Domain name

A domain name is the human-friendly façade that sits on top of the internet’s raw numbering system, and its life begins the instant you ask an accredited registrar to claim a unique label inside a specific top-level domain such as “.com” or “.in.” Behind the scenes, the registrar transmits an encrypted Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) command to the registry that governs that TLD—Verisign for .com, NIXI for .in, and so on—requesting that the chosen string be inserted into the registry’s authoritative database along with your contact data, nameserver delegation, and an expiration timestamp. When the registry accepts the request, it publishes a new zone-file entry that propagates outward from the thirteen logical root server clusters through a hierarchy of TLD name servers and finally to the recursive resolvers run by ISPs, Google Public DNS, or Cloudflare; caching at each hop means the new name can resolve globally in seconds yet may take up to 48 hours to reach every corner of the network. As soon as that propagation starts, anyone, anywhere can type the domain into a browser, where DNS translates it to the IPv4 or IPv6 address you’ve configured via A or AAAA records, while additional records—MX for mail, TXT for SPF, CNAME for aliases—provide other services. Registration normally lasts one year: before the expiry date you may renew indefinitely; if you don’t, the name enters a 30-day grace window, then a 30-day redemption period costing extra fees, and finally drops back to public availability. Throughout its life cycle, optional DNSSEC signatures keep responses tamper-proof, WHOIS or RDAP records show registrant data (often masked by privacy proxies), and transfer locks plus EPP auth codes protect against hijacking, ensuring that your domain remains both reachable and securely under your control.