There are 2 entities you require so as to have a web page. The first one is a domain name that will exhibit your web site when you write it in a web browser, and the second one is a web site hosting account, which is inherently the data storage space on a server where the website files will be located, plus several more services that it is offering. The domain name and the hosting account are two linked, yet different services, and you demand them both so as to have a working web portal.
A domain name is the alpha-numeric combination that you will select to be the web address for the website: my-best-domain.com, for instance. A domain can be up to 64 symbols long and it involves two parts – a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a second-level domain name (SLD). In the abovementioned instance, my-best-domain is the second-level domain name, and .com is the top-level domain name. While you can pick the second-level domain name of the domain name to be anything that is open for registration, there is a fixed number of TLDs to pick from. The Top-Level Domains can be generic (gTLDs) or country-code (ccTLDs), and can be registered for a given period of time between 1 and ten yrs. They may contain other stipulations in regard to the registrant.
As the domain name is just a hostname and nothing more than that, you require a web site hosting account where you have to add it. In this way, when you type it in a browser, it will show the site files that you host in the account, i.e. it will open your web site. You can have a domain name registered with a particular registrar and obtain the hosting service from another, although a lot of web hosts offer both solutions and it is more user-friendly to administer all services from one web hosting CP interface. Either way, since the domain registration and the web hosting package are different services, you have to point the domain to the web server where it will be added as hosted. To perform that, you have to change a particular setting, or record, of the domain name - the commonly named nameservers. Each web hosting company has at least 2 name servers - ns1.webhostingfirm.net and ns2. webhostingfirm.net, for example. The site hosting CP that you use for your domain name offers you the option to change the name servers and point the domain name to one web host or another.
As soon as the domain is pointed to a given domain hosting service provider and is added to their web hosting servers, you will get different online services. The most crucial one is that the web site files that you accommodate on the server will now be shown when you write your domain in a web browser. You will also be able to create email mailboxes such as name@my-best-domain.com and make use of webmail or an e-mail client to manage them. Whether you administer a personal or a corporate online portal, being online and being able to set up mailboxes with your domain name are the two most essential options that come with a hosting account. In case you run a corporate web portal – it will single out your business before your website visitors or customers. For this reason you need a stable hosting corporation that will furnish a fast and steady web hosting solution.
Other online services that you receive by hosting a domain name include: File Transfer Protocol access to upload and download files easily, domain name forwarding, email auto-responders and mailing lists, and the option to create and configure certain domain name records from your hosting CP. The presence of these services may differ based on the hosting firm, but reliable web hosting vendors such as 'NTC HOSTING', for example, furnish all of the aforementioned functionalities with their hosting plans, outstripping their competitors.