Domain Name

A domain name is an address than can identify a website. For example, www.acme.com identifies the website of Acme Corporation. Theoretically, not every website would need a domain name. You could simply use the IP address. The IP address is the actual address of the computer on which the site is hosted. However, this would have some disadvantages. Firstly, IP addresses are very difficult to remember for humans. Secondly, your website address would need to change every time your IP address changes, for example when you move to a different web server.

Domain names must be registered with an approved domain name registrar. These registrars need to be approved with ICANN. There are many different registrars that can register a domain name for you. Prices range from as low as $10 for a .com domain name.

There are many different top-level domains under which a domain name can be registered. .com can be used for commercial companies. .net is normally used for network service providers such as ISP’s and web hosts. .org is used for non-profit companies. Government websites use the .gov top level domain. The .edu top-level domain name is used for educational institutions. There are also many foreign top-level domain names. These consist of two characters. For example, the top-level country domain name for Australia is .au. So an Australian company can register a domain name such as acme.com.au.