Domain Names (part 1) – the Art and Science of Choosing a Domain Name
But first, the science:
Using Back2Front as an example our web address looks like this: http://www.back2front.ca
http://The “http://” part is the protocol used to talk to web servers . Others examples are “mail” or “ftp” used to communicate with mail and ftp servers respectively.
. “dot”The rest of the address is the Domain Name. It is made up of parts separated with a “.” (pronounced “dot”).
WWWFor web sites the first part is usually “www” meaning World Wide Web. In some cases the www is optional. Web servers can be set up in such a way as the www part is assumed and so you can reach the same web site whether or not you type in the www part. For all of Back2Front’s clients the www is optional.
NAMEThe second part is the bit you make up, (the name) ours is “back2front”. More on this later.
TLDThe next part, usually the last part, is called the TLD or Top Level Domain. Ours is “ca”. Other examples are “com, org, net,”. Sometimes before the TLD you will see an additional part indicating a subsection of the domain. For example in Canada there are subsections of the .ca TLD to indicate province. The one for Ontario would look like this “www.back2front.on.ca”.Technical requirements for Domain names;UniqueYour domain name must be Unique. The “name” plus the “TLD” and any “subsection” there of, in combination, must be unique for each web site. But do not worry, you will not be able to register a domain name that is already taken the registries are responsible for preventing this from happening.