| Domain
Names
By Clare Lawrence 11th May 2004
Domain names are relatively straightforward!
Or at least that’s the theory!!
The domain name is also, but technically
not quiet correct, known as the website
address.
Using an ISP’s domain name can look amateurish
in an e-mail addresses, it is much more
so with websites, giving the impression
of hanging on another’s coat tails. The
only exception being when a firm wants to
re-inforce a local or professional affiliation
by appearing as part of an existing site
dedicated to a region or association. Even
in such cases autonomy and continuity are
better assured by having one’s own domain
and merely using a page on the third party’s
site to point users toward it.
Domains are classified according to their
endings or “suffixes”. As a commercial organisation
a company will almost certainly want a domain
ending in .com or .co.uk. Other endings
such as .biz and .ltd.uk are at least to
date, insufficiently familiar to users,
meaning the name can be too readily misremembered.
Of the two desirable suffixes, .com is preferable
for business with international activities,
and arguably gives the impression of a bigger
organisation, whilst .co.uk helps reassure
users on the largely American-dominated
web that they are indeed dealing with a
UK firm.
The part of the domain name before the suffix
will usually by the firms trading name,
provided of course that the domain name
has not already been registered, (which
is increasingly likely these days). If the
name is very long an abbreviation may be
considered. Domain names are not case sensitive.
The actual registration of a domain name
is a straightforward process that can be
done online, either through your ISP or
better still through a dedicated registration
service company such as Discount Domains
Ltd (http://www.discountdomainsuk.com).
Renewal fees must be paid, typically every
two years.
Checking if a domain name is freely available
is very straightforward as most domain registration
services provide a WHOIS service, as the
name suggest, this checks the ownership
details of a domain, note however that such
services normally run 48 hours behind actual
registrations.
Moving ISP’s can save money, however it
may take time and incur extra charges. Pricing
in the domain name registration industry
have fallen considerably over recent years
and a domain name typically now costs from
$15 for two years registration.
Once your domain name is registered, you
can either leave the domain name “parked”
awaiting future use, or point it at a website,
this is usually achieved by changing the
Domain Name Server, or DNS settings on the
domain to point at hosting company where
your website is located. Almost all registration
services offer a free user control panel
to change these settings.
Web hosting is the provision of space on
a web server to publish a web site. There
are numerous hosting companies in the market,
and most domain registration services also
offer a hosting solution. Prices vary but
$100 per annum should be sufficient for
most business needs.
Clare Lawrence is CEO of Discount Domains
Ltd – A leading UK provider of Domain name
registration and Web Hosting services. Please
feel free to re-publish this article provided
this reference box remains together with
a hyperlink to http://www.discountdomainsuk.com
Clare can also be contacted on clare@discountdomainsuk.com
........................................................................................................................
Clare Lawrence is CEO of Discount Domains
Ltd – A leading UK provider of Domain name
registration and Web Hosting services. Please
feel free to re-publish this article provided
this reference box remains together with
a hyperlink to http://www.discountdomainsuk.com
Clare can also be contacted on clare@discountdomainsuk.com
"Article
reprinted from SimplySearch4it! Articles
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