Step 7 - Maintain (Cont.)

Register Your Domain Name

What is a Domain Name? A meaningful, "easy-to-remember" name used to identify a person, business, service or product on the Internet. Every Website you've ever been to, and every E-mail you've ever sent or received, has a Domain Name in its address.

How does the Domain Name system work? The Domain Name System (DNS) is a global network of servers that translates Uniform Resource Locator (URL) like www.1stsitefree.com to a numerical IP (Internet Protocol) addresses 64.38.34.211, which computers on the Internet use to communicate with each other. Without DNS, we'd all have to memorize long numbers instead of URLs or E-mail addresses. What a mess that would be!

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Ihe ICANN coordinates the assignment of Internet Domain Names, IP address numbers, protocol parameter and port numbers and identifiers that must be globally unique for the Internet to function. Domaim name guidelines:

1. The main part of the name ('1stsitefree') can only contain the letters a-z, the digits 0-9, and a dash (-).
2. The dash can't be at the beginning or end of a name.
3. Underscore (_) and other special characters are not allowed.
4. The name may not exceed 63 characters, excluding the characters used to identify the Top Level Domain (such as, .com, .biz, .info, .net, .org).
5. Upper and lower-case characters are equivalent: 1STSITEFREE.COM is the same as 1stsitefree.com.
6. The end of the name (e.g. '.com') is called the TLD (Top Level Domain). Conventions for TLD's are discussed below.

What is a Top Level Domain? There are three types of Top Level Domains (TLD's): generic Top Level Domains (gTLD), restricted Top Level Domains (rTLD) and country code Top Level Domains (ccTld).

What is a Registry? There is one Registry for every Top-Level Domain (TLD). The TLD is responsible for maintaing the master database of Domain Names for a particular TLD. Every TLD Registry (gTLD, rTLD and ccTLD) has its own policies and procedures that Registrants (name holders) in that Registry are subject to.

ICANN currently accredits domain-name registrars for the following Top Level Domains:

• .aero , (Reserved for the global aviation community) sponsored by Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques SC (SITA)
  
  
• .biz , (Restricted to businesses), operated by NeuLevel
  
  
• .cat , (Reserved for the Catalan linguistic and cultural community), sponsored by Fundació puntCat.
  
  
• .com , (Open) operated by Verisign Global Registry Services
  
  
• .coop , (Reserved for cooperatives) sponsored by Dot Cooperation LLC
  
  
• .info , (Open) operated by Afilias Limited
  
  
• .jobs , (Reserved for the human resource management community) sponsored by EmployMedia LLC, operated by Afilias Limited
  
  
• .mobi , (Reserved for consumers and providers of mobile products and services) sponsored by mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd.
  
  
• .museum , (Restricted to museums and related persons), sponsored by the Museum Domain Management Association (MuseDoma)
  
  
• .name , (Restricted to individuals), operated by Global Name Registry
  
  
• .net , (Open) operated by Verisign Global Registry Services
  
  
• .org , (Open) operated by Public Interest Registry
  
  
• .pro , (Restricted to licensed professionals) operated by RegistryPro
  
  
• .travel , (Reserved for entities whose primary area of activity is in the travel industry) sponsored by Tralliance Corporation.
  
  

Country code TLD (ccTLD). The ccTLD's such as .ca (Canada) .tv (Tuvalu), .us (United States) and .ws (Western Samoa) are assigned to countries and their dependencies. Registration criteria are set by each country individually. See this page for additional information cctld-whois.

What is a Domain Name Registrar? Registrars are companies that compete with each other and enter new or renew domains into a TLD Registry(s).

1. Domain Name Registrars can set their own registration and renewal fees.
2. All Registrars are required to collect the same information.
3. The differences between Registrars are basically: price and service.

Registering a domain name. Domain Names aren't free. But, if you are a serious about your business, a Domain Name is the best investment you can make. To register your Domain Name:

1. Determine what Top Level Domain (TLD) you are qualified to use: gTLD, rTLD or ccTLD.
2. Click on the TLDs Registry and select a Certified Registrar.
3. Conduct a WHOIS Search and determine if your domain name is availabe.
   • Fill out their form.
   • Double check your domain name spelling and extension.
   • Click process link.

Avoid trademark infringement.
Prior to registering a domain name, search the Trademark Electronic Search System, and ensure your candidate domain name doesn't infringe on any trademarks. Don't overlook this step. Trademark infringement is serious. It is your responsibility to ensure that your domain name doesn't infringe on any registered trademarks.

Google Basic Guide to DNS. Basic Guide to DNS. This is a list of common terms that you'll encounter when managing a domain. Click a term below to jump to the description of the term.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). On the Domain Names, Registrars, and Registration.

Multi-Whois Search. Enter your candidate domain name and its extension and search the whois-search.com database.

Multi-Whois Search Tool. Simply enter up to three words and a number of popular extensions will be checked automatically. Helps you find all combinations of a multiple word domain name (both with and without hyphens).

Domain registration. Buy your domain via Google. One year registration only costs $10.

How Long Does It Take? It takes 24 to 48 hours to activate a new domain. During this period the "who is" search may not produce proper results. Check again after 48 hours.

Do I really need to have my own domain name? The one word answer is "YES". Read the article by Sumantra Roy.

When registering a domain, you have to list several contact people:

• Registrant: The registrant is the legal owner of the domain. This should always be you, the business owner, not your web developer or anyone else.
• Administrative Contact: Whoever is listed here has the ability to change the domain record at will. Again, this should be the business owner, or someone who works in a position of authority at the business.
• Technical Contact: This is the person in charge of dealing with any technical problems with the domain. If you have a system administrator or some kind of IT person on staff, it could be him or her. But this is also the one contact where it might be okay to have someone not on your payroll listed. Your web hosting company, for example, might be the most appropriate technical contact.
• To protect your domain name, make sure you are listed as both the Registrant and the Administrative Contact on the domain record. Not sure if this is how your domain is currently setup? You can use any WHOIS service to see your domain registration. One that I use for quick checks is OneWhois.com—no graphics, no sales pitches, no advertising, just a quick-to-load text page with a simple search box.
• If you find you're not listed where you need to be, get that changed.

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