What Is a Domain?

Every home has an address. Your domain name is the equivalent of this physical address, but for the
web. Your home’s address allows people, or your GPS, to find and navigate to your home, while your
domain tells web browsers where to go to display your website.

How Domain Names Work

Essentially, domain names are a shortcut to remembering complicated IP addresses. Without a domain
name, you’d have to enter a full IP address into the browser address bar. So, instead of being able to
type in ‘google.com’ you’d have to use a string of numbers like 172.217.167.46. Talk about confusing.
Having names that are easy to remember will help potential visitors find your website faster through a
search engine.

ICANN Oversees the Domain Name System

Domain names are managed by an organization known as ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers). This organization will specify what domain names and domain name
extensions are available. They also maintain a massive database of every location that domain names
point to.

The domain name system (DNS) essentially maps your domain name to a specific server where your
website is located.

How Domains and Web Hosts Work Together

To visit a website, two things need to be in place: a domain name, and a web server.

The web server is where you’ll store all of your website’s files, databases, media elements, and more.
This space is what you’re renting from a hosting company when you purchase web hosting.

By choosing a high-quality web host, you’ll improve your website’s performance, search engine rankings,
and a lot more. Your choice of web host will either enhance your chances of success, or be nothing more
than a detriment.

Your domain name is what people will type into a web browser to access your site. The moment
someone types your domain name into their web browser, the web browser communicates with the
server used to store your website’s files and displays them.

Top-Level Domains (TLDs)

In 1985, The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) released six top-level domain names. These
top-level domains (TLD) became known as domain name extensions and represent the highest level in
the Domain Name System hierarchy. They include:
  .com: shorthand for commercial, .com was the first top-level domain in common use.
While .com was initially created for use by commercial organizations, restrictions on this were
not stringent. By the mid-1990s, .com had become the most popular and commonly used type
of top-level domain for businesses, websites, and email.
 .net: shorthand for network, .net was created expressly for institutes that partook in network
technologies such as an internet service provider or an infrastructure company. Like with .com,
the restrictions meant to limit .net to networking purposes were never upheld and it became
one of the more popular top-level domains, with many seeing it as a close second to using
the .com top-level domain.
 .edu: shorthand for education, .edu was made for education institutions. Although it was
intended for universities everywhere, the TLD .edu became associated with only educational
centers in America. Schools from other countries will use .edu in conjunction with their country-
level domain, which we will discuss in the next section below.
 .org: shorthand for organization, .org was created for nonprofits. As we’ve seen with these
other top-level domains, such intentions were often not upheld or enforced over time. These
days .org is used as a top-level domain by nonprofits, for-profit businesses, schools, and
communities.
 .mil: shorthand for military, .mil was created expressly for U.S. military branches. Unlike the
other different types of top-level domains, this restriction is still upheld. Now, it is quite
common for .mil to use second and third-level domains in conjunction with the .mil TLD.
 .gov: shorthand for government, .gov, like .mil, was restricted for American federal
governmental agencies and personnel use only. These days .gov is used by governmental
agencies, programs, cities, states, towns, counties, and Native American tribes.

Country code top-level domains (ccTLD)

In order to distinguish one country from another, two-letter domains were established and became
associated with countries or geographical locations; .in,.uk and .au, for example, represent England and
Australia respectively.

When ccTLDs were initially created they were intended for registration and use by that country’s
residents, however, certain countries have let outside parties register domain names using their country
code.

Generic top-level domains (gTLD)

Generic top-level domains function as a category of top-level domains within the DNS. As of now, there
are currently 21 generic top-level domains within the root zone, which is the highest level of the domain
name system structure.

While there are over 1,500 gTLDs in use, these 21 make up the vast majority of all types of domain
names. They include four sub-categories:

 Generic (.com, .net, .org, .info), domains that can be used for general purposes.
 Generic restricted (.pro, .biz, .name) domains that can only be used for their specific purposes.
 Sponsored (.edu, .gov, .int, .mil, .aero, .cat, .asia, .mobi, .coop, .travel, .tel, .jobs) domains that
can only be used by businesses involved specifically with that industry.
  Infrastructure (.arpa) which was one of the original top-level domains used to help with the DNS
infrastructure.

Second-level domains
Within the DNS hierarchy, second-level domains are domains that follow top-level domains.

For example, in “Nike.com”, “Nike” is the second-level domain of the “.com” top-level domain. Quite
often, second-level domains are the name of the business or vendor that registered the domain name
with a registrar. The brand name, company name, or project name is the identifier for potential
customers.

On top of these general second-level domains, there are also country code second-level domains (ccSLD).
In such cases, the second-level domain will be found to the right of the period; for example, in a domain
such as “nike.co.ca”, the country code top-level domain is “.ca” and the ccSLD is “.co”.

Third-level domains
Within the DNS hierarchy, third-level domains naturally follow second-level domains. They can be found
to the left of SLD and are often referred to as the subdomain.

Larger companies will often use third-level domains as identifiers that can distinguish between various
departments or parts of their site.

Generally speaking, “www” is the most common third-level domain. If a company does use multiple
third-level domains, those are generally referring to a specific server within the company.

Registering domains names

There are many different types of domain names out there waiting to be owned. But before you can do
anything with them, you need to know how to register your domain name.

Before using a domain name, you must first register it with the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN assigns and categorizes different types of domain names and
ensures that the process goes smoothly. In order to register a name with ICANN, you must use a domain
name registrar, like Domain.com.

Once you have selected the right name and made sure that it was available for purchase, you will need
to submit the following information that includes:

 Your contact info; including first and last name, payment info, billing info, physical address,
phone number, and email address.
 Your desired domain name.
 The chosen domain name registration term (starting at one year.)
What is web hosting?

If you’re researching ‘what is web hosting’ you’re probably trying to understand how to start building
your website. Web hosting is a must-have when it comes to getting your website live. Web hosting is an
online service that allows you to publish your website files onto the internet. So, anyone who has access
to the internet has access to your website. In practice, it usually refers to the service you get from a web
hosting provider like godaddy.com.

How does web hosting work?

In summary, companies like us rent out services and technologies to host your websites on the internet.

Once you’ve chosen your domain name and signed up to a hosting plan, then your website is accessible

on the internet.

When you use web hosting services, your web host is responsible for making sure your server is up and

running. Not only that, but it is also a hosts job to prevent any security breaches and store all your files,

assets and databases onto the server.

If you choose one.com to host your website, we offer many other services to enhance and protect your

site.

What types of web hosting are there?

Most web hosts will offer different types of hosting and each will vary in cost. It all depends on your

websites needs. We’ve compiled a list below to help you understand, which type of hosting is best

suited to you.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is when a web hosting provider hosts a number of different websites on the same server.

It is the most affordable form of hosting because you share the same server, so you split costs. If you are

looking to start a blog or have a business that’s just starting up, then shared hosting is a good option.
In the past, sharing a server could lead to problems where a spike in traffic or resource usage from a

single site would slow down its “neighbouring” websites. However, these days web hosting

subscriptions come with a generous amount of resources that ensure good performance.

WordPress Hosting

WordPress Hosting simply means hosting that has been optimised for WordPress on a server level to

ensure smooth sailing.

How is WordPress different from regular hosting? While details vary by provider, most WordPress

hosting packages offer these common traits:

1. Simple one-click installation that avoids the dozen or so manual steps in configuring a new
WordPress site. At one.com, WordPress installs automatically in under a minute.

2. Server configurations optimised for faster loading of WordPress sites. This could include
performance cache optimisations and other tweaks.

3. Security measures to protect against common WordPress vulnerabilities. As WordPress powers

over 30% of the web, it regularly comes under attack. You might also come across “Managed
WordPress”, which often refers to a pre-defined secure environment that restricts usage of
unsupported or vulnerable plugins.

WordPress hosting can run on a shared, VPS or dedicated servers.

VPS Hosting

VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. Like shared hosting, websites that run on VPS share a physical

server with other websites. However, each VPS tenant has its own partition with guaranteed dedicated

resources. There’s often more memory, storage and processing power available – with a price tag to

match.

VPS hosting is recommended for highly experienced users with server management skills. VPS

customers have root access to their partition and can configure their server software, for example
Ubuntu, CentOS or Windows Server. This provides a high level of customization to run web apps built for

those systems.

You might come across “Business Hosting” or “Premium Hosting”, which are generic terms that some

hosting providers associate with VPS Hosting managed by their in-house experts. However, levels of

support, subscription details and prices vary significantly, so make sure you research these services

thoroughly before signing up.

Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting means you have the entire server to yourself. It gives you access like a VPS, but you

don’t have to share the server with other sites or apps. Effectively, you are leasing a physical web server

housed at your service provider’s facility. You also have professional support and expertise on hand

when needed.

This top-end web hosting is only warranted for highly demanding enterprise-grade websites. Small and

medium-sized businesses do not need to spend thousands each month to rent a dedicated web server

for their business.

Cloud Hosting

These days, cloud hosting has become a bit of a nebulous term. So, we would strongly recommend

looking closely at what you are getting if you are signing up for “Cloud Hosting”.

In the beginning, “cloud hosting” referred to a VPS setup scalable to multiple servers; this way, if your

web application had a sudden traffic spike, the system would be able to provision more resources and

keep things running smoothly. Cloud hosting would have a more variable pricing model and fluid specs

as a result.
However, as the popularity of cloud computing has surged, some companies have started to co-op the

term for their regular shared or VPS hosting. Other providers like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft

Azure offer cloud computing services, which usually include cloud hosting in an array of other advanced

tools for cloud-based operations. While possible, hosting a typical website with one of these

“hyperscalers” operating millions of servers can present a high technical hurdle