By Barbara Bouton

Having your own domain name gives your site a more professional appearance. But it also has other advantages. Domains can be easily transferred from ISP to ISP without changing the domain name.

So, as long as you pay your registration fees to the domain name registrar that issued your name, friends, family, customers, and regular visitors will always be able to find your site—www.smithindustries.com—no matter how many different ISPs you may use through the years.

The reason you can switch ISPs and still be found is because a domain name is a human-friendly alias that refers to those dot addresses you see sometimes, such as 24.92.226.135.

A dot address, more formally known as an IP address, is assigned to you when you open an account with a hosting ISP. When users want to connect to your site, they enter your domain address or click on a link that contains the address. The request is then sent to a domain name server (DNS) that looks up your domain address in a big database to find out what your current IP address is, so that connection can be made. If you think about it, it's like your own name. If you move, your postal address changes but your name doesn't.

To make sure that the system is consistant and global, ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers was established as a the non-profit corporation.

How Do I Get One?

Domain names are issued by domain name registrars. Currently, the most popular domain names end in the first level domains of .com, .edu, .net, and .org. These kinds of domain names are issued now by a number of companies. I use and recommend NetObjects.Register.com. I've found them to be the fastest, easiest way to get a domain name. They'll even hold them for you until your site is ready.

NetObjects.Register.com also lets you control your domain and where it points. This gives you more control, which is important. I have used other registration services, and NetObjects.Register.com has consistently had the best service. That's exceptionally important because your domain name itself will become an important part of your business.

There are other first level domains. First level domains such as .gov and .mil are issued to U.S. government sites and U.S. military sites, and each has its own registrar. Then there is the system of domains based on geographic location. Each country in the world has its own registrar and its own domain extension--US for the United States, UK for the United Kingdom, SE for Sweden, PL for Poland, and so on. ICANN, the new agency in charge of registrations offers a complete list of accredited registrars.

And once all the world Internet politics get straightened out, there will be even more more first level domains that may be things such as .biz, .sex, .shop.

The price of registering a new domain is usually $35 for one year. After that, registrations cost $35 annually to renew. These fees are paid directly to domain name registrar you choose.

How to Check If the Domain Name You Want Is Available

Your biggest challenge in getting a domain name is to think of one that hasn't already been snapped up. So put on your thinking cap, think of several, and be prepared to compromise. Once you've got your list of possible names, go to NetObjects.Register.com or Internic's Whois service and see if the name has been registered. From that page, you also can jump to Whois databases for other registry services.

"Parking" a Domain Name

But what do you do if you want to secure a domain name before someone else grabs it, but you're not ready to use it just yet? You park it! You put it in storage. NetObjects.Register.com does this for free. The vast majority of ISPs will let you use them as your official ISP for registration purposes, and charge you very little or nothing at all for the service. You also are not obligated to use them as your host when you eventually are ready to go on-line. Of course, they provide parking services for free in the hope that you will buy your hosting services from them. So play nice--if you park a domain somewhere, try to be as sure as you possibly can that you will eventually become a paying customer.

Return to Web Hosting article