Domain Name & Domain Name Registration
There are two things that you need to make your website or email address available to the world, and they are a Domain Name (eg www.inhale.com.au) and Web Hosting
Your Domain Name is purchased through a registrar of which there are many throughout the world, just Google “Register Domain Name” and you will see plenty.
What does the Domain Name Registrar do? Well they simply reserve the domain name on your behalf and point the domain name to a web hosting provider of your choice. That’s it. Once you have registered your domain name then no one else in the world can register or use that domain name, it is yours for as long as you keep it registered.
Every year or two your Domain Name Registrar will send you an email to remind you to renew your domain name. This is not a scam; it just means that you have to pay again to keep that domain name. With this in mind it is important to keep your email address up to date with your registrar. If you used your Internet Provider email account to register your domain name (eg you@bigpuddle.com) you should make sure to change this if you change Internet Providers
Some Domain Name Tips
- If your Website Designer registered the Domain Name for you, make sure that they registered it in your name not theirs. If they didn’t them to change this as soon as possible. You can check the details that they used to register the account by going to http://whois-generic.ausregistry.net.au/whois/whois_local.jsp?tab=0
- Ask for and keep in a safe place your Domain Name Registry Key and Domain Name Auth Key. It doesn’t matter what they do ... you can google what they are but just make sure that you have them.
- Ask for and keep in a safe place the login to your Domain Name registrar website. You will need this at some stage to move your website hosting. It may not be for years but you will need it at some stage
- Check the price that you are paying for your Domain Name. Changing Domain Name registrars doesn’t affect your website one but so changing registrars can save you hundreds of dollars a year. This must be done at least 3 months before your Domain Name expires, for some reason Domain Name registrars have the ability to lock you into their services during the renewal period, so if have just renewed you domain make a diary note for 6 months time to look for a cheaper Domain Name Registrar.
Why are we providing this information?
Inhale makes very little money out of registering your domain name and we encourage our clients to register and to get to know how to maintain their own domain name details, but we want to make sure that when it is time to ask for these details you have them at hand.
We do register domain names part of our services, simply because some people want to know that it has been done properly and that we are in full control of the details to make your domain name workable. For this we will charge you a little extra for peace of mind. It is business after all.
Domain Name Scams
Domain Name Scams are common and in essence they are actually a legal proposition which makes them hard to control. There may be some aspects of how they approach you that may be illegal (eg SPAM) but they are actually offering you a service that if you agree to use you will have to pay for.
At the end of the day if the email or letter is not from your Domain Name Registrar then you can safely bin it without a second thought. It is a scam.
One of the most common scams involved asking you if you want to register a suite of domain names that are derivatives of your domain name. For example www.inhale.net or www.inhale.it If you agree then they will purchase these on your behalf and it is a legal transaction. But beware; they are probably registering these domains at an inflated price and in fact you could register them yourself right now for a fraction of the cost.
Another one is where they tell you that a client of theirs is trying to register a domain that is similar to yours, again something like www.inhale.net , and if you want you can register your interest in securing this Domain Name for a certain price. And again complete codswallop because you could simply register these domains yourself straight away.
Buyer beware.