Domain name tidbits

Today I registered a domain name for a family member. He had several questions, having never been the “owner” of a domain name. I realized that some of his questions were ones we commonly see in on-line help forums, even from people who have registered many names and should know the answers. I’m not going to explain how the domain name system works, but highlight a few points that are often not understood.

Domain names are case insensitive. MilDeW.org is the same as mildEw.OrG. You may choose to capitalize some letters on your web site or in printed materials to make a domain name more attractive and readable.

A domain name may contain a combination of letters, numerical digits, and hyphens.

A domain name contains at least two parts, separated by a period or dot. These parts are called “labels”. For example, in mugwhump.com there are two labels: “mugwhump”; and “com”. Each label may contain up to 63 characters. A label may not begin or end with a hyphen.

The “com” in the previous example is known as the top-level domain (TLD). While .com is the best known, there are many other domains including over 250 country code top-level domains (ccTLD) such as .de (Germany) and .uk. Anyone may register one of the “generic” domains such as com, net, org and Some country code top-level domains have additional requirements such as having a personal or business presence in the country.

Once a domain name has been registered, it must be hosted in order to make use of it. If all you want is e-mail, then you may need only domain name system (DNS) hosting. Some domain registrars offer this for free. If you also want a web site, then you will need web hosting. Web hosting allows your domain name to lead to your web pages, and will include e-mail hosting.

With your own domain name, you may create whatever e-mail addresses you like. You may have virtually anything as the user name portion, the part that comes before the “@” sign. For example, if you register saltednuts.com, you may create jim@saltednuts.com, cashew123@saltednuts.com, etc.

The domain name system allows for third-level domains, also known as sub-domains. While CityMusic.ca would be your domain name, www.CityMusic.ca would be a sub-domains. Sub-domains are useful for splitting up various subordinate sites, e.g. sales.CityMusic.ca, forum.CityMusic.ca. while DNS allows the creation of unlimited sub-domains, your web host must support this. Here at WebHostingBuzz, their cPanel control panel allows you to create unlimited sub-domains.

While there is far more to talk about domain names, I hope I’ve clarified some of the common points of confusion.