Components Of A Domain Name

A Guide To The Components Of A Domain Name

Domain names have several components. This month, we’ll try to explain what these are and how they work.

The Components of a domain name support a variety of services you depend on for your day-to-day business.

Your domain name will be used for many services, such as a website, emails, content management systems, Google verifications, and others.

But in order to use them, a basic understanding of what they are can be extremely helpful.

THE END OF THE DOMAIN NAME - The Extensions

To understand the components of a domain name, we’ll start with the easiest parts and work our way backwards towards the front.

Every domain name has an “extension” at the end. This part normally represents the country or the type of organisation using it.

UK Domain Extensions

UK individuals and businesses typically use both the .CO.UK and .UK extensions for their websites. The .LTD domain extension is also available for UK Limited Companies.

Domain Name extensions are already pre-defined, but you are free to choose what extensions you register.

Each type of extension is overseen by a registry. Nominet is the registry for UK domain names. Verisign are the registry for international domains such as .com, net, name and some others.

Components of a Domain Name - Domain Extensions

The Parts Before The Domain Name - The Protocols

Whenever you do anything online, no matter what it is, you will interact with a domain name in some way. But depending on what you are accessing, you will use something known as a protocol. The protocol part is always the very first part of the address you will use.

Protocols come before the domain name, and before any sub domains.

Website pages are accessed through your web browser, such as Microsoft Edge, Mozilla FireFox, Google Chrome.

This is called a URL but is typically referred to as a “Web Address”. These start with “HTTP”. (Since 2014 it’s now https)

HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol (Secure) Here’s what this looks like in the real world.

File Transfers from one computer to another, such as uploading website files to your web server, could be done using what’s called the “File Transfer Protocol,” or simply known as FTP.

You would need an FTP Program (not a web browser) and the login details to your web server account to achieve this.

The first part of your address now would be FTP, instead of HTTPS.