What is it?
Domain Registration is the process one uses to purchase or more actually register a domain name of their choosing. Registering a domain name ties that domain exclusively to the registrant giving the registrant the ability to point the domain to a specific host or server.

How Does It Work?

DNS is an abbreviation for Domain Name Service. Each time you view a web site from your web browser you use the Domain Name Service. Let's look at how the process works when you point your browser to www.netins.net. Just after you enter www.netins.net into your web browser's address bar, a request is sent to your local DNS server. The local DNS Server is almost always operated by your ISP. When sending a request to your local DNS server, the Primary DNS server is checked first followed by the Secondary DNS server only if the Primary is busy or unavailable. The local DNS server looks up the web site in the database, if the web site can be found in the database, it directs you to that IP address and that's it, you are viewing the web site in your browser. If the Local DNS Server does not have a record for the web site, it sends a query to the Root DNS servers. Root DNS Servers contain the aggregate DNS information from all over the world. Currently there are thirteen Root DNS Servers spread throughout the world. When you register a domain name, it is added to the thirteen Root DNS Servers records. When a domain name is expires, it is removed from the thirteen Root DNS Servers. Root DNS Servers tell Local DNS Servers which DNS Servers on the Internet are Authoritative, that is to say the Primary and Secondary DNS servers for a domain.

The local DNS server queries the Authoritative DNS server, the Authoritative DNS server tells your local DNS server what IP address the domain is located at. The local DNS server then caches this information. The caching or copying this information is critical to process queries quickly and reduce demand on Root DNS Servers but it also is why when changes are made to a DNS Record through your Registrar, the changes may take 24-36 hours to take effect. Local DNS Servers don't keep their cached information forever, in fact they are generally updated every 24 hours. This explains why after a change is made to a Domain Name Record, it may take 24-36 hours for every ISP in the world to delete and re-create their cache from a Root DNS Server. This delay is commonly referred to as DNS Propagation.

What is Related?

Server