ASDF

Computer break down means long time has past since my last post.
Interestingly enough, the page views on this blog increased drastically over the past week, I wonder if it is due to the increased popularity of Twitter. My post on Twitter layouts is surprisingly popular, despite the lack of useful information in that post. I guess I should really update it after giving some tips on domain registration.

I am not an expert in the business of domain registration, but having registered several domains myself, I do have some tips.

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1. It really doesn’t matter where you register it.

As long as you know the site is legit, feel free to shop for the cheapest domain registrations.
Once your domain is registered, you can transfer your registration, and/or change the nameservers to match the hosting plan you have. Your hosting company should have provided the necessary guide in their faq, so check that out.
While you should shop for the cheapest domain hosting, you need to also look for a site that is reliable. If the domain company just “poof” and disappears, the precious domain you have can be in danger of a hostile takeover.

2. Is the domain name you want taken?

There is something called “whois” (eg, http://www.whois.net/), which you can basically search for information on domain names. For example, if I search “yahoo.com”, I will get

Registrant:
Domain Administrator
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale CA 94089
US
domainadmin@yahoo-inc.com +1.4083493300 Fax: +1.4083493301

Domain Name: yahoo.com

Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.markmonitor.com

Administrative Contact:
Domain Administrator
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale CA 94089
US
domainadmin@yahoo-inc.com +1.4083493300 Fax: +1.4083493301
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
Domain Administrator
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale CA 94089
US
domainadmin@yahoo-inc.com +1.4083493300 Fax: +1.4083493301

Created on…………..: 1995-01-18.
Expires on…………..: 2012-01-18.
Record last updated on..: 2009-01-19.

Domain servers in listed order:

ns1.yahoo.com
ns4.yahoo.com
ns2.yahoo.com
ns5.yahoo.com
ns3.yahoo.com

So if the search says the domain name you want is available, be quick and register it!
Beware of using whois on a sketchy domain registration site though. There are some sites out there which logs these searches, and registers the domain name you might want and offer resell it to you at a significantly higher price. From what I see, domain registrations for .com are about $10/month. And you really should not pay more than that.

3. Do you need to give them your private info?

This is something that is quite scary (to me). It is illegal for you (or so I have heard) to provide false information in your domain registration, and so anyone who does a whois can potentially see your real name, phone number, and address. Most domain registration company can mask such information, and override it with their company info and say something like “private registrant”. Some sites like godaddy.com charge extra for such masking. Be sure to check out if your domain registration company comes with such masking for free. It is one of the possible hidden costs in domain registration. My domain registration at dreamhost provides this service for free, and so I still only pay $10/yr for my domain.

4. What are nameservers?

You can wikipedia it, but for the true noob (like me), I still have no clue how nameservers really work, but if your domain registration and hosting are from 2 different companies, you will need to change the nameservers in your domain registration to correspond to the ones provided by your hosting company. Take a look at the yahoo whois again, see that:

Domain servers in listed order:

ns1.yahoo.com
ns4.yahoo.com
ns2.yahoo.com
ns5.yahoo.com
ns3.yahoo.com

Most name servers have the ns(number).domain.com. In order for your domain to be linked to your site (what you put in the folders for your hosting plan), you need to set this nameserver thing properly.

It should be easy to change the name servers, but remember to unlock your domain before you change the nameserver, and lock it after the change. If you don’t unlock it, it is not going to be able to be linked with your hosting.

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So the steps for registering a domain is:
1. Do a whois search.
2. If domain is not taken, find a cheap and reliable domain registration company online.
3. Check for the services provided and if there are any hidden costs.
4. Register your favorite domain!
5. Set up privacy information.
6. Set up name servers to match your hosting plan.

See, it is actually quite simple.

Next time I will have a more advanced post on how you might be able to snatch a domain that has been taken. And maybe explain what locking a domain does etc.