What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is a text name which is used as a convenient way of finding your way around the Internet. It is part of a system called Domain Name Service (DNS) which provides you with an easy-to-remember address.

The DNS actually converts the domain name (e.g. cdds.co.uk) into an Internet Protocol (IP) number (e.g.212.161.113.27) and vice versa. You don't need to worry about this though - it all happens 'behind the scenes' and requires no action on your behalf.

Registering a domain name on the Internet

This is rather like registering a company name at Companies House. Once registered, (and as long as you continue to own the name) no-one else can use that name. As there are many companies with similar names, it is important to register a suitable domain name for your company as soon as possible.

It's also very useful to register a domain based on your surname, for personal use.

Registering a suitable domain name is advisable to ensure your clients can easily remember the address of information you provide on the Internet. Our company name is CDDS, our domain name is cdds.co.uk, our web site http://www.cdds.co.uk and our e-mail addresses are of the form myname@cdds.co.uk

The "yourname.co.uk" part of the address is the Domain Name. Before you can have a web site a unique domain name must be registered with the international registration authority, who, in the UK, charge a current registration fee of £25 p.a.

".com" typically refers to a U.S. company, whereas ".co.uk" is used for UK based companies. A ".com" domain name registration will carry a registration fee of £35 p.a.

You can register both ".com" and ".co.uk" and have either access the same web site. This is known as "Web forwarding".

Other extensions have specific meaning just a few of which are detailed below:

.net Internet Service Provider
.org Non-profit making organization
.gov Government
.de German registered site
.fr French registered site
.ac.uk UK academic site

We can conduct a search to see if your preferred name is available and register the name for you. That Domain Name then becomes your property, and no-one else can use it. However, even though you have registered XYZ.co.uk, this will not prevent someone else from registering XYZ.com or XYZ.de

The "www" is the name of the web server. It could just as well be called "fred" or "bill", but "www" has become the de-facto standard.

The simpler your web address, the easier it will be to remember.

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