WHAT ARE DOMAIN NAMES?

As any of us has his own name (and surname too) so in the Internet wilderness there must be some system to distinguish between different sites. That is the reason why domain name system was "invented".

I use my family name for domain name PERSAK.COM to distinguish my site from other "family" sites on Internet. Domain name without hosting is like empty shell and like next to nothing. When I registered my domain name for the first time I searched whole Internet to find best hosting solution I could afford. In past four years I changed three hosting companies. Reason: everytime I found better company and finally there was this company which is one huge step ahead whole market of hosting services.

The very best thing with domain name and hosting solution was personal e-mail name. Imagine e-mail like name@surname.com and it's all yours. If You own domain name with Your surname (family name) You are possible winner in this fast changing world. Imagine other people all around the world with same surname which could not register same domain name. If they wan't enjoy benefits of that name they MUST contact owner of that domain name.

We see domain names in action as many "providers" advertise them in Yellow pages, in newspapers and on many other places - even on car bumpers (stickers). On the Internet we see domains like WWW.PERSAK.COM, where WWW means World Wide Web, second is base of name and last is Top Level Domain (TLD). If You want to register a domain name, there are few rules:

First segment (WWW or like) is predeterminated,

You can pick second segment of domain name freely (mostly, with some limits),

Third segment (TLD) is limited by Internet Domain Names authority;

TLD's - TOP LEVEL DOMAINS

Last segments of domain names are those which define type of organisation or individual behind domain name. You can choose from following TLD's:

COM for commercial use (like www.persak.com),

ORG for organisations (like www.persak.org),

NET for organisations which are dealing mostly with networking (computers & Internet) (like www.persak.net),

INFO for informational pusrposes (like www.persak.info),

BIZ for business purposes (like www.persak.biz)

,

NAME for business purposes (like www.boris.persak.name)

and

PRO for professional pusrposes (like www.persak.pro)

There are some new TLD's coming in future like MUSEUM and others. We can expect some more TLD's in following years, but there is one general rule: First was COM and with no doubt it's the king in domain name game!

ccTLD's - COUNTRY CODE TOP LEVEL DOMAINS

Beside general TLD's which were mentioned above there are Top Level Domains for Countries all over the world. Very well known is UK which stands for United Kingdom (England), there are some others (some of them very exotic indeed):

IT for Italy,

DE for Germany (Deutschland),

RU for Russia,

FR for France,

TV for Tuvalu,

HU for Hungary,

JP for Japan and

SI for Slovenia (my country).

In some countries there is a free market with national domain names (that means You can buy one) and in many countries You find a lot of restrictions - You can register domanin name with ccTLD only in case You own a business or operate some kind of allowed and registered organisation. Few months ago was announced new ccTLD which didn't existed until now and it is expected to boost Internet Domain Name popularity: US

IMPORTANT RULES FOR REGISTERING A DOMAIN NAME

1. It's not allowed to register rude or offensive words (manj registrars have list of words which You cannot register).
2. Keep base names short and understandable, try to avoid names like there_is_something_which_is_very_long_You_know. It is very well known that Internet visitors have very short span and they don't want to type long or ridiculous names (or names without any meaning).
3. If You need to use dashes, You'd better think about it first. Is there a need for dashes or it is better to write words continuously. ILOVEYOU is better than I-LOVE-YOU. It is shorter and recognizable.
4. Never (and I mean never) try to register name which infringes someones well-known trademark unless You are rich enough to stand court fight or arbiter's decision. There are only a few cases when "ordinary" people won domain names against rich companies or organisations which claimed domain name rights supported by theirs trademark name.
5. Try to register generic domain names which are widely recognized and memorable. Sometimes is good to register misspeled words beside right ones as many people are not good in vocabulary. This is especially usefull for business purposes.