From IP to domain

Right now, we can access our API using an IP address. But if we want developers to use our API, we shouldn't expect them to remember a random sequence of numbers! Instead, we want to give them an easy-to-remember domain name such as api.hobnob.social.

To do that, we must first purchase the domain name and then configure its Domain Name System (DNS) settings so that it will resolve to our server's IP address.

Buying a domain

While the DNS is responsible for resolving domain names to IP addresses, a domain registrar is the entity/business that registers the domain(s) for you. There are many registrars available; the one we will be using is Namecheap.

First, we must search for the domain we want on the Namecheap website. Although a registrar is an entity that can register domain names for many TLDs, it must first check with one or more domain registries to see whether the domain name is available. Domain registries collectively hold a list of all domain names and their availability...