Domain Names
What is a URL?
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. The URL is what identifies where a file is and how that file should be accessed. There are three parts to a URL that are the most important. Take the URL of this page for example. This is what it looks like in the browser's address bar:
http://www.daves-web-help.com/site-creation/basics/domain-names.htm
Here are the three main parts in this URL.
http
This is the protocol. The protocol is the set of rules used to access the file.
www.daves-web-help.com
This is the resource where the file can be accessed.
/site-creation/basics/domain-names.htm
This is the path to the file(/site-creation/basics/) and the file, or resource, to be accessed(domain-names.htm).
How the Domain Name Fits In
The domain name for this site is daves-web-help.com. What you need to know about a domain name is that it can point to any server you want it to. Most likely, you will want to point a domain name to a server you have an account at. I know it sounds silly...
The domain name is a human readable address. Computers translate the domain name into a computer readable address of a section of a disk on a server commonly referred to as "disk space". The important thing to know is that your disk space can be on any web server anywhere. Once you have your own domain name, you can have a web account with any host you choose and change hosts at any time and access your files using the same domain name. See How to Point Your Domain Name to a Server below.
Do You Need a Domain Name?
Well, yes and no. It depends on whether you are going to host your own domain or get a free host. If you get a free hosting account, you will most likely get an assigned URL that looks something like this:
http://yourname.freehost.com/
or
http://www.freehost.com/~yourname/
If you want your own domain, you will have a URL that looks like this:
http://www.yourname.com/
I'm not going to go into hosting at this point but here's what you need to know. If you are going to use a free host, chances are you don't need a domain name. If you want to host your web site yourself, you're most likely going to need one. Your own domain name will give your site a more professional appearance.
If you are just starting to develop sites, or want a personal page somewhere, you may just want a free hosting account somewhere to practice developing pages. In that case, wait to buy your domain name until you are ready to host your web site on your own hosting account.
Where to Buy a Domain Name
You can buy a domain name from hundreds of web sites. What you want to look for is someone who has a decent control panel where you can access the necessary information and change that information to your needs. I buy all my domain names from GoDaddy. You need to know a little bit about what you are doing with them, but they provide a good control panel and you can buy a domain name for under $10!
How to Point Your Domain Name to a Server
This process is really quite painless. After you buy a domain name and a hosting account, log into your account and look for an option that says "Modify DNS" or "Set Nameservers" or something along those lines. DNS stands for Domain Name Server. The Domain Name Server's whole purpose in life is to translate your domain name into a machine readable address. Your hosting company will make the necessary entries for this to work correctly. When they do so, they will most likely send you an email with the nameserver's address. Your hosting company will usually give you two of them and they look like this:
NS1.HOSTINGCOMPANY.COM
NS2.HOSTINGCOMPANY.COM
Once you have this information, delete the DNS entries in your domain name account and put these two addresses in their place. Click add, save, change or whatever the option might be. That's it. You will need to wait approximately 24 hours for the changed information to propagate through the internet. After that, when you type your domain name into a browser, you should be directed to your new hosting account.