what is a domain name?

Question

what is a domain name & why do u need one thx.........

also how much do this cost.

Answer 1

Imagine that everybody in the world used their Social Security number or their telephone number instead of their name... If names didn't exist, you'd be forced to invent them, or you'd never be able to identify your closest friends, let alone casual acquaintances you'd met only a couple of times!

Domain names were invented to fill a similar need on the Internet. Most computers connected to the Internet are identified by a unique number called an IP address (for instance, 234.208.12.129). IP addresses are neither intuitive (they don't correspond to a geographical location) nor easy to remember (you can prove that by glancing away from this page and then trying to quote the example IP address above!)

If you type the IP address into the URL bar of your browser you will be taken to the web site it relates to. As well as being hard to remember, however, IP addresses are also FIXED (i.e. if you change web hosting companies you'll need to get a new IP address for your site).

Domain names offer a more intuitive way to name and find a website. Each domain name replaces a string of meaningless numbers (an IP address) with a simple word or expression. That's the theory - in practice, domain names can be pretty obscure too.

The Structure of a Domain Name
Let's look in more detail at a domain name, using this site's domain name as an example. This site's domain name is igoldrush.com - you can check this easily by looking at in the URL or location bar of your browser.

.com is the top domain under which my domain name is registered. There are heaps of different top domains out there, from commercial (.com) through to non-profit (.org) and even country-specific top domains such as France (.fr) and Italy (.it). Every domain name is registered under a top domain of some kind. The top domain is often known as the domain extension - these are the same thing, so don't get mixed up!

Answer 2

A domain name is basically a website. For example, Yahoo's domain is www.yahoo.com. The cost depends upon what you want to do with it. You can REGISTER a domain for less than $10 per year (Yahoo, Godaddy, etc.). It will cost at least $10 per month to HOST a simple domain (if you really do want to create a web page). For complex domains (say one with 50 email addresses, the ability to take orders, extra storage space, etc.), it't not unusual to pay $100 per month for hosting.

Why do you need one? If you want an online presence or business of any time, you need a domain.