DOMAIN NAMES (back to contents)

Why register a Domain Name?
A domain name is your unique identity on the Internet. It's an address where your customers, clients and contacts can find your web site and send you an e-mail. Domain names follow the "@" in Internet e-mail addresses. For instance, joebloggs@getbusiness.com is an e-mail address for someone named "Joe Bloggs" at our domain "getbusiness.com". http://www.getbusiness.com is a WWW site for the domain getbusiness.com. The international organisation that regulates a domain name is InterNIC and the UK regulating body is Nominet. They are both organisations which keep track of all of the domain names throughout different parts of the world. There are different bodies for each country, but they all come under the umbrella of InterNIC. Domain names are becoming more scarce and more valuable by the day. They are being registered at a rate of about 5,000 per day!

So if you've got a name you want to use as a domain name, register it before someone else does.

You can have as many e-mail addresses as you like, all at your personalised domain (i.e. webmaster@getbusiness.com, info@getbusiness.com, sally@getbusiness.com, etc.)
Your business home page can be accessed by the www.getbusiness.com. You don't have to go through someone else's domain to get to yours.
Visitors to your site are impressed by your unique identity; it gives your organisation more "status" as an Internet marketing tool.
If you relocate to another area, you can take the domain with you. Persons accessing your pages will not have to learn a new address.
Many of your competitors have already registered domains, and since a domain name can only be registered to one individual or company, the chances to get the domain you want will decrease with time.
We can register top-level domain names such as getbusiness.com and sub domains of getbusiness.com such as yourcompany.getbusiness.com and either of these can be used in conjunction with our virtual servers to give you e-mail addresses and a web site within your domain.


What is a domain name?
A domain name is the address that people will use to access your web site. Each domain name is unique. Only one person will have the name and it will only lead to one web site. Your e-mail address also consists of your domain name (e.g. sally@getbusiness.com). A domain name is a text name that can be used as a convenient way of finding services such as web pages on the Internet. It is part of a system called Domain Name Server (DNS). The DNS converts the domain name that people understand into an Internet Protocol (IP) number such as 195.224.0.66 that is understood by an Internet computer. Registering a domain name on the Internet is the equivalent of registering a company name with Companies House. Once registered, it cannot be used by anyone else.

Where do domain names come from?
Domain names are picked by the client (for example, a company trading as John Smith Limited may choose www.john-smith.com, so long as this domain is not registered to another user). This domain is then registered with an Internet naming committee.

So what's an Internet naming committee?
An Internet naming committee keeps a register of all domain names in use and who they have been registered to. These committees have the final decision as to whether the client is eligible for the requested Domain Name.

What are the different types of domain?
The two basic types are international and UK.

International domains are:
.com - an international commercial site
.net - an international service provider
.org - an international non-profit organisation

UK domains are:
.co.uk - a UK commercial site
.net.uk - a UK service provider
.org.uk - a UK non-profit organisation
.ltd.uk - a UK limited company
.plc.uk - a UK publicly limited company (to use either a.ltd.uk or a .plc.uk domain, you have to be registered with Companies House and trade under the name you are registered as).

There are other domain names that relate to schools and government bodies, along with every countries own specific registry.

What happens once I've registered a Domain Name?
Once your Domain Name has been registered, it is hosted by 1stNTERNET, who keeps your Domain on their web servers with information as to where to direct people who access your domain. Domain names are a complicated issue for the uninitiated, more information can be requested once you are a client, or under consultancy.

Email
When the Internet was established as a channel of communication between individuals, Electronic Mail was it's primary use and it continues to be the most widely used facility on offer.

Electronic mail, or E-mail as it is known, is a form of written communication much the same as writing a letter and sending it via the postal service except instead of transport being provided by the postal service vans, it is provided by the Internet. As with any written letter, you can "attach" things to an E-mail, these could be a file, sound clips, video images or a single picture. So what are the advantages of E-mail?

Here a few things for you to consider:

Speed: E-mail is typically delivered to it's recipient within 5 minutes of sending and it's destination could be anywhere in the world.
Reliability: the Internet doesn't go on strike and your letter can't be lost. If it can't get to the recipient it was intended for, it will be returned to the sender.
Your address: it could be a very obvious and simple address such as you@yourcompany.com which would mean people will find remembering it a lot easier.
You can e-mail many people at the same time at no additional cost.

Hosting
Your web site must be "hosted," that is, it must "reside" on a web server somewhere. Some companies specialize in hosting web sites and don't offer local dial-up Internet service. Others offer both web hosting and dial-up service.

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