References:AlterNIC
Datapult Comm.
InterNIC |
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This weekend is an anniversary of sorts
for me. It's been one year since I registered my own domain of srtilley.com. Since then,
I've had numerous inquiries about setting up your own site on the Internet. Are you
wondering how to become master of your own domain? Wonder no longer. Having your own Web
site has become de rigeur for the digerati. There has been a flurry of domain
name registrations in the last year. On May 4, 1998, Network Solutions Inc. announced its
two millionth Internet domain name registration of voyagerstravel.com. Network Solutions
runs the InterNIC system that hands out the domain names that end in the major top-level
domains of .com, .org, and .net. The others, such as .gov and .mil, are more restricted,
and the country domain names such as .ca and .us are regionally allocated.
By far, the .com and .net domains are the most popular. However, most of two- and
three-letter names are already taken. A domain name must start with a letter; it can end
with either a letter or a number. It may also contain a hyphen, but the hyphen must be
between the other characters. This leads to 1872 2-character and 69264 3-character .net
and .com domain names. According to Datapult Communications, as of March 4, 1998 there are
no 2-letter alphabetic domain names left in .com or .net; all 1352 of them are taken.
Similarly, there are no 2-character alphanumeric domain names left in .com. There were
only 104 remaining 2-character alphanumeric domain names in .net.
Once you have decided on a
domain name, the easiest way to register it with InterNIC is by letting your Web Presence
Provider (WPP) do it for you. You can find a list of WPPs through Yahoo or by looking in
the classified section of most major PC and Web-oriented magazines. Currently it costs $70
for a two-year registration, with $35 a year subsequently payable to InterNIC (assuming
they still have their monopoly on domain name registrations at the time). You can find out
who owns a domain name you are interested in via the Web interface to "whois" at
the InterNIC site.
There is an interesting marketing angle to country domain names. For example,
relatively remote islands in the Pacific such as the Kingdom of Tonga are renting out
their extensions (.to) for anyone who wants a special domain name. In some languages these
extensions mean the equivalent of "Inc.".
Country extensions aren't the only way to stand out from the crowd. Alternative domain
name registration services do exist, apart from InterNIC. For example. AlterNIC has root
servers for domains such as .inc, .ltd, and .sex. The problem with these domain names are
that they are not generally supported by the more established root name servers for .com,
.org, and .net. There has been a committee looking at expanding the "legitimate"
domain names for some time now, but it appears to be stalled.
Even though most of the obvious
names in the "big three" domains of .com, .net, and .org are gone, it's very
likely that you can come up with a name that is unique to yourself or your business. And
after all, that email address of yourname@yourISP.net is beginning to look a little tired
isn't it? Keep up with the digital Jones by becoming master of your own domain.
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Copyright © 1998 S.R. Tilley &
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