Internet Domain Registration FAQs

Website addresses have two parts, the domain name and the top domain. The domain name refers to the main part, for example, yahoo in www.yahoo.com. The top-level domain is the latter part, as in com. The top-level domain name gives the visitor a brief idea as to what the site is about: net for network providers, ?edu? for educational institutions, and ?org? for non-profit organizations.

All domain names in the US are registered in the DNS (Domain Name Server) database, which is managed by the regulatory body ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Different registrars like Go Daddy register the domain names, depending on the availability of the domain name. When registering a domain, a small fee is charged. For those users wishing to have anonymous domain registration, this fee will be a little higher. The InterNIC (Network Information Centers) that is responsible for US domains, charges $70 for a two years registration.

Domain names can also be accessed without typing WWW in front. The domain name availability can be checked on sites that are linked to the WHOIS database. This database provides the information related to the contact details such as name, phone number, and addresses. Sites such as www.easywhois.com can be used to check domain availability.

Domain names are allowed to only have characters between 0-9 and A-Z. The hyphen (-) is allowed, but it cannot be placed at the beginning or at the end of the domain name. The maximum number of characters allowed is 63.

A domain name can be registered for a minimum of 1 and maximum of 10 years. Usually renewal is required between 2-5 years.

Once the InterNIC specifies that the domain name has been registered, it takes about 72 hours for it to become active.

Files must be transferred to the website by a FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Each site will have a user-set login and password, which will protect the site from other people accessing it to change the data.

Some website providers restrict the number of hits that a site can receive. A better option for sites that have a lot of traffic is to shift to a dedicated server.