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What's in a domain name?

By Lasa Information Systems Team

How does the online world see you? The difference between www.youragency.org.uk and www.youragency.freeserve.co.uk is not just the length. It's about having your own identity. And what happens if you decide to change your Internet service provider (ISP) and are faced with changing your email and web site address? Here's the budget way to get your own solid online identity and still make use of free Internet service providers.

Time for a Change

Many ISPs offer free web and email hosting with their packages.  This might on the outset mean that you get a necessary service at no extra cost - but is it really cost free?  You are really paying with two things - advertising your ISP in your email and web addresses, and making it more tricky to switch ISPs.

It's a fact that having your own domain name will give you credibility online. A domain name is not just for the likes of www.microsoft.com - domain registering companies are competing to offer you a good deal. Domain names can be purchased from as little as £6 + VAT or less, with typical prices around £50 + VAT for two years. But what do you do with that name once you have it?

Hosts with the Most

Big companies like Microsoft have the resources to support their own web servers 24 hours a day seven days a week. The rest of us will use our ISP or a specialist web hosting service to do the job (and this is probably the best option for most organisations without the necessary resources).

For example, Lasa's rightsnet is hosted by a company called Alentus - it is their servers that send you the web pages when you type www.rightsnet.org.uk into your browser.

Prices for this are around £350 per year for web space and domain name for 2 years, although cheaper deals are available depending on your requirements. Depending on your needs you can get a domain name and web hosting for much more or much less than this. But what do you do if you just want to use a free ISP for your web site and email?

The Forwarding Trick

When you pay a company to register your domain name they pay a fee to Nominet, the UK arm of the global Internet naming authority who ensure that people don't register duplicate addresses. But this is only half the story. Your domain name has to be hosted on a DNS server that's connected to the Internet, so it can be seen by the other servers whose business it is to keep track of all the names on the Internet.

So the registering company will also put your new domain name on their servers. Now here's the trick. If your actual email address is with a free ISP and so is your web site, you ask your registering company to forward your email and web site requests. This is an automatic process - any email to www.your-agency.org.uk is sent on to your free account and requests for web pages from www.your-agency.org.uk are sent to your free service web site address.

And voila! - to the outside world you have your own domain name but you can use any free service provider you like. What's more, you can change your ISP and this will be invisible to the outside world. Just remember to check that whoever you use to register your domain name offers free email and web forwarding.

Free Domain Names?

A twist in the tail here is the advertising of 'free domain names'. Some companies have cottoned on to the fact that combining domain name registration with running an ISP can be used to pull in customers with the offer of free domain registration.

Some ISPs are willing to waive the cost of registering your domain as long as you also use them as your ISP. This seems like a fair offer - they are hoping to make their money back from their charges for providing you with an internet service. And as you would have to use an ISP anyway so why not use them? The thing to bear in mind is 'always read the small print'.

Things to watch out for with free domain names include:

• Domain names will usually only come as part of a paid for package
• Unlike direct registration, you may not actually own the domain name (it may be registered in the company's name)
• Even if you do own the domain name, there may be hefty charges if you cancel your contract within the first 12 months, or if you wish to transfer your domain away from the company.
• Your domain will often only be free for the first 2 years - after this you will have generally have to pay the company's normal price for renewal
• You may also have to put up with banner advertisements on your website and you won't generally have any control over what gets advertised

None of this is unreasonable but you should be aware of what you are signing up to, so read the terms and conditions carefully.

There's a need to be cautious, your name is important and some of the ISPs offering free domains and hosting may not survive. However, it’s worth registering your name, and it could potentially still be used with a free ISP.

There is more information on domain names in the Idealware article Dealing With Domain Names - Part 1.. The article advises against using domain name registrars that are not accredited with ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Nominet, (rather than ICANN) maintains the register of domain names ending in .uk and the list of registrants.