This essay that will tell you more than you wanted to know about domain names, ownership rights, DNS, TLDs TLD s), country code TLD s, domain name speculation, resources for buying domain names, wet blanket caveats and how to buy a domain name without a broker.
When you own a name such as mindprod.com you own world wide rights to it, You are absolute ruler of that realm/domain and can choose to carve it up with whatever dot prefixes you choose, e.g. www.mindprod.com, ftp.mindprod.com, products.mindprod.com or even silly.mindprod.com, You own exclusive right to all possible prefixes including all the mail addresses, e.g. anyone@mindprod.com. Domain names are not case-sensitive, so that if you own mindprod.com you also automatically own mindprod.com as well. However, you do not necessarily own the rights to other prefixes not separated by a dot, e.g. blowyourmindprod.com. You could buy them separately of course. Further, you do not necessarily own that name with other TLD suffixes, e.g. mindprod.org or mindprod.ca. Further, you do not own variants with dashes, e.g. mind-prod.com. You have to register and pay for, all those separately. If you don’t some remora might register them and hold them ransom. This is both insanity and a ripoff. Welcome to planet earth.
There are five common questions about domain names and IP you may have:
For the first question, who owns or is currently using this IP, see IP lookup services
For the second question, finding the IP given the domain name, you need an DNS lookup service:
For the third question (who owns this domain) use one of these whois services:
You might think it sufficient for to check if a domain name is taken to simply point your browser to www.xxxxx.com and see if you get a 404 not found error. However, the name may be taken, with no webserver set up, so the name would appear to be free when it was actually taken.
For third question (where is the domain located) use one of these IP locator services:
Ways of Finding Your Face IP | ||
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Logo | Link | Notes |
Your face IP :[ 18.97.14.84] | Your face IP is displayed at the bottom of every page of this website. I do this with SSI (Server Side Includes). | |
IPchicken.com | tells your face ip and which ports you have open. They also tell you your face name, e.g. your URL (Uniform Resource Locator) on the web, possibly temporarily assigned for your connection. It might look something like this S0106991195576dda.gv.shawcable.net or d207-81-138-97.bchsia.telus.net That is not my real one. I don’t want to encourage hackers. | |
checkip.dyndns.org:8245/ | Offers many other services as well. | |
WhatIsMyIPAddress.com | has many annoying ads you must close to discover the answer. | |
— | — | In a Servlet you can use javax.servlet. ServletRequest. getRemotePort(). |
Available Applet is a whoIs that tells you if a server is available/up. It also tells you the IP given the host or the host given the IP.
WhatIsMyIP has a number of IP tools for programmers.
Available Appletis a whoIs that tells you if a server is available/up. It also tells you the IP given the host or the host given the IP.
WhatIsMyIP has a number of IP tools for programmers.
The official TLDs are: .aero .biz .coop .com .edu .gov .info .mil .museum .name .net .org .pro
The unofficial TLDs are: .cam .mp3 .agent .art .arts .asia .auction .aus .bank .cam .chat .church .club .coop .corp .dds .design .dns2go .e .email .exp .fam .family .faq .fed .film .firm .free .fun .g .game .games .gay .ger .globe .gmbh .golf .gov .help .hola .i .inc .int .jpn .k12 .kids .law .learn .llb .llc .llp .lnx .love .ltd .mag .mail .med .media .mp3 .netz .nic .nom .npo .per .pol .prices .radio .rsc .school .scifi .sea .service .sex .shop .sky .soc .space .sport .tech .tour .travel .usvi .video .web .wine .wir .wired .zine .zoo
Then there are the two letter country codes: .ac .ad .ae .af .ag .ai .al .am .an .ao .aq .ar .as .at .au .aw .ax .az .ba .bb .bd .be .bf .bg .bh .bi .bj .bm .bn .bo .br .bs .bt .bv .bw .by .bz .ca .cc .cd .cf .cg .ch .ci .ck .cl .cm .cn .co .cr .cs .cu .cv .cx .cy .cz .de .dj .dk .dm .do .dz .ec .ee .eg .eh .er .es .et .fi .fj .fk .fm .fo .fr .fx .ga .gb .gd .ge .gf .gg .gh .gi .gl .gm .gn .gp .gq .gr .gs .gt .gu .gw .gy .hk .hm .hn .hr .ht .hu .id .ie .il .im .in .io .iq .ir .is .it .je .jm .jo .jp .ke .kg .kh .ki .km .kn .kp .kr .kw .ky .kz .la .lb .lc .li .lk .lr .ls .lt .lu .lv .ly .ma .mc .md .mg .mh .mk .ml .mm .mn .mo .mp .mq .mr .ms .mt .mu .mv .mw .mx .my .mz .na .nc .ne .nf .ng .ni .nl .no .np .nr .nu .nz .om .pa .pe .pf .pg .ph .pk .pl .pm .pn .pr .ps .pt .pw .py .qa .re .ro .ru .rw .sa .sb .sc .sd .se .sg .sh .si .sj .sk .sl .sm .sn .so .sr .st .sv .sy .sz .tc .td .tf .tg .th .tj .tk .tl .tm .tn .to .tp .tr .tt .tv .tw .tz .ua .ug .uk .um .us .uy .uz .va .vc .ve .vg .vi .vn .vu .wf .ws .ye .yt .yu .za .zm .zw .io .tv are sometimes used, nothing to do with the country.
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is allowing anyone to create a new TLD and manage it. There will probably be hundreds of new TLDs , such as .volvo, .pfizer, .sucks. This will free up .com and allow people to use shorter names. The problem is also creates hundreds of new opportunities for domain spoofing. e.g. mindprod.ca could easily be confused with my domain mindprod.com. To stop remoras, I would have to buy up thousands of similar domains.
The people who designed this scheme were not thinking clearly. The hyphen should have been a noise character that is ignored. Then mind-prod.com and mindprod.com would be considered the same domain. Users would not need to remember where the dashes go. You would not need to buy all the dash variant domain names and protect them all from remoras.
The hope of sudden riches has fueled a fad, speculation in domain names. People lease domain names for per year from Network Solutions (née Internic) (the body that hands out .com names) plus a handling fee to some broker. Most Internet domain name brokers charge a percentage of the sale price, not a flat fee. Speculators hope some company will want the name and pay some considerably higher price. Some names have gone for millions of dollars. Some speculators lease out a name to one or more people, especially a prestigious email address. Of course, most of names purchased for speculation have not sold at all. Nearly every name in the dictionary, every slang word and every slang phrase has been purchased. Every misspelling and variant of popular site names such as altavista.com have been snapped up by remoras, people hoping to pick up stray hits. There are few reasonable names left speculators have not taken. Right now, there is a domain name registered for every three US citizens.
You have to pay a year to keep your registration. If you don?t pay, it goes up for grabs again. If you do pay, no one can take it away from you, except the courts. Recently expired domain names are a prime source for speculators.
Some countries such as Turkmenistan ( .tm), Guernsey ( .gg), Jersey ( .je) and the Isle of Man ( .im), encourage foreign companies to register. Others such as South Africa (.za) insist the servers be on South African soil. Check with iana to see who is in charge of the country or top level domain that interests you. Often they won?t even have a website, just an email address. Normally you go through a broker, so finding that information is his problem.
In researching this, I came across some clearly fraudulent domain-selling sites. Especially if you plan to buy a non-standard TLD , do some research on your broker; make sure you really get world-wide exclusive use of the name and that others could really find you on the net. It is not much use to have a name that is not properly hooked into the global DNS system. You should be able to find lots of sites on the net using the proposed TLD if all is on the up and up. You might see if any of those sites will be willing to tell you the email address of their broker and how they like him. I am particularly suspicious of the .shop and .rec domains because of conflicting information I read.
If you want to play this speculation game, or if you simply want to find a suitable domain name for your own business, here are some resources:
Domain Name Resources | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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body | TLDs they manage | All prices are in | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
body | TLDs they manage | All prices are in | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ICANN | the global authority. Wholesaler for:
.com, .net, .edu and .org. New top level domains include : .aero (air transport, for services & companies dealing with air travel), .biz (business & corporations). .coop (co-operatives) .info (newspapers, libraries, etc.) .museum (museums, archival institutions, & exhibitions) .name (individuals and personal websites, e.g. www.Roedy.Green.name. Note you own only www.roedy.green.name not roger.green.name the way you would with other domains. Your email address becomes roedy@green.name, not roedy@roedy.green.name.) .pro (accountants, lawyers and physicians) |
The ICANN. The body in charge of assiging all Internet DNS names and numbers. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
HugeDomains | Sell premium names for thousands of dollars. They have their catalog of names organised by categories. | They are not where to go to register an unregistered name. You go to buy from someone who has already registered the name you want. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
IANA | Part of ICANN | IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority). Manage handing out country codes and other top level domains. Best source for contact of who is in charge in each country and top level domain. You don?t deal with them directly. They are the wholesaler to assign IP numbers. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
101Doman | sell domain names. | .eu .com .net .org .biz .bz .info .cc .tv .ws .us .name .ae .com.af .ag .com.ai .com.al .am .com.ar .as .at .com.au .bb .be .bg .com.bh .bn .com.bo .com.br .bs .bz .ca .cc .cd .ch .cl .cn .com.cn .com.co .co.cr .cx .cz .de .dj .dk .com.do .dz .com.ec .com.eg .es .eu .fi .fm .com.fo .fr .com.fr .ge .com.gi .gl .gm .gr .gs .com.gt .com.hk .hn .hr .hu .ie .co.il .co.in .ir .is .it .jm .com.jo .jp .co.ke .com.kh .com.ki .co.kr .kw .kz .com.lb .li .lk .lt .lu .md .mn .mo .ms .mt .mu .com.mx .com.my .nc .com.ng .nl .no .nu .co.nz .om .pa .com.pa .com.pe .pe .com.pk .ph .com.pl .com.pr .pt .com.py .ro .ru .com.sa .com.sc .se .com.sg .sh .si .sk .sm .st .co.sv .tc .tf .co.th .tk .tm .tn .to .com.tr .tv .com.tw .com.ua .co.uk .us .com.uy .uy .com.ve .ve .vg .com.vn .vu .ws .yu .co.za .au.com .br.com cn.com .de.com .eu.com .gb.com .gb.net .hu.com .no.com .qc.com .ru.com .sa.com .se.com .se.net .uk.com .uk.net .us.com .uy.com .za.com .biz .info .aero .name .pro .museum .coop | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Altavista | search engine | Search for domain names to find domain names for sale. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alternic.net | various e.g.: .art .arts .asia .aus
.bank .cam .dds .design .email .exp .fam .faq .film .firm .fun .gay .games .ger .globe .gmbh .help .i .inc .info .jpn .kids .law .learn .llb .lnx .ltd .mail .mag .med .media .netz .nic .nom .per .prices .radio .rsc .sea .service .sex .sky .space .sport .shop .tour .travel .usvi .web .wir .wired .wine .xxx .zine .zoo |
Non-standard TLDs. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
americaregistry.com | .us | USA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
APNIC.net | various e.g.: .cn .id .in .jp .kp
.kr .mm .ph .th .tw |
national domain names for Asia and the Pacific. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ARIN | IP numbers | ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers). Handle assigning IP numbers (not domain names) for North America, South America and sub-Saharan Africa. Unless you want to buy thousands of IP ?s you would contact an ISP instead. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BB-online | broker for .ie .as .no .se .tm,
.uk .co.uk .uk.com |
Irish company. I have had no dealings with them, but they have an impressive website. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CIRA.ca | .ca | CIRA (Canadian Internet Registration Authority). They are in charge of all .ca names for Canada. Individuals and small ISPs (Internet Service Providers) don?t deal directly with them. They must deal through certified registrars. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CNNames | .cn .tw | Register Chinese domain names, .cn .com.cn .net.cn .org.cn | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
co.za | .co.za | South African commercial domains | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CoreNic | list of brokers | Trade organisation that maintains a global list of brokers who will help you buy domain names. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
book | A comprehensive guide to domain name speculation. It will show you how to buy
domain names without using a broker. It also talks about the legal issues
revolving around trademarks vs. domain names and how various disputes over
domain names have been resolved.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
dns2go | free domain names of the form xxxx.dns2go.com | The interesting thing about dns2go, is that you don?t even need a permanent IP to have a domain. You can have one with dial up via SLIP (Serial Line Interface Protocol) or PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) where you get a different IP every time, or with ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line technology) or cable TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) with DHCP dynamic IP assignment. You can run game servers, mail servers, webservers etc. using a permanent name. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
dotbiztoday.com | .biz | for two years. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DotEco | .eco | Green sites. Not available yet. There are three companies vying to control .eco. Some want to use it for greenwashing. DotEco want it controlled by ecology organisations like the David Suzuki Foundation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dotster | sells domain names and web hosting
.biz .bz .ca .cc .com .info .name .net .nu .org .sr .tv .us .ws |
per year for .name
per year for .biz, .com, .info, .net, .org, .us per year for .ca per year for .bz per year for .ws per year for .cc per year for .nu per year for .tv per year for .sr | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DOT.TV | .tv | Theoretically for the country of Tuvalu, but informally for something associated with television. Advertised as cool. Domain names for a year. Their website now seems to artfully dodge the issue of price like some snake oil salesman. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dyn | 38 free domains plus .bz .cc .cn .com .info
.name .net .org .tv .co.uk .org.uk .us |
per year though .cc .cn and .tv cost extra. Dyn offers three free services of interest to people who host webservers on their home machines, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
fapesp.br | .br | Brazil | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
iana | .int | International Treaty Organisations | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GoDaddy | .ag .am .asia .at .be .biz .bz .ca .cc .co .co.in .co.nz .co.uk .com .com.ag .com.br .com.bz .com.co .com.es .com.mx .com.tw .de .es .eu .firm.in .fm .fr .gen.in .gs .idv.tw .in .ind.in .info .it .jobs .jp .me .me.uk .mobi .ms .mx .net .net.ag .net.br .net.bz .net.co .net.in .net.nz .nl .nom.co .nom.es .nu .org .org.ag .org.es .org.in .org.nz .org.tw .org.uk .se .tc .tk .tv .tw .us .vg .ws .xxx | if you use their web hosting services. Allows non-techies to set up webstores. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hostway | .asia .biz .co .info .mobi .net .org .pro .us | to per year. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Inter-Corporate | .com .org .ca .net .edu
and any others. |
They will broker buying your domain name for you. They charge only a flat per year (i.e. zero markup on the Verisign Network Solutions/InterNIC fee) for .com, .org, .net, .edu and per year for .ca. This is the lowest brokerage fee I have heard of and they give the best service of any ISP I have ever dealt with. Very good people. The price includes the use of Inter-Corporate?s secondary DNS servers and when used for the purpose of selling domain names, those are the only fees. They don?t ask for a percentage of the sale and the setup fee includes the final transfer as well. They can also host websites, do HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), artwork etc. Email Randolf Richardson <randolf@inter-corporate.com> for more information. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domain Names Global | .aero .biz .coop .info .museum
.name .pro |
per year. Australian company. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NamesForEveryone.com | .name | for two years. Currently only taking re-registrations. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Network
Solutions
(n?e Internic aka Verisign Network Solutions) |
.biz .bz .cc .com .edu
.gs .info .ms .net .nu .org .tc .tv .us .vg .ws |
They have an online database of which names are taken and who has which
names and when they are due to expire if the owner does not renew.
They retail
.com names for
per year. They retail .name names for
per year.
To talk directly to ICANN , a broker must ante up Some registration companies have done this then folded leaving the state of some of their registrations in limbo. Internic is the original and presumably most stable source. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
new.net | .agent .arts .auction .chat
.church .club .family .free .game .gmbh .golf .hola .inc .kids .law .llc .llp .love .ltd .med .mp3 .school .scifi .shop .soc .sport .tech .travel .video .xxx |
They seem no longer to be soliciting business since the home page requires a login. Not everyone will be able to access these names since browsers don?t recognise these non-standard domains. These people are crooks. They surreptitiously install browser add-ons to make their non-standard domains visible. On top of that they charge three times as much as real domains, per year. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
iana.org | .mil | American military. nic.mil is no longer accessible to the public. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NIC.mx | .mx | Mexico | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NJStar Unicode Domain Names | .com .net | Chinese, Japanese and Korean, non-ASCII domain names. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PIR | .org | in charge of all .org. Does not deal with the public directly. You go through a registrar. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
http://www.dotgov.gov | .gov | American federal government. Registration is limited to federal, state, local and tribal government organizations. per year. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
register.com | .biz .ca .cc .co .co.nz .co.uk .com.tw .de .eu .eu.com .info .jp .la .mobi .net .net.nz .org .org.nz .org.uk .tv .tw .uk.com .us .us.com .ws .xxx | per year. Last revised/verified: 2012-12-12 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
RIPE.net | various e.g. .at .be .ch .cz .de
.dk .es .fi .fr .gr .hu .ie .is .nl .no .pl .pt .se .uk |
national domain names for Europe | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
sedo.de | various e.g. .at .be .ch .cz .de
.dk .es .fi .fr .gr .hu .ie .is .nl .no .pl .pt .se .uk |
broker for trading domain names in Europe. Appraisal service for domain names. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Voxdomains.com | .com .info .ca .us .net .org .biz .name .tv .co.uk .me.uk org.uk | to per year. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
webnames.ca | .ca | per year. They primarily deal with ISPs not individuals. |
You don?t like any of these? You can have any TLD you want for a mere . Normally you would do that only as an inventmest then sell off the individual domain names ending with that TLD. Just apply to ICANN.
Consider the crazed tulip speculation in renaissance Holland. Prices on a single bulb were bid up to astronomical levels ? a bulb. Then, suddenly, people noticed that bulbs actually had little real value and the whole economy collapsed. I am watching a similar domain name gambling fever gripping my friends. The basic rule of gambling is, don?t risk more than you can afford to lose. Consider also the law of supply and demand. There is a very large pool of potential domain names and only a few customers willing to part with any substantial dollars for one. If you want to make money, you will have to be very clever.
Consider also that IANA could at any time make available additional TLDs such as .store and .ski which will dilute the value of .com names.
People are buying up the silliest names that I doubt will ever sell. It might be worth while to study the market to see what names are selling before leaping in with both feet. My student project domain database would help you make intelligent buying decisions.
On the other hand, if you think you may want a domain name for yourself any time in the next ten years, act quickly to buy it. Otherwise you may be stuck paying through the nose to speculators for anything half-way decent.
You don?t have to host your website with the same ISP you get your Internet access from. Shop around for the best deal. Consider the ISP ?s reputation, speed of his servers and, of course, the costs of setup, the IP, disk storage, hits, cost of additional domain names going to the same server. Most ISP ?s will sell you a bundle, including the brokering to buy you the domain name. Some sites will host free if you post ads for them, however, that looks tacky.
To register, you need some server computer to service browser hits on your domain name. Further, you want to get your domain name out on the web, known, indexed in search engines etc. so that potential buyers of the domain name can find you.
ICANNhas announced 2000 new TLDs such as .fun, .christmas and .mortgage. They are selling of entire TLDs for companies to parcel up and resell. To protect your business name, you would have to buy it separately in every different TLD
If you have a website, e.g. mindprod.com your enemies will at least try to buy mindprod.ca hoping either to cause confusion and lower your traffic, or to steal some of the its traffic intended for you. Big corporations buy up their domain name with all the TLD variants, e.g. .com .net, .biz etc. But now there are so many possible TLDs, that strategy becomes impractical. I suggest that when you buy a domain, that normally all the TLD variants would automatically come with it for various uses, usually setting up websites for a particular country in their language (perhaps all hosted on the head office server).
Consider the domain pizza.ca and pizza.uk. It is quite reasonable for completely different parties to own them. Further pizza.ca could be further partitioned by province and city and district in the city. Further, several pizza places or chains in the same neighbourhood could share it too. Calls would be randomly routed to the various pizza.ca clients in a region, proportional to the amount they paid for the domain. This would not require the regional participants to co-operate in any way or to share websites. It would all be handled by DNS.
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