domain

A domain is a certain part of the Internet. URL's tell your web browser which domain to find in order to find a particular web page.

There are several top level domain codes that you probably recognize:
 * .com = a company
 * like www.google.com
 * .edu = a college or university
 * like www.dordt.edu
 * .org = an organization (usually //not// a business)
 * like www.pbs.org
 * .net = a "network" (usually an ISP)
 * like www.mtcnet.net
 * .gov = a page owned by the U.S. government
 * like www.whitehouse.gov

When you enter a URL into your browser, you are telling your browser to find that particular domain. For instance, when you type the following URL into your browser:

http://www.siouxcenterchristian.com

You are telling your browser to find the ".com" part of the Internet, and then to find a particular server there called "siouxcenterchristian.com" (which is the domain name for our school website.)