What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is your own cyber-estate. This estate, just like its physical counterpart, has its value depending on its address (name) and its content. You can charge your visitors or give them a free tour, or run a side business as part of the estate.

Every domain name contains two or more components separated by periods, called "dots". The last part of our address, "com", is called the "top level domain". The second part of the domain, is what is called the "second-level domain". It is also possible to have sub-domains such as "subdomain.yourdomain.com".

Just like a 5th Avenue address is limited and also is more valuable than the vast majority of other addresses, the value of your domain name can vary from a few dollars to -- well, some are going for a million dollars. We cannot tell you what furniture, art work, or side business to have on your Cyber-estate, but your address would surely enhance the value of its content, or might actually destroy its value if the name doesn't attract clients.

On a technical level, it is an addressing construct used for identifying and locating computers on the Internet. Domain names provide a system of easy-to-remember Internet addresses, which can be translated by the Domain Name System (DNS) into the numeric addresses (Internet Protocol (IP)) numbers used by the network. A domain name is hierarchical and often conveys information about the type of entity using the domain name.

A domain name is simply a label that represents a domain, which is a subset of the total domain name space. Domain names at the same level of the hierarchy must be unique; for example there can be only one .com at the top level of the hierarchy, and only one domainname.com at the next level of the hierarchy.

Domain Names - Information on Domain Names

Why do I need to register a domain name?

Most Internet providers offer you a directory on their own domain. Most of the time, they look like this: http://www.domain.com/~yourname. In addition to having to explain the little squiggle mark (~ which is called a tilde) to your less net savvy customers, this can prove cumbersome on business cards and letterhead, and it does not reflect the unique nature of your business or homepage. Registering a domain name for your business or organization is essential to your marketing efforts. A domain name gives your business a unique identity on the World Wide Web.

What are the valid characters for a domain name and how long can it be?

The only valid characters for a domain name are letters, numbers and a hyphen "-". Other special characters like the underscore "_" or an exclamation mark "!" are NOT permitted.
Example: your name.com (not correct, No spaces allowed).
Example: your-name.com (is correct).
A domain name can be up to 67 characters long - including the 4 characters used to identify the Top Level Domain (.net, .com, or .org). Do not type the www. before your domain name when registering.

How do I change my domain name?

Once a domain name is registered, it is unchangeable. Instead, you can register the different domain name you want and stop using the one you don't.

How many domains can I register?

You can register any number of domains.

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