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

Why should I register a domain name?

Your domain name is your identity on the Internet. If you want people to find you on the Internet, either to access your website, or to send you email, you should consider having a memorable domain name to help them find your location. For example www.allans.org is better than website.lineone,net/~terry_allan if it refers to the Allan family website. The name could thus be your family name or your business name. Associated with that will be the possibility of having meaningful email addresses for you and your family. For example terry@allans.org is an improvement on terry_allan@allans.fsbusiness.co.uk or something similar (and we all know people who have email addresses like that).

If you use an Internet service provider (ISP) like Lineone and you have an email address terry_allan@lineone.net and you change your ISP to FreeNetname you will probably end up with a new email address like terryallan@freenetname.co.uk. If you change ISPs regularly as pricing structures or other factors change then you will just have to accept this annoyance. Just imagine the inconvenience of changing your telephone number annually. To overcome this buy a domain name and get an associated email address - eg terry@allans.org. When you change your ISP redirect your email to your new ISP but use the same email address ie terry@allans.org. More about this later.

Similarly you can have your own personal website hosted on different computers every few months without anyone knowing that you have changed the location of the website because the URL remains the same ie http://www.allans.org. More about this later.