What a domain name does

A domain name is the readable address people use to find a service, such as neurodynamic.tech. Registering it gives you the right to use that name for a period, subject to renewal and the registrar’s terms.

The name and the website are separate

Registration does not, by itself, provide a web server, website files or email inbox. A provider may bundle those services, but each has a different job.

The registrar manages the registration. DNS—the Domain Name System—holds records that tell software where to send requests for the name. The server handles the request and returns the page.

What happens when you open a page

Your browser looks up the address using DNS, connects to the service and requests the page. Some lookups are cached, so a DNS change may take time to appear everywhere.

For this site, the public connection goes through Cloudflare and a tunnel to the home server. Visitors use the domain without needing the home network’s address.

What HTTPS adds

HTTPS encrypts the connection and uses a certificate to help the browser verify the domain it is connecting to. A padlock does not prove that the page’s claims or the person running it are trustworthy.

Keep track of renewal

Check renewal prices as well as the first-year price, keep your contact details current and protect the registrar account. Losing access to a domain can affect both a website and any email using it.

The Give a home service its own web address shows how the domain and service are connected in a practice setup.