A Basic Introduction to a Range of Internet Related Concepts and Terms

What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is a human-friendly translation of a TCP/IP network address and so instead of remembering an IP number you can just type in words like www.abdn.ac.uk. Your domain name is your address or your 'postcode on the Internet'. It is a way of uniquely identifying your website. It could be your company name as in www.allansonline.com or it could be a descriptive domain name such as www.aberdeentabletennis.org.uk.

A domain name can be no longer than 71 characters, including the four characters used to identify the TLD (.com, .org, .net).

The only valid characters for a domain name are letters, numbers and a hyphen. Domain names cannot contain spaces.