About that domain name...

Websites have two pieces. The site itself and the domain. Websites are actually mapped out by a series of numbers, and that points to the specific computer on the Internet that hosts the Web page. That works awesome for computers but not so well for humans who have a hard enough time remembering lists of numbers for all the places we'd want to visit.

Well, to make life easier for all of us, they came up with the DNS or Domain Name Server. What those do is allow you to use an easy to remember name, like http://www.lawrenceautismsociety.org. When you type that into your browser, one of those DNS computers translates the name into the number map in the background, and you get the Web page you want to see without ever having to really know the number address. And if you have to move the website to a new server somewhere, you update the DNS information, and nobody will ever know you switched hosting companies. Pretty sweet, huh?

Well, it is except that you have to pay for your domain name the same way you pay for website space, and it isn't always to the same company. Last week our domain expired, and rather than pay a company in England to host it for another year, we're transferring the domain name to another host, where we'll have more direct control.

It's going to take about a week to get all that straightened out, and meanwhile I'm one of about four people who also know the roundabout way to get to the website, so chances are if you read this - it's after everything is back up and running again. It will give me a chance to tidy up some of the menus and hopefully make the whole thing a better experience all around.

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