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What are
Domain Names?
Why are some addresses .com and
others .co.uk?
Can
you explain about some of this terminology?
Is there a
limit to how many domains I can
buy?
What if I already have a domain?
What are
Domain Names?
Domain names are the names you enter into your web
browser or are part of the information behind email
addresses.
A domain name is a way to identify
and locate computers connected to the Internet. A domain
name must be unique; no two organizations on the
Internet can have the same domain name so it may not be
possible for you to have your first choice of domain
name as it may already have been registered.
Domain names should really be read from right to left
- the rightmost part of the address is the top level
domain. For example .co.uk or .com
A typical domain name consists of a second-level
domain and a top-level domain, such as "bigco.com". In
addition, hostname and subdomain information can be
added, for example: "tiger.newyork.bigco.com".
The
top-level domain name describes the type of organization
or the country with the domain name (EDU, COM, GOV, UK,
etc.).
Each domain name corresponds to numeric
IP addresses which is used by the Internet to transmit
data. The Domain Name System completes the task of
matching domain names to IP addresses so that users of
the Internet only have to remember domain names, not
numbers.
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Why are some addresses .COM and others
.CO.UK
Domains are
organised into different types - most types are
geographic with the last section representing the
country (.uk for GB/UK, .it for italy etc), there are
some three letter domains which are an exception to
this, .com, .net, .org etc.
More information on Domain names can be found on
Nominet's site (for .uk) at http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/guides/reg2.html
and at the Internic (for .com, .net, .org) at http://www.internic.net/faq.html
Xhost is a Nominet UK member and tag holder and can
therefore offer domains ending:
.co.uk - for
commercial enterprises - the largest SLD in the
UK
.org.uk - for non - commercial
organisations
.plc.uk and .ltd.uk - for use by
Registered companies only
.net.uk - for the network
providers
.sch.uk - for schools
We also have an
arrangement which allows us to obtain .com, .net and
.org addresses.
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Can you explain about some of this
terminology
When you purchase a domain - for example
mydomain.co.uk, you need to register it with a
registrar. Which registrar is the right registrar
depends on which top level domain you choose (for
example, .co.uk or .com). Registrars are
identified by IPSTAGs. We will automatically select the
right registrar for you.
Information about
the domain is held by Name Servers (also known as Domain
Name Servers or DNS). You can look at information
about your domain using a facility called
WHOIS. There are typically three types of
information displayed:
- NS Records -
These determine which Name Servers have the definitive
information for the domain, and dictate which Internet
Provider(s) are responsible for it's management.
- SOA Records - Annotation of the responsibility for
the domain. This includes the authoritative name
server, i.e. where the buck stops when it comes to
information about this domain, the contact email
address for this domain and various figures governing
how often the domain's information should be
refreshed.
- MX Records -
These govern how and where mail for the domain should
flow.
So how does this
help you get your web site on
line?
You need to define some hosts for your
domain. Typically you would register www.mydomain.co.uk as your web
site address and you might also choose to register a
mail handler such as mail.mydomain.co.uk. In order
to process mail for the domain, you will also need an MX
record pointing to the host which is handling your
email.
When you order a domain from us we will create www.yourdomain.co.uk,
ftp.yourdomain.co.uk,
mail.yourdomain.co.uk and appropriate SOA and MX records
for you automatically.
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Is there a limit to how many domains I can
buy
No, you are welcome to buy as many
domains as you wish. Special prices may apply to
non-standard domains (eg other countries or other top
level domains). If you have a specific requirement
please contact us at domains@xhost.co.uk
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What if I already have a
domain
Then you have a
choice:
If you are happy
with your current registrar, then you can do one of the
following:
- either ask them to change your
name server entries to point to us:
- www.yourdomain.co.uk to point to
195.40.15.102,
- mail.yourdomain.co.uk (if you've chosen the
mail handling option) to 195.40.15.100
- or ask them to change your domain details
to use our name servers: ns0.xhost.co.uk,
ns1.xhost.co.uk and ns2.xhost.co.uk (if taking this
option it is important that you notify us at domains@xhost.co.uk
before the change is made so that we can
create the records in our nameserver to minimise the
risk of you experiencing downtime for your
domain).
If you are not happy
with your current registrar then:
- ask them to
transfer the domain to our registrar by changing the
IPSTAG (for .com, .org, .net etc to JOKER, for .co.uk,
.org.uk, .plc.uk, .ltd.uk, .net.uk, .sch.uk etc to
XHOST)
- ask them to
change the name server to our name servers as listed
above
- Please note -
this may take some time, some registrars can be very
slow to release domains. We can arrange
temporary access to your site while the domain is
being transferred - see question below.
If you wish to use our name servers then please
ensure that you notify domains@xhost.co.uk
so that we are informed in good time to create the DNS
records.
Please note: Many registrars charge to
transfer a domain. You will need to arrange
the transfer yourselves - for security reasons
registrars require the owner of the domain to request
any changes so regret that we cannot request the
transfer on your behalf.
If you have problems transferring a .uk domain
then you can use Nominet's process - click here
for details. Nominet UK is the Registry for .uk
Internet Domain Names - There are a number of
Second Level Domains (SLDs) within .uk and Nominet UK
manages the most popular of these:
.co.uk - for
commercial enterprises - the largest SLD in the
UK
.org.uk - for non - commercial
organisations
.plc.uk and .ltd.uk - for use by
Registered companies only
.net.uk - for the network
providers
.sch.uk - for
schools
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