What are Domain Names ?
Why are some addresses .COM and others
.CO.UK?
Is there a limit to how many domains I can
buy?
Can you explain about some of this
terminology?
I use frames based forwarding/cloaked addressing is that a
problem?
What if I already have a domain?
What are domain names?
Domain names are the names you enter into your web browser
or are part of the information behind email addresses. A
domain name is a way to identify and locate computers
connected to the Internet. A domain name must be unique; no
two organizations on the Internet can have the same domain
name so it may not be possible for you to have your first
choice of domain name as it may already have been registered.
Domain names should really be read from right to left - the
rightmost part of the address is the top level domain. For
example .co.uk or .com
A typical domain name consists of a second-level domain and
a top-level domain, such as "bigco.com". In
addition, hostname and subdomain information can be added, for
example: "tiger.newyork.bigco.com". The top-level
domain name describes the type of organization or the country
with the domain name (EDU, COM, GOV, UK, etc.).
Each domain name corresponds to numeric IP addresses which
is used by the Internet to transmit data. The Domain Name
System completes the task of matching domain names to IP
addresses so that users of the Internet only have to remember
domain names, not numbers.
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Why are some addresses .COM and others .CO.UK?
Domains are organised into different types - most types are
geographic with the last section representing the country (.uk
for GB/UK, .it for italy etc), there are some three letter
domains which are an exception to this, .com, .net, .org etc.
More information on Domain names can be found on Nominet's
site (for .uk) at http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/guides/reg2.html
and at the Internic (for .com, .net, .org) at http://www.internic.net/faq.html
Xhost is a Nominet UK member and tag holder and can
therefore offer domains ending:
.co.uk |
- for commercial enterprises - the largest SLD in
the UK |
.org.uk |
- for non - commercial organisations |
.plc.uk and .ltd.uk |
- for use by Registered companies only |
.net.uk |
- for the network providers |
.sch.uk |
- for schools |
We also have an arrangement which allows us to obtain .com,
.net and .org addresses.
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Is there a limit to how many domains I can buy?
No, you are welcome to buy as many domains as you wish.
Special prices may apply to non-standard domains (eg other
countries or other top level domains). If you have a specific
requirement please contact us at domains@xhost.co.uk
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Can you explain about some of this terminology
When you purchase a domain - for example
mydomain.co.uk, you need to register it with a registrar.
Which registrar is the right registrar depends on which top
level domain you choose (for example, .co.uk or .com).
Registrars are identified by IPSTAGs. We will automatically
select the right registrar for you
Information about the domain is held by Name Servers (also
known as Domain Name Servers or DNS). You can look at
information about your domain using a facility called WHOIS.
There are typically three types of information displayed:
- NS Records - These determine which Name Servers
have the definitive information for the domain, and
dictate which Internet Provider(s) are responsible for
it's management.
- SOA Records - Annotation of the responsibility
for the domain. This includes the authoritative name
server, i.e. where the buck stops when it comes to
information about this domain, the contact email address
for this domain and various figures governing how often
the domain's information should be refreshed.
- MX Records - These govern how and where mail for
the domain should flow.
So how does this help you get your web site on line?
You need to define some hosts for your domain.
Typically you would register www.mydomain.co.uk
as your web site address and you might also choose to register
a mail handler such as mail.mydomain.co.uk. In order to
process mail for the domain, you will also need an MX record
pointing to the host which is handling your email.
When you order a domain from us we will create www.yourdomain.co.uk,
ftp.yourdomain.co.uk,
mail.yourdomain.co.uk and appropriate SOA and MX records for
you automatically.
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I use frames based forwarding/cloaked addressing is that a
problem?
It's certainly less than ideal.
We strongly recommend customers to either use our
nameservers or have proper nameserver records created on their
chosen nameservers.
Frame based forwarding is unreliable, causes people to have
problems bookmarking your site and can cause your site not to
be listed in some search engines. If you really have no
choice but to use frame based forwarding then please let us
know and we will accommodate you but we really recommend that
you use an alternative and cannot be responsible if your site
isn't listed or other problems occur.
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What if I already have a domain?
Then you have a choice:
If you are happy with your current registrar, then you can
do one of the following:
- either ask them to change your name server
entries to point to us:
- www.yourdomain.co.uk to point to 195.40.15.102,
- mail.yourdomain.co.uk (if you've chosen the mail
handling option) to 195.40.15.100
- or ask them to change your domain details to use
our name servers:
- ns0.xhost.co.uk - 195.40.15.251,
- ns1.xhost.co.uk - 195.40.15.252 and
- ns2.xhost.co.uk - 195.40.15.253
- (if taking this option it is important that you
notify us at domains@xhost.co.uk
before the change is made so that we can
create the records in our nameservers to minimise the
risk of you experiencing downtime for your domain).
If you are not happy with your current registrar then:
- ask them to transfer the domain to our registrar by -
- for .co.uk, .org.uk, .plc.uk, .ltd.uk, .net.uk, .sch.uk
etc
changing the IPSTAG to XHOST
- for .com, .org, .net etc if your domain is registered
with CORE then request a registrar change to JOKER and
update the handles to tech_handle:COCO-593002
zone_handle:COCO-593002 admin_handle:COCO-593002
- ask them to change the name server to our name servers
as listed above
- Please note - this may take some time, some registrars
can be very slow to release domains. We can arrange
temporary access to your site while the domain is being
transferred via <yourname>.xhostcustomers.co.uk type
name.
If you wish to use our name servers then please ensure that
you notify domains@xhost.co.uk
so that we are informed in good time to create the DNS
records.
Also please be clear whether you wish us to handle your
email of if you have existing email arrangements which you
want to keep - we need to know this in order to set up your
mail handling records correctly. If you are not sure
what your current email handling is then you can use Sam Spade
at http://www.samspade.org/t/dig.cgi
to look at the current settings for your domain, you're
looking for the MX record for the domain.
Please note: Many registrars charge to transfer a
domain. In almost all cases you will need to arrange the transfer
yourselves - for security reasons registrars require the owner
of the domain to request any changes the exception is Network
Solutions where, once you have told us what sort of transfer
you require we can initiate the change but the timescales are
wholly dependent on the admin contact approving the
change. Please contact domains@xhost.co.uk
if you have any queries on any aspect of a domain transfer.
If you have problems transferring a .uk domain then you
can use Nominet's process - click here
for details. Nominet UK is the Registry for .uk Internet
Domain Names - There are a number of Second Level Domains (SLDs)
within .uk and Nominet UK manages the most popular of these:
.co.uk |
- for commercial enterprises - the largest SLD in
the UK |
.org.uk |
- for non - commercial organisations |
.plc.uk and .ltd.uk |
- for use by Registered companies only |
.net.uk |
- for the network providers |
.sch.uk |
- for schools |
|