If you’re buying a domain name, you
probably already have some idea what it is. But many people are confused by
terms like domain name, top level domain, third level domain and the like. If
you’re one of these people, this article is for you. It will provide a clear
understanding of what a domain name really is and how it fits into what you
type into your Internet browser’s address bar.
Let’s start with an example: www.Zname.com
The address consist three parts:
Before the dot,
Between the dots, and
After the dot.
The “.com” part is called the top
level domain (TLD). The following are some popular TLDs that you might find on
the Internet:
.com: commercial
.org: non-profit organization
.gov: government
.net: network resources
.edu: education
.tv: country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the islands
of Tuvalu, but most often used for television
Now, the most important part is the
part between the dots, “Zname.” The part is called domain.
Some rules for the domain are:
It does not allow spaces.
It is not case sensitive, “Zname” and “zname” will lead you
to the same location.
You can have dashes or numbers, “Zname-123” for example.
Spaces between characters are not allowed, nor are special
characters such as !, @, #, $, %, ^, &, <, *, (, ), {, }, |, [, ], or
>.
Domains can contain as many as 63
characters. If you include domain suffixes in your count it can be longer (+4
for .com and +6 for .co.uk, for example).
The domain along with the top level
domain together form a domain name. This term is synonymous to “website
address.”
However, there is one additional
part that accompanies a domain name to complicate matters slightly. It is the
part before the dot, specifically called sub-domain. In practice, however, a
website can consist of many parts or area within the same location of a domain.
The following website addresses illustrate:
map.baidu.com
pan.baidu.com
zhidao.baidu.com
These sub-domains (map,pan,zhidao)
are owned and operated by the same operator. The sub-domain allows visitors to
channel their intention into different parts of a website.