Domain Introduction
The world of domain registration, parking, transfers and forwarding can be a complex one at times. So we have written this introduction
to explain what the terms mean and how it all works.
A domain is a friendly name which is given to a network address for a server or website. If we all had to remember the network address
numbers for our favourite sites it would be a nightmare. So the DNS (Domain Naming Service) was devised. The Internet DNS is governed by
an organisation called ICANN. This organisation is responsible for the coordination of
domain names and network addresses on the Internet.
Domains are categorised by their different extensions. ICANN have allocated most countries an extension (.e.g. .us .uk, .fr). These
country specific domains are known as ccTLD's (Country Code Top Level Domains). There are also some gTLD's (Generic Top Level Domains)
(e.g. .com .net) which are intended for companies who are trading internationally, however many companies in the US use these instead of
their .us extension. Also many other companies worldwide use these when they are not international companies.
Here are the original purposes for the International and UK domains, although this has been somewhat abused now.
| .com |
International commercial company |
| .net |
International commercial network provider |
| .com |
International Organisation |
| .co.uk |
UK Commercial Company |
| .net.uk |
UK Internet Service Provider |
| .ltd.uk |
UK Limited Company |
| .plc.uk |
UK Public Limited Company |
| .org.uk |
UK Organisation |
Not all countries have subdivided their country code as the UK have. The rules and uses for each domain type vary between country
and you MUST always investigate the registrars website before purchasing your domain. The IANNA website contains a list of
all CCTLD's and a URL for the registrars website.
The Registrars are companies or non-profit organisations which maintain and administer the specific domain extensions. Depending upon
the country or extension, there may be more than one registrar. For example all .uk domains are administered and sold by one registrar,
Nominet. Generic TLD's are sold by approximately 50 registrars, some of the more well
known ones are Network Solutions, Internet Registrars and BulkRegister. Most registrars prefer not to sell direct to the public, and if
they do, they will charge a high price for a domain. Registrars prefer to sell domains through ISP's (Internet Service Providers) or
ICP's (Internet Content Providers), such as ourselves and other web hosting companies. Because we purchase the domains in bulk, we
get a much better price which can be passed on to you the customer.
The WHOIS database contains information on which domains have been registered and to whom. Typically each country
or registrar has it's own WHOIS database. It would simply be too big if there was only one for the whole world.
Using tools on our site you can check to see if a domain is available. Based on the extension (e.g. .co.uk) you are
searching, our tools will automatically check the correct whois database for you and return the results.
Due to the way domains are registered, the WHOIS database can be sometimes up to 24 hours out of date. Just because
the domain appears to be free, somebody may have registered it in the last 24 hours.
Once you have registered a domain, it has to live somewhere in order for you to retain your registration. Parking just refers to
choosing an ISP, ICP or other company to host the domain for you. Hosting the domain does NOT mean you have to have email, a website or
any other service on the domain, but the domain must have active nameservers against it. Namservers are the computers which resolve
domain names, turn them into numbers and find the computer that holds the domain. Most companies will put up a web page of some sort
to indicate that the domain is parked.
Transferring a domain normally just involves changing the nameserver and technical contact information for your domain. The
company that you are transferring your domain to will normally provide you with the information required. Most of the time you have to
perform this change by contacting the company or registrar that you purchased the domain from. Most registrars or companies have an
online facility on their website or a Control Panel which allows you to amend the contact and nameserver information for your domain.
The exact method for changing this information varies to due the large number of registrars. Some registrars issue you with a key for
a domain which you can use as a password when making changes. Others may require you to email the changes to a specific address using
a standard template.
This section is to be completed.
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