Domain Name Registry

Grab A Piece Of The Web For Yourself

A domain name on the Web is more unique and identifying than your personal name. Although there's no rule against how many people can be named Bob Johnson or Susan Miller, there can be only one www.bobjohnson.pro or www.susanmiller.name. The role of assigning domain names falls to Web–based domain name registars.



ICANN Do It

To sell domain name rights, registrars must receive Accredited Registrar status with ICANN. This technical coordinating organization has the responsibility of overseeing the assignment of Internet domain names, IP address numbers, and protocol parameter and port numbers.

All domain names are organized in the Internet DNS (Domain Name System) directory. When a domain name is registered, the DNS directory keeps track of the computer on the Internet that is hosting that URL for the duration of the registration period.

Not all domain name registrars handle registrations in each of the top-level domains. When a registrar applies for Accredited Registrar status, it must pay a separate fee for each global TLD (such as .com, net. and .org) it wants to offer. ICANN-accredited registrars may also issue names with different country code TLDs, but ICANN does not specifically accredit registrars to provide registration services for ccTLDs.



VeriSign & Register.com

The process of registering a domain name is not complicated. The steps you need to take at two of the top sites—VeriSign (www.verisign.com) and Register.com (www.register.com)—are similar.

According to SnapNames, a company that analyzes domain name registrars, VeriSign is the top-ranked domain name registrar. (VeriSign acquired Network Solutions, the then-leading registrar, in March 2000 in a $21 billion deal.) VeriSign's registry service is just a portion of the many services it offers customers looking for an online presence or wanting to enhance their ecommerce.

At VeriSign, you'll start by using the free domain name lookup tool (www.netsol.com) to see if the name you want is available. VeriSign manages more than 12 million active domain names, but your search will extend beyond that database. Through its Global Registry Services, VeriSign maintains a directory of more than 27 million URLs in the .com, .net, and .org gTLDs and handles billions of domain name lookups every day.

If the name you want is available, you can begin the buying process. The domain name will cost $35 per year. If you sign up for multiple years, the annual cost will be less. (Prices are slightly higher for a domain name in the .tv gTLD.)

Before you finalize your domain name purchase, you can get additional VeriSign services. Want to forward your site visitors to an existing Web site? That'll be $12 a year. To get your site listed in top search engines, you'll have to fork over $39 a year. VeriSign's personalized email service runs $49 annually, but that includes the price of registering your domain name. Other services you can consider include transferring domain names from one owner to another and one-page or five-page Web site design and hosting. The cost of the latter includes the price of acquiring the domain name.

Register.com works similarly to VeriSign. You'll find a free domain name lookup tool on the home page. If your search is successful, Register.com will include other possible domain names similar to the one you searched for. The price of a .org, .net, or .com domain name for a year is $35. Register.com also offers the free Domain Fast Find service, which will help you create a domain name if you're stumped for a good one at the moment.

Like VeriSign, Register.com offers a number of extra options, from bulk registration of domain names to email boxes and Web site design. Using the WebSiteNOW! Service, you can create a small site for less than $5 a month.

All the good names are gone. The only thing that may impede your domain name registration is if someone has already taken the name you want. If that's the case, one option is to back order the name using the SnapBack service on the VeriSign site. For $69, the service will create a SnapNames account for you and then monitor the status of that domain name for as long as one year. If it becomes available, SnapBack will try to register the name for you. The $69 charge for this service includes the fee for registering the domain name through VeriSign for one year. If SnapBack can't get the name for you, you can apply that fee to the cost of registering a different domain name.

VeriSign's search tool also will suggest alternative names for you if the domain name you looked up is unavailable. When we searched for www.breadbox.com, VeriSign informed us that it was already taken but helpfully offered a long list of alternatives, including www.bread-box.com and www.sandwichesbox.com.



Tucows OpenSRS

Although they welcome individual customers, both VeriSign and Register.com also target businesses of all sizes that typically need to purchase extra services in addition to a domain name. If you don't need those add-on services, you may want to hunt around for bargain registrars. There are hundreds of them.

One of the more unique registrars is Tucows. Instead of registering domain names for individuals, this site recruits companies, such as local ISPs and Web site hosts, to become registrars through its Reseller Program. Tucows resellers, found in more than 100 countries, register domain names and digital certificates using Tucows' OpenSRS platform (resellers.tucows.com/opensrs). This system lets resellers offer their customers domain name registration, renewal, and transfer services that are similar to the ones you'll find at VeriSign and Register.com. And the bulk nature of the OpenSRS program keeps costs to the end user low.

The number of total annual domain name registrations through Tucows resellers has vaulted this firm into the ranks of the top domain name registrars, along with VeriSign and Register.com. Tucows end-user customers may not even know they have registered a domain name through this company unless the reseller they went through informs them.



by Rachel Derowitsch

Source : http://www.computerpoweruser.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/archive/c0209/48c09/48c09.asp&guid