How do internet domains work? Who are you paying?

Question

How do internet domains work? Who are you paying?

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Answer 1

The Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) works like a phonebook. Its most common use is when you want to use an online service, it converts its human-readable names (like “example.com”) to IP addresses (like “93.184.216.34”), which your computer can then connect to in order to talk. Your computer automatically reaches out to a DNS server (called a “resolver”) tasked with navigating this phonebook to find this information. DNS has other uses as well, like finding the email servers a domain uses.

This phonebook is a massive database, it not owned and operated by just one group, but all kinds of different people. There’s 3 main common levels:

– The “root servers”, which is where all name lookups start. These servers are run by Verisign, USC-ISI, Cogent, UMD, NASA, Internet Systems Consortium, US Dept of Defense, ARL, Netnod, RIPE NCC, ICANN and WIDE. The root knows who runs each of the top level domains.
– The “top level domain registries”, which include com/net/org/us/edu/dev/io and so forth know where to find records for domain names, like “example.com”. The top level domain registries knows who to contact to provide records for the domains.
– The “authoritative servers”, which actually host the domain names themselves. These servers are typically run by your hosting company, but anyone can run an authoritative server.

The registries don’t usually directly deal with the public. They have a lot of work already in the big picture in maintaining the fleets of servers and their part of this massive database, their part possibly containing millions to maybe billions of records. So they allow allow web hosting companies and other companies to become “registrars” who are responsible for following and maintaining the individual records.

Now, when you pay for a domain name, what you are actually paying for is to have your registrar add and maintain records into the top level domain registry so that your name can be reserved, get connected to your authoritative servers and actually start working.

Part of this fee also goes to the registry, so they can maintain things on the bigger picture, and another part of the fee goes to maintain the root servers on the even bigger picture, so everyone’s names work.

While are so many different groups, ICANN, the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers provides coordination between everyone for ensuring everything works.

Edit: Correcting some grammar.