I'm not sure about making a new thread, but I give a few more more pointers.
Here is a list of some of the major Top Level Domain (TLD) Registry's. Registry's are the world database for all domain names. You don't buy domain names from most registry's Registrars do.
.com/.net domain names are all controlled by
Verisign Global Registry Services.
.org domain names use to be controlled by Verisign, but are now controlled by
Public Interest Registry
.biz domains are controlled by
Neulevel
.us domains are controlled by
Neustar. Neustar also controls the
.com.cn domain name.
.info is controlled by
Afilias
.la domain names were controlled by
http://www.la/ however they were sued by the country of Laos. Since Laos owns the international country code of .la and Los Angeles was illegally using their countries TLD, all .la domains were placed on hold. That means that if you have a .la domain name, after it expires you won't be able to get it back. You also can't update any of the information on .la domains until dispute is settled.
What's the point of giving this information? Well if you do a normal whois lookup on a linux box, you won't be able to lookup the information for any of the domain names except for .com and .net since all of the other TLDs are controlled companies that aren't Verisign. Since Verisign/Netsol use to be the only registrar all whois programs were originally made to only look at the Netsol database for names and not any others.
It's easy to get the whois information from most of these sites. Just go to whois.us, whois.biz, whois.info and so on. Or you can use the Internic whois lookup located at
http://www.internic.net/whois.html. There are also other websites for using whois, but Internic is pretty convenient.
Another thing about domain name registrars is that most times you get what you pay for. Go Daddy for example is very no frills. Their customer support department is a bit light because they run a streamline operation in order to keep their prices down. This means that most of the support you get is limited in hours or automated. For people who HAVE to speak to a real person Go Daddy isn't your registrar. Network Solutions is almost completely automated now. Even when you do speak to the live operators, they have a response form that they need to follow so no matter how upset you are you'll get the same answer as everyone else. I understand why that is though since Netsol is the largest registrar. Register.com and Melbourne IT aren't much better. Bulk Register deals with business accounts so most likely if you aren't a business and you are calling you, they will just refer you back to the business you originally bought your domain name from. This causes problems for people who buy cheap webhosting and the domain name is included free. Many times the domain name is from Bulk Register. Why does that matter? Say you've changed web hosting to a different place for whatever reason and you want to update your DNS servers to point to the new host. You have to contact your old hosting company since Bulk Register won't deal with you. Then if you contact your old hosting company they may not change the DNS services for you unless you pay some outrageous price. It's not a fun process. I could go over the good and bad points of all of the major registrars, but I think the listed ones are the ones I've heard complaints about the most.
Next tip, if you are going to transfer your domain name to a different registrar for what ever reason, do so at least two months before the domain name expires. Again I'm going to my favorite example, Network Solutions. There is (or was I'm not sure if it's still in place) a policy with Network Solutions to deny any domain name transfers that attempt to take place 14 days before the domain expires. So you would need to renew your domain with Network Solutions then pay the transfer fee to which ever registrar you are transferring to. Domain transfers do NOT happen instantaneously. They can take up to two weeks depending on certain circumstances. This is not the fault if your current registrar or your new registrar so getting angry about it won't get your domain transferred. Also be away that transferred domains are placed on lock by many registrars for upto two weeks. So if you are about to transfer your domain name, make sure to update the DNS BEFORE you send your domain out. If you don't you will be stuck without a domain name for two weeks until the name comes off of lock.
New domain names cannot be transferred to other registrars for 60 days. So if you Buy a domain at ... say joker.com and want to transfer the domain to godaddy you have to wait 60 days. This doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is for some people. An example of why it would matter:
Register your domain name at Cheap Names for one year at $8.88 and then transfer your domain to Go Daddy for $6.95. When you transfer your domain name to Go Daddy you get a year extension. The other way to do it would be pay $8.95 for one year a Go Daddy and then renew it for another year at $8.95. You are saving a whole $2 by transferring instead of renewing. But some people don't want to wait that 60 days to transfer it.
There is a new regulation for expired domain names. Before when a domain was expired or deleted, you could reorder the domain immediately with a new company. In an effor to stop cyber squaters ICANN (or InterNIC I'm not sure) has made it so that deleted domains are held for 30 days at the Registry before they are deleted. Where this becomes a problem is when people delete domains by accident. Then domain name is placed on hold on the registry level. if peopel want their domain name restored, they will need to pay the registrar to restore the domain which can cost anywhere from $100 to $200 dollars (depending on the registrar). This is because InterNIC charges for restoring domain names from Registry hold. The way to tell if a domain has been deleted and is on Registry hold is by looking at Status line of the whois for the domain. If the domain status says: REDEMPTIONPERIOD, this means the domain has been deleted and you need to pay to restore it. This is different from the status: REGISTRAR-HOLD or REGISTRAR-LOCK. Registrar Hold means that you haven't payed your domain name bill in time, but it has not been deleted from the registrars servers yet. Lock could be for a number or reasons including a domain dispute or if the domain was just transferred (I explained transfer lock before).
That is most of the things I can think of for now. There are may other things that happen with domain names, but I can't think of them right now.
🙂
