There are 2 things you need in order to launch a website. The first one is a domains that will show your online portal when you write it in a browser, and the second one is a web site hosting account, which is principally the data storage space on a web server where the site files will be placed, plus several more features that come with it. The domain and the web hosting account are 2 similar, yet separate solutions, and you require them both in order to have a functioning website.
A domain name is the alpha-numeric name that you will pick to be the address for the web site: my-best-domain.com, for instance. A domain name can be up to 64 characters long and it is made of two components - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a second-level domain name (SLD). In the abovementioned example, my-best-domain is the second-level domain name, and .com is the Top-Level Domain. While you can choose the second-level domain name of the domain to be anything that has not been registered yet, there is a finite number of TLDs to select from. The Top-Level Domains can be generic (gTLDs) or country-code (ccTLDs), and can be registered for a given period of time between one and 10 years. They may involve more prerequisites about the registrant.
As the domain name is just a hostname and nothing more than that, you require a web page hosting plan where you have to accommodate it. Thus, when you type it in a web browser, it will show the web content that you have in the account, i.e. it will exhibit your website. You can have a domain name registered with a particular provider and get the hosting services from another, although numerous web hosts offer both solutions and it is more convenient to manage everything from one hosting CP user interface. Either way, because the domain name registration and the site hosting package are separate services, you have to point the domain to the server where it will be added as hosted. To accomplish that, you have to alter a specific setting, or record, of the domain name - the commonly named name servers. Each hosting firm has at least 2 nameservers - ns1.webhostingfirm.net and ns2. webhostingfirm.net, for example. The hosting CP that you use for your domain offers you the chance to modify the nameservers and point the domain name to one hosting corporation or another.
Once the domain is pointed to a specific domain hosting distributor and is added to their web servers, you will obtain different web services. The most vital one is that the web site files that you have on the hosting server will now be displayed when you write your domain in a browser. You will also be able to create e-mail address accounts like name@my-best-domain.com and make use of webmail or an e-mail client to manage them. Whether you manage a personal or a business website, being online and being allowed to create e-mail addresses with your domain are the two most fundamental things that you receive with a web site hosting plan. If you own a corporate web portal - it will identify your business before your website visitors or clients. For that reason you require a stable hosting provider that will furnish a fast and steady web hosting solution.
Extra online services that you get by hosting a domain name include: File Transfer Protocol access to upload and download files easily, domain name forwarding, email auto-responders and electronic mailing lists, and the option to create and edit given domain records from your website hosting CP. The presence of these features may vary based on the web hosting company, but reliable web hosting vendors such as 'NTC Hosting', for instance, provide all of the abovementioned functionalities with their site hosting packages, outshining their rivals.