Registration FAQ

Put simply a domain name is the part of an internet address after the '@' or the 'www.'. It can be part of your email address or your web address, usually it is both.

What makes a good domain name depends on what you want to use it for, but the following are a few general rules:

1. Easy to say
   Our rule of thumb is that a good name is one you can say over the telephone without having to repeat yourself.
2. Easy to guess
   Many people attempt to find websites by guessing the domain name based on what they are looking for. Most will probably try yourname.com first, or yourname.co.uk if you are in the UK.
3. Easy to remember
   Try to keep the name short and relevent to your site, hyphens can be difficult to remember.

Your own domain name makes it easy for other to remember your web/email address, and easier for you to tell others about your address. Having your own domain name allows you to change your ISP (Internet Service Provider) without having to change the email address you give to others. If you've changed ISP once you'll know how difficult this can be.

Yes you should. Names are a limited resource, if there is a domain name that suits you or your business there is no guarantee that someone else won't register it before you do. Parking is free for names we register, so you are welcome to register it now, park it on our servers and decide on forwarding/hosting options later. You can even decide to move the name to another ISP later - we make no charge for this.

• .com
  The one everyone knows (and wants). Originally intended for US commercial organisations, but now the de-facto domain name for any use. Good names are very scarce.
• .net
  Originally intended for network related companies, but now available for general use, a good alternative to .com
• .org
  Originally intended for non-commercial organisations, but now available for general use, a useful alternative to .com/.net
• .co.uk
  The de-facto UK domain. Again, originally intended for companies, but now open to all. Domain of choice for UK websites.
• .org.uk
  Originally intended for non-commercial organisations, but now open to all. A good choice if the .co.uk has gone.
• .biz
  Intended for bona fide business or commercial purposes only. These names must not be purchased on a purely speculative basis. For more information please see the rules governing gTLD domains here.
• .info
  The internet is a vast resource of information, and this domain type is intended for sites that provide information.
• .xx.com / .xx.net
  A great alternative to .com and .co.uk. Many more names are available in this domain type.

You know for certain that you have got a domain when the whois database tells you so. Our confirmation email lets you know that registration of the name has occurred, but it is up to you to check that you have got the domain before spending money on advertising etc. We will of course let you know if there has been a problem registering your domain name, but we often don't find out for 12 hours or so if a registration fails.

To order on of these names you will need to enter the full domain name including the extension into the domain search box. ie: If your company name is Widgets International Ltd, you would enter widgetsinternational.ltd.uk (or you could choose widgets-international.ltd.uk).

Please be aware that the rules for registering .ltd.uk and .plc.uk names is much stricter than for other .uk names. In particular, the domain name, much match exactly your company name, so widgets.ltd.uk or widgetsint.ltd.uk would not be acceptable. The only variation allowed is an optional hyphen (-) splitting up the words that make up the name. When you fill in the order form you must set the domain owner as the company and you must enter the company registration number. These names take longer to register than other .uk names as the validity of the company name has to be checked at Companies House, so normally they are only processed during office hours.

This is because it takes 24 hours or so for the name to get added to the WHOIS database, which is what we (and other domain reg companies) use to determine if a name is available. If after 36 hours or so your name still isn't listed in WHOIS then you should contact us. Once we confirm a name has been registered, it isn't possible for anyone else to register your name, despite the fact that it appears to be free.

Unfortunately it takes 6-12 hours for the whois database to be updated after registration. So names can appear to be free when in fact they are not. Also, we attempt to register your names immediately, but there is a small delay while we get authorisation for your credit card, and it is possible for someone else to get in there first. We will obviously issue a full refund if this occurs.

Sorry, No - This isn't a service we offer. We can't be 100% sure a name is available until we actually register it, and we can't give refunds once a name is registered. The problem is that names can appear free even when they are not, due to the time lag in the WHOIS database being updated after registration. As a rule of thumb, we suggest that if the .com is free then the others probably will be too, and you should check the availability of all names using our WHOIS page as well as the domain search, but there is no guarantee all the names will be still be available when we come to register them.

For .com/.net/.org/.uk domains, yes you are (but see below). You will be the holder and the admin contact for the domain. We will be the technical, zone and billing contacts, but that is purely so we can administer the domain properly. The admin contact receives the certificate from Nominet for .uk domains.

If you register a name under any of the .uk.com, .uk.net, .gb.com and .gb.net second level domains, you don't actually own the name, you just pay us for pointing the name at an internet address, also if the domain name changes ownership the new owner must reregister the name and pay the full registration fee.

Providing you pay by Credit Card, domain registration takes place within hours (usually within minutes) of you placing your order. Sometimes registration can take a little longer, for instance when there are delays at the registry, or out of normal working hours. Then, once the name has been registered, it takes about 24 hours for the name to become usable on the Internet. We normally send you an email once the name has been confirmed as registered, in which we give you the access instructions for the web control panel.

This depends on the type of name. For .uk names, very little information is displayed; just the name the domain was registered for. For COM/NET/ORG and most other domain types, much more information is displayed, including: Holder's name, address, telephone number and email address. There is nothing we can do about this unfortunately, as it is an ICANN condition of registration that full and accurate name and address information be publicly available, and failure to provide this could result in suspension or deletion of the domain name.

If, once you have registered a name, you get a 'Parked' page when you try accessing it from a website, it means the name has been allocated correctly and is ready to use. The Parked page serves as a holding site until you have some web content of your own to redirect your domain to. By default, we set up the email so that all mail to anything@yourdomain will be redirected to the address you gave for your account, so in most cases you will not need to change your mail settings. Obviously you didn't buy a domain just to show our Parked page, and you may want to show your own site instead (if you have one) - to do that, please see the next question.

Once you have registered your name, you have a number of options as to how you use it for your website:

1. If you have just purchased your name as 'Parked' (ie: not purchased any forwarding/hosting account), you can use the control panel to redirect the name to an existing website - this could be in the webspace you probably already have with your ISP (you would need to see their support pages to see how to upload your site to them). This wouldn't give you 'masked' redirection however, you would need a forwarding account for that. Click here for details about redirecting your website using the control panel.
2. You could upgrade your name to a forwarding account which allows you to use masked redirection which keeps your domain name in the address bar of the browser when redirecting and gives a much more professional look. This is the most popular option.
3. Alternatively you can upgrade your domain name to a low cost hosting account. This gives you webspace on our servers which you can use to upload your site to and eliminates the need for redirection altogether. Our low cost hosting account is a fully featured account with full CGI (scripting) support and should provide you with all you need to host your site professionally.