Domain Names
Last updated by Roedy Green
©1998-1999 Canadian Mind Products.
Introduction
On the Internet, you can access computers by number (IP e.g.
216.66.157.8) or by
name e.g. mindprod.com. The name
without any www or other prefix is called the domain name.
This essay that will tell you more than you wanted to know about
domain names, ownership rights, DNS (Domain Name
Service), TLDs (Top Level Domains),
country code TLDs, domain name speculation, resources for buying
domain names, wet blanket caveats and how to buy a domain name
without a broker.
Ownership Rights
When you own a name such as mindprod.com you own world
wide rights to it, You are absolute ruler of that realm/domain
and can choose to carve it up with whatever dot prefixes you
choose, e.g. www.mindprod.com,
ftp.mindprod.com,
products.mindprod.com
or even silly.mindprod.com.
You own exclusive right to all possible prefixes including all
the mail addresses, e.g. roedy@mindprod.com.
Domain names are not case sensitive, so that if you own
mindprod.com you also automatically own
MindProd.com as well. However you do not
necessarily own the rights to other prefixes not separated
by a dot, e.g. blowyourmindprod.com. You could buy them
separately of course. Further you do not necessarily own
that name with other TLD (Top Level Domain)
suffixes, e.g. mindprod.org or mindprod.ca.
DNS
There are computers spread all over the Internet called DNS
(Domain Name Service) servers. They will
look up a name for you and give you the equivalent numeric IP.
This happens automatically whenever you key a website name into
your browser or FTP client. You may have several computers
serving your domain. Each would have its own separate IP, and
would serve some subset of the possible prefixes, e.g. one
computer might handle ftp.mindprod.com where another
would handle www.mindprod.com. The DNS system considers
the name prefixes as well as the domain name when looking up an
IP.
TLDs
The most common domains end in .com which means
commercial. This suffix is called the TLD (Top
Level Domain). Other common ones are .org
organisation, .edu educational institution,
.gov government, .net network and
.mil military. Short .com names are considered
the most prestigious. They are also easiest for customers to
remember.
Country Code TLDs
There are country TLD suffixes as well, e.g. .ca or
Canada, .uk for the United Kingdom, .de for
Germany, .au (formerly .oz) for Australia. For
the definitive set, see the ISO 3166 Two-letter country
codes. The table below was up to date as of 1999/01/09. Normally
two letter country codes are all upper case. However, traditionally
TLDs are always shown in lower case.
By country |
country |
code |
Afghanistan |
af |
Albania |
al |
Algeria |
dz |
American Samoa |
as |
Andorra |
ad |
Angola |
ao |
Anguilla |
ai |
Antarctica |
aq |
Antigua and Barbuda |
ag |
Argentina |
ar |
Armenia |
am |
Aruba |
aw |
Australia |
au |
Austria |
at |
Azerbaijan |
az |
Bahamas |
bs |
Bahrain |
bh |
Bangladesh |
bd |
Barbados |
bb |
Belarus |
by |
Belgium |
be |
Belize |
bz |
Benin |
bj |
Bermuda |
bm |
Bhutan |
bt |
Bolivia |
bo |
Bosnia and Herzegowina |
ba |
Botswana |
bw |
Bouvet island |
bv |
Brazil |
br |
British Indian Ocean Territory |
io |
Brunei Darussalam |
bn |
Bulgaria |
bg |
Burkina Faso |
bf |
Burundi |
bi |
Cambodia |
kh |
Cameroon |
cm |
Canada |
ca |
Cape Verde |
cv |
Cayman Islands |
ky |
Central African Republic |
cf |
Chad |
td |
Chile |
cl |
China |
cn |
Christmas island |
cx |
Cocos (Keeling) Islands |
cc |
Colombia |
co |
Comoros |
km |
Congo |
cg |
Congo, the Democratic Republic of the |
cd |
Cook Islands |
ck |
Costa Rica |
cr |
Cote d'Ivoire |
ci |
Croatia (local name: Hrvatska) |
hr |
Cuba |
cu |
Cyprus |
cy |
Czech Republic |
cz |
Denmark |
dk |
Djibouti |
dj |
Dominica |
dm |
Dominican Republic |
do |
East Timor |
tp |
Ecuador |
ec |
Egypt |
eg |
El Salvador |
sv |
Equatorial Guinea |
gq |
Eritrea |
er |
Estonia |
ee |
Ethiopia |
et |
Falkland Islands (Malvinas) |
fk |
Faroe islands |
fo |
Fiji |
fj |
Finland |
fi |
France |
fr |
France, Metropolitan |
fx |
French Guiana |
gf |
French Polynesia |
pf |
French Southern Territories |
tf |
Gabon |
ga |
Gambia |
gm |
Georgia |
ge |
Germany |
de |
Ghana |
gh |
Gibraltar |
gi |
Greece |
gr |
Greenland |
gl |
Grenada |
gd |
Guadeloupe |
gp |
Guam |
gu |
Guatemala |
gt |
Guinea |
gn |
Guinea-Bissau |
gw |
Guyana |
gy |
Haiti |
ht |
Heard and McDonald Islands |
hm |
Holy See (Vatican City State) |
va |
Honduras |
hn |
Hong Kong |
hk |
Hungary |
hu |
Iceland |
is |
India |
in |
Indonesia |
id |
Iran (Islamic Republic Of) |
ir |
Iraq |
iq |
Ireland |
ie |
Israel |
il |
Italy |
it |
Jamaica |
jm |
Japan |
jp |
Jordan |
jo |
Kazakhstan |
kz |
Kenya |
ke |
Kiribati |
ki |
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of |
kp |
Korea, Republic of |
kr |
Kuwait |
kw |
Kyrgyzstan |
kg |
Lao People's Democratic Republic |
la |
Latvia |
lv |
Lebanon |
lb |
Lesotho |
ls |
Liberia |
lr |
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya |
ly |
Liechtenstein |
li |
Lithuania |
lt |
Luxembourg |
lu |
Macau |
mo |
Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of |
mk |
Madagascar |
mg |
Malawi |
mw |
Malaysia |
my |
Maldives |
mv |
Mali |
ml |
Malta |
mt |
Marshall Islands |
mh |
Martinique |
mq |
Mauritania |
mr |
Mauritius |
mu |
Mayotte |
yt |
Mexico |
mx |
Micronesia, Federated States of |
fm |
Moldova, Republic of |
md |
Monaco |
mc |
Mongolia |
mn |
Montserrat |
ms |
Morocco |
ma |
Mozambique |
mz |
Myanmar |
mm |
Namibia |
na |
Nauru |
nr |
Nepal |
np |
Netherlands |
nl |
Netherlands Antilles |
an |
New Caledonia |
nc |
New Zealand |
nz |
Nicaragua |
ni |
Niger |
ne |
Nigeria |
ng |
Niue |
nu |
Norfolk Island |
nf |
Northern Mariana Islands |
mp |
Norway |
no |
Oman |
om |
Pakistan |
pk |
Palau |
pw |
Panama |
pa |
Papua New Guinea |
pg |
Paraguay |
py |
Peru |
pe |
Philippines |
ph |
Pitcairn |
pn |
Poland |
pl |
Portugal |
pt |
Puerto Rico |
pr |
Qatar |
qa |
Reunion |
re |
Romania |
ro |
Russian Federation |
ru |
Rwanda |
rw |
Saint Kitts and Nevis |
kn |
Saint Lucia |
lc |
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines |
vc |
Samoa |
ws |
San Marino |
sm |
Sao Tome and Principe |
st |
Saudi Arabia |
sa |
Senegal |
sn |
Seychelles |
sc |
Sierra Leone |
sl |
Singapore |
sg |
Slovakia (Slovak Republic) |
sk |
Slovenia |
si |
Solomon Islands |
sb |
Somalia |
so |
South Africa |
za |
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands |
gs |
Spain |
es |
Sri Lanka |
lk |
St. Helena |
sh |
St. Pierre and Miquelon |
pm |
Sudan |
sd |
Suriname |
sr |
Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands |
sj |
Swaziland |
sz |
Sweden |
se |
Switzerland |
ch |
Syrian Arab Republic |
sy |
Taiwan, Province of China |
tw |
Tajikistan |
tj |
Tanzania, United Republic of |
tz |
Thailand |
th |
Togo |
tg |
Tokelau |
tk |
Tonga |
to |
Trinidad and Tobago |
tt |
Tunisia |
tn |
Turkey |
tr |
Turkmenistan |
tm |
Turks and Caicos Islands |
tc |
Tuvalu |
tv |
Uganda |
ug |
Ukraine |
ua |
United Arab Emirates |
ae |
United Kingdom |
gb |
United States |
us |
United States minor outlying islands |
um |
Uruguay |
uy |
Uzbekistan |
uz |
Vanuatu |
vu |
Venezuela |
ve |
Viet Nam |
vn |
Virgin Islands (British) |
vg |
Virgin Islands (U.S.) |
vi |
Wallis and Futuna islands |
wf |
Western Sahara |
eh |
Yemen |
ye |
Yugoslavia |
yu |
Zambia |
zm |
Zimbabwe |
zw |
|
|
By code |
code |
country |
ad |
Andorra |
ae |
United Arab Emirates |
af |
Afghanistan |
ag |
Antigua and Barbuda |
ai |
Anguilla |
al |
Albania |
am |
Armenia |
an |
Netherlands Antilles |
ao |
Angola |
aq |
Antarctica |
ar |
Argentina |
as |
American Samoa |
at |
Austria |
au |
Australia |
aw |
Aruba |
az |
Azerbaijan |
ba |
Bosnia and Herzegowina |
bb |
Barbados |
bd |
Bangladesh |
be |
Belgium |
bf |
Burkina Faso |
bg |
Bulgaria |
bh |
Bahrain |
bi |
Burundi |
bj |
Benin |
bm |
Bermuda |
bn |
Brunei Darussalam |
bo |
Bolivia |
br |
Brazil |
bs |
Bahamas |
bt |
Bhutan |
bv |
Bouvet island |
bw |
Botswana |
by |
Belarus |
bz |
Belize |
ca |
Canada |
cc |
Cocos (Keeling) Islands |
cd |
Congo, the Democratic Republic of the |
cf |
Central African Republic |
cg |
Congo |
ch |
Switzerland |
ci |
Cote d'Ivoire |
ck |
Cook Islands |
cl |
Chile |
cm |
Cameroon |
cn |
China |
co |
Colombia |
cr |
Costa Rica |
cu |
Cuba |
cv |
Cape Verde |
cx |
Christmas island |
cy |
Cyprus |
cz |
Czech Republic |
de |
Germany |
dj |
Djibouti |
dk |
Denmark |
dm |
Dominica |
do |
Dominican Republic |
dz |
Algeria |
ec |
Ecuador |
ee |
Estonia |
eg |
Egypt |
eh |
Western Sahara |
er |
Eritrea |
es |
Spain |
et |
Ethiopia |
fi |
Finland |
fj |
Fiji |
fk |
Falkland Islands (Malvinas) |
fm |
Micronesia, Federated States of |
fo |
Faroe islands |
fr |
France |
fx |
France, Metropolitan |
ga |
Gabon |
gb |
United Kingdom |
gd |
Grenada |
ge |
Georgia |
gf |
French Guiana |
gh |
Ghana |
gi |
Gibraltar |
gl |
Greenland |
gm |
Gambia |
gn |
Guinea |
gp |
Guadeloupe |
gq |
Equatorial Guinea |
gr |
Greece |
gs |
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands |
gt |
Guatemala |
gu |
Guam |
gw |
Guinea-Bissau |
gy |
Guyana |
hk |
Hong Kong |
hm |
Heard and McDonald Islands |
hn |
Honduras |
hr |
Croatia (local name: Hrvatska) |
ht |
Haiti |
hu |
Hungary |
id |
Indonesia |
ie |
Ireland |
il |
Israel |
in |
India |
io |
British Indian Ocean Territory |
iq |
Iraq |
ir |
Iran (Islamic Republic Of) |
is |
Iceland |
it |
Italy |
jm |
Jamaica |
jo |
Jordan |
jp |
Japan |
ke |
Kenya |
kg |
Kyrgyzstan |
kh |
Cambodia |
ki |
Kiribati |
km |
Comoros |
kn |
Saint Kitts and Nevis |
kp |
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of |
kr |
Korea, Republic of |
kw |
Kuwait |
ky |
Cayman Islands |
kz |
Kazakhstan |
la |
Lao People's Democratic Republic |
lb |
Lebanon |
lc |
Saint Lucia |
li |
Liechtenstein |
lk |
Sri Lanka |
lr |
Liberia |
ls |
Lesotho |
lt |
Lithuania |
lu |
Luxembourg |
lv |
Latvia |
ly |
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya |
ma |
Morocco |
mc |
Monaco |
md |
Moldova, Republic of |
mg |
Madagascar |
mh |
Marshall Islands |
mk |
Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of |
ml |
Mali |
mm |
Myanmar |
mn |
Mongolia |
mo |
Macau |
mp |
Northern Mariana Islands |
mq |
Martinique |
mr |
Mauritania |
ms |
Montserrat |
mt |
Malta |
mu |
Mauritius |
mv |
Maldives |
mw |
Malawi |
mx |
Mexico |
my |
Malaysia |
mz |
Mozambique |
na |
Namibia |
nc |
New Caledonia |
ne |
Niger |
nf |
Norfolk Island |
ng |
Nigeria |
ni |
Nicaragua |
nl |
Netherlands |
no |
Norway |
np |
Nepal |
nr |
Nauru |
nu |
Niue |
nz |
New Zealand |
om |
Oman |
pa |
Panama |
pe |
Peru |
pf |
French Polynesia |
pg |
Papua New Guinea |
ph |
Philippines |
pk |
Pakistan |
pl |
Poland |
pm |
St. Pierre and Miquelon |
pn |
Pitcairn |
pr |
Puerto Rico |
pt |
Portugal |
pw |
Palau |
py |
Paraguay |
qa |
Qatar |
re |
Reunion |
ro |
Romania |
ru |
Russian Federation |
rw |
Rwanda |
sa |
Saudi Arabia |
sb |
Solomon Islands |
sc |
Seychelles |
sd |
Sudan |
se |
Sweden |
sg |
Singapore |
sh |
St. Helena |
si |
Slovenia |
sj |
Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands |
sk |
Slovakia (Slovak Republic) |
sl |
Sierra Leone |
sm |
San Marino |
sn |
Senegal |
so |
Somalia |
sr |
Suriname |
st |
Sao Tome and Principe |
sv |
El Salvador |
sy |
Syrian Arab Republic |
sz |
Swaziland |
tc |
Turks and Caicos Islands |
td |
Chad |
tf |
French Southern Territories |
tg |
Togo |
th |
Thailand |
tj |
Tajikistan |
tk |
Tokelau |
tm |
Turkmenistan |
tn |
Tunisia |
to |
Tonga |
tp |
East Timor |
tr |
Turkey |
tt |
Trinidad and Tobago |
tv |
Tuvalu |
tw |
Taiwan, Province of China |
tz |
Tanzania, United Republic of |
ua |
Ukraine |
ug |
Uganda |
um |
United States minor outlying islands |
us |
United States |
uy |
Uruguay |
uz |
Uzbekistan |
va |
Holy See (Vatican City State) |
vc |
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines |
ve |
Venezuela |
vg |
Virgin Islands (British) |
vi |
Virgin Islands (U.S.) |
vn |
Viet Nam |
vu |
Vanuatu |
wf |
Wallis and Futuna islands |
ws |
Samoa |
ye |
Yemen |
yt |
Mayotte |
yu |
Yugoslavia |
za |
South Africa |
zm |
Zambia |
zw |
Zimbabwe |
|
Domain Name Speculation
Had you the foresight in 1992 to spend $50 US and buy the rights
to mcdonalds.com, mcdonalds.ca or
mcdonalds.us you could be a multimillionaire today. Then
again, McDonald's could have sued you for trademark infringement.
Trademark owners are sometimes taking domain names away from
speculators without even the formality of going to court.
The hope of sudden riches has fueled a fad, speculation in
domain names. People buy domain names for a $70 US InterNIC (the
body that hands out .com names) registration fee (for
the first two years) and a $35+ US handling fee to some broker.
Most Internet domain name brokers charge a percentage of the sale
price, not a flat fee. Speculators hope some company will want
the name and pay some considerably higher price. Some names have
gone for millions of dollars. Some speculators lease out a name
to one or more people, especially a prestigious email address. Of
course, most of names purchased for speculation have not sold at
all. Nearly every name in the dictionary, every slang word and
every slang phrase, has been purchased. Every misspelling and
variant of popular site names such as altavista.com have
been snapped up my remoras, people hoping to pick up stray hits.
There are few reasonable names left speculators have not taken.
Right now, there is a domain name registered for every three US
citizens.
You have to pay $35 US a year to keep your registration. If you
don't pay, it goes up for grabs again. This is a another source
of prime domain names for speculators.
Some countries such as Turkmenistan (.tm), Guernsey
(.gg), Jersey (.je) and the Isle of Man
(.im), encourage foreign companies to register. Others
such as South Africa (.za) insist the servers be on South African
soil. Check with iana to see who
is in charge of the country or top level domain that interests
you. Often they won't even have a website, just an email address.
Normally you go through a broker, so finding that information is
his problem.
In researching this, I came across some clearly fraudulent
domain-selling sites. Especially if you plan to buy a
non-standard TLD, do some research on your broker; make sure you
really get world-wide exclusive use of the name and that others
could really find you on the net. It is not much use to have a
name that is not properly hooked into the global DNS system. You
should be able to find lots of sites on the net using the
proposed TLD if all is on the up and up. You might see if any of
those sites will be willing to tell you the email address of
their broker and how they like him. I am particularly suspicious
of the .shop and .rec domains because of
conflicting information I read.
Resources For Buying Domain Names
If you want to play this speculation game, or if you simply want
to find a suitable domain name for your own business, here are
some resources:
body |
TLDs they manage |
notes |
iana |
the global authority |
Manage handing out country codes and other top level domains.
Best source for contact of who is in charge in each country and
top level domain. You don't deal with them directly. |
Altavista |
search engine |
Search for "domain names" to find domain names for
sale. |
Alternic.net |
various e.g.:
.art .arts .asia .aus .bank .cam .dds .design .email .exp
.fam .faq .film .firm .fun .gay .games .ger .globe .gmbh .help .i
.inc .info .jpn .kids .law .learn .llb .lnx .ltd .mail .mag .med
.media .netz .nic .nom .per .prices .radio .rsc .sea .service
.sex .sky .space .sport .shop .tour .travel .usvi .web .wir
.wired .wine .xxx .zine .zoo |
Non-standard TLDs. |
APNIC.net |
various e.g.: .cn .id .in .jp .kp .kr .mm .ph .th .tw
|
national domain names for Asia and the Pacific. |
ARIN |
IP numbers |
American Registry For Internet
Numbers. Handle assigning IP numbers (not domain names) for North
America, South America and sub-Saharan Africa. Unless you want to
buy thousands of IP's you would contact an ISP instead. |
BB-online |
broker for .ie, .as, .no, .se, .tm, .uk, .co.uk,
.uk.com |
Irish company. I have had no dealings with
them, but they have an impressive web site. |
CDnet.ca |
.ca |
Canada |
co.za |
.co.za |
South African commercial domains |
CoreNic |
list of brokers |
Trade organisation that maintains a global list of brokers
who will help you buy domain names. |
The Domain Name Handbook |
book |
(ISBN: 0-87930-515-0) by Ellen & Peter Rony. A
comprehensive guide to domain name speculation. It will show you
how to buy domain names without using a broker. It also talks
about the legal issues revolving around trademarks vs. domain
names and how various disputes over domain names have been
resolved. |
Domain
Baron |
sells domain names |
They have names for sale, and can provide you with links to
other resources. If you want to speculate, 10% of your problem is
finding good names to buy, and 90% is finding customers to sell
them to. They will list your name on their site. Run by my
housemate Dave Bedford who has been badly bitten by the domain
name speculation bug. |
eDNS |
various e.g.: .biz .corp .gay .k12 .npo .pol
.web |
Non-standard TLDs. |
fapesp.br |
.br |
Brazil |
FCN.net |
fcn.net |
They parcel out higher order parts of that one
name. |
iana |
.int |
International Treaty Organisations |
iana |
.us |
USA |
Inter-Corporate |
broker for .com, .org, .ca, .net, .edu and any
others. |
They will broker buying your domain name for you. They charge
only a flat $35 CDN (plus the InterNIC fees). This is the lowest
brokerage fee I have heard of, and they give the best service of
any ISP I have ever dealt with. Very good people. The $35 CDN
setup includes the use of Inter-Corporate's secondary DNS
servers, and when used for the purpose of selling domain names,
those are the only fees. They don't ask for a percentage of the
sale, and the setup fee includes the final transfer as well. They
can also host websites, do HTML, artwork etc. Email Randy Richardson
<randy@inter-corporate.com> for more information. |
InterNIC.net |
.com .net .org .edu |
They have an online database of which names are taken, and
who has which names, and when they are due to expire if the owner
does not renew. |
nic.je |
.gg .je |
The Channel Islands .gg (Guernsey, Alderney, Sark) and .je
(Jersey) domains |
nic.mil |
.mil |
American military |
NIC.mx |
.mx |
Mexico |
registration.fed.gov |
.gov |
American federal government |
RIPE.net |
various e.g. .at .be .ch .cz .de .dk .es .fi .fr .gr .hu
.ie .is .nl .no .pl .pt .se .uk |
national domain names for Europe |
RIPE.net |
list of brokers |
Global list of brokers sorted by country who will help you
buy domain names. |
uinet |
.za |
South Africa |
webtld.com |
.web |
Handle just this one TLD. |
Wet Blanket Caveats
Allow me a dour personal comment. Hopes of high profit for no
work is a form of gold fever, and not all that different from
playing the slot machines. Speculators do no useful work, other
than perhaps subsidising the name assigning organisations. They
are sponges on the body politic. Nature punishes nearly all of
them. The main ones who get rich are those who provide services
for the gambling addicts, just as in a goldrush.
Consider the crazed tulip speculation in renaissance Holland.
Prices on a single bulb were bid up to astronomical levels --
$30,000 a bulb. Then, suddenly, people noticed that bulbs
actually had little real value, and the whole economy collapsed.
I am watching a similar domain name gambling fever gripping my
friends. The basic rule of gambling is, don't risk more than you
can afford to lose. Consider also the law of supply and demand.
There is a very large pool of potential domain names and only a
few customers willing to part with any substantial dollars for
one. If you want to make money, you will have to be very clever.
Consider also that IANA could at any time make available
additional TLDs such as .store and .ski which
will dilute the value of .com names.
People are buying up the silliest names that I doubt will ever
sell. It might be worth while to study the market to see what
names are selling before leaping in with both feet. My
student project domain
database would help you make intelligent buying decisions.
On the other hand, if you think you may want a domain name for
yourself any time in the next ten years, act quickly to buy it.
Otherwise you may be stuck paying through the nose to speculators
for anything half-way decent.
How to Buy a Domain Name Without A Broker
If you want to buy a .com or .org domain name
without a broker, here is what to do. The only tricky part
is having a permanent IP that you want your domain name directed
to. You will have to get that from your ISP. Typically you would
not keep your IP permanently, like your domain name. You would
use it only for the time you are associated with a particular
ISP. You are really borrowing one of his logically related IPs.
You don't have to host your website with the same ISP you get
your Internet access from. Shop around for the best deal.
Consider the ISP's reputation, speed of his servers and of course
the costs of setup, the IP, disk storage, hits, cost of
additional domain names going to the same server. Most ISP's will
sell you a bundle, including the brokering to buy you the domain
name. Some sites will host free if you post ads for them. I think
this looks tacky.
To register, you need some server computer to service
browser hits on your domain name. Further, you want to get your
domain name out on the web, known, indexed in search engines etc.
so that potential buyers of the domain name can find you.
- Check at
http://rs.InterNIC.net/ that your .com domain name
is not already taken. There are delays in the system. A name that
appears to be free may not actually be free. It is first come,
first served. Don't dawdle. My speculating friends have many a
time lost a good name to others by waiting even a few hours to
think it over.
- Click on Register a Domain Name.
- Fill in the New Domain Registration For field with
your domain, e.g. orgasmatron.com. Don't include the www.
- Select new registration.
- .com names are for companies. Fill in the company
name in the Organization Name field. .org names
are for non-profit organisations such as charities.
- Fill in the Organization (Registrant) Information name
and address. You will need to encode your country using the two
letter codes shown above, e.g. US for the USA and CA for Canada.
- In the Administrative/Agent, Technical and
Billing Contact information section, leave the NIC
Handle fields blank, and click the provide contact
information options. You will later be assigned a NIC handle
e.g. RG9999 that you can use in place of filling in the contact
information so you don't have to keep repeating the contact
information four times for every domain you buy.
- In the Name Server section, for Primary Server
Hostname fill in your new domain e.g.
orgasmatron.com, that is presuming your ISP will set it up
as a DNS server. You should get instruction from the ISP who will
host your website on what to use.
- For the Primary Server net address fill in the
permanent IP where this domain will be hosted, e.g. 127.0.0.99
This is the only tricky part. You will have to get this from your
ISP. They will charge you for it. Because of the clerical
overhead, you can't buy IP's singly, except from an ISP. It is
possible to share the same IP among several domains.
- For Secondary Server Hostname fill in your ISP's
domain, without the www, e.g. inter-corporate.com. You should get
instruction from the ISP who will host your website on what to
use.
- For the Secondary Server net address fill in the your
ISP server's IP e.g. 127.0.0.100. You should get instruction from
the ISP who will host your website on what to use.
- Leave the optional information blank.
- After you make your submission, InterNIC will send you an
agreement via email, and you send it back to
hostmaster@InterNIC.net. This process ping pongs back and forth
with ever stronger confirmation that domain is yours until
eventually they send you a bill and you pay it and they confirm
the payment. Then the domain is really yours.
- Since you have 90 days to pay, many speculators
"buy" hundreds of names. If they can't sell them in 90
days, they just let them lapse. This is not good for InterNIC
since they have just as much processing cost as in a real sale.
InterNIC often holds up sales for manual adjudication in an
attempt to discourage this practice.
- For more details on how to register a domain name see the
Registration Process Overview at InterNIC.
- Later you can return to
http://rs.InterNIC.net/rs-internic.html to update any of the
information. There are several schemes you can use to ensure that
only you modify the records. See Updating
Domain Name and Associated Records at InterNIC for
details.