On the Internet, you can access computers by number (IP e.g.
http://24.87.56.253
) or by name e.g. mindprod.com.
The name without any www or other prefix is called the domain name. This
essay on domain names will tell you more than you wanted to know about domain
names, ownership rights, DNS (Domain Name Service), TLDs (Top
Level Domains), country code TLDs, domain name speculation,
resources for buying domain names, wet blanket caveats and how to buy a domain
name without a broker.
Introduction
This essay that will tell you more than you wanted to know about domain names,
ownership rights, DNS (Domain Name Service), TLDs (Top
Level Domains), country code TLDs, domain name speculation,
resources for buying domain names, wet blanket caveats and how to buy a domain
name without a broker.
Ownership Rights
When you own a name such as mindprod.com you own world
wide rights to it, You are absolute ruler of that realm/domain and can choose to
carve it up with whatever dot prefixes you choose, e.g. www.mindprod.com,
ftp.mindprod.com, products.mindprod.com
or even silly.mindprod.com, You own exclusive right to
all possible prefixes including all the mail addresses, e.g. anyone@mindprod.com.
Domain names are not case sensitive, so that if you own mindprod.com
you also automatically own MindProd.com as well.
However you do not necessarily own the rights to other prefixes not
separated by a dot, e.g. blowyourmindprod.com. You
could buy them separately of course. Further you do not necessarily own
that name with other TLD (Top Level Domain) suffixes, e.g. mindprod.org
or mindprod.ca. Further, you do not own
variants with dashes, e.g. mind-prod.com. You have to
register, and pay for, all those separately. If you don't some remora
might register them and hold them ransom. This is both insanity and a ripoff.
Welcome to planet earth.
Whois
There are five common questions about domain names and IPs you may have:
-
Who owns this IP?
-
I know the domain name. What IP does it map so I can put an entry in my hosts.
file.
-
Who owns this domain name?
-
Where on the planet is this IP broadcasting from?
-
What is my face IP?
For the first question see IP lookup services
For the second and third questions use one of these whois services:
-
Mindprod.com home page will tell you your face IP.
Look at the bottom. This is done with Novell SSI.
-
www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois
for .com, .net and .org
-
www.cira.ca for .ca
-
whoisreport.com for .com,
.net, .org, .info,
.biz and .us. This search
is more flexible letting you find usaweatherreport.???
by typing just weather. The best way to figure out what all the option
check boxes are for is just to tick them one at a time and see what the effect
is.
-
Whois Source: various TLDs, also allows
lookup by IP.
For the fourth question, you need an IP locator:
For the fifth question you need a face IP identifier:
You might think it sufficient for to check if a domain name is taken to simply
point your browser to www.xxxxx.com and see if you get
a 404 not found error. However, the name may be taken, with no webserver set up,
so the name would appear to be free when it was actually taken.
DNS
There are computers spread all over the Internet called DNS
(Domain Name Service) servers. They will automatically look
up a name for you and give you the equivalent numeric IP.
The process is analogous to looking up somone's name in an electronic phone book
to find out their phone number. This happens completely automatically whenever
you key a website name into your browser or FTP client. You may have several
computers serving your domain. Each would have its own separate IP, and would
serve some subset of the possible prefixes, e.g. one computer might handle ftp.mindprod.com
where another would handle www.mindprod.com. The DNS
system considers the name prefixes as well as the domain name when looking up an
IP.
TLDs
The most common domains end in .com which means
commercial. This suffix is called the TLD (Top Level Domain).
Other common ones are .org organisation, .edu
educational institution, .gov government, .net
network and .mil military. Short .com
names are considered the most prestigious. They are also easiest for customers
to remember.
The official TLDs are: .aero .biz .coop .com .edu .gov .info .mil
.museum .name .net .org .pro
The unofficial TLDs are: .cam .mp3 .agent .art .arts .asia .auction
.aus .bank .cam .chat .church .club .corp .dds .design .dns2go .e .email .exp .fam
.family .faq .fed .film .firm .free .fun .g .game .games .gay .ger .globe .gmbh .golf
.gov .help .hola .i .inc .int .jpn .k12 .kids .law .learn .llb .llc .llp .lnx .love
.ltd .mag .mail .med .media .mp3 .netz .nic .nom .npo .per .pol .prices .radio .rsc
.school .scifi .sea .service .sex .shop .sky .soc .space .sport .tech .tour .travel
.usvi .video .web .wine .wir .wired .zine .zoo
Then there are the two letter country codes: .ac .ad .ae .af .ag
.ai .al .am .an .ao .aq .ar .as .at .au .aw .az .ba .bb .bd .be .bf .bg .bh .bi .bj
.bm .bn .bo .br .bs .bt .bv .bw .by .bz .ca .cc .cd .cf .cg .ch .ci .ck .cl .cm .cn
.co .cr .cu .cv .cx .cy .cz .de .dj .dk .dm .do .dz .ec .ee .eg .eh .er .es .et .fi
.fj .fk .fm .fo .fr .fx .ga .gb .gd .ge .gf .gg .gh .gi .gl .gm .gn .gp .gq .gr .gs
.gt .gu .gw .gy .hk .hm .hn .hr .ht .hu .id .ie .il .im .in .io .iq .ir .is .it .je
.jm .jo .jp .ke .kg .kh .ki .km .kn .kp .kr .kw .ky .kz .la .lb .lc .li .lk .lr .ls
.lt .lu .lv .ly .ma .mc .md .mg .mh .mk .ml .mm .mn .mo .mp .mq .mr .ms .mt .mu .mv
.mw .mx .my .mz .na .nc .ne .nf .ng .ni .nl .no .np .nr .nu .nz .om .pa .pe .pf .pg
.ph .pk .pl .pm .pn .pr .ps .pt .pw .py .qa .re .ro .ru .rw .sa .sb .sc .sd .se .sg
.sh .si .sj .sk .sl .sm .sn .so .sr .st .sv .sy .sz .tc .td .tf .tg .th .tj .tk .tm
.tn .to .tp .tr .tt .tv .tw .tz .ua .ug .uk .um .us .uy .uz .va .vc .ve .vg .vi .vn
.vu .wf .ws .ye .yt .yu .za .zm .zw
Country Code TLDs
The country TLD suffixes, e.g. .ca for Canada, .uk
for the United Kingdom, .de for Germany .au
(formerly .oz) for Australia are also popular. Some
codes such as .tv are used by people who don't even
live in the country; they just find the abbreviation appealing. For the
definitive set, see the Iana Two-letter
country codes. The table below was up to date as of 2002/03/24. If you
notice any discrepancies, please let me know. Normally two letter country codes
are all upper case. However, traditionally when country abbreviations are used
as TLDs in domain names, they are always shown in lower case as in the following
table.
|
Country Codes
|
|
By country
|
|
country
|
code
|
|
Afghanistan
|
af
|
|
Albania
|
al
|
|
Algeria
|
dz
|
|
American Samoa
|
as
|
|
Andorra
|
ad
|
|
Angola
|
ao
|
|
Anguilla
|
ai
|
|
Antarctica
|
aq
|
|
Antigua and Barbuda
|
ag
|
|
Argentina
|
ar
|
|
Armenia
|
am
|
|
Aruba
|
aw
|
|
Ascension Island
|
ac
|
|
Australia
|
au
|
|
Austria
|
at
|
|
Azerbaijan
|
az
|
|
Bahamas
|
bs
|
|
Bahrain
|
bh
|
|
Bangladesh
|
bd
|
|
Barbados
|
bb
|
|
Belarus
|
by
|
|
Belgium
|
be
|
|
Belize
|
bz
|
|
Benin
|
bj
|
|
Bermuda
|
bm
|
|
Bhutan
|
bt
|
|
Bolivia
|
bo
|
|
Bosnia and Herzegovina
|
ba
|
|
Botswana
|
bw
|
|
Bouvet island
|
bv
|
|
Brazil
|
br
|
|
British Indian Ocean Territory
|
io
|
|
Brunei Darussalam
|
bn
|
|
Bulgaria
|
bg
|
|
Burkina Faso
|
bf
|
|
Burundi
|
bi
|
|
Cambodia
|
kh
|
|
Cameroon
|
cm
|
|
Canada
|
ca
|
|
Cape Verde
|
cv
|
|
Cayman Islands
|
ky
|
|
Central African Republic
|
cf
|
|
Chad
|
td
|
|
Chile
|
cl
|
|
China
|
cn
|
|
Christmas island
|
cx
|
|
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
|
cc
|
|
Colombia
|
co
|
|
Comoros
|
km
|
|
Congo
|
cg
|
|
Congo, the Democratic Republic of the
|
cd
|
|
Cook Islands
|
ck
|
|
Costa Rica
|
cr
|
|
Cote d'Ivoire
|
ci
|
|
Croatia (local name: Hrvatska)
|
hr
|
|
Cuba
|
cu
|
|
Cyprus
|
cy
|
|
Czech Republic
|
cz
|
|
Denmark
|
dk
|
|
Djibouti
|
dj
|
|
Dominica
|
dm
|
|
Dominican Republic
|
do
|
|
East Timor
|
tp
|
|
Ecuador
|
ec
|
|
Egypt
|
eg
|
|
El Salvador
|
sv
|
|
Equatorial Guinea
|
gq
|
|
Eritrea
|
er
|
|
Estonia
|
ee
|
|
Ethiopia
|
et
|
|
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
|
fk
|
|
Faroe islands
|
fo
|
|
Fiji
|
fj
|
|
Finland
|
fi
|
|
France
|
fr
|
|
France, Metropolitan, no longer official.
|
fx
|
|
French Guiana
|
gf
|
|
French Polynesia
|
pf
|
|
French Southern Territories
|
tf
|
|
Gabon
|
ga
|
|
Gambia
|
gm
|
|
Georgia
|
ge
|
|
Germany
|
de
|
|
Ghana
|
gh
|
|
Gibraltar
|
gi
|
|
Greece
|
gr
|
|
Greenland
|
gl
|
|
Grenada
|
gd
|
|
Guadeloupe
|
gp
|
|
Guam
|
gu
|
|
Guatemala
|
gt
|
|
Guersey
|
gg
|
|
Guinea
|
gn
|
|
Guinea-Bissau
|
gw
|
|
Guyana
|
gy
|
|
Haiti
|
ht
|
|
Heard and McDonald Islands
|
hm
|
|
Holy See (Vatican City State)
|
va
|
|
Honduras
|
hn
|
|
Hong Kong
|
hk
|
|
Hungary
|
hu
|
|
Iceland
|
is
|
|
India
|
in
|
|
Indonesia
|
id
|
|
Iran (Islamic Republic Of)
|
ir
|
|
Iraq
|
iq
|
|
Ireland
|
ie
|
|
Isle of Man
|
im
|
|
Israel
|
il
|
|
Italy
|
it
|
|
Jamaica
|
jm
|
|
Jersy
|
je
|
|
Japan
|
jp
|
|
Jordan
|
jo
|
|
Kazakhstan
|
kz
|
|
Kenya
|
ke
|
|
Kiribati
|
ki
|
|
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of, (north)
|
kp
|
|
Korea, Republic of, (south)
|
kr
|
|
Kuwait
|
kw
|
|
Kyrgyzstan
|
kg
|
|
Lao People's Democratic Republic
|
la
|
|
Latvia
|
lv
|
|
Lebanon
|
lb
|
|
Lesotho
|
ls
|
|
Liberia
|
lr
|
|
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
|
ly
|
|
Liechtenstein
|
li
|
|
Lithuania
|
lt
|
|
Luxembourg
|
lu
|
|
Macau
|
mo
|
|
Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of
|
mk
|
|
Madagascar
|
mg
|
|
Malawi
|
mw
|
|
Malaysia
|
my
|
|
Maldives
|
mv
|
|
Mali
|
ml
|
|
Malta
|
mt
|
|
Marshall Islands
|
mh
|
|
Martinique
|
mq
|
|
Mauritania
|
mr
|
|
Mauritius
|
mu
|
|
Mayotte
|
yt
|
|
Mexico
|
mx
|
|
Micronesia, Federated States of
|
fm
|
|
Moldova, Republic of
|
md
|
|
Monaco
|
mc
|
|
Mongolia
|
mn
|
|
Montserrat
|
ms
|
|
Morocco
|
ma
|
|
Mozambique
|
mz
|
|
Myanmar
|
mm
|
|
Namibia
|
na
|
|
Nauru
|
nr
|
|
Nepal
|
np
|
|
Netherlands
|
nl
|
|
Netherlands Antilles
|
an
|
|
New Caledonia
|
nc
|
|
New Zealand
|
nz
|
|
Nicaragua
|
ni
|
|
Niger
|
ne
|
|
Nigeria
|
ng
|
|
Niue
|
nu
|
|
Norfolk Island
|
nf
|
|
Northern Mariana Islands
|
mp
|
|
Norway
|
no
|
|
Oman
|
om
|
|
Palestian Territories
|
ps
|
|
Pakistan
|
pk
|
|
Palau
|
pw
|
|
Panama
|
pa
|
|
Papua New Guinea
|
pg
|
|
Paraguay
|
py
|
|
Peru
|
pe
|
|
Philippines
|
ph
|
|
Pitcairn
|
pn
|
|
Poland
|
pl
|
|
Portugal
|
pt
|
|
Puerto Rico
|
pr
|
|
Qatar
|
qa
|
|
Reunion
|
re
|
|
Romania
|
ro
|
|
Russian Federation
|
ru
|
|
Rwanda
|
rw
|
|
Saint Kitts and Nevis
|
kn
|
|
Saint Lucia
|
lc
|
|
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
|
vc
|
|
Samoa
|
ws
|
|
San Marino
|
sm
|
|
Sao Tome and Principe
|
st
|
|
Saudi Arabia
|
sa
|
|
Senegal
|
sn
|
|
Seychelles
|
sc
|
|
Sierra Leone
|
sl
|
|
Singapore
|
sg
|
|
Slovakia (Slovak Republic)
|
sk
|
|
Slovenia
|
si
|
|
Solomon Islands
|
sb
|
|
Somalia
|
so
|
|
South Africa
|
za
|
|
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
|
gs
|
|
Spain
|
es
|
|
Sri Lanka
|
lk
|
|
St. Helena
|
sh
|
|
St. Pierre and Miquelon
|
pm
|
|
Sudan
|
sd
|
|
Suriname
|
sr
|
|
Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands
|
sj
|
|
Swaziland
|
sz
|
|
Sweden
|
se
|
|
Switzerland
|
ch
|
|
Syrian Arab Republic
|
sy
|
|
Taiwan, Province of China
|
tw
|
|
Tajikistan
|
tj
|
|
Tanzania, United Republic of
|
tz
|
|
Thailand
|
th
|
|
Togo
|
tg
|
|
Tokelau
|
tk
|
|
Tonga
|
to
|
|
Trinidad and Tobago
|
tt
|
|
Tunisia
|
tn
|
|
Turkey
|
tr
|
|
Turkmenistan
|
tm
|
|
Turks and Caicos Islands
|
tc
|
|
Tuvalu
|
tv
|
|
Uganda
|
ug
|
|
Ukraine
|
ua
|
|
United Arab Emirates
|
ae
|
|
United Kingdom, no longer official
|
gb
|
|
United Kingdom
|
uk
|
|
United States
|
us
|
|
United States minor outlying islands
|
um
|
|
Uruguay
|
uy
|
|
Uzbekistan
|
uz
|
|
Vanuatu
|
vu
|
|
Venezuela
|
ve
|
|
Viet Nam
|
vn
|
|
Virgin Islands (British)
|
vg
|
|
Virgin Islands (U.S.)
|
vi
|
|
Wallis and Futuna islands
|
wf
|
|
Western Sahara
|
eh
|
|
Yemen
|
ye
|
|
Yugoslavia
|
yu
|
|
Zambia
|
zm
|
|
Zimbabwe
|
zw
|
|
|
|
By code
|
|
code
|
country
|
|
ac
|
Ascension Island
|
|
ad
|
Andorra
|
|
ae
|
United Arab Emirates
|
|
af
|
Afghanistan
|
|
ag
|
Antigua and Barbuda
|
|
ai
|
Anguilla
|
|
al
|
Albania
|
|
am
|
Armenia
|
|
an
|
Netherlands Antilles
|
|
ao
|
Angola
|
|
aq
|
Antarctica
|
|
ar
|
Argentina
|
|
as
|
American Samoa
|
|
at
|
Austria
|
|
au
|
Australia
|
|
aw
|
Aruba
|
|
az
|
Azerbaijan
|
|
ba
|
Bosnia and Herzegovina
|
|
bb
|
Barbados
|
|
bd
|
Bangladesh
|
|
be
|
Belgium
|
|
bf
|
Burkina Faso
|
|
bg
|
Bulgaria
|
|
bh
|
Bahrain
|
|
bi
|
Burundi
|
|
bj
|
Benin
|
|
bm
|
Bermuda
|
|
bn
|
Brunei Darussalam
|
|
bo
|
Bolivia
|
|
br
|
Brazil
|
|
bs
|
Bahamas
|
|
bt
|
Bhutan
|
|
bv
|
Bouvet island
|
|
bw
|
Botswana
|
|
by
|
Belarus
|
|
bz
|
Belize
|
|
ca
|
Canada
|
|
cc
|
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
|
|
cd
|
Congo, the Democratic Republic of the
|
|
cf
|
Central African Republic
|
|
cg
|
Congo
|
|
ch
|
Switzerland
|
|
ci
|
Cote d'Ivoire
|
|
ck
|
Cook Islands
|
|
cl
|
Chile
|
|
cm
|
Cameroon
|
|
cn
|
China
|
|
co
|
Colombia
|
|
cr
|
Costa Rica
|
|
cu
|
Cuba
|
|
cv
|
Cape Verde
|
|
cx
|
Christmas island
|
|
cy
|
Cyprus
|
|
cz
|
Czech Republic
|
|
de
|
Germany
|
|
dj
|
Djibouti
|
|
dk
|
Denmark
|
|
dm
|
Dominica
|
|
do
|
Dominican Republic
|
|
dz
|
Algeria
|
|
ec
|
Ecuador
|
|
ee
|
Estonia
|
|
eg
|
Egypt
|
|
eh
|
Western Sahara
|
|
er
|
Eritrea
|
|
es
|
Spain
|
|
et
|
Ethiopia
|
|
fi
|
Finland
|
|
fj
|
Fiji
|
|
fk
|
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
|
|
fm
|
Micronesia, Federated States of
|
|
fo
|
Faroe islands
|
|
fr
|
France
|
|
fx
|
France, Metropolitan, no longer official
|
|
ga
|
Gabon
|
|
gb
|
United Kingdom, no longer official see uk
|
|
gd
|
Grenada
|
|
ge
|
Georgia
|
|
gf
|
French Guiana
|
|
gg
|
Guersey
|
|
gh
|
Ghana
|
|
gi
|
Gibraltar
|
|
gl
|
Greenland
|
|
gm
|
Gambia
|
|
gn
|
Guinea
|
|
gp
|
Guadeloupe
|
|
gq
|
Equatorial Guinea
|
|
gr
|
Greece
|
|
gs
|
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
|
|
gt
|
Guatemala
|
|
gu
|
Guam
|
|
gw
|
Guinea-Bissau
|
|
gy
|
Guyana
|
|
hk
|
Hong Kong
|
|
hm
|
Heard and McDonald Islands
|
|
hn
|
Honduras
|
|
hr
|
Croatia (local name: Hrvatska)
|
|
ht
|
Haiti
|
|
hu
|
Hungary
|
|
id
|
Indonesia
|
|
ie
|
Ireland
|
|
il
|
Israel
|
|
im
|
Isle of Man
|
|
in
|
India
|
|
io
|
British Indian Ocean Territory
|
|
iq
|
Iraq
|
|
ir
|
Iran (Islamic Republic Of)
|
|
is
|
Iceland
|
|
it
|
Italy
|
|
jm
|
Jamaica
|
|
je
|
Jersey
|
|
jo
|
Jordan
|
|
jp
|
Japan
|
|
ke
|
Kenya
|
|
kg
|
Kyrgyzstan
|
|
kh
|
Cambodia
|
|
ki
|
Kiribati
|
|
km
|
Comoros
|
|
kn
|
Saint Kitts and Nevis
|
|
kp
|
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of, (north)
|
|
kr
|
Korea, Republic of, (south)
|
|
kw
|
Kuwait
|
|
ky
|
Cayman Islands
|
|
kz
|
Kazakhstan
|
|
la
|
Lao People's Democratic Republic
|
|
lb
|
Lebanon
|
|
lc
|
Saint Lucia
|
|
li
|
Liechtenstein
|
|
lk
|
Sri Lanka
|
|
lr
|
Liberia
|
|
ls
|
Lesotho
|
|
lt
|
Lithuania
|
|
lu
|
Luxembourg
|
|
lv
|
Latvia
|
|
ly
|
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
|
|
ma
|
Morocco
|
|
mc
|
Monaco
|
|
md
|
Moldova, Republic of
|
|
mg
|
Madagascar
|
|
mh
|
Marshall Islands
|
|
mk
|
Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of
|
|
ml
|
Mali
|
|
mm
|
Myanmar
|
|
mn
|
Mongolia
|
|
mo
|
Macau
|
|
mp
|
Northern Mariana Islands
|
|
mq
|
Martinique
|
|
mr
|
Mauritania
|
|
ms
|
Montserrat
|
|
mt
|
Malta
|
|
mu
|
Mauritius
|
|
mv
|
Maldives
|
|
mw
|
Malawi
|
|
mx
|
Mexico
|
|
my
|
Malaysia
|
|
mz
|
Mozambique
|
|
na
|
Namibia
|
|
nc
|
New Caledonia
|
|
ne
|
Niger
|
|
nf
|
Norfolk Island
|
|
ng
|
Nigeria
|
|
ni
|
Nicaragua
|
|
nl
|
Netherlands
|
|
no
|
Norway
|
|
np
|
Nepal
|
|
nr
|
Nauru
|
|
nu
|
Niue
|
|
nz
|
New Zealand
|
|
om
|
Oman
|
|
pa
|
Panama
|
|
pe
|
Peru
|
|
pf
|
French Polynesia
|
|
pg
|
Papua New Guinea
|
|
ph
|
Philippines
|
|
pk
|
Pakistan
|
|
pl
|
Poland
|
|
pm
|
St. Pierre and Miquelon
|
|
pn
|
Pitcairn
|
|
pr
|
Puerto Rico
|
|
ps
|
Palestian Territories
|
|
pt
|
Portugal
|
|
pw
|
Palau
|
|
py
|
Paraguay
|
|
qa
|
Qatar
|
|
re
|
Reunion
|
|
ro
|
Romania
|
|
ru
|
Russian Federation
|
|
rw
|
Rwanda
|
|
sa
|
Saudi Arabia
|
|
sb
|
Solomon Islands
|
|
sc
|
Seychelles
|
|
sd
|
Sudan
|
|
se
|
Sweden
|
|
sg
|
Singapore
|
|
sh
|
St. Helena
|
|
si
|
Slovenia
|
|
sj
|
Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands
|
|
sk
|
Slovakia (Slovak Republic)
|
|
sl
|
Sierra Leone
|
|
sm
|
San Marino
|
|
sn
|
Senegal
|
|
so
|
Somalia
|
|
sr
|
Suriname
|
|
st
|
Sao Tome and Principe
|
|
sv
|
El Salvador
|
|
sy
|
Syrian Arab Republic
|
|
sz
|
Swaziland
|
|
tc
|
Turks and Caicos Islands
|
|
td
|
Chad
|
|
tf
|
French Southern Territories
|
|
tg
|
Togo
|
|
th
|
Thailand
|
|
tj
|
Tajikistan
|
|
tk
|
Tokelau
|
|
tm
|
Turkmenistan
|
|
tn
|
Tunisia
|
|
to
|
Tonga
|
|
tp
|
East Timor
|
|
tr
|
Turkey
|
|
tt
|
Trinidad and Tobago
|
|
tv
|
Tuvalu
|
|
tw
|
Taiwan, Province of China
|
|
tz
|
Tanzania, United Republic of
|
|
ua
|
Ukraine
|
|
ug
|
Uganda
|
|
uk
|
United Kingdom
|
|
um
|
United States minor outlying islands
|
|
us
|
United States
|
|
uy
|
Uruguay
|
|
uz
|
Uzbekistan
|
|
va
|
Holy See (Vatican City State)
|
|
vc
|
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
|
|
ve
|
Venezuela
|
|
vg
|
Virgin Islands (British)
|
|
vi
|
Virgin Islands (U.S.)
|
|
vn
|
Viet Nam
|
|
vu
|
Vanuatu
|
|
wf
|
Wallis and Futuna islands
|
|
ws
|
Samoa
|
|
ye
|
Yemen
|
|
yt
|
Mayotte
|
|
yu
|
Yugoslavia
|
|
za
|
South Africa
|
|
zm
|
Zambia
|
|
zw
|
Zimbabwe
|
|
zr Zaire is has been renamed to cd Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Domain Name Format
RFC 1034 and RFC
1035 describe the format of a domain name. It is formed of segments made of
the A-Z 0-9 and hyphen separated by dots. RFC
822 describes the format of an email address.
The people who designed this scheme were not thinking clearly. The hyphen should
have been a noise character that is ignored. Then mind-prod.com
and mindprod.com would be considered the same domain.
Users would not need to remember where the dashes go. You would not need to buy
all the dash variant domain names and protect them all from remoras.
Domain Name Speculation
Had you the foresight in 1992 to spend
and buy the rights to mcdonalds.com, mcdonalds.ca
or mcdonalds.us you could be a multimillionaire today.
Then again, McDonald's could have sued you for trademark infringement. Trademark
owners are sometimes taking domain names away from speculators without even the
formality of going to court.
The hope of sudden riches has fueled a fad, speculation in domain names.
People lease domain names for
per year from Verisign
Network Solutions (née Internic) (the body that hands out .com
names) plus a handling fee to some broker. Most Internet domain name brokers
charge a percentage of the sale price, not a flat fee. Speculators hope some
company will want the name and pay some considerably higher price. Some names
have gone for millions of dollars. Some speculators lease out a name to one or
more people, especially a prestigious email address. Of course, most of names
purchased for speculation have not sold at all. Nearly every name in the
dictionary, every slang word and every slang phrase has been purchased. Every
misspelling and variant of popular site names such as altavista.com
have been snapped up by remoras, people hoping to pick
up stray hits. There are few reasonable names left speculators have not taken.
Right now, there is a domain name registered for every three US citizens.
You have to pay
a year to keep your registration. If you don't pay, it goes up for grabs again.
If you do pay, no one can take it away from you, except the courts. Recently
expired domain names are a prime source for speculators.
Some countries such as Turkmenistan ( .tm), Guernsey ( .gg),
Jersey ( .je) and the Isle of Man ( .im),
encourage foreign companies to register. Others such as South Africa (.za)
insist the servers be on South African soil. Check with iana
to see who is in charge of the country or top level domain that interests you.
Often they won't even have a website, just an email address. Normally you go
through a broker, so finding that information is his problem.
In researching this, I came across some clearly fraudulent domain-selling sites.
Especially if you plan to buy a non-standard TLD, do some research on your
broker; make sure you really get world-wide exclusive use of the name and that
others could really find you on the net. It is not much use to have a name that
is not properly hooked into the global DNS system. You should be able to find
lots of sites on the net using the proposed TLD if all is on the up and up. You
might see if any of those sites will be willing to tell you the email address of
their broker and how they like him. I am particularly suspicious of the .shop
and .rec domains because of conflicting information I
read.
Resources For Buying Domain Names
If you want to play this speculation game, or if you simply want to find a
suitable domain name for your own business, here are some resources:
| body |
TLDs they manage |
notes |
| ICANN |
the global authority. Wholesaler for:
.com, .net, .edu,
and .org.
New top level domains include :
.aero (air transport, for services & companies
dealing with air travel),
.biz (business & corporations).
.coop (co-operatives)
.info (newspapers, libraries, etc.)
.museum (museums, archival institutions, &
exhibitions)
.name (individuals and personal websites, e.g. www.Roedy.Green.name.
Note you own only www.roedy.green.name not roger.green.name the way you would
with other domains. Your email address becames roedy@green.name, not roedy@roedy.green.name.)
.pro (accountants, lawyers and physicians) |
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
The body in charge of assiging all Internet DNS names and numbers. |
| IANA |
Part of ICANN |
Internet Assigned Number Authority. Manage
handing out country codes and other top level domains. Best source for contact
of who is in charge in each country and top level domain. You don't deal with
them directly. They are the wholesaler to assign IP
numbers. |
| Altavista |
search engine |
Search for "domain names" to find domain names for sale. |
| Alternic.net |
various e.g.: .art .arts .asia .aus
.bank
.cam
.dds .design
.email .exp
.fam .faq .film .firm .fun
.gay .games .ger .globe .gmbh
.help
.i .inc .info
.jpn
.kids .law .learn .llb .lnx .ltd
.mail .mag .med .media
.netz .nic .nom
.per .prices
.radio .rsc
.sea .service .sex .sky .space .sport .shop
.tour .travel
.usvi
.web .wir .wired .wine
.xxx
.zine .zoo |
Non-standard TLDs. |
| Afilias |
info |
also handles registrations in German and umlaut domains. It is the top
level manager. It does not deal directly with the public. |
| APNIC.net |
various e.g.: .cn .id .in .jp .kp .kr .mm .ph .th .tw |
national domain names for Asia and the Pacific. |
| ARIN |
IP numbers |
American Registry For Internet Numbers. Handle
assigning IP numbers (not domain names) for North America, South America and sub-Saharan
Africa. Unless you want to buy thousands of IP's you would contact an ISP
instead. |
| BB-online |
broker for .ie, .as, .no, .se, .tm, .uk, .co.uk, .uk.com |
Irish company. I have had no dealings with them, but they have an impressive
web site. |
| CIRA.ca |
.ca |
Canadian Internet Registration Authority. They
are in charge of all .ca names for Canada. Individuals
and small ISPs don't deal directly with them. They must deal through certified
registrars. |
| Chinese Domain Names |
.cn .tw |
Register Chinese domain names. The site is in Chinese, so I can't tell you
the TLDs, presumably .cn or .tw. |
| co.za |
.co.za |
South African commercial domains |
| CoreNic |
list of brokers |
Trade organisation that maintains a global list of brokers who will help you
buy domain names. |
 | Domain Name Handbook |
| 0-87930-515-0 |
| Ellen & Peter Rony |
| High stakes and strategies in Cyberspace. |
|
|
|
book |
A comprehensive guide to domain name speculation. It will show you how to
buy domain names without using a broker. It also talks about the legal issues
revolving around trademarks vs. domain names and how various disputes over
domain names have been resolved. |
| dns2go |
free domain names of the form xxxx.dns2go.com |
The interesting thing about dns2go, is that you don't even need a permanent
IP to have a domain. You can have one with dial up via SLIP or PPP where you get
a different IP every time, or with ADSL or cable TCP/IP with DHCP dynamic IP
assignment. You can run game servers, mail servers, webservers etc. using a
permanent name. |
| dotbiztoday.com |
.biz |
for two years. |
| Domain Baron |
sells domain names that are already registered. |
They have names for sale, and can provide you with links to other resources.
If you want to speculate, 10% of your problem is finding good names to buy, and
90% is finding customers to sell them to. They will list your name on their site.
Run by my former housemate Dave Bedford who has been badly bitten by the domain
name speculation bug. He owns names such as GovernmentOfCanada.com
The Canadian government recently filed suit with WIPO to simply take them away
from him. If you want to play this game, be aware that when you pull the tails
of tigers, the tigers have deep pockets to hire lawyers. |
| Dotster |
sells domain names and web hosting
.biz .bz .ca .cc .com .info .name .net .nu .org .sr .tv .us .ws |
per year for .name
per year for .biz, .com, .info, .net, .org, .us
per year for .ca
per year for .bz
per year for .ws
per year for .cc
per year for .nu
per year for .tv
per year for .sr |
| DOT.TV |
.tv |
Theoretically for the country of Tuvalu. Advertised as "cool".
Domain names for
a year. Their website now seems to artfully dodge the issue of price like some
snake oil salesman. |
| DynDNS |
38 free domains plus .bz .cc .cn .com .info .name .net .org
.tv .co.uk .org.uk and .us |
per year though .cc .cn and .tv
cost extra. DynDNS offers three free services of
interest to people who host webservers on their home machines, |
| eDNS |
various e.g.: .biz .corp .gay .k12 .npo .pol .web |
Non-standard TLDs. |
| fapesp.br |
.br |
Brazil |
| FCN.net |
fcn.net |
They parcel out higher order parts of that one name. |
| iana |
.int |
International Treaty Organisations |
| iana |
.us |
USA |
| infograb.com |
.info |
for two years. |
| Inter-Corporate |
broker for .com, .org, .ca, .net, .edu and any
others. |
They will broker buying your domain name for you. They charge only a flat
per year (i.e. zero markup on the Verisign Network Solutions/InterNIC fee) for .com,
.org, .net, .edu and
per year for .ca . This is the lowest brokerage fee I
have heard of, and they give the best service of any ISP I have ever dealt with.
Very good people. The price includes the use of Inter-Corporate's secondary DNS
servers, and when used for the purpose of selling domain names, those are the
only fees. They don't ask for a percentage of the sale, and the setup fee
includes the final transfer as well. They can also host websites, do HTML,
artwork etc. Email Randolf
Richardson <randolf@inter-corporate.com> for more information. |
| Internet Service
Centre |
.aero .biz .coop .info .museum .name .pro |
per year. Australian company. |
| MultilingualNames.net |
.com .bz |
Specialise in multilingual names with accented letters, Chinese, or embedded
symbols (allowed in .bz only).
per year for .bz and
per year for .com. |
| NamesForEveryone.com |
.name |
for two years. Currently only taking re-registrations. |
| new.net |
.agent .arts .auction .chat .church .club
.family .free .game .gmbh .golf .hola .inc .kids
.law .llc .llp .love .ltd
.med .mp3 .school .scifi .shop .soc .sport
.tech .travel .video .xxx |
Not everyone will be able to access these names. |
| nic.je |
.gg .je |
The Channel Islands .gg (Guernsey, Alderney, Sark) and .je (Jersey) domains |
| nic.mil |
.mil |
American military |
| NIC.mx |
.mx |
Mexico |
| PIR |
.org |
in charge of all .org. Does not deal with the public directly. You go
through a registrar. |
| registration.fed.gov |
.gov |
American federal government |
| RIPE.net |
various e.g. .at .be .ch .cz .de .dk .es .fi .fr
.gr .hu .ie .is .nl .no .pl .pt .se .uk |
national domain names for Europe |
| sedo.de |
various e.g. .at .be .ch .cz .de .dk .es .fi .fr
.gr .hu .ie .is .nl .no .pl .pt .se .uk |
broker for trading domain names in Europe. Appraisal service for domain
names. |
| Uninet |
.za |
Only websites situated in South Africa may use this TLD. |
| Verisign
Network Solutions (née Internic) |
.biz .bz .cc .com .edu .gs .info .ms .net .nu .org .tc .tv
.us .vg .ws |
They have an online database of which names are taken, and who has which
names, and when they are due to expire if the owner does not renew.
They retail .com names for
per year.
They retail .name names for
per year.
To talk directly to ICANN, a broker must ante up
Some registration companies have done this then folded leaving the state of some
of their registrations in limbo. Internic is the original and presumably most
stable source. |
| webtld.com |
.web |
Handle just this one TLD. |
| webnames.ca |
.ca |
per year. They primarily deal with ISPs not individuals. |
Wet Blanket Caveats
Allow me a dour personal comment. Hopes of high profit for no work is a form of
gold fever, and not all that different from playing the slot machines.
Speculators do no useful work, other than perhaps subsidising the name assigning
organisations. They are sponges on the body politic. Nature punishes nearly all
of them. The main ones who get rich are those who provide services for the
gambling addicts, just as in a goldrush.
Consider the crazed tulip speculation in renaissance Holland. Prices on a single
bulb were bid up to astronomical levels --
a bulb. Then, suddenly, people noticed that bulbs actually had little real value,
and the whole economy collapsed. I am watching a similar domain name gambling
fever gripping my friends. The basic rule of gambling is, don't risk more than
you can afford to lose. Consider also the law of supply and demand. There is a
very large pool of potential domain names and only a few customers willing to
part with any substantial dollars for one. If you want to make money, you will
have to be very clever.
Consider also that IANA could at any time make available additional TLDs such as .store
and .ski which will dilute the value of .com names.
People are buying up the silliest names that I doubt will ever sell. It might be
worth while to study the market to see what names are selling before
leaping in with both feet. My student project domain
database would help you make intelligent buying decisions.
On the other hand, if you think you may want a domain name for yourself any time
in the next ten years, act quickly to buy it. Otherwise you may be stuck paying
through the nose to speculators for anything half-way decent.
How to Buy a Domain Name Without A Broker
If you want to buy a .com or .org
domain name without a broker, here is what to do. The only tricky part is
having a permanent IP that you want your domain name directed to. You will have
to get that from your ISP. Typically you would not keep your IP permanently,
like your domain name. You would use it only for the time you are associated
with a particular ISP. You are really borrowing one of his logically related IPs.
You don't have to host your website with the same ISP you get your Internet
access from. Shop around for the best deal. Consider the ISP's reputation, speed
of his servers and of course the costs of setup, the IP, disk storage, hits,
cost of additional domain names going to the same server. Most ISP's will sell
you a bundle, including the brokering to buy you the domain name. Some sites
will host free if you post ads for them, however that looks tacky.
To register, you need some server computer to service browser hits on
your domain name. Further, you want to get your domain name out on the web,
known, indexed in search engines etc. so that potential buyers of the domain
name can find you.
-
Check with domainnamebuyersguide.com
to get a ranked list of accredited resellers of domain names. Network
Solutions is the original and the most likely to stay in business. It does
not rank as high as others in terms of service, price or legal freedom. Unlike
its competitors, it offers both email-based and web-based registration. Email
registration is preferable for three reasons:
-
Simplicity (no clicking on a few dozen web pages to make a single change to a
DNS server or mailing address)
-
Security (web sites can be easily hacked but eMail remains relatively secure
since mail servers are located through DNS, and DNS is tightly controlled from
the top down). You can also use PGP and encrypted passwords.
-
Bulk management can easily be automated (updating 300 internet domains through a
web interface is excessively time consuming as opposed to using a PERL script to
send 300 eMails to make these same changes.)
The domain name buyer's guide recommend's the Australian company InternetNamesWW.com
as their top choice. Usually your ISP has a broker he prefers to deal with.
Every broker has different and relatively complicated registration procedures.
It is not worth picking a new broker just to save $5 and having to deal with
unfamiliar procedures. Normally you should follow your ISP's recommendation. If
you are registering or reregistering 100 names or more, consider using bulknames.com
for a deep discount.
-
Check at Verisign
Network Solutions that your .com domain name is
not already taken. There are delays in the system. A name that appears to be
free may not actually be free. It is first come, first served. Don't dawdle. My
speculating friends have many a time lost a good name to others by waiting even
a few hours to think it over.
-
Click on Register a Domain Name.
-
Fill in the New Domain Registration For field with your domain, e.g. orgasmatron.com.
Don't include the www.
-
Select new registration.
-
.com names are for companies. Fill in the company name
in the Organization Name field. .org names are
for non-profit organisations such as charities.
-
Fill in the Organization (Registrant) Information name and address. You
will need to encode your country using the two letter codes shown above, e.g. US
for the USA and CA for Canada.
-
In the Administrative/Agent, Technical and Billing Contact
information section, leave the NIC Handle fields blank, and click the provide
contact information options. You will later be assigned a NIC handle e.g.
RG9999 that you can use in place of filling in the contact information so you
don't have to keep repeating the contact information four times for every domain
you buy.
-
In the Name Server section, for Primary Server Hostname fill in
your new domain e.g. orgasmatron.com, that is
presuming your ISP will set it up as a DNS server. You should get instruction
from the ISP who will host your website on what to use.
-
For the Primary Server net address fill in the permanent IP where this
domain will be hosted, e.g. 127.0.0.99 This is the only tricky part. You will
have to get this from your ISP. They will charge you for it. Because of the
clerical overhead, you can't buy IP's singly, except from an ISP. It is possible
to share the same IP among several domains.
-
For Secondary Server Hostname fill in your ISP's domain, without the www,
e.g. inter-corporate.com. You should get instruction from the ISP who will host
your website on what to use.
-
For the Secondary Server net address fill in the your ISP server's backup
secondary IP e.g. 127.0.0.100. You should get instruction from the ISP who will
host your website on what to use.
-
Leave the optional information blank.
-
After you make your submission, Verisign Network Solutions will send you an
agreement via email, and you send it back to them. This process ping pongs back
and forth with ever stronger confirmation that domain is yours until eventually
they send you a bill and you pay it and they confirm the payment. Then the
domain is really yours.
-
Since you have 90 days to pay, many speculators "buy" hundreds of
names. If they can't sell them in 90 days, they just let them lapse. This is not
good for Network Solutions since they have just as much processing cost as in a
real sale. Network Solutions often holds up sales for manual adjudication in an
attempt to discourage this practice.
-
For more details on how to register a domain name see Network
Solutions.
-
Later you can return to Verisign
Network Solutions to update any of the information. There are several
schemes you can use to ensure that only you modify the records. See Updating
Domain Name and Associated Records at Verisign Network Solutions for details.
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When your registristation is due to expire, you will start getting what at first
appear to be invoices from all sorts of companies asking you to renew. You might
want to change registrars, but don't blindly pay these "invoices".
Make sure you are paying the right company. Verisign Network Solutions sends
bills under the name Netsol.com. This must lose them a lot of business from
people thinking the invoices are phony.
DNS ¤
DynDNS: three free services of interest to people who host webservers on their home machines ¤
IP ¤
TCP/IP ¤
TLD ¤
whois
Last updated 2004-06-28 by Roedy
Green ©1996-2004 Canadian Mind Products
