Domain Name Basics
by
tcikbAdmin
—
last modified
Jan 25, 2012 03:43 PM
A domain name:
- Is a name used to identify your presence on the Internet
- Attaches a name to a person or company's email or website addresses so the person or company can readily be found
- May be used for a website, e.g., www.yourcompany.com, an email, e.g., sales@yourcompany.com, or both
- Allows the moving of email or website to a different provider without affecting the person or company's customers
- Must be hosted somewhere
- Is not the same thing as having a website
- Must be unique, not already registered
- Consists of two parts separated by a period (dot):
- Your chosen name, e.g., yourcompany
- The extension, e.g., .com, .net, .org, etc.
- Contains any letters and numbers, but no punctuation marks other than a hyphen (-)
- May be no more than 63 characters long
For more information about domain names and policies, see the The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) FAQs.
