🚀 Registrar Essentials for Domain Registration

🎯 Purpose

Domain registration is the process of reserving a unique name on the internet to provide a human-friendly address for your website or application.

🌱 Origin

Namecheap was founded in 2000 by Richard Kirkendall. The company’s name reflects its core mission to provide domain names at a very affordable price, offering a cost-effective alternative to other registrars.

🧠 Essentials

Domain Registrar Comparison

DNS Key Concepts & Workflow

• Domain Name System (DNS): Think of the DNS as the internet’s phonebook. It translates human-readable domain names (like google.com) into IP addresses (like 23.34.45.56) that computers use to find each other.
• DNS Records: These are the specific entries within the DNS that tell the internet where to send traffic for your domain.
  • A Record: The most common record. It maps a domain or subdomain name to an IPv4 address. This is what you’ll use to point your domain to your VPS.
  • CNAME Record: Used to create an alias, mapping a subdomain to another domain name instead of an IP address.
  • NS Record: Specifies the authoritative name servers for the domain. You’ll typically use Namecheap’s default name servers.
• Propagation: When you update DNS records, it takes time for the changes to propagate across the internet’s servers. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to up to 48 hours.

Subdomains vs. Subdirectories - Web Projects Organization

• Subdomain: A separate domain name that is prefixed to your main domain: e.g. blog.example.com. It is treated as an independent website and requires its own DNS record to point to a server.

• Subdirectory: A folder or path located within your main domain: e.g. example.com/blog. It is part of the same website and shares the same DNS record and server as the root domain.

Step-by-Step Configuration at Namecheap

Here are the steps to configure your domain tecsa-acd.com and subdomain wof.tecsa-acd.com to point to your DigitalOcean droplet at [droplet-ip].

1. Log In and Navigate to Your Domain List: In your Namecheap account, go to the “Domain List” and find tecsa-acd.com.
2. Go to Advanced DNS: Click “Manage” next to your domain, and then navigate to the “Advanced DNS” tab.
3. Delete Conflicting Records: Delete any existing A or CNAME records that might conflict with your new settings (e.g., records for @ or www).
4. Add A Record for Main Domain:
   • Type: A Record
   • Host: @ (This represents the root domain tecsa-acd.com)
   • Value: [Your DigitalOcean Droplet IP]
   • TTL: Automatic
5. Add A Record for Subdomain:
   • Type: A Record
   • Host: wof (This will create the subdomain wof.tecsa-acd.com)
   • Value: [Your DigitalOcean Droplet IP]
   • TTL: Automatic
6. Optional: Add CNAME for www:
   • Type: CNAME Record
   • Host: www
   • Value: tecsa-acd.com
   • TTL: Automatic
7. Save Changes: Click the checkmark to save each new record. It may take some time for the changes to become active.