	Buying a domain

Solution Buying a domain name wheather one, two or twenty it is as easy as a few clicks for even the most uninitiated web user. You can now buy a domain name and have your own website up and running in a couple of days.

Some people buy one or several domain names with no intention of immediately setting up a website. This called reserveing. Once your have reserved a domain name you have the rights to use at a later date when ready to start building your website. Until you are ready to build your website we recommend that you start to use your domain name for your emails on your new branding. intelliServe can provide you will all your website or email hosting.

Unless proper records are looked after it is possible to rush into your purchase, pay by creditcard and lose track of what you already own when you start building your website. When a domain name is registered it will be registered for a period of 1 to 10 years. If the domain is not renewed at end of it's period the domain can be registered by another party.

It has been our experience that when clients transfer there online services to intelliServe that poor past records have been kept. The following are some resulting issues that have arised.

When a domain name is registered make sure the the domain is registered to your company/personal name. Often a domain name can be registererd to a former employee or the website designer. At the time of tranfers this makes it differcult if they can not be contacted or unwilling to authorise changes. There is a process to follow in New Zealand if there is a dispute. Such problems can be avoided if you understand the process beforehand and what is required of you as the legal domain owner.

What Happens When You Register a Domain Name

So you have started a new business or have a great idea for a domain name you would like to reserve. Here is a basic overview of the process you or your representative (website designer, etc.) will go through to do this:

Type in the domain name you want to buy. We will cross-reference your choice with a global database of domain names to verify that nobody else currently owns it. If someone owns it already, you will be asked to try another name.

Next you will be prompted to create a new account with a username and password. After you create an account, you have to fill in all of the required contact information for the domain. The four contacts, which will be explained in more detail below, are the Registrant, Administrative Contact, Billing Contact, and Technical Contact.

Now it's time to pay for the domain. You select the number of years you want to register the domain for, which ranges from 1-10 years, enter your payment information and submit it, and you are done. At this point you are now the proud owner of a new domain name.

What You Need to Do When You Purchase Your Domain Name:

Keep good records of your purchase. Write down your username and password for your domain account, print out the contact information that you entered and print out the receipts. Keep all of this information in a file where you can find it later if you need it. intelliServe does keep record of all transactions for your reference.

If someone else is purchasing a domain name on your behalf, such as your website designer or web host, you should make sure that they are keeping track of this same information and are willing to provide you with copies of it upon request. This gives you an extra measure of safety in the event that a dispute arises over control of your domain name. Most of the time this occurs when an owner decides to change designers or hosting companies because of dissatisfaction or increasing requirements. intelliServe will provide your with copies of all domain registration information immediately upon request.

Terms You Need to Be Familiar With and Why:

This section explains the major features of a domain name account and the things you need to be aware of with regard to their function and use. It is not necessary for you to understand in great technical detail everything there is to know about domain names, but the features described below are the ones you will encounter during the registration process, and the ones most likely to cause you trouble if they are not handled appropriately.

Registrar - This is the company that the domain was purchased from. Domain names can be transferred from one registrar to another following specific rules. There are a number of domain registration scams out there which appear to be renewal notices when in fact they are registrar transfer forms. The easiest way to recognize them is to know who your registrar is and only accept renewal notices from the company you bought your domain from.

Domain Account Manager - As mentioned above, whenever you buy a domain you are creating an account with your registrar. This account allows you to manage all of your domain contact information and the DNS servers for your domain. Whenever you go to the website for your registrar, you should see a link that says something along the lines of "My Account", "Account Manager", "Manage Domain" or simliar. When you click on that link, it should take you to a login screen where you enter the username and password when you bought your domain. Once you have successfully logged in, you will be able to change all of the information about your domain name, renew it, and possibly use other services. For example with intelliServe you have other services like website hosting.

Whois Information - This is the basic information returned by a Whois query on a domain name. It contains the ownership and contact information, the registration and expiration dates, and the DNS servers for the domain. This is the information you are creating when you register your domain. You can find a Whois query form on most domain registrar sites, and there are also many independent Whois servers where you can check domain information.

Registrant or Owner Contact - This is the first contact you have to fill out, and arguably the most important from a legal standpoint. The person or organization listed in this contact is the legal owner of the domain name. This can be a serious problem if a client asks their designer to purchase a domain on their behalf and the designer registers the domain with himself as the owner. It does happen, unfortunately far too often, and if a legal dispute arises over the ownership of the domain this can be very problematic. You should always make sure whenever someone else buys a domain for you that you are listed as the owner. At intelliServe when you purchase a domain name for you, you have our guarantee that you will be the designated owner of the domain. We will list intelliServe as the administrative and/or technical contact.

Administrative Contact - For operational purposes, this is THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE OF INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR DOMAIN. Almost all of a registrar's business is done with the Administrative Contact. As you might guess, this is the person or company that has administrative rights to act on behalf of the Registrant and make changes to all aspects of the domain name, including all contacts and name servers. If you lose your domain manager password, this is the person that the registrar will ask to deal with in order for you to get it back or change it. The contact information for the administrator should be kept as accurate as possible at all times, particularly the email address. The administrator's email receives all renewal notices, password reminders, and other business email from the registrar. The number one mistake people make when registering a domain name is not keeping the administrative email address current. Many people change their email address before the registration period is up and drop the one they were using when the bought the domain. This results in failure to receive renewal notices and the inability to receive password reminders from the registrar if your password becomes lost. When that is the case, you usually have to go through a painful process involving a fax request form with a copy of a photo ID and several days of waiting to get the registrar to update your information for you. Keeping the Administrative Contact up to date is the best way to guarantee that your domain name will be quick and easy to manage whenever changes are needed.

You should always register a domain with an email address you plan to keep for a long time if at all possible. One mistake that companies often make is when an employee purchases the domain and uses his own contact information, then that employee later leaves the company, has his email address deleted, etc., and generally makes life difficult for everybody who has to manage the domain after he is gone. If you are using a company email address, it is best to use a general company address such as the one we use, dns@intelliserve.co.nz or if that is unavailable, the address of a senior employee or manager who isn't planning on changing jobs anytime soon.

Billing Contact - Fortunately this one is nice and obvious. This is the person to be contacted by the registrar regarding any billing matters for your domain name, including registrations and renewals. If the billing contact is different from the registrant or the administrator, those two contacts may also receive billing notices from the registrar if the billing contact can no longer be reached.

Technical Contact - This contact is usually the person or organization responsible for maintaining the DNS servers that resolve the domain to a website, as well as handling other technical problems related to the domain. In most cases this will be intelliServe as the registrar you bought the domain from.

DNS or Name Servers - DNS stands for Domain Name Server (also referred to as Domain Name Service or Domain Name System). A DNS translates domain names into IP addresses. The DNS for your domain will normally be provided by the company hosting your website, and you have to make sure that you have the correct DNS settings specified in your domain account in order for it to display your website properly. When you change hosts, you also change DNS servers, which is why you need to keep your domain manager login. If you can't change your domain's DNS settings, then you can't change hosts. The domain registrar can still change this information for you if you have no way to do it yourself, but as with changing contact information it involves a tedious fax verification process that you don't want to go through if it can be avoided.

Now that you understand how the domain process works and what some of its pitfalls are, you're ready to go out and purchase your domains.

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05 Dec 2006 12:01 AM

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