Difference Between Parking & Forwarding a Domain
Internet domains are text shortcuts that visitors use to navigate to a website without entering the IP address of the website's server. When registering a domain, you have more options available than just using it as the domain for your website. As domain registrant, you can choose to park the domain or set up domain forwarding to use it with a website that already has a primary domain.
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Domain Registration
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When registered, a domain is not automatically associated with any particular website or server. The domain must be associated with the addresses of special servers known as name servers that are associated with a particular server or hosting account. Association is typically performed through the registrar used to register the domain, with many registrars allowing you to edit your own name server data through the use of an online form. Without this association, the domain will point to a generic landing page for the registrar or not lead to any specific Web page at all. If registration occurs at the same time as the purchase of a Web hosting package, the hosting provider typically handles domain name association.
Domain Parking
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A parked domain is a secondary domain that shares the same name servers as the primary domain of a website. The parked domain is associated with the same account as the primary and points to the same website. The only essential difference between the parked domain and the primary domain is the website address that appears in a visitor's browser address bar; the parked domain functions like the primary domain in all other respects. Businesses often use parked domains in order to have more than one Web address for advertising purposes.
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Domain Forwarding
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Domain forwarding is similar to domain parking with the difference being that a forwarded domain is hosted separately from the primary domain and uses different name servers. When the forwarded domain is accessed it redirects visitors to the primary domain instead of accessing the website's files directly as a parked domain would do. There are two types of domain forwarding available: masked and unmasked. Masked forwarding allows the forwarded domain to stay in the visitor's browser address bar, while unmasked forwarding allows the primary domain to appear in the address bar instead. Forwarding can come in handy if you have a website that was built elsewhere and you want to give people an easy-to-remember domain name to reach your site.
Domain Changes
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Both parked and forwarded domains can be changed by the registrant to allow other uses. The address that a forwarded domain points to is changeable through the registrar used to set up forwarding, and forwarding can be turned off to allow use of the domain as a primary or parked domain elsewhere. Likewise, the name servers of a parked domain can be changed so that the domain is usable as a primary domain and may also be set up as a forwarded domain through the registrar or web host.
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References
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