Website questions. Making a domain name yourself?

[Kurt_]

So. I was thinking it'd be cool to have my own website with its own domain name.

But I'm wondering, how exactly do domain names work? I mean, the internet is public access. Nobody owns all of it. So why do I have to buy a domain name? Can I make one myself some how?

Say the domain kurt.com is available, and I wanted to use that. Can I set something up that lets me take that domain name, or is there more to it than that?

Say is way taken, if I set up something, what would happen?

[gamemasterAS]

Im pretty sure you have to buy it.

[bicostp]

You have to buy one because they're held in privately owned DNS servers. You can register them through your web host.

[Kurt_]

But what's stopping me from making a privately owned DNS server?

[Skyone]

Your ISP I assume.

[nevermind1534]

You go through one of your ISP's DNS servers.

[gamecube6]

Really? I thought it had something to do with making a server dedicated to the domain name.

Either way, buying them is probably cheaper anyway.

[nevermind1534]

Really? I thought it had something to do with making a server dedicated to the domain name.

Either way, buying them is probably cheaper anyway.

Yeah, I'd say.

[timmeh87]

But what's stopping me from making a privately owned DNS server?

About the same thing stopping you from adding a new intersection to a public roadway

[Aguiluz]

But what's stopping me from making a privately owned DNS server?

About the same thing stopping you from adding a new intersection to a public roadway

How is that so?

[bicostp]

But what's stopping me from making a privately owned DNS server?

The fact that nobody else in the world will point to it for domain name resolution.