Before
getting a web site online you need to have a domain
name. These are the familiar web addresses
such as mywebsite.com that most browsers use to find
a particular web site. Domain names, in fact, are pointers
to a particular IP address and we use
them because they are easier to remember than a series
of numbers.
All
websites have an IP address in the form 123.456.78.9.
The domain name system translates these numbers into
names such as mywebsite.com. All domain names are registered
in a central registry maintained by InterNIC, a subsidiary
of ICANN - the organization which certifies domain name
registrars.
Domain
names are filtered through Domain Name Servers
(DNS) which link IP addresses with domain names.
Each web site usually has a primary and a secondary
DNS – duplicates that increase reliability.
The
first step in registering a domain name
is to choose it. The name can be almost anything you
want, but to be most effective it should reflect the
nature of your website. If you are selling watches,
for example, it helps to have a domain name that has
some reference to watches – A1-Watches.com for
example.
The
rules for domain names are simple – only letters,
numbers or hyphens are allowed. Other than that, a domain
name is limited to 70 characters, but you are advised
to keep it as short as possible. Domain names can be
upper or lower case – case is ignored by DNS but
you can use a combination to make the name more recognizable.
MyWebSite.com is easier to read than mywebsite.com,
but both are identical to the DNS.
There
are several extensions available. The
most common is .com - it has even entered
common vocabulary as a way to express Internet activity
– (I own a dot com business).
Other
extensions include .biz (for commercial
sites), .org (for non-commercial organisations),
.net (for organisations involved in
Internet infrastructure) and .name
(for personal names). There are also extensions with
more specialized uses such as .museum,
.aero, and .coop and
are used exclusively by members of certain organizations.
In addition to these common extensions, there can also
be a country code extension such as .us
(United States) or .de (Germany) or
.dk for Denmark. The rules for using
country extensions vary, so you need to check with your
registrar to see if they are available to you.
You can see an example of privately
owned domain names here at Jubiii.com
All
domains must be registered with a registrar that has
been certified by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers). There are hundreds of registrars
and their prices vary considerably. The full list of
registrars is available at the InterNIC website (http://www.internic.net/regist.html).
Although registrars are closely regulated, they are
permitted to offer their services through third parties,
so many web hosts offer a domain name registration service
even if they are not a registrar. The price of a domain
name will usually be higher when dealing with these
third-party services.
