Domain Names

Domain names are unique identifiers on the Net. You need to get a domain name if you're serious about making your business successful. Having your own domain instead of an extension of someone else's, gives your site better credibility, recognition, and visibility with the search engines and directories.

Technically speaking, domain names are aliases which refer Internet users to IP addresses, complicated series of numbers that represent the location on the server.

If you haven't purchased a domain yet it's best to buy one that includes one of your most profitable keywords for higher relevancy. The engines will rank your site higher for your keyword if it's included in your domain name.

Besides, when readers hit your site, they should be immediately able to understand what your site is all about. And the best way to do that is including your concept keyword in your domain name. It's a better description of your Web site.

The length can be up to 63 characters, although the shorter the better. You may use dashes if it helps readability. Generally, don't use dashes if your name has only two words in it.

Domain names include the Top Level Domain (TLD). The most popular TLDs are .com, .org, .net, .cc.
.com represents companies or for profit organizations, it's also the most common extension. Most personal Web sites also use this extension.
.net generally represents Internet Service Providers.
.org represents non-profit organizations or groups.
.cc is actually a country domain that has become a popular alternative when .com isn't available. Country domains are typically more expensive and that's the case with .cc.

Though these are general guidelines, you may use any of these extensions when registering your name. If you want to make sure no one else can benefit from it, you can register all variations.

Choosing domain names

This is very important step in the entire process of building a Web site, and due to the recent "gold rush" for domain names, it can also be one of the most difficult. The right selection can make the difference between a successful Web site and one that fails to attract any visitors.

It may seem that nearly all "good" names have been registered. This doesn't mean, however, that there's nothing left, you just have to be a bit more creative.

Here are some tips for choosing domain names...

Keep the length between 5-20 characters if possible.
Try to base it on a common phrase, that's easy to spell and easy to remember.
The generic TLD .com is by far the most marketable, and thus the most valuable domain.

Check for domain name availability

The next step is to find out whether or not "your" name has been registered. Prepare to be disappointed. You'd be surprised at how many people share your idea. The search box provided below will help you conduct this check.

This service not only checks them, but also generates a lot of available domain names based on yours. You can also register them for $8.99 a year.

Domain name generators

If you can't come up with something that works, you may want to try domain name generators. With a couple key words, and a company name for commercial applications, they'll usually be able to come up with something acceptable. Here are some of them...

Dotster's Domain Discovery System
Just enter the name that you originally wanted and this domain name generator will whip out synonyms, word combinations and other alternatives for you to consider. It can also generate available domain names based on the keywords you enter. Even recently expired domain names are included in the search results.

Domain Fellow
Generates domain names based on the keyword you enter, and one of over a thousand popular descriptive prefixes and suffixes in their database.

If you still can't find the available name

More than 32 million domain names are currently registered worldwide, but only a fraction represent live, active Web sites. Thousands of these valuable names expire each week, and the competition for their registration is intense.

BizMint
BizMint offers a unique online database which informs people on the domain names that are about to expire and become available.

Domain Registration

Domain registration is relatively simple process these days and can be taken care of for a small fee by a large number of domain registrars. Most hosting companies will also register domain names for you.

Before you start the domain registration process, you should understand exactly what it is, and why choosing the right name is so important.

The domain registration service is provided by domain registrars. These days there are literally thousands of them on the Web, all offering a variety of services, so make sure to shop around for the best deal.

Here are a few inexpensive registrars to start...

GoDaddy
No. 1 in new domain registrations and the second largest domain registrar in the world in terms of total names under management. The current price is $10.69 a year. It also offers a free Starter Web Page with every domain. If all you need is a 1-page site to establish an online presence, you can quickly create a professional Web page, using a simple wizard. No technical expertise or knowledge of HTML code is necessary. Each domain also includes 1 personalized email address (you@yourdomain.com) with powerful protection against viruses, spam and fraud.

Omnis
It offers low priced domains ($7.95 per year). Available TLDs: .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .us, .co.uk, .me.uk, .org.uk, .ws, .bz, .cc. Omnis also offers inexpensive Unix and Windows Web hosting.

iPowerWeb
It offers cheap domain registration ($6.50 per year). Available extensions: .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info and .us.
iPowerWeb is also one of the best hosts for standard and small ecommerce sites. It provides much more disk space and bandwidth than an average site needs, free domain name, daily tape backups and powerful website builder.

1&1 Instant Domain
It provides cheap domain registration ($8.99 per year). Available TLDs: .com, .net, .us, .org, .biz, .mobi, .name, .info, .ws, .cc, .tv. Each domain comes with Starter WebsiteBuilder (5 Web pages) and email account (2GB storage and up to 200 email aliases). 1&1 also offers a wide variety of hosting plans which include one or more free domains and a free website builder.

Name server (DNS server)

A name server is a computer that contains a list of domain names and the associated IP addresses. When a name is typed in a Web browser, the name server associates that with the IP address and the correct Web site opens in the browser.

The DNS information from the hosting company is required at the time of domain registration. If you don't have a hosting provider yet, you can register domain name, that will not be hosted anywhere. After that, you can notify your hosting provider about your domain so it can set up its computers, and then you can log into your registrar and enter the DNS information.

Domain transfer

There are two different types of transfers...

From one hosting provider to another
From one domain registrar to another

Transferring your name from your current hosting provider to another is a relatively simple task, and can usually be performed for you by your new hosting provider. Name server updates usually take somewhere between 24 and 72 hours to fully propagate throughout the Internet.

If you want to get your existing domain name to work with your new hosting account, you need to update the name server information. This is done through your registrar, or the company that you purchased the name through.

If you've decided to transfer your domain to a new registrar, you should know that while no registrars will refund any fees you have already paid, some registrars will give you a credit for any remaining time when you transfer a name to them.

For example, suppose you performed 1-yr. domain registration with registrar 1 on January 1, 2002. If you transfer your name to registrar 2 on June 1, 2002, registrar 2 will require you to pay an additional year's registration fee, but will extend your new registration until January 1, 2004. To see whether a particular registrar offers this program, check the registrar's Web site.

If you do decide to change, many registrars have an on-line system, which allows you to transfer your name to a new registrar in less than two minutes.

Conditions for changing domain registrars...

No outstanding bills or payments to original registrar.
Domain is older than 60 days.

Domain parking

This is having two or more domains point to the same IP address.

Suppose you already have a hosting account and the domain name "something.com." If you register the .net and .org versions and park them to your main account, you would have "something.com," "something.net," and "something.org," pointing to the same IP address, so that no matter which one you typed in, it would still go to the same site.

Renewal of domain name

During the domain registration, you have to select the length of time you want to register it. To continue the registration after the original expiration date, you should pay the renewal fee.

Some registrars offer a discount if you register domain names for a multi-year period. That way, you don't need to reregister them as often, but if your current registrar goes out of business, you'll probably have to move them to a different registrar and pay a new fee.

Upload Web Page

Copying files from your hard drive to the server is a simple process. The host site will prompt you for the name of the directory on your hard drive where your files are stored and the names of the specific files to be uploaded. To avoid confusion, make certain that all files are saved on the server using the same file names that were used on your hard drive. The only software that you require to upload files is a web browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer. Alternatively, free FTP software (File Transfer Protocol) can be used.

FTP Software

The normal way to get your page from your computer to the Internet is to use a file transfer protocol named (surprise!) File transfer Protocol (FTP). Arachnophilia has a built-in FTP service to help you do this.

Before using the FTP service, you need to have some information, information that your Internet service provider should have given you:

The name of the FTP server.
Your logon user name.
Your logon password.
Your directory path.

As a first step, locate this information and have it available.

What does FTP stand for?

After creating your Web site on your hard disk, you need to transfer it to the live Web host. You can do this by using File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Some Web hosts don't require you to use FTP software to publish your files. Instead, they have an upload via Web browser function. This is useful to send perhaps one or two files, but it can be tedious to send multiple files.

FTP is the easiest way to upload and download files between you and your Web hosting provider. To use it you need to have an FTP software. One of the most powerful and easy to use FTP programs is...

Cute FTP for Windows and Mac.

You can buy a boxed copy of Cute FTP from Amazon.com.

Main features of Cute FTP...

Connection wizard
A built-in connection wizard helps you quickly setup a new FTP connection with a simple step-by-step approach.
Full drag & drop support
You can transfer files between your local PC and remote computer simply by dragging and dropping files from one side of your screen to the other. You can also drag & drop files within panes, and from your desktop.
Site manager
Cute FTP's site manager provides an easy way to store multiple FTP site addresses, usernames and passwords.
Site to site transfers
You can also transfer files from one remote server to another, vastly increasing the file transfer speed by bypassing your computer altogether.
Resume transfers
Cute FTP can resume downloading of incomplete files (for example, after a power outage). This works with all FTP sites that support this feature.
Folder comparison
You can easily synchronize two folders. Local and remote folder contents can be compared based on case, name, date, or size. Files that are different from each other are highlighted and Cute FTP can download or upload them all at once.
Remote file editing
Cute FTP includes a full copy of CuteHTML LE, a text-based HTML editor. You can use this tool to make quick edits to any local or remote HTML page.
File finder
An integrated file searcher allows you to search the Internet for music, video, software or image files using multiple 3rd party FTP search engines.

Note: If you use Microsoft Frontpage to build your Web site, you should never use regular FTP software to transfer your files as it can damage the FrontPage extensions.

In order to start using your FTP program, you need the following information which is included in your Web hosting account activation notice...

Username
Password
Hostname - usually ftp.domain.com or www.domain.com, but it can vary.

Your FTP software allows you to...

upload files and directories to your remote Web host
download files and directories from your Web host
delete files and directories from your Web host
create directories
rename files and directories
change read, write, and execute permissions for files and directories (chmod).

Here are the brief instructions for the most basic operations...

Uploading files with Cute FTP

1) When this FTP software program is loaded the first time, a panel titled Site Manager will be displayed.

2) Click the Add site button and type any name into the Site Label entry box at the top of the Add Host panel.

3) Enter the appropriate information into the following entry boxes: Host Address, User ID, Password. Make sure Login type is Normal. Leave the other entry fields blank.

4) Click on the OK button to close the Add Host panel.

5) Click on the Connect button. Cute FTP will connect to your Web host. The window on the left will contain the folders and files on your computer. The window on the right will contain the folders and files contained within your home directory.

6) Highlight a file (or files) from your computer in the left window, drag them and drop into the appropriate directory in the right window. Your file uploading starts.

Binary, ASCII or Auto

You may see a selection in your FTP software (Cute FTP or other FTP programs) for ASCII mode, Binary mode, and Auto mode. It's very important to transfer images in Binary mode. HTML documents, CGI scripts etc. should be transferred using ASCII mode. If you fail to set this correctly your files may not appear as they should.

If you select Auto, your FTP program will automatically apply the correct setting, either Binary or ASCII, to the files you are transferring based on their extensions.

Chmoding files and directories

Chmod is a simple term used on the Internet. It's short for change the mode of a file. When you change the mode of a file (chmod a file), your FTP software makes that file only readable, only writeable, only executable or all of those.

To chmod a file or directory you have to highlight it, right click and select Chmod (Cute FTP).

All of the buttons clicked would be a chmod 777. A chmod 774 would be all of Owner and Group selected and only read selected in Other. A chmod 644 would be Read and Write selected for Owner, and read selected for Group and Other.

When using the numeric system, the code for permissions is as follows:
r (read access) = 4
w (write access) = 2
x (execute access) = 1
rwx (read, write and execute access) = 7

Some scripts will tell you to chmod 775 (for example). The first 7 of our chmod 775 tells to change the user's permissions to rwx (because r=4 + w=2 + x=1 adds up to 7). The second 7 (rwx) applies to the group, and the last number 5 (rx), refers to others. You can find and download FTP software at the following link

FTP Software for Windows

Once you have uploaded all your files, you should test your page on the web server and make certain that it functions properly and that all files have uploaded correctly. It is also a good idea to test your page using a different computer to ensure that graphic files are being read from the server and not from your hard drive.

It is now time to congratulate yourself. You have published your very first page!

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