With the phenomenal growth of the Internet, information access and other communication has been made a simple thing. How information stored in the online world? They are interlinked to form a huge web thus World Wide Web. The way we access this information is by giving particular location or address to our software or in simpler terms, transport. The last part of this address is the domain that has been assigned to that particular section of information or web site.

So what exactly is a domain? A name that is entered into a computer (e.g. as part of a Web site or other URL, or an e-mail address) and then looked up in the global Domain Name System, which informs the computer of the IP address (The exact coded location of the information on the net) with that name.

Every domain name ends in a top-level domain (TLD) name, which is always either one of a small list of generic names three or more characters, (com, net and org) or a two characters territory code (ca) based on ISO-3166 (there are few exceptions and new codes are integrated case by case). We need to understand that although the I CAN or Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has the overall management of all the domains. Governments of each country manage all of the domains in each.

Why is it important? Without a domain like dot com, dot net and dot info it is impossible to own web sites and e-mail accounts. People need to purchase and reserve their domain names before they are taken. For example, if you wanted a site who's address was world.com then you would have to register and reserve that address before some one else took it. When you are reserving the address, remember that you are only reserving the first part. That is world. The last few letters like com net and info are owned by every one as they are assigned by the I CAN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).

Now that you understand domains, let us look at on how to own one? Earlier, domains were expensive. They still are from some sites. However if you buy wisely, then you can save some big bucks.

First decide if you need a hosting package with your site. If you do so, buying everything together might be a good deal. Look for a good web host provider with all the features you want at a good price. I recommend squarebrothers.com. They are cheep and affordable. They offer a nice package of 25 mb of space and domain for $15 per year.

Now if you just want a domain and want to point it at a free web space provider like fsphost.com and c topcities.com, then you can choose adimeadozen.com or active-domains.com. They offer good rates and reliable features.