are a limited number of

Top Level domains available and these are the familiar endings such as ".COM", ".NET", ".ORG", etc. These denote the type of domain such as a company, network or organization. 

Alternatively the TLD can be a country code such as ".AU".   With country TLDs the domain name is usually extended by one level and the last two words together can be thought of as the top level domain (eg. domainname.COM.AU). 

The word before the top level domain uniquely defines the domain within the TLD. 

Any extra words to the left of the domain (including www) are considered to be sub-domains.  For example accounts.emgeep.com and info.emgeep.com would normally resolve to the same IP address as emgeep.com,  in the domain register.   

The server at emgeep.com would sort out what to do with the two different messages sent using the two sub-domain names.