www or not?

do you need the "www"

[hardknocks29]

I know when you register a domain, you register www.mydomain.com, but in my limited internet experience I've come across site that don't have "www".

Can someone explain why/how this works and if there is something I need to do to ensure that I 'own' my domain both with "www" and without?

[Demaestro]

actually, you don't register www.example.com

You only register example.com

Once you register a domain then you can create what is known as a sub domain. A sub domain is created by creating records in your DNS.

Usually www.example.com and example.com point to the same place to avoid confusion with people.

You will see many sites that have other subdomains as well.

things like:

help.example.com
secure.example.com
canada.example.com

These can all point to different sites, but you only need register the example.com domain once.

[piatkow]

Slightly off topic but don't forget that as www.example.com and example.com are technically different addresses your browser will cache them separately. If you are in the middle of site updates this can give the confusing impression that the two versions are out of sync.

[Leosghost]

If you want to have the example.com and the www.example.com of your site open on the same page ( test by typing both versions into the address bar of your browser and see if yours do this )..and they dont ..then you may have to ask your host ..some do this by default ..some dont

[piatkow]

Of the five providers that I have used over the years four defaulted both versions to the same location. The other (free service from my ISP) only gave the www and no option to change.