Each website must have a unique domain name (e.g. salemdesign.com) and this name must be registered in order for it to be found by web browser over the Internet.

There is a master register (essentially an index) which contains the name, who owns that name, and the numerical IP address of the server (a computer) on which it resides. Copies of this master register are kept on hundreds of other servers (called domain name servers or DNS) around the world. It can take up to 72 hours for a new registration (or changes in an existing one) to propagate to all the DNS servers. In general, your local DNS servers are maintained by your ISP (Internet Service Provider). For example, we connect to the internet using Verizon DSL, so all our machines (and browsers) look to the Verizon DNS servers to find a target website.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 7th, 2006 at 2:22 am and is filed under FAQ, domain registration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.