Domain Registration FAQ

A domain represents you on the Internet. Even if you have just a small group right now, you need to think BIG. You may not have "a name" at the moment, but by the time you do, the domain you need to register so you can build a website might not be available.

Therefore: yes, you do. If you think you, your cause or your group have a future, you need a domain.

The long and short of it is, a domain name is the human-friendly way of spelling out your website address on the web. Instead of something like 12.435.46.789 you get to be, say, YOURDOMAIN.com. Much easier to remember, right? And Domain Name Servers do the heavy lifting for you in the background.

This is the part when people feel they need an IT degree. The good news is: you don't. Please refer to the instructions in this PDF. You point your domain to your hosting by entering what is known as your host's "Domain Name Servers" into a specific place where you registered the domain. After a little lag, you can type in your domain and you will be directed to your new home on the web. If there is no website, you will see nothing, of course.

You can point the domain anywhere you want this way. If you want to switch hosts, just change this information out.

That is not really how it works. To POINT your domain, you need to have web hosting and know your domain host's Domain Name Server information. Otherwise you have to FORWARD your domain.

You will need to POINT your domain to your web host after obtaining web hosting, and for this you need to know your domain host's Domain Name Server information. The unused domain names you will simply FORWARD to that main domain.

Since the end result can look the same, we totally empathize. It really has to do with what the servers do when you type in a website address on the web. Think of it this way: if you have a physical space for your website somewhere, at least one of your domains gets to be pointed there. The others will be forwarded, because you really only need one web presence. If you want to geek out over the difference between the one and the other, you may do that here.

Everybody gets the two confused all the time. As we said, a DOMAIN is your marker on the map that is the world wide web. URL stands for "Universal Resource Locator", which is the address any web PAGE gets/has on the Internet. In other words, the URL is the whole string of, say, "https://techresources.shoestringcollective.com/aboutus/" where the DOMAIN would simply be "techresources.shoestringcollective.com". Which is to say, without a proper domain, this URL would not look like that. The two are related, but not the same.