Last day's post was about what a URL is and toady I will write about a subpart of a URL called Domain Name. So today's question is what is a Domain Name and what it does?
I explained a little about what a domain is in the last post but this post will dig deeper into what parts make a domain name, what are top-level domains? etc.
What is a Domain Name?
According to Merriam-Webster a Domain Name is "a sequence of usually alphanumeric characters (such as Merriam-Webster.com) that specifies a group of online resources (as of a particular company or person) and that forms part of the corresponding Internet addresses". Technically speaking or writing a domain name is an address to a web-server on the internet.
If you want to open a website you have to type its IP (Internet Protocol) address which in case of IPv4 (version 4 of IP addresses) is a list of four numbers ranging from 0 to 255 and connected with dots 0-255.0-255.0-255.0-255 . Example 172.217.14.196 is the IP address of Google Search web-server. If you copy this address and type in the URL bar it will open www.google.com search webpage for you.
Computers connected thorugh internet communicate with each other with a public IP (Internet Protocol) Address. But remembering Google's IP address 172.217.14.196 and typing it everytime when you have to search for something would be a headace. That is why there are domain names.
Structure of Domain Names
A Domain Name consists of a Label and a TLD (Top-Level Domain).
(TLD) Top-Level Domain
TLD defines the purpose behind the domain name. The most commonly used TLD .com tells the user that it is a commercial website. Other commonly used TLDs are .org for organizations, .edu for educational institutions, .gov for government instutions etc. There are also TLDs like .us or .uk which tells that wether the domain name is hosted or provides services in that country.
Label
A label is case-insensitive character sequence from one character to sixty three character containing letter from A to Z or digits from 0 to 9 with no special character with the exception of - (Minus Sign) character. - must not be the first or last character in the domain name.
A Domain Name can contain atleast one to many labels in it. Label which is located right before the TLD is also called SLD or Secondary Level Domain.
How to get a Domain Name
To get a Domain Name you have to pay fee to Domain Name Registrar for your right to use the Domain Name (if it is not already registered) for one year atleast or more.
But that is not all the story. When you type google.com in the browser's URL bar the request is sent to a DNS (Domain Name System) server which holds all the registered domain names and thier corresponding IP Addresses and the DNS translates the domain name to its corresponding IP address which then lets you surf the web. That's All For Now.
What I Learned Today
💻 Porgramming
- Domain Names and DNS (Domain Name System)
🗾 Langauge[日本語]
- 糸口 (いとぐち) Beginning. 糸: Thread,
口: Mouth. - 工学 (こうがく) Engineering. 工: Construction, 学: Study.
- 公式 (こうしき) Formality. 公: Public, 式: Ceremony.
- 信用 (しんよう) Trust or Confiedence. 信: Believe, 用: Task.
zainsci