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Newbie guide to domain registration

Posted on August 25, 1999

in Site Development

by Evolt Site Admin Account (godmin)

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User since: April 11, 2000

Last login: July 26, 2005

Articles written: 5

Want to reserve a domain? This article will hopefully help you understand the many pieces of this process- and help you decide how to get started.

Registering a domain is only the first step in the process of getting a web site up. When you register a domain, you are effectively reserving the right to _use_ the domain for as long as you pay for it. You don't really _own_ it, as you will never stop payments on it. But you do own the rights to it, and you can do with it whatever you want, but if you stop paying for it, someone else can take it.

So along with the domain, you will need space on a webserver to keep your web site, and an account on a mail server to host your mail.

But when registering your domain you don't actually need to specify the web and mail server addresses to the company that registers the domain, as those addresses are taken care of by DNS servers.

DNS servers are computers that map your domain name to the addresses of your webserver and your mailserver.

Confused yet?

Here's a walk through.

  1. Go to www.networksolutions.com.

  2. Type in the domain name that you want to register, and see if it is available. If it is, they will then ask you if you want to 'reserve' the domain, or 'register' it.

    • Reserve- means they will hold the domain name for you for two years for $119. I don't think this gets you a website- just a 'splash screen'. I'm not sure about an email account either- I think that is extra. All this really does is makes sure no one else takes the name. They will point the domain to their own DNS servers.

    • Register- means you have a place to point the domain. They will ask you a boatload of questions about the technical contact, administrative contact, and billing contact, and the addresses of the DNS servers that you want to point the domain to. (remember from above- the DNS server is the computer that says where your website and mailservers live.)

    • Technical contact - this is actually the name of the person who runs the DNS server you are pointing to.

    • Administrative contact - This can be you if you want.

    • Billing contact - Can be you, or your billing person.

    • DNS addresses (they ask for two of them - primary and secondary)- these are the aforementioned servers that point the domain to the right places to see your website, or send you mail. They ask for two of them in case one of them fails.

After you have filled in all this info, Network Solutions will send you a bill for $70 (good for two years). This does not include the website or email account- its just a charge to give you the domain. Web and mail costs will come from the person whose DNS server you pointed to.

Still confused? Most people are by this time. That's why there are companies that do it all for you.

These one-stop companies (of which there are thousands) will reserve the name for you, set up your webspace and email accounts- and all you need to do is give them a domain name.

So lets review the costs.
  • Domain name (networksolutions.com)- $70
  • Webspace (your_hosting_provider.com)- shouldn't be more than $25 a month and _maybe_ a nominal setup charge.
  • Mail service (your_hosting_provider.com)- one or two accounts included in the web site costs- extra mail accounts for your dog, goldfish and mother are extra.
So which company should I use to register my domain?

Well, if you have access to a DNS server- go straight to NetworkSolutions and 'register' your domain name. Its cheap and fast. If you don't have access to a DNS server, or still don't understand what-in-the-heck a DNS server is, go with a web hosting provider that will do it all for you.

Look for the larger names in the business, they (usually) have reliable service (their servers don't go down) and they are pretty cheap. You will find cheaper web hosting providers on the net, but caveat emptor. You don't know if they will be around next month, or if your website will live on the same machine as someone who is serving the latest Pammy & Tom naughty video (which means your site will be suuuuper slow).

Whatever you do - make sure to do some research. Moving a domain to another DNS server later isn't hard, but it can be tedious.

9 comments on this article. Log in to add your comment |

Submitted by isaac on August 26, 1999 - 18:24.

Some additional information for those looking to register a domain in Australia (ie, .com.au, .net.au, etc):
  • you will need a registered business name. for example, my registered business is "Triple Zero Digital", and this enabled me to get www.triplezero.com.au. I could also have chosen zerodigital, tzd, or something else relating to this particular business name.

  • instead of network solutions, visit INA; the cost will be AUD$125 per two years.

  • you can only register one domain per business name
A final tip - make sure the domain you want is available AND allowable by the INA (ie, not a generic term, place name, etc). Then register your business and domain in quick succession. Even though you might register a business called DigDugDog, someone with "Digital Dugong's Denying Opera Grip" could possibly jump in before you...

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Submitted by MartinB on August 27, 1999 - 06:15.

And here's the info for .uk domains. The registrar is Nominet, and a reasonably affordable one-stop-shop is NicNames (they do email forwarding as part of the registration package). The only big restriction is that to register a .net.uk domain, you must be an ISP, providing actual dialup. Rebranding someone else's service will not do. The other fun thing is you will lose your domain if you squat on someone else's trademark, unless you have a right to it. Thus if you register royalbankofscotland.com, the Royal Bank of Scotland's legal dept will come down on you like a ton of bricks. However, if you register rbs.co.uk, and your company is called Really Brilliant Systems, you'll be fine. Here's the full legal stuff, courtesy of Edinburgh University's faculty of Law.

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Submitted by philroy on October 22, 1999 - 09:51.

there is a really good article at a list apart that talks about some of the problems you may encounter when trying to register a domain outside the u.s. go to http://www.alistapart.com/stories/domain/

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What's the difference: DNS Server, Web Server

Submitted by prowsej on February 4, 2002 - 17:41.

I registered a domain name from Register.com a couple of years back (I've since let it lapse). They provided a form where I typed in the [i]IP Address[/i] that I wanted my domain to resolve to. I understand this and its really easy for the user.

I've since registered a domain name at a discount registrar. Instead of providing a space for me to put IP addresses in (for example, www.mydomain.com -> 21.23.23.43) it is asking for a DNS Server.

I assume that you register a name, and then you have a DNS Server that handles the conversion of your domain and subdomains into IP addresses. However, I don't have a hosting company to provide such a DNS Server for me. I suppose that Register.com provided it for me. Doesn't the registrar usually provide it?

Or am I way off base?

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Registrar, DNS, and WEB servers

Submitted by godmin on February 5, 2002 - 00:17.

You are not way off base-

The registrar (ie register.com) owns the domain, the DNS maps the domain to the ip, and the web server owns (or technically speaking - 'manages') the ip.

Sometimes Register.com provides the DNS service, but not without a cost. If you are looking for cheap DNS - and don't want to run your own, try granitecanyon.com. For one of my domains, I registered with register.com, then went to granitecanyon.com and created a DNS record for the new domain. The granitecanyon.com DNS record contained the ip address of the web server that would hold the html files. In my case, I got a staic ip address from my internet provider, and use it to run a webserver from my house. Then I went back to register.com and pointed the DNS to the granitecanyon DNS servers. It took a bit to learn what the DNS record needed, but the help files on granitecanyon.com were pretty good.

Remember, the DNS record also contains the address of the mail server that you are going to use. If you don't want to run your own mail server, but need mail, you are probably better off using one of the register.com web/mail packages. If you don't need mail, the above example should be fine just to have the domain point to a webserver.

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Dynamic DNS

Submitted by MartinB on February 5, 2002 - 10:26.

If you're wanting to run a server from your house, and you're not lucky enough to have a static IP, take a look at Dynamic DNS. These have a very short TTL (Time To Live - how long until the address expires and has to be renewed from the root DNS), and a wee call-home script on your machine which updates the root DNS as to what IP your provider's DHCP has given you.

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Thanks for the information, Walker

Submitted by prowsej on February 5, 2002 - 12:05.

Thanks for the information, Walker, about DNS Servers. I get it now :) I subscribe to the RSS feed of evolt.org and its seems to recycle these old articles and call them new ... but I don't mind because I've never read them before.

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Mydomain.com

Submitted by Mishka on February 5, 2002 - 13:15.

Hi Prowsej ...

I recently discovered mydomain.com. They provide DNS services .. most at no cost. I've been using them to forward old domains that I own to other domains. I've also been using them to manage any email coming into the old domains. I'm only using their redirect services, though they do offer out DNS management services that I don't require. You might want to check them out as an alternative. Even if you only use them as the DNS managers for the domains, it's better than paying some other registration company to park your domain.

As for the RSS feed, it shouldn't be pulling up old articles. I just checked it and I can't seem to see it doing that. We did, however, add a Revived Article section to our home page and other article view pages. I really like it as it brings back focus to articles that are otherwise lost in the masses .. hehe. If you are seeing a problem/error with the RSS feed, can you please let me know and I'll look into getting it fixed.

thanks,
Michele

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Old Articles from the NewsIsFree RSS service

Submitted by prowsej on February 5, 2002 - 13:42.

Michele, I'm using the RSS feed from NewsIsFree: http://www.newsisfree.com/HPE/xml/feeds/67/2467.xml The current top story is: UNIX File Permissions and Setuid, Part 2 The publish date for that article on your server is 07/15/1999. Perhaps, somewhere along the line, I selected an RSS feed for archived articles? I'm not sure. Anyways, I like what I'm getting and find that most of the articles - even those from 1999 and 2000 - are still as relevant as ever.

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