Domain names make it easier to remember and to find their way around the Internet. Every computer on the Internet has a unique address - just like a telephone number - which is a rather complicated string of numbers. It is called its "IP address" (IP stands for "Internet Protocol").
It is difficult to remember everyone's IP address. Hence, the use of familiar string of letters (the "domain name") in place of the IP address. Instead of typing 202.150.214.3, you can type www.geromail.com.
With the introduction of domain names, now the issue is who owns which domain name.
You cannot simply make www.microsoft.com as your domain name of choice. You may register your domain name, if available, with registrars that governs the use of domain names.
Once registered, the owner reserves the full intellectual property rights to the use of that domain name.
With so many domain name being registered, it will not be easy to find a desirable domain name that is still available. Most .com domain names that you make up have already been registered.
For the choice of domain name, besides having related to your company name, you may want to consider domain name that is related to your products or services. In this way, you can register other domain names for new products or services.
If you fail to find an available .com domain name, as a last resort, consider registering a country code domain name; YourDomainName.com.de may still be available.
.com is preferred as there's less typing required and most users are used to typing an URL ending with .com. Furthermore, a country code domain name will cost more, averaging US$50 as compared to US$20 for .com
To check for domain availability, you will need to query the Internet WhoIS server for ownership of the domain. You can do this at the following URL:
After you have found an available domain name, you will need to register it for ownership. However, do not register the domain name yet. It is advisable to engage a hosting service first which normally offers domain name registration at a discounted price and at the same will be able to assist you in the technical setup for the domain name.
Top Level Domains
The .com, .info, .name, .net, and .org are top level domains (TLDs) that are available for registration by Internet users across the globe.
| Domain | Description |
|---|
| .aero | Aviation community |
| .biz | Businesses |
| .com | Commercial businesses |
| .coop | Cooperatives |
| .info | Information website |
| .museum | Museums and related persons |
| .net | Organizations involved in Internet infrastructure activities |
| .pro | Licensed professionals |
| .org | Noncommercial organizations |
| .name | Dedicated exclusively to individuals' personal names |
Full details of the registrars are available at:
http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html
Country Code Top Level Domains
Two letter domains, such as .uk, .de, .jp, .sg. etc. are called country code top level domains (ccTLDs) and correspond to a country, territory, or other geographic location. The rules and policies for registering domain names in the ccTLDs vary significantly and some are reserved for use by citizens of the corresponding country.
Register for a ccTLD if you business targets at local audience with little opportunity for oversea customers.
Multilingual .cc domain
Multilingual domain is ONLY available to .cc which has been recognized as First working multilingual domain in the world with no extra software download needed. You may register a domain in your preferred language, be it Chinese, Korea, Japanese, Latin and Hebrew.
When you register a multilingual .cc domain name, the domain name is automatically registered in both Big5 and GB encoding.
Every registered domain name requires at least 2 entries of Name Servers. These are servers within your hosting companies or ISP that keep records of your domain names and IP numbers. These servers will in term communicate with other higher level servers to establish the resolution of the domain names and IP addresses.
If your domain name is registered with the hosting service, the hosting company will set these values for you.
However, if you have registered the domain name on your own, you will need to get the name server settings from your hosting company and then notify your registrar to update it.
