| ， What is a Domain?
A domain is your identity online. It separates you from everyone else and once you buy it, as long as you keep renewing it, no one else may register it.
There are two parts to a domain ? the domain name itself, and the TLD (top level domain) extension, like .com .net or .org.
The most popular TLD is the .com extension ? it is synonymous with online business. But due to its popularity, getting a good domain name with '.com' is hard - most have been bought and are not available.
Most TLDs have a meaning behind them - .EDUs are used by educational institutes, and .ORGs are supposed to be used by non-profit organizations. A domain with a TLD of '.ca' is very likely based in Canada. There are other TLDs too, such as .info, .ws, and .biz. These are all associated with either a company or with a country.
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| ， What to watch for when registering a domain?
A few things to watch for when registering a domain name.
1. Never register a domain name of a copyrighted or trademarked name. eg. Microsoft.bz The portion of the name before the TLD is subject to all laws relating to copyright and trademark. The owner of the name can easily locate you and demand a surrender of the name or ensue with legal actions.
2. Make sure to inquire if the registered domain name is being registered to you. Some hosts will register the name with thier name at the top of the domain record. This give you very limited control over makng changes and transferring the domain name.
3. The information you supply when you purchase a name is publically available, you must provide real information when registering a name. If you do not you do stand a chance of losing your domain name.
4. You will also need to select the term of your domain name in years. If you are unsure about keeping the name a one year registration should do just fine, but there are many companies and services that will provide services to those that want your domain name. If you should forget to renew or make a late payment, you could easily lose your domain name. One last thing about term, registering a doman name for 10+ years does raise a red flag at registrars to look for fraud, make sure your contact information is correct in case they do contact you for verification purposes.
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| ， Can I make my personal Info false or Private?
The information you supply when you purchase a name is publically available, you must provide real information when registering a name.
However there are services like Domain By Proxy that will mask your information for a annual fee. They provide you with an anonymous email address among other things. Also when you register names with GoDaddy they provide you with this option.
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| ， What is Domain Parking?
Domain parking lets you buy a domain and then have a 'coming soon' page on it. This is usually a good thing to have as it does allow for some traffic to build to your site as users type in searches.
Most domain registrars provide this by default.
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| ， What is a Sub Domain?
Consider subdomains as an extension of your domain. For example, your site is www.xyz.com. A subdomain would be abc.xyz.com.
A sub domain is useful when you want to seperate content from your site for other purposes.
Subdomains are usually treated as separate sites from the main domain site.
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| ， What signs and characters can be used in a domain name?
The maximum length of a domain is 63 signs/characters, excluding the ending (as in ".com"). You can choose all alphabetical letters, numbers as well as the hyphen "-", also sometimes referred to as the "dash" or "minus" sign. The "WWW" you often see on the front of domain names is not part of the domain and special characters (e.g. ?,$,%,&,?,=) are not allowed.
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| ， What is the WHOIS database?
WHOIS databases contain contact and registration information for every domain registered with a particular registrar. WHOIS databases are maintained by individual registrars and not by the central registry. For this reason some information may not be up to date or may be misleading. Furthermore, registrars update their databases every 20-48 hours, so registration information regarding a domain name may be misleading.
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| ， What does it mean when a domain is "on hold"?
When a domain is on hold it means that the registration has officially expired, but the domain has not been released for new registration. There are a couple of reasons why the domain may be on hold. Some registrars hold domains for indefinite amounts of times, and there is no way of knowing when the domain will "drop" or become available again for registration. Sometimes registrars allow the former owner some leeway to re-register the domain after the official expiration date. Every registrar operates differently, and it is therefore somewhat of a game figuring out when an expired domain name will be availabe for registration again.
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| ， Are domains case sensitive?
No, domain names are not case sensitive. WWW.DomainName.com is the same as www.domainname.com is the same as www.DOMAINNAME.com - they can never point to different websites.
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| ， What is a TLD?
Top Level Domain. The part of the domain name after the very last period "." Top Level Domains are divided into two categories: gTLDs: General TLDs such as .com, .org, .net and .info, which are not associated with a particular country or region and ccTLDs: TLDs such as .us, .de, .co.uk, .ie, .ca, etc. These TLDs were assigned to geographic locations, however, some, as in the TLD .tv, were sold by their owners (in this case the island of Tuvalu) to corporations to market and sell outside of the country. The TLD .tv has now come to stand for "television" in the Internet. | |
