General Guide to Domain Registration
page 3 - What domains are available

A domain name is essentially divided into 3 parts

Take our domain name
(note we don't consider http:// which is the protocol by which the browser gets the pages from the site - see our glossary for more)

www.fluffbucket.com

The www. tells the browser that the domain is part of a series of interlinked domains making up the World Wide Web (hence www). The www is just part of the internet and there are other suffixes available. However the registration buisness is geared toward www. addresses and usually people want a domain with this sort of suffix

Next follows the We chose fluffbucket as the name for our domain.
This is the part that you have the most choice with.

Only problem is the name you want may not be available. With .com domains (see below) over 4 million addresses were registered by the end of the last century. You may well find a simple name has long gone. Try thinking of alternate name, or a combination of names (often get more available domains and you can come up with a catchy name like www.lastminute.com or www.letsbuyit.com). Alternatively try another domain level (see later)

Most domains are in use by genuine users but some were bought with aim of selling them on for a profit (the so called cyber squatters)

The .com defines the level of the domain and gives an idea of the site type

Domains levelsare divided into 3 Groups

Top Level Domains

Main US developed domains (though 3 of the big ones are effectively open to all) These include the big 5 listed below

• .com - The big one.
  Over 4 million .com names were registered by the end of the 20th century.
  Initially aimed for commercial use but anyone can have one. Very popular
• .net - Aimed at companies involved with the Internet
• .org - for non -profit organizations
• .edu & .gov- for US education establishments and US government

In 2001 several new top level domains were made available such as .info (for information sites) .biz (yup you guessed it for buisness sites) and .tv (aimed at multimedia site

Top level Country domains

For each country outside US e.g. .de for Germany or .uk for UK (don't mix this up with co.uk that's described below). Curiously with most you don't have to live in that country (or even be from there!!) to register it. Hence recent flurry of registrations using Tonga domain .to. But many countries are now cracking down on non nationals using theses names

In some places you can't simple register at this level, you need to use 2nd level country domains

Second level Country domains

These are supposed to give an indication what type of organization you are (e.g. .co.uk is aimed at British companies) but there is little control over these

There is likely to be a growth of new level domains over the next few years as demand hots up

TO PAGE 2TO PAGE 4