Domain Names

Domain names are digital addresses. I already owned the domain name ChurchFreeWeb.co.uk, which I used some years back for a podcast series to help churches create a website using free hosting and WordPress. How does a domain name work? Like a lot that’s in the digital domain, the answer can be simple or it can be very, very complicated. I’m going to aim somewhere in the middle and break it down into the most common components: the Domain, the Registrar, the Name Server and the Services.

Domain

Not to get too technical here, let’s break down ChurchFreeWeb.co.uk into its components.

• ChurchFreeWeb.co.uk
  • UK is the Top Level Domain or TLD, which is administered by Nominet
• ChurchFreeWeb.co.uk
  • Many .co.uk sites are commercial, but it’s become a kind of default for UK domain names
• ChurchFreeWeb.co.uk
  • This is the part that I pay for and control directly (and note that upper and lower case don’t matter here, you can type in ChuRchFrEEweb.CO.Uk and still end up in the right place automatically)
• www.churchfreeweb.co.uk
  • Back in the day, www (World Wide Web) was commonly added to the front of addresses for the website

Registrar

Domain authorities (like Nominet) often delegate registration to third parties, and for UK domain names there are lots of choices. A zillion years ago I signed up for a basic domain name registration and hosting service from a company called 1&1, which is now Ionos. That’s where the churchfreeweb.co.uk domain name is registered, but all I am using that company for on this occasion is to specify another name server, which is what your web browser uses to work out how to find the website.

Name Server

Domain names need to be translated into structured addresses that keep everything ticking over nicely. Invisibly (almost), the Domain Name System (DNS) translates between what’s easy for people (names) and what’s easy for computers (numbers).

I’m using Guru for the name server as well as the host. So when you visit churchfreeweb.co.uk for the first time, your device looks for the registrar and finds Ionos, then it finds the Guru name servers, then it looks up the digital address of the website, and it stores that locally so that next time it doesn’t have to go through that whole long process all over again, just go straight to the server that looks after the website by its digital address. That’s called caching, and it’s something that happens at lots of levels between your device, your home or office or mobile network, and eventually

Of course, any or all of these details can change, so from time to time your device (and all the others in the chain) will look again, just in case something has changed. Usually it’s no big deal and you won’t even notice. But when I made this new website, I had to go through a few steps to make sure my various devices found the new website and location, and the whole process lasted several days. (Actually, at time of writing, there’s still some way to go before search engines will find the new site. There’s some work for me to do to make this happen, and I’ll write it up at some point!)

Services

So far I’ve only referred to a domain name as a place for a website. But that’s only one of the possible services. Name servers typically hold a whole directory of records, covering websites, email services, other services provided by the web host such as file storage, informational notes and a whole lot more.

Buyer, beware!

Everyone in the world wants to be your domain name registrar, often because that’s a way to upsell you lots of stuff you don’t really need (or could get for free somewhere else), or to lock you in to services you do need but might be better off sourcing elsewhere.

Churches often get in trouble because it’s all a bit chaotic, and very often there’s one person who’s in control, and they have maybe left the church.

For my church, we use an online Church Management System for our website, rotas, member communication, formal record-keeping and a whole lot more. So it made sense for us to transfer our domain registration to that provider, so that as long as we’re their customer, they can support us for most of our digital services.

For personal projects, I have a few domain names registered with different providers, and one of these days I’ll put them together (and dispose of spares). On balance, I think I’d recommend Ionos as a decent choice for domain registration, but I’ve long since fallen away from wanting to use their various hosting services. It’s generally straightforward to change providers, but they often make it seem super complicated and risky. It’s been that way for years, and I don’t see the situation changing any time soon. So, when hunting for domain services, be very careful that you know the costs, and don’t be afraid to separate the registration from the name and hosting services, because the Internet has been designed around making that not just possible but often the best way to get the very best service.

Geeky Note

There are lots of ways to explore domain names and all the rest. A good starting point is the lookup service from ICANN, the non-profit that oversees some of the most important parts of what makes the Internet a viable global network. You’ll find this service at lookup.icann.org, which will show you the registrar, name servers, registered owner and many other details about any domain names including this one.

You can go deep into DNS records. Some of the most important are: