Websites and Domains

What is a Domain?

Every website has an associated domain name. Think of a domain name as the location, or address, of your website. Just like your home’s postal address, a domain name is a human readable mechanism of how to find your website.

Examples of domain names are:

• google.com
• microsoft.com
• nhtaxhelp.org

Top-level Domains

Did you ever wonder what that trailing .com, or .org, means?

They are what is called a top-level domain (TLD). You can learn more than you ever wanted to know about TLDs here.

But here’s an overview:

• Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) include:
  • .com – originally for commercial organizations, but now unrestricted.
  • .org – originally for organizations not clearly falling within other generic top-level domains, but now unrestricted. Often used by non-profit organizations.
  • .net – originally for network infrastructures, but now unrestricted.
  • .edu – originally for educational organizations, but now primarily for third-level colleges and universities
  • .gov – originally for governmental use, but now primarily used by US governmental entities and agencies. (for example: www.whitehouse.gov)
  • .mil – originally for military use, but now primarily for US military only.
  • more generic top-level domains have since been added, such as .info .
• Country-code top-level domains:
  • Examples are .uk (United Kingdom), .mx (Mexico), .ca (Canada), .cn (China) and many others.
  • Here’s a complete list.
• There are others, but that should be all you need to know for current purposes.

Here’s a video that explains the concept of domain names:

Finding Your Website on the Web

In order for you and others to find your website, you need to associate a domain name with that website.

Typically, you can obtain a domain name from your hosting provider, which is usually the simplest way. Alternatively, you can obtain a domain from a Domain Registrar. Obtaining a domain typically costs money, although hosting providers often allow you to obtain a domain name for free, as a benefit of using that hosting provider.

Fortunately, we already have our domain name, nhtaxhelp.org, so we don’t need to obtain another domain.