Domain name is the address of your website that people type in the browser URL bar to visit your website. In simple terms, if your website was a house, then your domain name will be its address. A more detailed explanation: The Internet is a giant network of computers connected to each other through a global network of cables. Each computer on this network can communicate with other computers. To identify them, each computer is assigned an IP address. It is a series of numbers that identify a particular computer on the internet. A typical IP address looks like this: 66.249.66.1. Now an IP address like this is quite difficult to remember. Imagine if you had to use such numbers to visit your favourite websites. Domain names were invented to solve this problem. Now if you want to visit a website, then you do not need to enter a long string of numbers. Instead, you can visit it by typing an easy to remember domain name in your browser’s address bar. For example, abc.com.
To understand how domain names actually work, we will look at what happens when you enter it in your browser. When you enter a domain name in your web browser, it first sends a request to a global network of servers that form the Domain Name System (DNS). These servers then look up for the name servers associated with the domain and forward the request to those name servers. For example, if your website is hosted on Bluehost, then its name server information will be like this: ns1.bluehost.com,ns2.bluehost.com. These name servers are computers managed by your hosting company. Your hosting company will forward your request to the computer where your website is stored. This computer is called a web server. It has special software installed for example Apache and Nginx are two popular web server software. The web server now fetches the web page and pieces of information associated with it. Finally, it then sends this data back to the browser.
A website is made up of files like HTML pages, website builder software, images, and more. If the domain name is the web address of your website, then web hosting is the home where your website lives. This is the actual computer where your website’s files are stored. Such computers are called servers and they are offered as a service by hosting companies. To create your website, you need both domain name and web hosting. However, it is important to remember that they are two separate services, and you can buy them from two different companies.
Domain names are available in many different extensions. The most popular one is .com. There are many other options like .org, .net, .tv, .info, .io, and more. However, we always recommend using .com domain extension.
Top-level domain or TLD are generic domain extensions that are listed at the highest level in the domain name system. There are hundreds of TLDs, but the most popular ones are .com, .org, and .net. Other TLDs are lesser known and we do not recommend using them. For example, .biz, .club, .info, .agency, and many more.
Country code top-level domain or ccTLD are country specific domain names that end with country code extension like .uk for the United Kingdom, .de for Germany, .in for India. They are used by websites that want to target audiences in a specific country.
Sponsored top-level domain or sTLD is a category of TLDs that has a sponsor representing a specific community served by the domain extension. For example, .edu for education-related organizations, .gov for the United States government, .mil for the United States military, and more.
Wpbeginner.com. 2020. [Online] Available at: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-what-is-a-domain-name-and-how-do-domains-work.
Dettmer, R., 2003. What is in a name [Internet Domain Name System]. IEE Review, 49(11), pp.38-40.