Some basic concepts -
Web Sites, Domain Names, Email
There are generally 4 things associated with a website.
- The domain name registration
- The domain name
maintenance
- The web server hosting
- Possible email hosting
In many cases 2-4 are done by the same organization but that
is not always the case.
A domain name must be registered with one of the few dozen official
registrars. Besides these official registrars, there are hundreds
of companies that serve as the distribution channel (or resellers)
of domain registration services. You pay the registrar (or the
reseller) a fee per year to maintain ownership of the domain. That
registration includes specifying who does the DNS management for
that domain name (this is done by specifying the name of the DNS
servers of the maintainer). (More
detail on domain registration and name servers)
The DNS maintenance is done by anybody that has a DNS server.
The DNS maintainer (also called the DNS hoster) sets up the tables
needed to direct requests for various systems in the domain to
the correct IP address. For the minimum scenario above, this would
include definitions for the web server (typically named www) and
the mail server for the domain.
The web site is hosted on a web server. The IP address of the
web site must be setup by the DNS maintainer so requests get to
the right site.
The email hoster is anyone who maintains an email server. The
IP address of the email server must be setup by the DNS maintainer
to point to the correct mail server. The mail server must be set
up to recognize the individual mailboxes in that domain and to
process them correctly.
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