There are 2 features you need in order to host an online portal. The first one is a domains that will open your web page when you write it in a web browser, and the second one is a web page hosting package, which is principally the hard disk storage space on a hosting server where the web site files will be located, plus several more features that come with it. The domain and the hosting plan are 2 connected, yet separate solutions, and you need them both so as to have a functioning website.
A domain name is the alpha-numeric name that you will choose to be the address for the online portal: my-best-domain.com, for example. A domain name can be up to 64 symbols long and it comprises two constituents – a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a second-level domain name (SLD). In the aforementioned example, my-best-domain is the SLD, and .com is the Top-Level Domain. While you can select the Second-Level Domain of the domain to be anything that is free to register, there is a fixed number of top-level domain names to choose from. The Top-Level Domains can be generic (gTLDs) or country-code (ccTLDs), and can be registered for a certain stretch of time between 1 and 10 yrs. They may impose additional preconditions with regard to the registrant.
As the domain name is just a name and nothing more than that, you need a hosting package where you have to accommodate it. In such a way, when you write it in a browser, it will open the content that you have in the account, i.e. it will show your website. You can have a domain name registered with a specific registrar and obtain the hosting services from another, even though numerous web hosting distributors offer both solutions and it is more time-saving to handle everything from one hosting CP interface. Either way, since the domain registration and the site hosting plan are different services, you have to point the domain name to the web hosting server where it will be added as hosted. To accomplish that, you need to change a given setting, or record, of the domain - the commonly named name servers. Each web hosting service provider has at least two nameservers - ns1.webhostingfirm.net and ns2. webhostingfirm.net, for instance. The web site hosting Control Panel that you use for your domain gives you the possibility to modify the name server records and point the domain name to one web hosting distributor or another.
The moment the domain name is pointed to a given domain hosting supplier and is added to their web hosting servers, you will obtain different web services. The most essential one is that the web page files that you keep on the server will now be shown when you type your domain in a web browser. You will also be able to create email accounts such as name@my-best-domain.com and use webmail or a mail user agent to manage them. Whether you manage a personal or a business web portal, being online and being allowed to create mail address accounts with your domain name are the two most pivotal options that you get with a webspace hosting plan. If you administer a business web portal – it will identify your business before your website visitors or customers. For this reason you need a stable hosting corporation that will supply a dependable and stable hosting solution.
Additional online services that you receive by hosting a domain name are: File Transfer Protocol access to upload and download files effortlessly, domain name forwarding, email auto-responders and electronic mailing lists, and the possibility to create and modify given domain records from your site hosting Control Panel. The presence of these features may fluctuate based on the web hosting company, but reliable web hosting vendors like 'NTC Hosting', for instance, provide all of the abovementioned features with their web page hosting plans, leaving their rivals far behind.