How we access the website.

When you type a domain name into your browser, your computer sends a request to a Domain Name System (DNS) server which translates that human-readable name into an IP address, allowing your browser to connect to the correct server and retrieve the website content associated with that domain name essentially, it acts like an address book for the internet, finding the location of a website based on its name

What is a domain name? A beginner’s guide

A domain name is the site address you enter in your browser to reach a specific webpage.

It generally combines the website or business name with a domain extension, like .com or .org, resulting in addresses like youtube.com or wikipedia.org.

If you’re planning to create a website in the near future, registering a custom domain brings plenty of benefits:

Memorability. The only way to access your website without a domain name is through its IP address, which is harder to remember.
Credibility. Websites with custom domains look more trustworthy than those using a free subdomain, such as sitename.wordpress.com. You can also create a professional email address with your desired domain name, like info@yourbrand.com.
Branding. A domain name is part of your overall branding identity and is just as important as your logo and web design.

Keep reading to learn more about domain names, how they work, and how to choose the right one for your website.

How does a domain name work?

Two elements make a website accessible to internet users — web hosting and a domain name.

In essence, a web hosting server houses all your website’s files, such as text, images, and videos. Meanwhile, a domain name makes it simple for users to access all that content.

Structure of a domain name

A domain name can be divided into three main elements based on its structure—the top, second, and third level or subdomain.

Top-level domain

A top-level domain (TLD) is the final part of a web address. For example, the TLD for hostinger.com is .com.

Depending on the use cases and registration requirements, there are three types of TLDs.

Generic top-level domain (gTLD)

As the name suggests, generic top-level domains are used for general purposes. So, anyone can register for these extensions without any restrictions.

You might be familiar with some of the most popular generic TLDs:

.com – initially created for commercial sites, it’s now the most popular TLD, with almost half of all websites using it.
.net – a great alternative to .com, this TLD is suitable for businesses in any sector.
.org – unlike the other two, .org is more geared toward non-profit organizations. It’s the second most popular TLD after .com.

Industry-specific TLDs such as .travel, .shop, and .tech have also been gaining popularity in recent years.

Since these extensions are still relatively new, you have a higher chance of securing your preferred name than more established TLDs like .com.

Potential customers will instantly know what your site offers, even if they’ve never heard of your brand before.

Country-code top-level domain (ccTLD)

A ccTLD represents a particular country or region. It consists of two letters based on the international country codes.

To illustrate, sites from India often use the .in domain extension, whereas UK-based websites usually register .uk. Some websites from the United Kingdom use the .co.uk domain extension, where .co represents “commercial.” It’s often chosen by businesses and companies in the UK, similar to how .com is used in other countries.

ccTLDs are perfect for businesses and organizations looking to target the local market. Global companies can also use ccTLDs to establish presence across different regions.

For instance, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) uses bbc.co.uk as their UK domain and bbc.com for the international audience.

Here are some ccTLDs you can register with Hostinger:

.us → United States
.mx → Mexico
.se → Sweden
.de → Germany
.it → Italy

Keep in mind that some ccTLDs have geographical restrictions. For example, only permanent residents and foreign companies with a bonafide presence in the US can register a .us domain.

That’s why you need to check the requirements policy of each ccTLD before buying one.

If you’re unsure which country-code extension you should register, the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) database can help you find the correct one.

Second-level domain

A second-level domain (SLD) is located just before the extension. In www.hostinger.com, for example, “hostinger” is the SLD.

This is the only customizable part of the domain and often the most memorable. For branding purposes, businesses should use their brand name as the SLD.

But what if my desired domain name is already registered? In that case, you can search for the domain’s owner and offer to purchase the existing web address.

An online tool like ICANN Lookup helps you check who owns a particular domain name. However, many domain owners wish to hide their personal information for privacy concerns.

In such cases, you can request the domain registrar to provide the contact information of the domain name owner.

If the owner isn’t interested in selling the domain or the price exceeds your budget, you should register your domain name with a different TLD.

Third-level domain

A third-level domain, better known as a subdomain, refers to the part that comes before the main domain. The www part in most URLs is technically a subdomain, suggesting that a website is part of the World Wide Web.

These days, www isn’t needed anymore. Most websites work just fine without it, and a lot of them just redirect it to the main domain, like example.com, to keep things simple. With so many people browsing on their phones and using apps, www has become even less necessary.

However, some websites also have additional subdomains besides www to organize content. For example, Google uses developers.google.com to provide information specifically for developers.

A subdomain is also useful for localization. Wikipedia has subdomains for different languages—en.wikipedia.org for the English version and de.wikipedia.org for German-speaking users, among other versions.

Here are other common subdomain examples for a business website:

blog.yourwebsite.com – for your blog section, which may cover company updates and customer stories.
news.yourwebsite.com – for the company’s latest news.
resources.yourwebsite.com – for case studies, white papers, or eBooks.
support.yourwebsite.com – for customer support, documentation, FAQs, and contact information.

What is a domain name extension?

A domain extension is just another name for a top-level domain. They both refer to the last section of a web address, like .com.

Be very careful when choosing a domain extension, as it can affect your website’s long-term success. Why? Because certain TLDs have the power to influence how people perceive your website.

For example, .edu is usually linked to well-known educational institutions, while .tech can give your brand a modern and innovative feel.

Moreover, selecting the right domain extension helps you attract the right audience. Most people who go to sites with a .shop or .store ending want to buy products, the same way .travel site visitors are looking to go on vacation.

If you want to target a specific country, using its official ccTLD can also encourage clicks from the local residents.

Let’s say your consumers are mainly from Poland. By choosing the .pl extension, locals will likely expect your site to have content in Polish and accept Polish złoty for payments, increasing the chances they’ll visit.

When deciding on a domain extension for your project, consider the following factors:

Website purpose. Are you looking to sell products online? Or do you want to educate people with high-quality blogs?
Target audience. Are you targeting the local market or people from all around the globe?
Domain availability. Make sure the desired extension is available for your chosen domain name.

You can use our domain name checker to explore different domain extensions.

Domain Name Checker

Instantly check domain name availability.

Simply enter your preferred web address in the relevant field above. If the name is already taken, the tool will give you plenty of TLD ideas to consider.

Domain name vs. URL

Domain names and URLs are often used interchangeably, but they have different meanings.

A Universal Resource Locator (URL) is a complete web address that directs users to a specific web page. A domain name is part of a URL.

Typically, URLs consist of these elements:

Protocol – can be HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) or HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure). It lets visitors know whether a site is secured with an SSL certificate.
Domain – usually consists of a second-level domain and a domain extension.
Path – appears only when directing visitors to a specific page within a website.

How DNS looks up websites

We access websites via domains since it's so easy to read and remember, but the computer only understand address when it is an IP address. So that, a browser requires some extra steps to translate from domain to IP address so that the computer can understand.

When a user opens the browser, enter https://some-domain.com and press enter, the request is routed to a DNS resolver.

First, a DNS resolver will search locally. Every computer has a temporary cache with the most recent DNS requests and attempts to connect to online sources.
After searching locally without a matching result, the request goes futher to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and its DNS server.
The resolver queries one of the root DNS servers for the IP. These root servers hold the locations of all of the top level domain (TLD) such as .com, .de, .io,... it returns the location of the .com servers.
Next the resolver queries one of the .com name servers for the location of some-domain.com. The .com gTLD(generic TLD) server responds with a list of all of some-domain.com NS records. In this case we proposed some-domain.com has two name servers, ns1.some-domain.com and ns2.some-domain.com.
Finally, the DNS resolver queries one of some-domain.com’s name server for the IP. This time the queried Name Server knows the IPs and responds with an A or AAAA address record for IPv4 and IPv6.
The resolver has finished the recursion process and respond to the operating system with an IP address.

Browser initiates TCP connection with web servers

After a DNS lookup, the browser will establish a connection with the server. TCP is a common protocol used for such connection. A server must be listening to a port already, such as 80 or 443 (for https) for preparing to handle TCP connection from clients. To start a TCP connection, it uses three-way handshake process.

The TCP connection is initiated and we can start transmitting data now. But the website https://some-domain.com has HTTPS, we have one more step to do, which is to ensure the data is transmitted securely by encryption. That is TLS.

Transport Layer Security (TLS) encrypts data sent over the Internet to ensure that eavesdroppers and hackers are unable to see what you transmit which is particularly useful for private and sensitive information such as passwords, credit card numbers, and personal correspondence. But we don't explain what is TLS and how TLS in this post.

Request and response

Now that the browser has a connection to the server, it starts with the browser sending an HTTP request to the server to request the contents of the page. Once the server received the request from the client, it processes it and sends back a response. So what the server does is to send back content for the browser to display.

First, browser will send request to get a HTML file. Server will response with body data of HTML.
After get HTML, browser will parse it to the DOM with HTML Tags.
When the parser comes across an external resource like a CSS or JS file, it will continue to fetch those files. Parser will continue as a CSS file is being loaded, although it will block the rendering until it has been loaded. But with JS file, there are two attributes that can be added to script tags to mitigate this: defer and async. Both allow the parser to continue while the JavaScript file is loaded in the background, but they operate differently in the way that they execute. defer means that the execution of the file will be delayed until the parsing of the document is complete. async means that the file will be executed as soon as it loads.

After a wall of text in above, let's wrap things up:

User types a URL into the browser and press Enter
Browser looks up IP address from the domain
Browser initiates TCP connection with the web server
Web server accepts request connection from browser
Browser sends HTTP request to web server
Server processes request and sends back a response (static file)
Browser renders the content

THE PROCESS

When accessing a website, a user types a URL into their web browser, which then looks up the corresponding IP address, establishes a connection with the web server, sends an HTTP request to retrieve the website data, and finally displays the content on the user's screen after the server sends back the response; essentially, it's a process of translating a domain name into an IP address and requesting information from that server to render the website on the browser.

DNS servers convert URLs and domain names into IP addresses that computers can understand and use. They translate what a user types into a browser into something the machine can use to find a webpage. This process of translation and lookup is called DNS resolution.

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