Domain name registration is an art and a thought which can be taken by the business man or a people who think about comming into the internet world. So this artical tells a brief about domain name registration

Domain Name Registration History

The practice of using a name as a more human-legible abstraction of a machine's numerical address on the network predates even TCP/IP. This practice dates back to the ARPAnet era. Back then, a different system was used. The DNS was invented in 1983, shortly after TCP/IP was deployed. With the older system, each computer on the network retrieved a file called HOSTS.TXT from a computer at SRI (now SRI International)[2][3]. The HOSTS.TXT file mapped numerical addresses to names. A hosts file still exists on most modern operating systems, either by default or through configuration, and allows users to specify an IP address (eg. 208.77.188.166) to use for a hostname (eg. www.example.net) without checking DNS. Systems based on a hosts file have inherent limitations, because of the obvious requirement that every time a given computer's address changed, every computer that seeks to communicate with it would need an update to its hosts file.


History
Structure
The domain name space
Parts of a domain name
Domain Name System
When the Internet was being collaboratively developed by a substantially technical community around a growing but still manageable Internet Engineering Task Force, the Domain Name System (DNS) evolved as a hierarchical solution to the problem of keeping track of which computers had which Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.The Internet however, is based on IP addresses. Domain Name System (or Service or Server), an Internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses. Because domain names are alphabetic, they're easier to remember.
How does the Domain Name system work?
Every time you use a domain name, therefore, a DNS service must translate the name into the corresponding IP address.
The DNS system is, in fact, its own network. If one DNS server doesn't know how to translate a particular domain name, it asks another one, and so on, until the correct IP address is returned.
Without DNS, we'd all have to memorize long numbers instead of URLs or E-mail addresses. What a mess that would be! Guidelines for the registering a domain names
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The ICANN coordinates the assignment of Internet Domain Names, IP address numbers, protocol parameter and port numbers and identifiers that must be globally unique for the Internet to function.
Domain name guidelines:
1. The main part of the name ('yahoo') can only contain the letters a-z, the digits 0-9, and a dash (-).
2. The dash can't be at the beginning or end of a name.
3. Underscore (_) and other special characters are not allowed.
4. The name may not exceed 63 characters, excluding the characters used to identify the Top Level Domain (such as, .com, .biz, .info, .net, .org).
5. Upper and lower-case characters are equivalent: YAHOO.COM is the same as yahoo.com.
6. The end of the name (e.g. '.com') is called the TLD (Top Level Domain).

How To Choose The Right Domain Name

There are many different ways to research domain names and to find inspiration for new domain names to register. The way you research domain names will be colored to a large extent by the intended use for the domain name, i.e. is it being registered for a new or existing site, for investment purposes or to "protect" an established brand or trademark.

1.Think of as many keywords and key phrases as you can.

These are what people will use to find your website. Phrases are usually better,much better than single words alone. You can now register domain names up to 67 characters that are rich in keywords and dramatically increase your ranking on search engines. Search engines love domain names thatdescribe the site and are loaded with keywords. For example, 123-domain-name-registration.com. You can use the "123-" part to get better placement by those search engines who sort alphabetically. Also notice that the words "domain name", and "registration" are keywords that have been proven to be the most widely used in our business.

2.Youre looking for a domain name for a new website.

Start by noting down what your site will be about, in a paragraph or two. Then condense this description into a maximum of 2 sentences.Don'tworry about covering all the details - just make sure you'readdressing the essentials of what the site will be about.
Now take your short description, and underline all the "key" words that describe your site. Let's take a specific
"Our website will be the leading source of information on weaving and knitting, providing knitting patterns and design ideas, an introduction to weaving, a guide to selecting and caring for looms, and a store for people to buy wool, yarn and books".Now try to come up with a domain name that either addresses the one fundamental concept of the site, or that marries two or more key concepts in a single name.
Once you've drawn up a short-list of domain names to "test" for availability, it's time to look up our
domain name search program.

If you have a budget for your new domain name, then you need not be restricted to available, unregistered domain names. You may be able to buy the perfect domain name off its current owner. Most sales take place for a few hundred to ten thousand dollars or more, although some have been known to reach 7 figures for extremely desirable domains.

3. You're looking for a domain name for an existing website.

In the case that you're looking to buy a domain name for a website that is already up and running, your options will be more limited than if you're starting from scratch.
First, have you already been operating the site under a clearly-recognizable "name" or "title"? Even if your site is hosted on cheap space at an ISP, or on a free host, you may have given it a short title in large letters (or in a logo). This is the obvious place to start when looking for a domain name.If your site's name (as given in its title) is very generic, you may well find one (or many) other sites already using it - and the corresponding domain name(s) long since gone. In that case, you have to decide whether you will make a bid to buy the domain name you want, look for an alternative extension (such as .org or .net) or use the brainstorming ideas mentioned earlier.

4. New rules for 67 character domain names.

This could present a tremendous opportunity in more ways than one.

Because the rules have changed, you can register names up to 67 characters long.This is including the .com or .net or .org. The old rule limited you to 23 characters.

What does this mean to you?Right now there is an opportunity to make some big money in a short period of time with a little investment. Why? Because you can register names today in hopes of selling them for big profits tomorrow. You have probably heard of this before, well now it's happening again. For example, business.com has been sold for 7.5 million dollars! Do some brainstorming and register these names while you still can. Here are some of the reasons:
You can register domain names that abound with your keywords and really improve  ranking on the search engines. Search engines just love names that describe the web site and have lots of keywords. Not very many people know this but the search engines actually prefer names with hyphens. Most people prefer names without hyphens but nowadays everyone just searches and clicks, you don't usually have to type in the name. Besides, all the one word names are already taken.

In summary, if you want to appeal to the search engines make sure you use hyphens and if you want to appeal to the average person surfing the web do not use hyphens. But do you know what the easiest way to guarantee success is? Register both! There is no better way to ensure that you are getting as many visitors as possible than by registering the URL with hyphens and the same URL without.

Types of DNS records

RR (Resource record) fields

Field	Description	Length
NAME	Name of the node to which this record pertains.	(variable)
TYPE	Type of RR. For example, MX is type 15.	2
CLASS	Class code.	2
TTL	Signed time in seconds that RR stays valid.	4
RDLENGTH	Length of RDATA field.	2
RDATA	Additional RR-specific data.	(variable)

The type of the record indicates what the format of the data is, and gives a hint of its intended use; for instance, the A record is used to translate from a domain name to an IPv4 address, the NS record lists which name servers can answer lookups on a DNS zone, and the MX record is used to translate from a name in the right-hand side of an e-mail address to the name of a machine able to handle mail for that address.

Many more record types exist and be found in the complete List of DNS record types.