What does it mean: domain, domain name, domain zone, DNS and which one is better for a novice webmaster to choose? What is a domain and why is it needed?

From the author: Hello, dear reader. A modern web resource requires quite a lot of things to function: a database, an engine, a server, etc. But there must also be a domain. What is a website domain? If you still don’t fully understand, now everything will become clear.

A domain or domain name is the name by which it is available on the network. Vk.com is the domain of the most popular social network. networks in RuNet VKontakte.

And if you remember, this social network used to be located at vkontakte.ru. Why did the address change? Firstly, the network has long grown from the rank of only Russian; today there are many registered users from other countries. Secondly, in colloquial speech everyone referred to the social network as VK. Lest you think I'm going off topic, this all has a lot to do with domains.

The name of a site plays a huge role in how people perceive it. Many people even pay freelancers to come up with a cool name for their project. Indeed, a good name already ensures a certain success. This service is known as naming; I even met a freelance exchange that specialized only in providing such services.

What does a domain consist of?

Perhaps the question is a little incorrect, but still. It consists of the site name itself and the domain zone. In our example, webformyself is the name, and.com is the zone. There are actually quite a lot of such zones. Almost every country has its own. For example:

Ru – Russia

Ua – Ukraine

By – Belarus

Kz – Kazakhstan

And so on. In addition, there are those that are even tied to a specific city. By the way, they appeared quite recently. For example, you have an online store only for residents of Kyiv. Its online address may be: Internet-magazin.kiev.ua

Well, this is just an example. Large cities today already have such zones. For example, near Moscow and St. Petersburg, but every year more and more similar zones appear.

By the way, the above domain is a so-called third-level domain, and there are also second and fourth. What is their difference? To put it simply, how many words are separated by a period? Second level:

Third level:

Domain.blogger.com

Third-level domains can clarify that the site is aimed only at people from a certain country or city, or say that the site is on free hosting. In this case, the domain is free. That is, for names like:

Modern trends and approaches in web development

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There is no need to pay, as they are created using website builders. For other domains, in most cases, you will have to pay once a year. At the moment, there are about 750 domain zones, but every year there are more of them, as the Internet continues to actively develop.

How much does registration cost on average?

To register a site name, firstly, it must not be taken. If you try to register something like sport.ru or internet.com, you will not succeed, because such domain names have been taken for a long time.

Today, it is most likely to find a beautiful name consisting of 2-3 words. The cost of domain registration depends mainly on the registrar’s website, as well as on the zone in which the domain is registered.

For example, in zone.com (international commercial) it will be more expensive than in zone.ru (global Russian). Now, due to the emergence of new domain zones, you have a great chance of finding beautiful names.

As you can see, I checked the address - car-spare parts. Moscow and it is still free. In my opinion, this is the ideal website name for an online store of relevant spare parts in Moscow. And it is still not taken, like hundreds of other beautiful names. Are we running to register?)

As you can see, the cost of registration in the new zones is slightly more expensive. The largest registrars in RuNet are 2Domains and Reg.ru.

What to do after purchase?

After the purchase, you don't have to do anything. Just wait for the moment when you have a site on a relevant topic, and then add this domain to it. That is, you can reserve a name for yourself in advance so that others do not take it.

In most cases, a domain is purchased immediately before the start of an Internet project. To associate a domain name with the hosting on which the site files will be stored, during registration or later you will need to specify the DNS addresses of your hosting provider. If anything, ask him.

After this, you will only have to create the appropriate domain in the server control panel. A folder will be created for it, into which you need to place the files necessary for the site to work.

Can a second level domain be free?

In most cases, no. But not so long ago, new domain zones appeared for some countries and registration in these zones is free. For example, in zone ml, which represents the state of Mali, as well as zones of some other African countries. Some registrars offer such domain names for free.

So we figured out what a website domain name is and what it is needed for. As you can see, there is nothing complicated. Just as a person must have some kind of name, so does a web resource, otherwise how to address it?

How to choose a good name?

So that you do not search the Internet for useful online services for choosing a name, I will share with you a link. Copy it and paste it into the address bar of your browser http://www.mastername.ru/namegen/

There you will see an interesting service from one registrar. Here you can enter 2-3 words and the service will automatically show you all possible combinations, and what’s even more convenient, it will immediately show you what is occupied and what is free. In general, I myself have never selected a domain name using it, but I really liked the idea itself.

With this I bid you farewell. I hope you have gained enough knowledge to soon acquire beautiful domains and use them in your online business.

Modern trends and approaches in web development

Learn the algorithm for rapid growth from scratch in website building

Many users are faced with questions about what domain names are.

They become especially relevant when users decide to create their own website.

Then different terms and definitions appear that you need to navigate in order to understand the complete structure of the Internet space and the location of the created site in it.

Getting straight to the point, we can say that a domain is the name of a website. It hides its IP address, which allows you to simply enter the name “primer.ru”, and not the address of such a site – “102.104.105.0”.

This is quite convenient, but if you go into details, many questions arise that will be covered later in the article.

What does a domain name mean?

As already noted, a domain is the name of the site. The user is provided with a set of Latin letters with which he can name his resource.

It is this name up to the first dot that will indicate the address of its portal.

However, there are also difficulties associated with the fact that such names are already taken, then you have to change the values ​​and select something that has not yet been reserved on a specific hosting or domain.

Note! Domain and domain name are synonyms and have the same lexical meaning, regardless of which one is used.

A domain name is tied to a specific address on the network. It looks like 000.000.000.0. When you switch to another server, the redirection remains.

This means that the technology makes it possible to use one site name, even if it is constantly transferred to different domains.

It is to preserve the unique name of the site that domain name technology was developed.

It allows you to assign a portal name to a specific person and transfer it to different servers without losing the root IP address.

How the domain works

To understand the concept of a domain structure, it is necessary to consider it from the very beginning using an example.

In order to make his website address unique, the developer must designate it.

To do this, he creates a name that is not used on the network. Let it be called “primer”.

After this, you need to attach or link a domain zone to the site name.

It will show in which territory the designated developer’s site is located.

In its finished form it will be called “primer.ru”.

It turns out that upon registration, the “primer” site received a domain name of the “.ru” category.

There are 2 main rules when recording a domain name:

  • Zones that are included in the full site address are listed to the left in the hierarchy.
  • To separate domain levels, only dots are always placed between them.

If the site address “net.blog.primer.ru” is used, it will be considered in the following way:

  • net– fourth level domain;
  • blog– third-level domain, which includes the fourth-level domain net;
  • primer– second-level domain, which includes 3rd and 4th level domains;
  • ru– a first-level domain that includes all the levels described above.

The first level in the hierarchy always comes last after the dot separator.

Table of first-level domains intended for public use

Considering domain levels, it should be noted that they are international.

However, depending on their location, there are laws, established restrictions or rules in force in a specific territory of the state.

First-level domains are the highest in this chain of addresses.

There are geographically defined addresses, which refer to the country where these domains are used.

An example of such top-level domain zones could be:

  • ru – Russian Federation.
  • br – Brazil.
  • cn – China.

In addition to geographically defined domain names, first-level domains, which have an international public purpose, are of particular polarity.

The table will show all available addresses:

Domain name Its public purpose
com commerce
net Network and network settings
org Non-profit organizations
info Information portals
biz Business
name Private portals that use the owners' names as identification
aero Aviation and services provided by it
arpa Internet infrastructure
edu Educational system (mainly USA)
int International companies
gov Government
mil Military structures
coop Service organizations and cooperatives
museum Museums and people involved in them
mobi For mobile devices
pro Specialists from various industries
tel Automatic contact page generators
travel Travel, tourism, resorts
xxx Adult film industry

What are the domain levels?

When analyzing the hierarchy of domains, you should clarify their specific purpose.

From the previous section it is clear that first-level domains have either a specific public purpose or a geographic location. It is from them that the name begins to be built.

Everything that comes after them increases the number of subdomains, thereby increasing the number of domain levels.

This was clearly discussed above using the example of the full address “net.blog.primer.ru”, where reading from right to left will increase the hierarchy of the marked zone.

Experts identify 3 main zones:

  • Root.
  • Second level.
  • First level.

Each row may include an additional number of domain names. At the same time, they will compose and divide according to the rules through a dot.

Note! Domains can have 3-4 levels. They are subdomains and are not part of the global network.

Root

It is also defined as zero. Its purpose is to separate other domain levels.

In other words, all address entries must end with a dot at the end.

It turns out that systems were previously used when introducing domain levels of the following type “primer.ru.”

Now the last zero domain is omitted, and address records today have acquired the following form: “primer.ru”, where the dot at the end after the first-level domain is no longer placed.

It is also worth noting that national domains that have recently appeared in relation to the entire domain system can be used.

They use the designation not in Latin, but in the language of a specific country.

In Russia you can now register the website address “primer.rf”" The use of national alphabets also makes it possible to simplify the circulation of domains and specific assigned addresses to them. However, all national websites also have an unreadable address that is hidden behind what is written in the official language.

Second level

This is the space left for you to specify your own name for your site. This is what second-level domains are.

It turns out that the portal creator registers the address on the network, and not just the name. It is worth noting that prices for such portals differ upon registration.

If you register a domain in the “.ru” zone, it will be much cheaper than the same one, but in the “.com” zone.

Basically, to register such a name on the Internet, there are special companies that deal with the registration of names of website addresses.

The price depends on the choice of which first-level site the required resource will be located on.

There are also rental systems that make it possible to use a second-level domain name on a monthly basis. However, in case of non-payment of rent, the site will be disconnected from the network and immediately disappear from the search engine.

First level

The name of each site begins at this level. This can be confusing as the site is usually read from left to right.

However, to be precise in the mandatory address design rule, the first-level domain (with the exception of the root-level domain, which is not taken into account and is zero) always comes first, and then in descending order.

In each country, such addresses have a main “highest” level and abbreviate the name of their country.

This is interesting! First level domain name "su", was originally assigned to the Soviet Union. It contains a large amount of information, from the late 80s to the mid-2000s.

Other levels

It is also worth noting that there may be others after the second-level domain. They should be highlighted separately. However, they are not of global significance.

And they exist inside second-level domains. Usually they are not registered or formalized.

Users who own a website, having purchased a second-level domain “primer” in the form of a name, can independently select third- and fourth-level names.

They themselves allocate at their address the subspaces necessary to select another address from the already registered one.

In other words, 3-4 level domains exist at the expense of a second level domain and are its subtypes, which the site owner himself can select independently.

Such sublevel numbers cannot exist without an officially registered name, a portal, which is a second-level domain.

Purchasing and registering a domain name

The situation with purchasing a domain name has a number of features. This primarily concerns jurisdiction and legislation.

There was a well-known situation with the creators of torrent sites, which were initially present on the first-level domain name “.ru”.

However, after the tightening of Russian legislation regarding copyright, the resource began to be blocked. Therefore, in order to avoid blocking, the developers had to transfer their resource to the “.org” domain, which has an international level.

Each country has official second-level domain name registrars. They have permission and a license giving them the right to carry out such activities.

It is from them that you need to purchase and register the site name.

In addition, the official registrars have representatives in the form of partner companies, who also handle the registration of domain names as an official registrar.

If a partner or representative has violated the terms of the agreement, you must immediately contact the official registrar.

Prices for services will vary. Typically, representatives offer to register a second-level domain name with a monthly payment.

Official registrars establish rules for registration with payment for a domain name immediately for 1 year.

Note! If payment is overdue, it will be impossible to access the site. Depending on the registrar, a contractually established period for resumption of payments is given. If it is missed, the domain name will become free and can be registered by another person.

Checking the second level domain for occupancy

There are now more than half a billion second-level domains on the network.

With the development of Internet technologies and the transfer of business to the virtual space, domain names as names for websites began to have a high price.

Large corporations are willing to pay millions of dollars for a beautiful name for their website.

Many enterprising developers began registering websites with beautiful addresses more than 10 years ago. And a few years ago, such investments began to pay off.

Now the price for a second-level domain with a beautiful name costs tens of thousands of dollars, and renting such a number usually does not exceed $100-1,500 per year.

Therefore, when creating a website, it is worth paying attention to its name, as the address of a second-level domain, because this name can already be acquired by a thoughtful investor, for its further resale at several times the price.

View information about the current user of a specific domain name

To check if a domain is occupied, just contact the official registrars. They provide all the necessary information on a specific resource.

There is a search bar on the official page of such institutions.

By entering the name of a second-level domain there, you can check its occupancy in various zones. It is worth noting that all registrars have a common database.

Therefore, you can turn to any of them for help in searching, regardless of geographic location.

After the domain of interest has been officially purchased and an agreement has been concluded with the registrar for the right to use it for a specified period of time, you will need to configure it and link different hosting services.

For this purpose, there is a special administrative panel that allows you to edit the domain and connect various services to it.

It is through such a panel that users can select 3rd and 4th level domains from the received address.

View history and purchase released names

According to established international rules, registrars provide information about second-level domain owners free of charge and openly.

That is, anyone who wants to go to the official website of the registrar in "Whois" section, maybe, by indicating the address of a specific site, get all the information about the person who registered it.

However, services are now also provided to hide such registration information about the owner of the resource.

Various official services offer this service both for a fee and for free. It is also possible to change the data to fictitious ones.

According to the rules for registering a second-level domain, when concluding an agreement with the official registrar, you must indicate your personal and contact information.

The website address is tied specifically to the specific individual or legal entity with whom the contract is concluded.

Many owners of popular online resources advise using the services of hiding information or replacing it.

This is due to the fact that there are those on the network who want to take possession of information or money. Personal user data makes it much easier to hack the service.

Conclusion

Based on the materials in the article, we can conclude that the domain is one of the most important components of the address of any website on the Internet.

Without assigned names, it will be impossible to go to the resource using a browser. Many developers pay great attention to the issue of domain selection.

This is explained by the fact that a lot depends on the name of the portal, as well as on its location.

If it is unreadable and not concise, and is located, in little-known areas of the first level the number of visitors to the resource will be minimal.

One of the first questions a novice website creator has is what a domain is, why it is needed, where to get it and how to choose it. It is present on absolutely any resource, you just have to look up at the address bar of your browser. A domain name is the name of a website.

Why is it needed?

As a rule, any website is located on the servers of various hosting companies. These servers, like any computer, have their own unique IP address, which consists of numbers in a certain sequence. To search for a site you need to know this combination of numbers.

The problem is that there can be a thousand websites on one IP address (server), and it is very difficult to find the right one. For convenient navigation on the World Wide Web, we came up with the idea of ​​giving each resource a unique name. Each site is assigned a unique domain name. This greatly simplifies the search for the required resource.

Rules for creating a domain name

This is a combination of characters. There are certain rules for creating it:

  • The length must be between two and sixty-three characters.
  • The site's domain name can contain numbers from 0 to 9.
  • It may contain a hyphen, but not at the beginning or end.
  • It must not contain spaces.

Any name consists of several parts, which are separated by dots. Each part consists of domains of different levels. As a rule, three domain levels are used for a website.

Domain levels

They are determined by how many dotted words the name contains. First you need to decide on the audience of the resource and choose a name based on this.

For the first level, they can be divided into two types:

  1. Domains that designate a geographic location. They show which country they belong to. For example, domain.ru means that the site belongs to Russia, .ua - Ukraine, .au - Australia, .cz - Czech Republic, and so on.
  2. Determining the type of activity. The .org domain indicates that the site is non-commercial, .info is informational, .com is created for commerce.

It is worth noting that this classification is rather arbitrary; anyone can register for it. For example, a site ending in .cz may have nothing to do with the Czech Republic, but a site with the name .com may not be involved in commerce.

A second-level domain is a unique name for a website. For example, site.ru belongs to an organization or By the way, since the names should not be repeated, when registering, checking the domain name in a certain zone is necessary.

Third level - defines a resource within a second level domain. They are mostly free, but are not very popular among professional webmasters.

What level to choose a domain

If the project is long-term and designed to make a profit, then you should choose a second-level domain. Yes, it's paid, but it doesn't cost that much and eliminates the disadvantages that a third-party domain has. Despite the fact that it is free, it has a number of disadvantages:

  • The name becomes longer and therefore more difficult to remember.
  • As a rule, it is tied to a specific hosting; if you change the latter, you will also have to change the domain.
  • Since all services are free, you cannot demand anything from the host owners. Anything can happen to the site, and there will even be no one to file claims against.

The third level of the domain can be selected if the resource is created with the goal of trying one’s strengths and gaining experience.

Also, when choosing, it is worth considering what audience the site is aimed at. If it’s in Russian, then you should choose the domain zone.ru. For international or multilingual projects, the best option would be.com.

How to choose a name

A domain name is a website, so you shouldn’t approach the choice carelessly.

Firstly, the more concise the name, the better. The name should be memorable and not too long. The name can indicate the type of activity, for example avto.com, and it will immediately be clear what information the user will find on the page. But ivan.ru does not reveal much about the theme of the site, unless it is Ivan’s personal blog. If this is an online store, then the domain must contain its name. A name that contains a keyword works well.

Secondly, the name in the domain is mostly written in Latin, so you need to make sure that it is displayed correctly and is readable. You should not assume that all users know English, so problems may arise with writing letters that are not in the foreign alphabet (ch, sch, yu, ya).

Thirdly, before using them in English, you need to check their correct spelling.

Fourthly, it would not be superfluous to check the domain name to see if there are similar names in other zones. It’s okay if there are some, but when it’s a competing resource, the user may mistakenly go to someone else’s page.

Domain name registration

You need to register a domain only with reliable partners. You should carefully read the documentation and capabilities of the seller. There is no need to save, otherwise troubles may arise later. Domain registration, which costs 99 rubles, looks very suspicious, and in the end, after purchasing it, you may find that, for example, there is no administration panel. Or resale will require you to provide a bunch of documents and perform many steps. As a result, it will take a lot of nerves and strength.

Are you creating a website for the first time or just starting to master internet marketing? The tips in this article will help you avoid common mistakes. You will also learn about the principles according to which you should choose a domain for your website.

What is a domain name?

A domain name is the address of a website on the Internet. He is unique. It can be compared to a physical address in the real world.

If a site is well known, many will link to it using only the first part of its name: Amazon, Google, Facebook.

A domain name is a structured label that contains the domain name and its extension ( first level domain, English. top-level domain, TLD). This label is associated with the specific IP address of the server that hosts the site. So when you type in your browser's address bar " yourdomain.com", it should find the corresponding IP address.

For example, to go to the Google website, you can enter the IP address 216.58.216.164. This address will take us to the Google search page. But which is easier to remember: 6 letters or 11 numbers with dots?

Because browsing the Internet is done over IP, any address you enter into your browser is connected to domain name servers ( DNS). These servers manage an extensive database that associates domain names with IP addresses.


Which domain is better to choose?

Let's talk in more detail about why it is important to take choosing a domain name seriously.

  • This is the first thing site visitors see.
  • A domain name that is easy to remember adds credibility to your business.
  • It is unique - there cannot be identical domain names.
  • Impacts Search Engine Optimization – Keywords in the domain name can be beneficial.

Make it brandable

Choose a short, unique name that's easy to remember so it stands out from others. If a domain name is easy to remember, it will be found more quickly and recommended to others.

To choose a good domain name for your website or online store Among the available options, a creative approach is required. You can use the brand name; no keywords or description are added to it.

It's a good idea to have a word or several words in your domain name that are related to your product or field of activity. By not specifying an exact description of your site in the domain name, it will provide greater flexibility in the further development of your brand.

The most famous brand name is Google.

Imagine if you had chosen a long description for your domain instead. They would now be known as thebestsearchengine.com ( from English bestsearchengine.com) or topsearchresults.com ( topsearchresults.com). Then the domain name would be limited only to search results, and for other areas of business you would have to look for other domain names.

Another good example is Apple. The name doesn't give any idea what this company does. They started with computers, moved on to mobile phones, clothing items and who knows what they will do in the future. And everything is contained in one domain name!

Alternatively, you can choose a generic domain name or one that contains keywords. But don't put all the keywords in it. Such a name will not provide any advantages in the eyes of search engines and will look unnatural.

The shorter the better

A short name is easier to write, pronounce, remember, and will not be shortened when mentioned on social networks.

A domain name can be up to 63 characters long. But practice shows that it is better if it contains less than 15 characters.

Easy to spell and pronounce

It should be such that the user can easily write it and avoid mistakes. It is better if the domain name has only one possible spelling. This will make it easier for the user to find your site.

You don't want to use a domain name that will contain spelling errors on purpose. Spelling is a big problem for some and misspelling a word can confuse them even more.

Must be unique

Don't copy other bloggers or use someone else's brand name. You don't want to change your domain name as a result of a copyright infringement lawsuit!

Therefore, do not include brand names or even words similar to the names of famous trademarks in your domain name ( facebook helper, buildapple app, printwithhp).

No hyphens or numbers

The domain name must consist of one word or several words without dashes or numbers. You can forget to indicate a hyphen in the address bar, and then the user will end up on someone else's site. When it comes to numbers, it is sometimes difficult to know whether to write them in words or in numbers. So use only letters!

Which domain name to choose - .ru or .com?

Now there are many different extensions ( TLD) available for use in a domain name. How to choose the right domain zone?

Here are just a few examples:

  • country code: .us, .uk, .ca, .za, .ru or.rf;
  • generic top level domain: .academy, .biz, .eco, .name, .property, .shop, .travel…;
  • geographical: .barcelone, .london, .paris, .boston, .vegas, .sydney…;

If your business only serves local residents, you can use a geographic domain. But a website with a domain name agreatplumber.boston (experienced plumber.boston) looks strange. Better agreatplumberboston.com (experiencedplumberboston.com).

If your business targets an international audience, you may be tempted to try one of the new extensions. But for many years we typed in .COM addresses. So first of all, try to come up with a name with a .COM extension. If a domain name with this extension is not available, then use .NET or .ORG.

Don't use double letters

You should not use multiple repetitions of letters in names. It increases the likelihood of typos and loss of visitors. It's easy to make mistakes when writing names like poollab.com or wordpressseo.com.

Using Keywords

It is better when the domain name has a keyword by which users, as well as search engines, can determine what your site is about. Use a combination of keywords and other words to create an effective title.

Think ahead

A domain name can be registered for a minimum of 1 year and a maximum of 10 years. Which registration period to choose depends on many factors.

  • If you are a beginner blogger, there is no need to register a domain for 10 years. First you need to make sure that the blog will be successful. Therefore, at first, select a 1-year domain registration period.
  • If you are purchasing a website for a specific event, you only need the domain for a limited time.
  • The budget decides a lot. If you are seriously planning to promote your website, register a domain for several years in advance, as you can get a good discount.

Don't limit yourself to the website

You should not tie the domain name to any topic. Over time, you will likely want to expand in different directions.

For example, there is a site about gardening tools. His domain name handmowerparadise.com (paradisehandmowers.com). But when you start blogging about other tools, it can be difficult to attract readers to the new topic.

Make sure the domain will be available on social networks

Migrating your website to a new domain can be quite a complicated process, and if not done correctly, you will lose traffic and drop in search engine rankings. It's much better to spend a little more time choosing a good domain name using the tips above.

Something else

Protect your brand

It's not hard to steal your business, but what's even worse is that a competitor could ruin your reputation by using a domain name similar to yours.

Domain registration and hosting are cheap. This makes it possible for anyone to launch a website using variations of your domain name or brand name. If the domain is vacant, there are no checks for ownership or trademarking.

To avoid this, many people buy other popular extensions along with the .COM domain, especially .NET and .ORG. Some go even further and buy options with very similar spellings, such as lawcounsel.com and lawcouncil.com. These additional domains are then redirected to the main domain b.

Others also buy negative versions of their domain name, such as lawcousnelsucks.com or lawcounselscam.com.

Automatic domain name registration renewal

If you forget to renew your domain registration, it will become available for purchase again. To prevent this from happening, it is advisable to use the automatic renewal of services provided by domain registrars.

Take care of your privacy

Domain Privacy, also known as WHOIS Guard, hides your personal information: name, address, phone, email... If you do not activate the privacy option, then after purchasing the domain, your personal information will become available to every visitor.

Having protection and a sufficient level of confidentiality, you:

  • Avoid unwanted mailings via email or mobile phone.
  • You hide personal information from people who might cause you problems.

Minuses :

  • Price. Prices depend on registrars
  • If a domain name was previously registered without privacy protections, then personal information may continue to be publicly available.
  • Visitors and clients may not trust you if they see that you are hiding your personal information.

Make sure you get an SSL certificate

An SSL certificate provides the most secure way to transfer data. If you're building a new site, it's worth getting one. After this, the browser will display https and a green padlock in the address bar, indicating that the site is secure. Having an SSL certificate has a positive effect on your rating.

Domain name generators

It happens that you come up with a catchy domain name for the site, but it is already occupied. All over again! How to choose ? In such a case, specialized free online tools can come to the rescue.

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. This blog has detailed information. After or while reading this publication, I advise you to read that article so that a complete picture emerges. I also advise you to read my publications on the topic of what and means.

Today we have a question on our agenda - what is domain or domain name(essentially, these are synonyms). Well, it's actually simple. This is the name for the site, which is assigned to it instead of the difficult-to-remember IP address of the server on which this site is hosted (see). Enter this name in the address bar of your browser and the site will open.

But the difficulties arise precisely in the details. What are they, how does it all work, what domain zones are, how to understand what level domain and which of them can be registered, where this can be done and which zone to choose. There are a lot of questions and I will try to answer them all in this “small note”.

What is a domain?

As I mentioned above, domain is the name for the site..162.192.0. And besides, imagine the situation. You have placed your website on a hosting server (see what this is above) and received an IP address. But, moving to another hosting, the IP will change, which will cause a disaster. But in the case of domain names, this will not happen. Why?

The fact is that there are thousands of DNS (domain name system) servers on the Internet, which will state that the domain site is accessible at the IP address 108.162.192.0. If I move to another hosting, I’ll go to the domain name registrar panel (where I bought it), change something, and it will be written in all DNS servers on the Internet that the site needs to be searched at a different IP address. Convenient right?

Convenient, but probably not yet clear. The main thing you need to understand is a name for a site is a very important thing and it is for life (as a rule, although you can transfer the site to another domain if you wish, this is not easy). Whatever you name the boat, that’s how it will float. True, not only the name is important, but also the level of the domain, as well as the zone to which it belongs. Is it unclear again? Well, let's take things in order.

How a domain name works

Let's start with the basics. The domain record (site name) must include all levels of nesting of the domain (all zones it belongs to) so that it is unique and does not cause confusion.

There are two main domain name registration rules:

  1. The zones that a given domain belongs to are listed from right to left.
  2. Dots are used as separators.

It might look like this, for example:

Net.blog.site

We get a fourth-level domain net, which is part of the third-level domain zone “blog”, which is part of the second-level zone “ktonanovenkogo” belonging to the first-level zone.ru. Nonsense, right? (my wife, who checks errors in the article, will be happy to confirm this).

What domain levels are distinguished?

  1. Root domain(level zero) is considered to be an empty entry, denoted simply by a dot (.). In theory, the full record of a domain name should always end with a period, but in most cases it is omitted (as if meaning) and instead of the record: site.

    They use the already well-established relative notation of domains (without a dot at the end):

  2. Next comes the first level - this is usually regional(national) domains (.ru, .su, .ua, .us, .de, .fr, etc.) or thematic(.com, .edu, .org, .net, etc.). But there are also first-level domain names that include national alphabets(for example, .рф).
  3. Second level- these are already the same domains that you and I we buy(we register with special registrars). Their prices vary not only depending on their belonging to a particular first-level domain (for example, xxxxxxx.ru is usually cheaper to buy than xxxxxxx.com), but also depending on the registrar (or its reseller - retailer).
  4. Third, fourth, etc. — you no longer need to buy them (as a rule) and can be created independently (without registering anywhere) based on the purchased second-level domain. For example, I can create a name like this for a new site - forum..forum..

Let me explain all this again For example:

  1. . (dot) - zero (root) level domain
  2. ru - first level, also called top level domain or zone
  3. website - second level domain name
  4. blog.site - third level domain
  5. net.blog.site - fourth level

Top (first) level domains

Apart from the zero level (root domain), because this is emptiness, then the base is the so-called zones or top-level domains(the name of any site begins with them, although it seems that it ends with them - but not the point). They cannot be bought by an ordinary person, but it is from these zones that we will choose when purchasing a second-level domain (a name for our website).

So what are they?

  1. First (highest) level domains, assigned to countries, which are usually called among very smart people by the abbreviation Cctld, meaning country code top-level domain. Russia has two of them:
    1. su is a remnant left over from the Soviet Union and now represents the space of resources in Russian
    2. ru - originally assigned to Russia
  2. Domains with national alphabets, which are usually abbreviated Idn (internationalized domain name). In Russia it is zone.rf. In fact, their names are still written in English characters (recoding occurs), but this is, as it were, hidden from view. However, if you enter the address in your browser: http://ktonanovenkogo.rf/

    and after going to this site, copy its address from the address bar, you will get completely indigestible nonsense:

    Http://xn--80aedhwdrbcedeb8b2k.xn--p1ai/ It turns out that he looks so unpleasant. And it is in this form that it will have to be added to various services (such as ), and not in the form of ktonanovenkogo.rf. This needs to be taken into account. Yes, other problems are possible, although not obvious at first.

  3. Upper generic domains, usually called Gtld, which means generic top-level domain, are registered (sold) regardless of the country in which the webmaster lives. The most used of them:
    1. .com - for commercial projects
    2. .org - for non-profit websites of various organizations
    3. .net - for Internet-related projects
    4. .edu - for educational institutions and projects
    5. .biz - only commercial organizations
    6. .info - for all information projects
    7. .name - for personal sites
    8. .gov - for US government agencies

How and where you can register (buy) a domain in top-level zones

As a rule, you can’t get second-level domain names just like that (and it’s better not to try, because the name for the site is too important to risk registering it with someone unknown). They cost money. Moreover payment is made annually, and then the domain lease needs to be renewed.

Let me draw your attention once again - buy second level domain names, and everything above - you can create on their basis yourself. This is usually done in the panel of your hoster in the subdomains section - these are third-level and higher-level domains, such as blog..blog.site.

There are not so many such companies (prominent examples include RegRu And WebNames), but they may have a whole network of resellers (partners) who will select and sell domains on their behalf. If you are not satisfied with the current reseller in some way or you have any tension with him, then by contacting the registrar, you can choose another reseller or go directly under the wing of the registrar.

At all no limits You can buy domains in the public zones .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .name. In the .edu, .gov and .mil zones, this opportunity is provided only for institutions, as well as state educational and military institutions. There are also a number of specialized first-level domains, for example, .travel, .jobs, .aero, .asia.

Second level domain names in these public areas can be purchased from any registrar(not only national), which, in fact, is what some resources use, which may have conflicts with copyright holders. The same torrent was forced to move to the public zone org, because its resource was blocked in the national domain zone ru.

Second level domains - employment verification and Whois

There are already about half a billion domain names registered on the Internet in various zones, so choosing a good (short, simple, sonorous) name in the right zone is now very easy. not an easy task(just like it's difficult). A third of the registered names are not used at all, because they were purchased for resale (successful domains can be expensive on the secondary market - sometimes many millions of dollars).

Domain name occupancy check

Therefore, the first thing you should do when selecting a suitable domain for your website is . This can be done at different registrars (the result will be the same, since they use a common database).

Below are currently releasing domains(click on price for detailed view):

Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the blog site

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