Enter techie! Ok, I currently administrate multiple domain name and web servers, therefore I have a pretty good about this.
A domain name consists of only two parts, example fiat.com or microsoft.com, etc. In an address like
www.microsoft.com, www refers to a web server hosting machine and microsoft.com the domain name. If you want to buy a domain name, you have buy them from companies like Network Solutions, Register.com, etc.
So, what about addresses like
http://www.msdn.microsoft.com ?
Here, msdn is a sub domain. You don't have to buy sub-domain from anybody. You can just create a sub domain within your organisation. Your system admin can do that for you.
Ever wonder why Fiat didn't select fiatindia.com as their domain name? Turns out a
Hongkong squatter is hogging that address.
Then I wondered why didn't Fiat India go for fiat.co.in domain which is available only to companies registered in India. Turns out that domain was
again stolen by some chinese guys just 6 days back. Talk about Fiat's luck
However, the domain fiat-india.com is owned by somebody in
Italy.
Usually most companies make
www.domain.com and domain.com point to the web server. It is just a question of adding an extra entry in the DNS server. However, Fiat India's web hoster haven't bothered to do that. Therefore the address fiat-india.com points to a
proper webserver. However, the address
www.fiat-india.com points to
nothing.