Domain FAQ (updated March 1, 2003)

How to Choose a Domain Registrar

In 2000 ICANN opened up the domain name registration system, which had formerly been administered by a single company, Network Solutions. This led to the entrance of other registrars to a more level, albeit intensely competitive, playing field. There is more to consider than just price, which ranges from $8.95 to $35 per year.

A recent poll in Adventive's I-Sales received 52 votes for the following registrars:

Here are some of my professional opinions based on my observations and, in some cases where noted, my experience as a domain-buying customer.

DirectNIC.com: $15/year. Good interface but a huge red flag when it comes to security. If you have your security set to "Normal" someone could easily hijack your domain  if you're not getting your email that particular week. (From their Security page: "Normal Security: This will automatically allow the transfer, if neither of the notification emails is responded to within five days.")

Register.com: $35/year. Their site attempts to bamboozle the unwary into buying more than just the domain name. Red flag: if your billing address is in the US or Canada, your domain will automatically be renewed. That sounds like a good thing, right? Beware! If Register.com isn't able to charge your credit card at renewal time, their policy says they can take ownership of your domain and charge you $200 to get it back. The only way to avoid this scenario is to opt out of "SafeRenew" in advance.

Joker.com: $12/year. When I registered a couple of domains, I received email acknowledgements that showed other companies' names as the registrants. When I attempted to straighten things out, this German company insisted in broken English that these were the company names I had provided during registration. They refused to admit there was something wrong with their system, and they refused to fix things without payments of $25 for each. I found out later that at least one other person had the same exact experience with Joker.com. Oddly enough, Joker's whois lookup did not show the false company name on our domain registrations, so it appears to have been a transitory problem with their email interface.

The one thing that Joker does well is prevent domain hijackings by forcing the owner to go through several steps in order to open a "transfer window." They cite German law as the reason. It's an elaborately choreographed dance, so it behooves you to pay close attention to every detail of every email you receive during this process. (Read more about transferring here.)

But keep in mind that if you choose Joker.com as your registrar, you could be forced to fly to Germany to deal with them in the event of a serious dispute. And there are enough things to worry about in the domain registration industry without having to put up with tech support who are not fluent speakers of the English language . And of course the English portion of their Web site is so full of grammatical errors that a misunderstanding of their policies could lead to problems. (Not that American sites are much better grammatically, but that's another issue entirely!)

DotRegistrar.com is another one I had problems with. They specialize in bulk registrations, and I chose the 25@$9.99/ea. option. However, when these domains came up for renewal a year later that price was no longer available in the drop-down list. The options changed to 20@$14.99/ea. or 30@$13.99/ea., with the 25-pack level eliminated entirely.

When I complained, DotRegistrar graciously offered to make my preferred price available. However, who's to say I wouldn't go through the same scenario again next year? I no longer felt safe dealing with this company.

Unfortunately, in giving me the 25-for-$250 option, they locked out all the other prices in the menu, including a single year for $19.99, which meant I couldn't renew a domain that was nearing expiration. Since (like most registrars) they wouldn't let me transfer a domain so close to renewal, I had to ask them to change things back. I have since moved all my domains elsewhere. Watch out for "Introductory Specials" if you want to avoid the hassles of moving from registrar to registrar every year.

I haven't finished checking the other registrars out yet, but when I do, I'll update this article.

My Recommendations

000Domains.com ($13.50/year) seems like a very good registrar. Though I haven't used them myself, I've read their policies and found no red flags. They also responded to a lengthy list of questions in record time and on weekend, no less!

If you can tolerate GoDaddy.com's cluttered interface and constant upselling pitches for their software products, I highly recommend them. They do have the lowest prices and a surprisingly robust domain management system. Not only that, but they're one of the few registrars you can actually call on the phone.

[Note for GoDaddy users with Internet Explorer v. 6+: Maybe it's just me, but there seems to be an incompatibility that causes GoDaddy to log you out prematurely. This was very disconcerting when it happened time and again after filling out all the info for domain registrations. Their tech support via email was very prompt, however. They advised setting the security level to low, deleting cookies, and changing IE settings to accept sessions cookies, but nothing worked for me until I used a different browser).]

Privacy Issues for Domain Owners to Consider

Whatever data you provide during registration (with the exception of your credit card information of course) is publicly available online through "whois" lookups. Each registrar provides a whois lookup utility for their own database, and most also provide access to the main registry which all registrars must submit their customers' data to.

Unfortunately, many registrars (such as DirectNIC) make it easy for spammers, telemarketers, and direct marketers to harvest email addresses, phone/fax numbers, and postal addresses from domain owners' records. If you don't want your information handed over on a silver platter, be sure to use a registrar who offers a privacy option.

Uses for a Domain Name

You can buy a domain name to reserve it for future use or sale, to keep someone else from buying it (recommended if you own a trademarked name), to receive email under that domain name, and/or to put a Web site online with that name.

In the case of the latter two, you must also pay for hosting—either through the registrar, if they offer these services, or through a separate company as is the norm.

Domains are like mobile homes. You have to have a semi-permanent place for it, otherwise how will anyone find you? You need an address so the postal service will know where to deliver your mail. You can't just park a mobile home on the curb — you have to assign it to an address.

On the Internet, a domain's address is the nameservers assigned. These are simply the names of your Web host's servers where your files physically reside. Whenever someone types in your domain name, the browser queries the main registry database for your domain's nameservers. If your host has set up your site, the browser can display it on the Internet. The official term for this process is Nameservice or DNS.

Domain hijacking occurs when a hacker gains access to a domain record. Nowadays, most registrars allow customers to edit their DNS settings through a control panel. Make sure you guard your password and username carefully to prevent an unauthorized DNS change which would send all your domain traffic to a different server!

How to transfer a domain

Links of Interest:

ICANN-Accredited Registrars

Search for keywords within domain names

Are domains property?

Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act

RegistrarStats.com
(follow day-to-day registrar statistics, and build custom comparison charts)