# [SOLVED] Help me to understand - Domains and subdomains and associated email accounts



## Gdn8Melbourne (Oct 28, 2011)

Please help me to understand the followings in simple -

1.domain ( this one I know about. it's the address of the website that one own)
2.subdomain (This I didn't understand... I read a domain can contain 1000+ subdomains... what are these and how it works?)

3. Hosting (I understand this a little. It is the system that maintains and manages the website. Different company has different space and plans for this. But how to define which address it will be hosting? )

4. personal Emails ( this was the thing that I as looking for when I stumbled upon those confusions. I was looking for an email account which wont have the email company's name at tail like @gmail or @yahoo ....instead ti will have @_myname or whatever._..

So I found most of the company is offering this with a domain name. And who are offering only emails, they are asking to a domain name which I own.... from this point I dont understand anything. Why I have to buy a website to get a personal email account?


----------



## Fjandr (Sep 26, 2012)

*Re: Help me to understand - Domains and subdomains and associated email accounts.*



> 2.subdomain (This I didn't understand... I read a domain can contain 1000+ subdomains... what are these and how it works?)


A subdomain is anything before ".domain.com". The "www" in "www.domain.com" is one of the most common subdomains. Another frequently-used subdomain is "mail" ala "mail.domain.com".



> 3. Hosting (I understand this a little. It is the system that maintains and manages the website. Different company has different space and plans for this. But how to define which address it will be hosting? )


If by "address" you mean the domain name, what a particular company is hosting is determined by the name servers you list with the domain registrar, and the records those name servers host. For example, if your web host's name servers are ns1.domain.com and ns2.domain.com, you would list those with your domain registrar as the authoritative name servers for your domain. You would then set up your web host to recognize your hosted domains using whatever control panel the host utilizes. The name servers at your web host would then point "yourdomain.com" to the actual IP address of the server on which the domain's files reside.



> 4. personal Emails ( this was the thing that I as looking for when I stumbled upon those confusions. I was looking for an email account which wont have the email company's name at tail like @gmail or @yahoo ....instead ti will have @_myname or whatever._..


This requires you to register a domain and purchase a hosting account that provides email services. Once you have properly configured the host's control panel for your domain, you can set up email addresses utilizing the domain name you registered.



> So I found most of the company is offering this with a domain name. And who are offering only emails, they are asking to a domain name which I own.... from this point I dont understand anything. Why I have to buy a website to get a personal email account?


You don't have to buy a "website." You have to buy a domain name, and the hosting package which provides the services you require. Most hosts also act as registrars, though the yearly cost to register a domain name frequently varies.


----------



## Gdn8Melbourne (Oct 28, 2011)

*Re: Help me to understand - Domains and subdomains and associated email accounts.*

Thank you for clearing those out. I only did not understand this last part :nonono:
The relation between an email account and domain name...

and also if I buy a domain name like mynameorwhaterver.com - that's a website... domain names are website names....isn't it?


----------



## Fjandr (Sep 26, 2012)

*Re: Help me to understand - Domains and subdomains and associated email accounts.*

Domain names do not necessarily have associated websites, though many do.

A website is something accessible through HTTP. Email is handled through an entirely different manner of server daemon.

All a domain name does is translate characters into numbers. It's the "common name" for a numerical IP address. That IP address doesn't even have to be the same one as the server hosting your domain's website. Actually, every service under a domain name can be handled by different physical machines. The domain's name servers point requests of different types to IP addresses you specify.

If your website is served by a machine at 10.10.1.200, your name server will have an A record pointing visitors who type "yourdomain.com" into their browser address bar to connect to 10.10.1.200. If they send an email to "[email protected]" and your email server has the address 10.10.5.100, the name server will have an MX record pointing to that address instead.

You don't have to have a website in order to have email. You just have to have a domain name and a server with email server software installed.


----------



## Gdn8Melbourne (Oct 28, 2011)

*Re: Help me to understand - Domains and subdomains and associated email accounts.*



Fjandr said:


> Domain names do not necessarily have associated websites, though many do.
> 
> A website is something accessible through HTTP. Email is handled through an entirely different manner of server daemon.
> 
> ...



I see. I understand now.
Thank you.


----------



## Fjandr (Sep 26, 2012)

Glad I could clear that up. If you have any other questions about how domains and hosting work, feel free to add them.


----------

