Domain Names

1. What is a Domain Name?
2. Choosing a Domain Name
3. Registering a Domain Name
4. Resources

What is a Domain Name?

Just like in the real world, your domain is where you exist. It is your street address on the Information Superhighway, and it is a crucial aspect of doing business on the Internet. A domain name is actually an alias; it represents an IP address (which is a series of numbers). The domain name is kept in a database, which lists the server IP address where it resides (as in yourdomain.com = 222.222.44.55). People will only need to type in www.yourdomain.com to reach your website. There are servers set up to deal with this translation, called Domain Name Servers (DNS's).

Again, a domain name is much like a street address. Here's an example from the real world for comparison. Suppose you were opening an office, and you had the choice between the following two addresses:

Rocket Science Unlimited
1 Rocket Science Dr.
Anytown USA

or

Rocket Science Unlimited
2100 18th Street
Small Business Building #14
Suite 343
Maildrop #16
Anytown USA

Assuming the office space at these two addresses were identical, which would you prefer? You would probably choose the address that made it look like you owned the entire block, rather than just a cubbyhole in a giant complex. You will want to do the same thing on the Net.

You can place systems on the WWW without your own domain name, but they must be placed under another domain. The following WWW examples are similar to the preceding street addresses in what they communicate:

http://www.rocket_science.com

or

http://www.someone_else.com/pub/users/business/janedoe/rocket_science

By using the second address, you're telling the world that you're small. You're also making it very difficult for someone to get to your page because you are making them type in a very long string of text. If your intended customers get just one letter wrong, they'll get an error message. Obviously, we recommend that you register a domain as soon as possible.

Note: Please note that you won't be able to register a domain name until you've decided on a server (see next chapter, "Purchasing Web Hosting"). However, it's best to get started on the domain name search while you're looking for a host server, and even have the forms filled out, so that you can register your domain name immediately upon contracting for services.

Choosing a Domain Name

Again, your domain name is your address, but it is more than that. In your domain name, you have an opportunity to make a statement. What you decide can say something about what you do, who you are, and so on. Think of it as a trademark, service mark, or your own Virtual Tagline.

You see that some of these, like coffee-online.com, tell people what you do; the aboutacup.com domain uses your company name; and thebestcoffee.com makes a statement about your product. Whereas snuggles.com and marysmith.com will have no meaning to anyone who doesn't know you (or your cat). You have an opportunity to send a message with your domain name—to communicate. Take advantage of that opportunity.

There are other considerations in choosing from a list of domain names. One of the biggest problems people run into is when they choose a domain name that they have never tried to say aloud. Again using the fictitious business About a Cup as an example, suppose that you decided to use a domain name that incorporated your business name.

Imagine a customer calls and wants your WWW address. "About a cup, as one word, dot com," (aboutacup.com) is a lot easier to say than "about, underscore, a, underscore, cup, dot, com" (about_a_cup.com), and much less likely to be screwed up by the person on the other end of the line.

You should also keep your name as short as possible. UNIX allows for very long text strings in a domain name, but you shouldn't go wild with it. While it may be possible to make a domain name like mary.smith.and.snuggles.the.cat.about.a.cup.com, it's clearly a stupid thing to do ("our address is: mary, dot, smith, dot, and, dot, snuggles, dot, the, dot, cat, dot, about, dot, a, dot, cup, Hello? Are you still there?").

The extensions to the address—the .com, .net, .edu, .gov, .org, and so on—say what kind of enterprise is associated with the domain name. The .com extension means that the domain name is private and/or a commercial enterprise, and you will probably have to use this extension for your domain name. The other extensions represent network service provider, educational institution, government institution, and nonprofit organization, respectively.

Registering a Domain Name

After you have decided on a list of possible names, you'll need to check them against the list of names currently in use. The way to do this is to access the InterNIC database.

InterNIC is the Internet registration database, the main governing body on the Internet. The reason for having a single database is simple: somebody has to keep it all straight. As mentioned earlier, a domain name is an alias for a numerical address, and if there were more than one database, things would get pretty confusing.

To register your domain name, here are the necessary steps you need to take, in the order as they are mentioned here:

1. Check whether the domain name you have chosen is available. If somebody else is already using that name, you might have to wait till that person decides to let it go. This might take years, hence a better option will be to choose another one. To check availability of domain names, go to http://www.searchmydomain.com and type in your desired name in the Domain Search form, choose your desired extension (.com, .net, .info etc.) and click on 'Search'.

2. You can also use your own desktop WHOIS tool to check availability of domain names. A free download of a small and neat WHOIS application that I personally like to use is available at http://www.elementswebservices.com/downloads.shtml

3. If you find that your desired domain name is already taken, there a number of tools to suggest related domain names. See resources below.

4. Once you have decided upon which domain to register, click on 'Register Domain Name' or similar link on the website of the Domain registrar. You will be required to fill in your details in a form, upon completion of which you will need to make the payment for the domain for at least 1 year.

5. Shortly before the completion of the year, you will be reminded by the domain registrar company to renew your domain for the next year. If you wish to keep the domain for another year, you will need to pay for another year.

Note: Instead of registering your domain name with one company and hosting your website with another one, you can also choose to purchase both services from the same company. It is advisable for new users to choose to do this, as you will do away from the hassle of transferring your domain name servers.

Resources

Affordable Domain Name Registration Services - GoDaddy, NameCheap

Search for Domain Names - Search My Domain

Search for Expired Domains - Search My Domain

Domain Suggesting Tools - NameCheap, NameBoy