How Do Domain Names Work
A Domain Name is your website’s address. It lets your visitors find your site immediately in the depths of the internet.
Now that you already have an idea what Domain Names are, it is time to understand exactly how they work.
When visitors enter your Domain Name into the browser, it sends a request out to the Domain Name System (DNS). While we humans use Domain Names to locate a website, computers require IP Addresses to know where to take us on the internet. Hence, the DNS is the one that translates the Domain Name into its corresponding computer-readable IP Address.
Refer to the following guide on how the Domain Forwarding process happens through the DNS:
- The DNS server will look up and send to the nameservers that are associated with the Domain Name that you have entered in your browser.
- Your Hosting provider, which is in-charge of managing your nameservers, will then forward the nameserver request to the server where your website’s files are stored.
Note: Aside from your Domain Name, you need to have a Hosting provider to have your website live on the internet. The files located in your Hosting account will be loaded on the user’s computer when your Domain is accessed.
- The web server will then gather the requested information and send it back to the web browser to display your website.
As you can see, there are a lot of things undergone behind the scenes to make your Domain work and display your website.
Components of a Domain Name
Domain Names are composed of several different parts. They read from left to right.
A common Domain Name, www.mydomain.com for example, consists of three main parts:
| www. | www is a prefix for the World Wide Web. This is a standard for every Domain Name and is referred to as the machine name. |
| mydomain | This is the Mid-level Domain. This is the part of your Domain Name where you have the freedom to customise to perfectly match your brand. |
| .com | This is the Top Level Domain (TLD), which is also called the Domain Name Extension. Other TLD examples are .org, .net, .gov, .edu, among others |
If you want to maximise your website and extend your Domain Name to make separate parts of your content, you can opt to register for Subdomains. To know more about it, click here.