What is a domain name?

A domain name is a pointer to an address on the Internet. Computers attached to the Internet are addressed using numbers like 208.101.23.200. While this makes for easy communication among computers, it's not very practical for humans as it's difficult to remember such a long string of numbers. A domain name is an easier way of identifying a specific computer on the Internet. Special servers on the Internet translate names you type in like www.host17.com into the numerical address required to access the Web site.

What does it mean to register a domain name?

When you register a domain name, you are paying for the use of that name for a period of 1-10 years. The company that provides the registration service, the registrar, collects information from you such as your name and contact information along with where you would like to host the site and stores it in a database. This information is then made available to those requiring access to your site or ownership information about the domain name itself.

What is a top level domain (TLD)?

A TLD is essentially the suffix of a domain name. There are two types of TLD's: the generic (gTLD) and the country code TLD (ccTLD). Most users are familiar with .com as it is the most popular gTLD. The .com gTLD was originally intended for commercial entities, .net for network providers, .edu for education institutions, .gov for goverment agencies and .org for miscellaneous organizations that don't fit into any of the other catagories. Today, everyone is free to register a name under the .com or .net gTLDs. Newer examples of gTLD's are the .info and .biz suffixes. The firms responsible for these names attempt to market them to individuals and businesses just as .com is used today.

Every country in the world has a two letter ccTLD. For example, .us is for the United States, .ca for Canada and .de for Germany. Many countries require you to have a local presence (or nexus) in order to register a name there. However, many countries with popular domains that represent additional meanings in the English language (i.e. Tuvalu - .tv) have decided to market their names to all, thus opening up additional possibilities if the name you want is not available under one of the gTLDs.

How long can my domain name be and what characters can I use?

Generally, your name can be up to 63 characters in length. You can use letters, numbers or the hyphen ("-"). The name cannot begin or end with a hyphen. In addition, .info and .biz names must contain at least three characters.

What is .name and how does it work?

.name is a little different type of gTLD in that you can share the second level (what comes directly before the .name) with several other registrants. For example if your name is Nancy Jones, you could register the name nancy.jones.name. Obviously there would be other Jones' that would want to register a name (i.e. Bill Jones - bill.jones.name), thus, you would share .jones.name with all of them. Your email address would also share the second level name (i.e. nancy@jones.name).

Can I register domains in other languages using native characters?

Yes, this service is now available. Special encoding technology allows such names to be registered (i.e. Hebrew, Japanese). Although they don't work universally across the Internet, if you conduct business in another country and wish to have an Internet presence there, it is a good idea to register the name now to secure it for future use. (Call Host 17 for more information).

Can I forward my domain name to another Website?

Yes. If you select Host 17 as your registrar we can even provide full DNS services for that domain.