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DOMAIN FAQ |
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How can I determine whether the name I want is available? Who should be designated as an Administrative Contact? What does a Registrant refer to? What does it mean to have a domain name registered? What are the differences among "parking," "reserving," and "registering" names? Does "DNS not available" mean that the domain name is not registered? What are the valid characters for a domain name and how long can it be? Who "owns" a registered domain name? How do I know that I am the holder/owner of a domain name? What should I do if the name I want to register under ".com" is already taken? If a domain name does not have a Website, does that mean that it's not being used? Can you register a domain name but not use it? What is an "under construction page"? Registration Service Through Us What services does the registration fee include? When can I get a registration confirmation notice? Changing/Deleting Registered Information How can I modify Whois contact information? How can I change the registrant's name of my domain? Can I change my current domain name to a different name? Domain Hosting I selected the "Temporary Website" option at registration. How long does it take to set this up? I requested URL forwarding, but how long does it take to set this up? Can I have an e-mail address with my domain without having a website? How Do I Modify My Email-forwarding? How Do I Modify and Update My Temporary Website? Web Hosting/Changing a Host What do I need when using my local ISP as my web host? What if I want to host my domain through my server?
1. How can I determine whether the name I want is available? You should check the domain name you would like to register. If the second-level domain name (YourName.com, NOT www.YourName.com) you want is already in InterNIC' database, your query will return a listing including information about the organization that holds the name. If it is not in the database the answer returned will be: No match for ...
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InterNIC is the only organization that maintains the database of information related to a domain name under .com, .net, .org, and .edu. Registrations, renewals, and modifications to any of the information on the Whois database have to be processed through them.
The name given to a project that originated under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF). Under the current agreement with the U.S. Government, InterNIC, Inc., as the InterNIC, provides domain name registration services in .com, .net, .org, and .edu.
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3. What does "Whois" refer to? A searchable database maintained by InterNIC, which contains information about networks, networking organizations, domain names, and the contacts associated with them for the com, org, net, edu, and ISO 3166 country code top level domains. Also, the protocol, or set of rules, that describes the application used to access the database. Other organizations have implemented the Whois protocol and maintain separate and distinct Whois databases for their respective domains.
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4. Who should be designated as an Administrative Contact? The administrative contact/agent is an individual or a group name under which more than one individual is authorized to interact with InterNIC on behalf of the domain name registrant. The administrative contact/agent should be able to answer non-technical questions about the domain name's registration and the domain name registrant. It is strongly recommended that this contact/agent be the registrant or someone from the registrant's organization.
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5. What does a Registrant refer to? The individual or organization that registers a specific domain name with InterNIC. This individual or organization holds the right to use that specific domain name for a specified period of time, provided certain conditions are met and the registration fees are paid. This person or organization is the "legal entity" bound by the terms of the Domain Name Registration Agreement.
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6. What does it mean to have a domain name registered? Registration involves assigning the following three elements to a newly created domain name: (1) ownership; (2) agents to act on behalf of the owner; and (3) a "location" for the domain name within the internet system so that other internet users can find it. The owner is referred to as the "registrant" and the agents are called "contacts", as they represent the point of contact for resolving administrative issues ("administrative contact"), billing/renewal issues ("billing contact"), and technical issues ("technical contact").
This information (and future updates) is maintained by a record keeper, the InterNIC.
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7. What are the differences among "parking," "reserving," and "registering" names? Registering a domain name means that you or your organization becomes the legal holder/owner of the domain name, and that you designate an administrative contact of your choice. Once registered, the domain is typically associated with an active website.
In general, to park or to reserve is analogous to registering a domain name. However, typically, the domain would NOT be immediately associated with an active website. Instead, the agent that is providing you the service would also provide a static "under construction page" to be associated with the domain. We use these terms to indicate that you would be the registrant and billing contact, while we would be the designated administrative and technical contacts. Thus, the domain names would be "reserved" or "parked" with us until such a time that you wish to activate or sell the domain. Make sure that the service provider specifies the exact conditions under which they would transfer full registration to you. You should find another service provider if you are not satisfied with their conditions.
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8. Does "DNS not available" mean that the domain name is not registered? There are a number of reasons as to why you might encounter this message: (1) The name is not registered; (2) It is not properly set up, in that there is no association between the domain and an Internet server; or (3) It could be used for email or FTP without a website being active. You need to check Whois to determine if it is registered.
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9. 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. Special characters like the underscore "_" or "&" are NOT permitted. Domain names cannot contain spaces or begin or end with a hyphen, "-".
A domain name can be up to 63 characters long including the 4 characters used to identify the Top Level Domain (.NET, .COM, .ORG, or .EDU).
Examples:
eCommerceDiscovery is a valid domain name (it consists of only 18 characters).
http://www.ecommerceDiscovery.net is not a domain name; it is a uniform resource locator (URL) used by Web browsers to find documents and resources.
www.something.ecommercediscovery.com is not a domain name; "something" is a third-level domain name.
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10. Who "owns" a registered domain name? Owing a domain name is analogous to owning a telephone number. Regardless of who is the listed administrative and technical contact, the domain name holder is the organization. This information is revealed by a whois search.
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11. How do I know that I am the holder/owner of a domain name? Your name or your organization's name and address should be the Registrant information as revealed by a whois search. If not, you should immediately contact the company that registered it for you.
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12. What should I do if the name I want to register under ".com" is already taken? Try to use a slight variation on that name, or think up a new name. You should also consider registering it under ".net" or ".org".
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13. If a domain name does not have a Website, does that mean that it's not being used? If you cannot find a website with a certain domain name, it does not mean that name is not being used. It could be used for email or FTP without a website being active.
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14. Can you register a domain name but not use it? Currently, anyone can register a name and sit on it forever. However, if someone has a domain name, and does not pay for it, InterNIC will put that name on hold while the billing is resolved. If they still don't pay, that name will be taken away from them and "recycled" so that anyone can register it. Currently, the policy is that you must pay within 30 days of being invoiced in order to own and keep your domain name.
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15. What is an "under construction page"? InterNIC requires that a registered domain name be associated with a website. However, if you are not ready to have an active site, your service provider can provide a static page that would typically say, "This site is Under Construction." Thus, when someone enters your site's URL, they see the static page. If your domain were not set with an active site or a static page, their browser would say "DNS not available."
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16. Registration Service Through Us How much does it cost to register a domain name? We guarantee you lower rates than other major registrars!
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17. What services does the registration fee include? We offer domain hosting service, which includes: (1) A temporary fully customizable 100KB website, or URL-Forwarding to take visitors to any active website; (2) Free email forwarding includes two aliases (names before @YourDomainName) as well as info@, webmaster@, and sales@.
For full web-hosting and additional features you must sign-up for web-hosting services.
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18. When can I get a registration confirmation notice? We send a registration confirmation notice via e-mail once we've confirmed the success of your domain registration. Since Network Solutions' domain database is updated once a day, this could take one day.
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19. Changing/Deleting Registered Information I registered a misspelled domain. Can I cancel the order? Unfortunately, no. The only the way to register your correctly spelled domain is to re-submit it. Remember you will still be charged for misspelled domain names.
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20. How can I modify Whois contact information? Got to the account login section and use your username and password to change any whois information for your domain.
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21. How can I change the registrant's name of my domain? For security reasons, this is a lengthy and cumbersome process. If you are buying or selling a domain to another party, we encourage you to use an escrow service.
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22. Can I change my current domain name to a different name? Unfortunately , no. You need to register a new name.
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I want eCommerceDiscovery to host my domain, which is already registered and hosted at another ISP. How much does it cost? The cost would be the same as registering a domain name through us.
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24. I selected the "Temporary Website" option at registration. How long does it take to set this up? Due to a recent surge of registration requests, please allow two to four business days after confirmation. We are working to improve our response time. If the setting isn't working three days after your registration, please let us know at support@ecommercediscovery.com.
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25. I requested URL forwarding, but how long does it take to set this up? Two business days, in general. Please remember that you need an active Web page as the forwarding destination. If the setting is not working, please re-submit your request.
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26. Can I have an e-mail address with my domain without having a website? There are two options:
option 1: We can set up aliases (names before @YourDomainName) to be forwarded to any active email of your choice. FREE. Options 2: one POP3 account for is supplied for FREE. If you need more than you will have to order web hosting services or buy one through another company.
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27. How Do I Modify My Email-forwarding? Please go to the "account login" section and use your username/password to login. Select the Email-Forwarding selection from the menu and type in the desired information.
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28. How Do I Modify and Update My Temporary Website? Please go to the "account login" section and use your username/password to login. Select the Website Parking selection from the menu and type in the desired information.
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29. Web Hosting/Changing a Host I registered my domain through you. Do I have to use your web-hosting service? You are NOT obligated to use our web-hosting services. We don't charge you any additional fees for moving your registered domain names to another service provider of your choice.
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30. What do I need when using my local ISP as my web host? If you have a new Internet Service Provider (ISP), let them know that you want them to host your domain. They will supply you a primary and secondary DNS to input into your whois information. Go to the "account login" section and change the information they provided to you.
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31. What if I want to host my domain through my server? You need two active domain name servers. This feature is part of our registration service. modifying whois information
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