What is Domain Name?

Relation between Domain Names and URLs

URL or Universal Resource Locator is an entire set of directions which pointing to the specific part of the web. Domain is a section inside the URL and is the most important part too. When someone enters a URL to the browser, it starts locating the web page where the URL pointing to. For this, the browser resolves the domain name first, which is the most recognizable part in the entire URL both by humans and the computer. The IP address of the web page connected by the domains makes this possible.

Relation between Domain Names and IP Addresses

Saying in short, the Domain name is the part of a URL which pointing to the IP address. IP address is the actual location of the web page on the web which is a set of 4 blocks of numbers, each from 1 to 255 separated by periods (eg: 214.124.241.101). The domain name acts as a link to the IP address which resolves all the URLs to the specified IP address without expressing the actual address. In other words, IP address is the real name of the location and the Domain is a nickname.

How do Domain names Work?

Domain names are very effective because it is really simple to remember it than a confusing IP address. When a user enters it into the browser, it will resolve to the linked IP address automatically by outputting the desired web pages. The domain has three sections in its hierarchy as listed below.

For example, in the domain name www.thetechhacker.com

• com – is the top-level domain.
• thetechhacker – is a sub-domain.
• www – is a sub-domain prefix for the World Wide Web which can be replaced by anything as per the users needs (for example, forum.thetechhacker.com)

As the use of domains increased considerably, the top level domains emerged with so many variations as,

• .com
• .org
• .edu
• .net
• .in
• .co.uk
• .biz
• .museum
• .info
• .name, etc.

Most commonly the .com, .org and .net domains are considered as the most effective domain names with a lot of SEO advantages and the country-based domains like .in, .co.uk, .co.jp are considered very effective for country-targetted websites.