If you want to create a new web site, the first step is to get a domain name. For the example I’ll use in the coming tutorial, Lexyk.com is the name of the domain I’ll use for a dictionary web site I am currently creating. Without it, no visitor will ever find your web site because typing http://192.168.1.1/ is usually not the kind of data visitors really want to type in the address bar of FireFox, Opera or Internet Explorer.
You have to pay for this name because there is a company (or actually a group of services companies) providing the infrastructure behind the translation between www.lexyk.com and the ugly dotted numeric address. This translation is known as a DNS (Domain Name Service).
In my case, I used Gandi, a French registrar (that’s the ugly name of such companies that provide registration services for domain names!) that I appreciate because they are reasonably priced (14€ VAT-included, per year) and support a large variety of basic and not so basic services. Nevertheless, I did need the bare minimum: a name, and DNS basic service.
Once you have paid for this name and the support for the transparent translation to a numeric address, you are ready to go to the next step (renting publishing space).