domain name basics

Domain name services are the separate services that attach to a registered domain and make it useful: the registration itself, DNS hosting, email, privacy protection, SSL/TLS certificates, and forwarding, along with security settings such as locks and DNSSEC. Each service can come from a different provider. A registrar may sell all of them in one

Registering a domain name takes a few minutes at any registrar, but four decisions made during registration determine whether the domain stays under your control for years: whose name goes in the registrant details, whose account holds the domain, how long the registration term runs and how it renews, and which security settings are switched

Domain names and top-level domains are two levels of one addressing system. A domain name such as www.example.com is a string of labels separated by dots, and each label is a step down a hierarchy that starts at an unnamed root, passes through a top-level domain such as .com, and ends at the name of

To protect your domain name, you need to control three things: the registrar account where the domain is registered, the email address that account uses, and the renewal date. If an outsider gains the first two, they can take the domain; if you miss the third, the domain can lapse and be registered by someone

To transfer a domain name to a new registrar, confirm the domain is eligible to move, copy its DNS settings, make sure the contact email on the registration is one you can read, unlock the domain at your current registrar, and request its authorization code. Then start the transfer at the new registrar, enter the

The fastest way to learn domain names is to take the subject in the order a domain actually lives: first what a domain name is, then how its parts and the companies behind it fit together, then how it is registered and owned, how it is pointed at a website and email, and finally how