| One of the more complex issues Web site owners and developers deal with is that of domain registration: the acquisition and management of their .com, .net, or .something moniker that leads Web surfers to their Web site. Our primary domain is novusweb.com. Our Web site is www.novusweb.com and I receive e-mail at bret@novusweb.com. Our domain is our “address” on the Internet, and, as such, has become an extremely important corporate asset.
But how does entering www.novusweb.com into your Web browser lead you to our site? A process continues to amaze me, as it happens so transparently and so very quickly, it belies its own sophistication.
First, let’s breakdown the components of a Web address, such as www.novusweb.com. There are three parts to this, or any, Internet address. The “.com” is called the Top Level Domain, or TLD. There are many TLDs in the Internet space: .com, .net, .org, .gov, .mil, .edu, and one for just about every country on the globe. Country TLDs are two-letter combinations, such as .us, .uk, and .mx. In recent years, we’ve also seen the release of .info, .biz, .name, .pro, .aero, .coop, and .museum. Various entities manage the distribution of domain names within these TLDs. In the U.S., Verisign manages .com and .net TLDs, under an agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). However, since 2000, over 160 companies have been approved by ICANN as “registrars” of these common TLDs. This means that although Verisign manages the central repository of domain registrations, you do not have to directly register .com or .net domains with Verisign.
The “novusweb" in our address is called the secondary domain. When combined with the TLD – novusweb.com – it is commonly referred to as the domain name belonging to our company.
Finally, the prefix of www, ftp, or anything else preceding the domain name is called the sub-domain. The use of sub-domains help us route requests to appropriate computers, such as Web servers, FTP servers, or individual machines. In fact, your machine may well have a sub-domain assigned to it. My computer sub-domain is bret.novusweb.com. That name is uniquely assigned to my computer.
When you enter www.novusweb.com in your browser address blank and hit “enter,” your browser sends a request to your Internet provider’s Domain Name Server (DNS) that says, “Do you know where I can find www.novusweb.com?” A DNS is a database of known domains that have been requested within the past few hours. If your provider’s DNS (your provider may be someone such as AOL, SBC, Earthlink or your local cable Internet company) doesn’t have novusweb.com in its records of recently routed domains, it forwards your request to the TLD computer that is charge of .com domains. In this case, it could by any one of nine huge supercomputers located around the country. If the first one doesn’t respond quickly, the request is forwarded to the next, and so on, until a response is finally received. That request is simply another pointer to the Novusweb DNS server responsible for managing our domain.
One of our five DNS servers will respond to your request by translating www.novusweb.com into a specific Internet Protocol (IP) address, such as 216.218.131.245. Every machine connected to the Internet has a unique IP address. Some are permanently assigned (static), while others are assigned when a machine connects to the Internet (dynamic). Our Web server has a static IP. Your browser, once the address is finally translated, uses that IP number to request the desired Web page.
And all of this happens in a blink of an eye. At least three machines, connecting through dozens of routers and computers, resolves the domain request in less time then it takes you to move your hand from your mouse to your coffee cup.
While I know this is all fairly complex, your primary focus as a businessperson doing business on the Web should be to rely on a domain registrar that makes it not only easy and affordable to acquire a domain name, but provides convenient tools for changing your registration information. You may want to change your site hosting company, or add another machine sub-domain. This should be as easy as editing a form on a Web page.
Unfortunately, the quality of domain registrars varies from one to the other. We’ve had the dubious honor of suffering through some of the worst as we strived to find the best registrar. We have found the adage “you get what you pay for” all too true, as well.
If you’ve ever considered getting a domain name of your own, you’ve no doubt seen some of the more popular companies: DirectNic, GoDaddy, Tucows, Verisign, Register.com, etc. Not only have we tried several of them (we manage over 60 domain names on behalf of our clients, as well as our own company), we have seen clients reach new levels of rage from the poor customer service practices of other lessor-known companies.
While the above-mentioned companies all enjoy sizeable reputations, we personally prefer DirectNic for its convenience, pricing and accessibility to management tools. It’s not the least expensive, but it has given us the best “bang for the buck.”
If domains are giving you fits, or you need some advice on domain names, feel free to call me directly. I’m always happy to chat about the Internet and how you can maximize your success.
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