QUOTE(JamYk @ Feb 2 2009, 04:39 AM)

Hello guys,
I planning to buy a domain sometime but I have no idea on how it all works...
How do I know that I own that domain, and if someone visits my domain what will the user see if I haven't hosted that domain yet or I still have no website???
It really depends which company you are going to use. Now ? Godaddy has the lowest price, they are probably the World leading registrar. They basically provide EVERYTHING. Small hosting, Big hosting, Huge hosting, servers, domains... but some people find the customer service not 'always' cool (Me for example).
If you purchase a domain name by it self than you only own the DOMAIN name. See the domain must be attached to a hosting account to make it work. Basically your 'hosting' has all the files you need for your website to work... all you do is upload the stuff (using their, or your control panel (yours would be FTP)) once it's uploaded... it's online. And to see it... you need to enter an URL. That's where your domain name needs to be attached to your hosting.
Meaning, you can have a hosting account from one company and domain names from an other. Some company offer cheaper hosting and some other offer cheaper domain names.
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For your case
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If you only own a domain, you will be given a control panel where you can modify DNS settings. The DNS info is what basically connects your domain to your 'server' 'hosting account', Well lets pretend you are going to be hosted here at zymic. Well cool zymic is free and provides great, reliable service. They have DNS settings specially made for your account upon registration, all you have to do is take these settings and put them in your domain name control panel and the 2 will be connected.
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Don't be confused about what you see on this forum. Because the domain names listed here are OWNED already so who ever is selling it to you will need to TRANSFER it to your registrar (registrar = company that is selling you the domains)
That means tomorrow i can buy ILOVEMYSELF.COM (which is true) for 8$ and come here and sale it for 80$, all i have to do is ask for transfer from my registrar, the previous owner has to enable transfer and boom... the domain name is now yours.
(I did not cover everything because i can write a post over 1000lines if i wanted to) But the basics is above. Feel free to ask more help.