What is a Domain Name?

Electronic communication is everywhere:

"My e-mail address is: joe@IBM.com."

"Our company's Web site address is: http://www.MCI.com."

Here IBM.com and MCI.com are domain names, joe is an e-mail user at the domain IBM.com, and www.MCI.com is a subdomain of the parent domain MCI.com. The domain name is the center of electronic communication. People send e-mail using domain names; people surf Web sites using domain names, and so on.

Any company or individual can register a domain name. Domain names are registered on a first-come, first-served basis. After International Business Machines registers the domain name "IBM.com," it can create and own e-mail addresses: joe@IBM.com, judy@vnet.IBM.com, ... and web addresses: http://www.IBM.com, http://pc.IBM.com/notebook/, .... Interstate Business Management Inc. cannot register or use the registered domain name: IBM.com. They may try to register other domain names like: IBMI.com, interstate.com, ... if they are still available.

How does the domain name service work?

Let's say your name is Joe Great, your company is Great Inc. and you would like to register the domain name "GreatInc.com."

GreatInc.com is a subdomain of .com. The registration has to be approved by the parent domain .com authority: InterNIC (Network Information Center). To make sure your domain name is reachable by any Internet user at any time, InterNIC requires you to have a computer server connected to the Internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to serve your domain name requests. Such a computer is called a name server. In fact, to increase the reliability, InterNIC requires two name servers to register a domain name.

Two computer servers, Internet application software, a dedicated Internet connection,and technical support personnel will cost you a bundle if you try to supply them yourself. Even if you have enough money to make these purchases, you may not be able to run a reliable service. The most economical and reliable way to register a domain name is through an Internet service provider like Bestnet. We have the required equipment and personnel. We have the expertise to run a reliable service.

To register the domain name GreatInc.com for Joe, we provide InterNIC with names of our two name servers and their Internet addresses (i.e., IP numbers). InterNIC will check to see if the domain name GreatInc.com is available and if our name servers are functioning. If both are OK, it will approve the domain name registration for GreatInc.com.

Once the domain name GreatInc.com is approved, we can set up our Internet servers to provide Internet services for your domain name. You can use your domain name for your e-mail, your Web site, your FTP site, your e-mail autoresponders, your mailing lists etc.

Next: What Is The Domain Name Good For?