What is a Domain Name?
A domain name serves as a nickname or alias for a server’s IP address. Without domain names, we would be forced to remember websites by their IP addresses! Imagine sharing your favorite website with someone:
Without Domain Names:
“Hey Jim, you should check out 65.55.206.203, it’s a great website!”
“Thanks Jim. You visit 209.191.122.70, it’s also very informative.”
With Domain Names:
“Hey Jim, you should check out MSN.com, it’s a great website!”
“Thanks Jim. You visit Yahoo.com it’s also very informative.”
Obviously the latter example is much more convenient!
Domain Names must be unique
There can be a million John Smiths in the world, but there can only be one www.johnsmith.com! So what if John Smith #334566 still wants a domain name that bears his name? The solution is the domain suffix: johnsmith.com may be taken, but johnsmith.net, johnsmith.biz, johnsmith.org etc. might still be available.
Parts of a Domain Name
Let’s take a look at the domain name of the website you are on right now as an example. If you have a look at your web browser’s address bar, you’ll see something like this:
The part that is underlined in orange (babywebmaster.com) is the domain name. If we dig a bit deeper, we can break the domain name down into two parts:
What’s the difference between a Domain Name and a URL?
