Here are some common terms you may encounter when managing an Internet domain name. Click a term below to jump to the description of the term and its practical use with your Google service. See also DNS basics for terms related to the Domain Name System that manages the relationship between IP addresses and domains. A domain name (often simply called a domain) is an easy-to-remember name that’s associated with a physical IP address on the Internet. It’s the unique name that appears after the @ sign in email addresses, and after www. in web addresses. For instance, the domain name example.com might translate to the physical address 198.102.434.8. Other examples of domain names are google.com and wikipedia.org. Using a domain name to identify a location on the Internet rather than the numeric IP address makes it much easier to remember and type web addresses. Show Anyone can purchase a domain name. You just go to a domain host or registrar, find a name no one else is using, and pay a small annual fee to own it. When you sign up for Google Cloud services, you supply the domain name you want to use with your services. It must be a domain you own (or we'll help you purchase one) and we’ll ask you to verify ownership. To learn more, see Add and manage domains. ↑ back to top SubdomainA subdomain is a domain that's part of a larger domain. For example, mail.google.com, www.google.com, and docs.google.com are all subdomains of the domain google.com. Domain owners can create subdomains to provide easy-to-remember addresses for web pages or services within their top-level domain. ↑ back to top Naked domainA naked domain is simply a domain address without the "www" prefix, such as google.com (naked) instead of www.google.com (non-naked). See also Enable your "naked" domain address. ↑ back to top Primary domainWith Google Cloud services, your primary domain is the domain you used to sign up for your enterprise account. You can add other domains to your account later. For details, see Choosing your primary domain. ↑ back to top Secondary domainIn addition to your primary domain, you can add additional domains to your account to let users in those domains use your services, too. When you add a domain that has its own users, we refer to it as a secondary domain. For details, see Add multiple domains or domain aliases. Important: A secondary domain is fully dependent on the primary domain. Deletion or suspension of the primary domain also applies to secondary domains. For more information, see Remove a domain or domain alias. ↑ back to top Domain aliasA domain alias is a domain name that acts as an alias for another domain. You can add a domain to your account as a domain alias to give everyone in your domain another email address at the domain alias. Mail sent to either of a user's addresses arrives at the user's same email inbox. For details, see Add multiple domains or domain aliases. ↑ back to top IP addressAn Internet Protocol (IP) address is a series of numbers that identifies the physical location of a particular device on the Internet network. An IP address looks something like this: 74.125.19.147 Since a domain name can have one or more associated IP addresses, Google doesn't support email and web publishing configurations using IP addresses alone. ↑ back to top Domain registrarA domain registrar is a company that sells domain names that aren't yet owned and are therefore available for registration. Most of these companies also offer domain hosting. You can register a domain through Google Domains (beta) and we also offer registration through domain host partners. You can purchase a domain name through a partner when you sign up for a Google Cloud account. If you purchase a domain while signing up for Google Workspace, we automatically activate Gmail for the domain and create custom web addresses. If you sign up with a domain name you already own, you'll need to do these things yourself by changing DNS records at your domain host.↑ back to top Domain hostA domain host is a company that runs the DNS servers for your domain and manages its DNS records. These include MX records for setting up Gmail (if you're using Google Workspace), CNAME records for creating web addresses, and more. Most domain hosts offer domain name registration, as well. To modify your domain's DNS records, you must sign in to your domain's account at your domain host. If your domain host is Google Domains, you can manage your DNS records at domains.google.com. If you're not sure who your host is, see Identify your domain host. ↑ back to top Name serverA name server serves as a reference point for your domain’s DNS data and is typically maintained by a domain host company. When a name server fails, your mail delivery may be delayed or your web site unavailable, so you should have at least two physically separated name servers to eliminate a single point of failure. Some countries require that name servers reside on different IP networks for reliability. Each name server must return identical records for your domain. The order in which your records are returned doesn’t matter. ↑ back to top WHOIS directoryThe WHOIS directory is a public listing of domain names, and the people or organizations associated with each name. As a privacy measure, some domain name owners prefer to have their personal information hidden from the WHOIS directory, just as you might want your personal telephone number to be unlisted in a local telephone book. You can use the WHOIS directory to determine the owner of domain names and IP addresses. There are many free web-based directories available on the Internet. The information provided in the WHOIS directory includes a mailing address and a telephone number. ↑ back to top Generally, first-time users often don’t understand the terms like domain names, universal resource locators (URLs), and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. This confusion is natural. This topic is important because many people confuse the terms IP address and Domain Name. Before going ahead, it is essential to know that these are two separate terms. The difference between them is worth learning as these terms are in use at a frequent rate. Further, it becomes important to know the difference if you are planning to host your website or going to do a hosting business. You need to communicate with technicians and therefore, you must know the technical jargon. These addressing terms are quite similar to the physical addressing system we use to go to places. The way we use maps to search for physical locations, similarly we look up for the websites. A URL is like an exact street address of a website and its IP address is like a vehicle traveling to that address. Let’s start with the definition of Domain Name - Well, a domain name is nothing but a textual version of the IP address, this is the number which points to a specific website. You can also visit a website by entering the IP address in a specific sequence and you would get a brief idea about a domain name. For humans, it is suitable to remember the name (domain name) of a website than remembering a multiple-digit IP address. In addition, your website also gets your desired brand name if you succeed to get your desired domain name. So from a technical point of view, your website is identified by systems with its IP address and the domain name is just for the suitability of human beings. Let’s refer to this definition of domain name provided by ‘Wikipedia’ — “A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control on the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System (DNS).” One can purchase these domain names from domain name providers but these days Web Hosting Services providers also provide you the domain name at a cheap cost. This also helps you to save your time and effort, while you go separately for buying domain names. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is the corporation which manages the development and architecture of Internet domain name space. Authorization to domain registrars is also provided by the same corporation. Definition of IP address - You might not be knowing what an IP address is and for what it is used but many people aren’t aware of it. A short and sweet definition can be — it is an address in the network so that the Internet or the sender can know where to send you any stuff like emails, documents, photos, and videos. You can check your IP address by searching on Google as — “What is My IP address?”, and it will display yours. IP address holds much of an importance in our lives. Check out, why? It allows one device to connect to other through the internet and a protocol named IP (Internet Protocol, version 4 and 6; IPv4 ran out of addresses after an approximate count of 4.3 billion and therefore IPv6 came into the picture providing theoretically a never-ending count of addresses). The term ‘protocol’ means a standard set of rules or guidelines. Trillions of digital devices are having their own IP address and they are individual for the same reason as we have our own addresses. There is no location or exact address which is completely similar to another one. Concluding the relationship between IP address and domain name, I can say the following- If you want to host your site or blog, then you have to host your website with the help of a cloud service provider. He would provide you with a domain name with the extension of your choice, but if it is not already taken. Finally, you can put your site on the server through which people could easily recognize your business. So, to further communicate with any site, which is hosted on a server (a machine) will have its own IP address. Besides that, every cell phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, and any device that could be connected with internet, will have its unique IP address. Without an IP address, we won’t be able to communicate with each other. |