It’s common for anyone venturing into having their own online blog, eShop or Corporate Web Presence to be confused between a domain name with web hosting. However, it’s very important for you to be clear on the difference before you move forward in hosting your very first website.

So What is a Domain Name ?

A domain name, is like the address of your home; web hosting on the other hand, is the space of your house where you place your furniture.

Instead of street name and area code, set of words or/and numbers are used for the website’s naming’. The same goes with hosting, computer hard disk and computer memory are used instead of instead of wood and steel for storing as well as processing data files.

Definitions

Domain Name

When you register a domain, it gives you sole ownership and rights to the name of your site. No one else in the market has the access to the actual name of that particular domain besides you. (Keep in mind you’ll need to renew your domain, before the allocated term has ended.)

However, just because you have a domain does not mean that you can server a website to the world. To run a website, you will need a domain name, and a configured web server to put up a website.

Web Hosting

Web Hosting is normally known as a service that provides web server (where you will store your files, management systems, emails and data at), along with its network connections, configurations, and its maintenance.

If you’d like to know more about the different types of web hosting services, click here .

Doesn’t a Domain Name and a Web Hosting Service come together ?

Well, at certain times, Internationally Listed Domains, such as a .CN (China), .IN (India), .CA (Canada), .SG(Singapore) etc. require you to register with their various NICs or their select Partner Registrar separately.

It basically depends on your preference in terms of billing/payment and the pre-requisites listed by both the Domain Provider and the Web Hosting Provider.

Here’s wishing you an excellent start to your foray into the Internet !