DOMAIN FAQS

What is a Domain Name?

• A domain name is a unique identifier that allows internet users to find and use a specific web site. There are several different levels of domain names, (e.g., www.verdunlyles.com , where "com" is the Top Level Domain, "domain" is the second level domain, and "www" is the third level domain)
  

• A domain name is an address used by web surfers to find a website. For example the domain name http://www.verdunlyles.com is used by surfers to find VLE Hosting web site. Each domain name is translated by computers into a numerical sequence that computers can understand. If you are looking for some "in depth" information about domain names you will find some technical terms used in the domain name industry below.
  
• The term "domain name" is a very general term and is often preceded by another term to more specifically define to what someone is referring.  There are different levels of domain names as the following examples and definitions show.
  

• There are several Top Level Domain's (TLD's) in existence today, the most widely used is .com. The 1980's brought the existence of several gTLD's (generic TLD's) which include: com, .net, .org, .edu, .gov, .int, and .mil. The public was allowed to register second level domains in only .com, .net, and .org and the others had certain restrictions which needed to be met in order to register a second level domain (e.g., you needed to work for the government in order to register in the .gov TLD).
  

• Other gTLD's came into existence circa 2001, including: .info, .biz, .name, and .pro. Only .info is unrestricted and allows the public to register without owning a business for .biz and being some sort of professional (e.g., doctor or lawyer) for .pro. It appears that new gTLD's will be added in the future. Adding new gTLD's gives people the opportunity to register a domain name in a new TLD that is taken in an existing TLD (e.g., www.example.com is taken but someone can now register www.example.info).
  

• There are also several existing sTLD's (sponsored TLD's) which include aero, .coop, and .museum. It looks as if more sTLD's will be added in the future. A sTLD has a "sponsor" which represents a niche community (e.g., .aero represents airports, air pilots, and other air related web sites). http://www.domainbank.com is the largest .aero registrar as of this writing.
  You can visit http://www.icann.org/tlds/ for more information regarding TLD's
  

• Most people refer to the term "domain name" when describing a second level domain name. A second level domain name is the part of the domain that proceeds the TLD (e.g., verdunlyles.com). The second level domain name is limited by several factors such as: length of domain name (about 63 characters is the maximum length), until recently only roman characters have been acceptable (numbers and letters), the only other character is the hyphen, which can not be used at the beginning or end of the domain but only within a domain (e.g., verdun-lyles.com is ok, but verdunlyles-.com and -verdunlyles.com are not). There are currently programs which are adding umlauts and other characters into the acceptable character realm.
  

• Third level domains like name.verdunlyles.com are widespread but used much less that second level domain names. The owner of a second level domain can add infinite third level domains to their second level domain name but web masters tend to add file extensions instead. For example a web master would add verdunlyles.com/name.html rather than name.verdunlyles.com. The www in www.verdunlyles.com stands for World Wide Web and is a third level domain that is most often a default set by a webmaster (i.e., an internet surfer could type in "www.verdunlyles.com" or just "verdunlyles.com" and get the exact same web page). Sometimes you will see larger web sites use www1 and www2 to proceed their second level domain name. These are third level domains which typically are directing Internet traffic to different web servers to help balance the load of a lot of Internet traffic.
  

• ccTLD's are representative of sovereign countries, for example a .uk TLD is referencing the United Kingdom. There are many ccTLD's each with their own set of rules for who can and can not register a second level domain in their ccTLD. Each also has its own price point and individual set of rules. You can find a good list of ccTLD's at http://www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm
  

• A domain name transfer is when the current holder/registrant of a domain name wishes to change companies that provides domain name services. This process can only be done by the registrant or administrative contact who is listed on the current domain name registration record.
  

• A domain transfer can refer to two separate and distinct domain name transactions. These are 1) a Registrant Domain Transfer and 2) a Registrar Domain Transfer.
  

• A Registrant Domain Transfer takes place when the current Registrant of a domain name wishes to transfer all rights to a third party. Only the current Registrant or Administrative contact of a domain name can initiate the Registrant Transfer process.
  

• As there has been some fraudulent activities in the past regarding registrant domain transfers the process usually requires some level of security, but this differs for different Registrar companies. Some Registrars require only a user name and password to conduct a Registrant domain transfer online. Other registrar companies require a notarized form (or other formal identification document depending on the county the registrant lives in) proving that the registrant is the actual owner. In all cases the domain name owner contacts their current Registrar company and requests that the domain name be transferred to the new third party.
  

• When conducting a Registrant transfer the Registrar company must add at least one year to the remaining term of the domain name registration. For example, if www.nic.net had three months remaining on its domain name registration and they sold their domain name to a third party the new party would need to add at least a one year registration term to the remaining three months and end up with one year and three months until they needed to renew their domain name again.
  

• A Registrar domain transfer is when the current Registrant of a domain name wishes to switch domain name Registrar companies. A Registrant may wish to switch companies because they are unsatisfied with the level of customer service they are receiving at their current domain Registrar company or for any other reason.
  

• To conduct a Registrar transfer a Registrant or the domain names Administrative contact must initiate the request through the new Registrar company and then reply to the old Registrar companies e-mail which asks for verification of the Registrar transfer.
  

• For example, you want to switch from Registrar "A" to Registrar "B." You need to be the Registrant of record of the administrative contact for the domain name. First you visit Registrar B's web site and complete their process telling them that you want to transfer your domain name to them. Next you will receive an e-mail from Registrar A asking you if you did in fact request a Registrar Transfer. You must follow the instructions on Registrar A's e-mail or they will deny the request for security reasons (as stated there have been a lot of fraudulent domain name transfer requests). Next you will be contacted by your new Registrar B telling you the status of your Registrar transfer request. Once the Registrar transfer is complete you can log in to your new account at the new Registrars web site.
  

• Domain register is another term often used for domain registration. Domain register is simply the process of registering a domain name or may also refer to a company which provides domain name registration
  

• Domain register is another term often used for domain registration. Domain register is simply the process of registering a domain name or may also refer to a company which provides domain name registration
  

• This is the process by which someone who registers a domain name (referred to as a Registrant) with a domain Registrar company (see below). The process involves choosing a domain name which the Registrant desires, making sure that someone else has not already registered the domain name and collecting relevant data about the Registrant. Data collected consists of the name, address, phone number, e-mail and sometimes a few other items like FAX number.
  
  
• The above data is collected for the Registrant, the Administrative contact, the Billing, contact, and the Technical contact. Each of the contacts can perform some actions relating to the domain name but the Registrant is the ultimate owner. The Administrative contact has almost the same power as the Registrant. This is because a Registrant is often a corporation and the Administrative contact is the person within the corporation with is responsible for the domain name.
  

• Also collected is the DNS which the registrant would like to use. The DNS consists of a primary and secondary name server which tells internet traffic where the web host for the domain name is located. DNS information is provided by all web hosts and can be obtained by simply asking them for the DNS which you need to connect your domain name to their name servers.
  
• Other services are often offered such as web hosting, e-mail and other domain name related services.
  

• Lastly payment for the domain name is collected, typically by credit card, paypal or other method.
  

• A domain Registrar is a company that has been accredited by the domain name registration industry oversight body (ICANN) to register and maintain domain name information for customers.
  

• Any place that you can register a domain name must ultimately use a domain Registrar. The use of domain Registrars protects the public from multiple registrations of the same domain name and holds domain Registrars accountable for keeping attached contact information current for a domain name. This protects domain Registrants from third parties attempting to steal a domain name.
  

• Domain renewal is simply when the current registrant wants to extend the term of time for a given domain name. This can be done at any time, but is often done within a few months of when a domain names term of time is about to run out
  

• Domain name renewal is the process of purchasing additional time to an existing domain name registration. Domain names can have a maximum of ten years of registration term attached to them at any given time. You can keep a domain name indefinitely by renewing the domain name prior to expiration time and time again.
  

• Note: Any company offering one hundred year registrations is either a scam or a company that will take your money now and renew your domain name for you every ten years until one hundred years is up.
  

• When you renew your domain name you add whatever amount of time you choose the remaining time on your registration. For example if you have eleven months remaining on your domain name registration and you decide that you are going to keep your domain name for a very long time you can conduct a domain renewal for nine years (remember the 10 year max) . The additional nine years now brings the date that your domain name expires to nine years and eleven months into the future.
  

• For any domain names that you plan on keeping it is prudent to register your domain name for several years at a time. The longer your term of registration the lower the price per year costs.
  

• Should you forget to renew your domain name it then holds an Expired status which can last anywhere from 0 to 45 days (at the Registrars discretion). You can typically still conduct a domain renewal during this period.
  

• After Expiration comes the Redemption Grace Period which lasts 30 days. You can typically still conduct a domain renewal during this period but there will be some additional fees attached.
  

• After the Redemption Grace Period comes the Pending Deletion period which lasts for 5 days. After this period the domain name is released to the public and is available for anyone to register.
  

• Note: There are companies of questionable ethics which will register domain names they hold to be active web sites immediately as that domain name becomes available. They then offer to sell the domain name back to the previous owner who may have forgotten to conduct a domain renewal for many times what a domain registration costs. For example xyz.com is an active domain name and web site but company "xyz" forgets to renew their domain name. Unethical company "A" registers the domain name because they know that xyz.com is an active company which uses their domain name. Of course "xzy" company realizes something is wrong very quickly because all of the sudden their web site is gone and they are not doing any online business. Company "A" may put up a one page web site saying the domain name is for sale for usually several hundred to several thousand dollars. If company xyz wants their domain name back they can either file for legal action or pay what company "A" is asking.
  

• The Domain Name System (DNS) is synonymous with domain name service. It is the method by which Internet addresses in mnemonic form such as verdunlyles.com are converted into the equivalent numeric IP address such as 66.225.219.126
  

• DNS can mean Domain Name Service/System/Server. DNS is the Internet service that changes/translates domain names into IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. An example IP address is 66.225.219.126 (this is verdunlyles.com IP address - type it into your browser address bar and you will be directed to verdunlyles.com web site). Because the Internet uses IP addresses to locate web sites but humans would have a hard time remembering long strings of numbers domain name are based upon easy to use letters. Most people would find it easier to remember www.verdunlyles.com than 66.225.219.126 since the number string is long and doesn't denote any meaning.
  

• Each time you type in a domain name a DNS service will translate the domain name into the corresponding IP address.
  

• The DNS system is its own network (a group of computers linked together). A request to translate a domain name into an IP number starts on the computer you are using and continues (asking other computers on the network) until it finds the correct IP address is found. There are several root servers at the top of this network that ultimately know how to translate any domain name into an IP address. There are a lot of computers which hold information about domain name service and they typically cache (or remember) how to translate a domain name to an IP after they have figured it out once.
  

• Domain name service not only applies to domain names but also helps e-mail to find the correct computer it is supposed to reach.
  

• Domain hosting is a service which provides the customer with space on the domain hosts computers (called servers - because they serve the information they hold to the internet) so anyone on the internet can see their site
  

• Domain Hosting is synonymous with web hosting and is the service by which a company sets up a computer named a "server" to store and serve information to the Internet. The domain hosting company also typically offers e-mail to go along with the domain hosting account. This allows a domain name holder to receive e-mail using their domain name (e.g., yourname@verdunlyles..com).
  

• There are a lot of domain hosting companies with products and pricing that vary widely. Be careful that the domain hosting company you choose has been around for awhile as these companies come and go regularly. We recommend ourselves (VLE Hosting) as we feel we have good pricing and are a stable company to work with.
  

• You will either need to use a template, have a professional design and code it, or learn HTML or some other code in order to create your website. HTML is a fairly simple computer language but can be daunting to someone not familiar with it. We recommend using a template, buying an Internet for Dummies book on how to build a web site or using a professional that can show you some references or actual web sites they have built.
  
• 
  We recommend LaVie en Rose Productions Internet Services Design.  (Sister Company to VLE Hosting.  Registrants point their DNS to VLE Hosting company and we in turn attach the specified domain name to the code the user then uploaded to their web site, usually by FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Domain hosting companies (like us) allow users on the Internet to access our server and view the web site.
  

• Domain hosting companies usually offer several levels of service. Small web sites with not a lot of traffic don't use up much space on the server and not a lot of bandwidth because not many people are looking at the web site. A small domain hosting account is therefore accordingly not very expensive.
  
• A large website that receives a lot of traffic such as Google.com takes up a lot of server space (in fact most likely several hundred servers in their entirety) and a lot of bandwidth since a lot of people are looking at their web site. Larger websites also often demand a very fast connection time which brings about additional costs. A large domain hosting account is therefore accordingly very expensive.
  

• There are a lot of add on services that a domain hosting company can offer. Minimally they may offer a counter which tells how many people have visited a certain page on your web site. The counter can also become a large web statistical product with tells you where on the Internet visitors came from, what pages they viewed on your site and how long they stayed on each. You can also look at how may error pages (pages people attempted to view but could not find) on your site.