Domain Names

The easiest types of address to remember are simple domains - like www.mysite.co.uk.

You need to register a domain name before you can use it, and of course someone else may have beaten you to it. So the first step is to choose a domain name, and one that is still available.

A domain name currently has to be between 3 and 60 characters long and needs a bit on the end after the dot. You can choose from loads of different endings - .co.uk, .org.uk, .net, .org, .com, .uk.com - the list is endless. The cheapest ones (assuming you live here in the UK) are .co.uk and .org.uk.

To check the availability of a domain, you need to run what is known as a WHOIS search. That basically queries a server somewhere and asks if the domain hasn't already been taken. Note that just typing the address in and seeing if a site comes up is not good enough - just because a site doesn't exist, it doesn't mean it's not registered.

Most domain name registrars (through whom you can register your domain) offer a WHOIS search facility on their sites. Click here for some links.

Registering

You'll probably pay to register the domain for 2 years (about £10 for .co.uk), after which you will need to renew it. Once your payment has gone through, your chosen registrar fiddles with a server somewhere and the name is officially yours.

To actualy use your domain, someone will need to host it. Your host will manage the server that handles everything dealing with your domain, primarily your website and your e-mail. Whoever registered your domain can probably host it for you, or you can move it to someone else. Transfering your domain may incur a charge depending on the registrar, so check their terms.

Many hosting services are now either free (or very cheap, around £10 per year) and provide basic forwarding services, as described below.

Managing Your Website

With most basic domain name agents you will get a web forwarding service which means your domain will pass users on to existing webspace (e.g. the free space from your ISP). The exact way the forwarding works may vary - it may be frames based or a simple redirect.

With frames based forwarding, when you go to your domain a frameset is loaded with only one frame, which looks at another URL that you specify. The domain address stays in the location bar of the browser, but the user sees your other webspace.

One drawback is that you could only give the URL to your homepage, because no files are actually stored on your domain's server. So, for example, www.domain.com/folder/ would not work. Having said that, some of the domain forwarders will either just pass this straight on to your homepage, or actually mirror the file on your other site - so it would point to www.mysite.freeserve.co.uk/folder/.

Another drawback with frames is that the address bar will not update to show the current location, and users may be confused by the unconventional frameset. Plus some browsers can't use frames, so make sure your host puts in NOFRAMES information that includes a link to the actual site.

The simple redirect does the same as a META redirect tag, but is slightly more fancy on the server side. So www.domain.com will just send the browser on to www.mysite.freeserve.co.uk. Again, you won't be able to refer to subfolders / files.

For a professional looking site, where you want the site actually on the domain, you'll need to pay for some web hosting which we'll look at in the next section.

E-Mail Forwarding

When e-mail is sent to anything@domain.com, it needs to be passed on to an existing e-mail address (e.g. me@hotmail.com). Your host will do this for you - you just tell it the address to forward to. You can change this as often as you like, so if you move ISP your e-mail address as far as everyone you know is concerned will not change. Some hosts even allow multiple accounts, so that dad@domain.com will forward to one address and mum@domain.com will forward to another.

In order that people see your domain address and not your Hotmail (or whatever other ISP) address, just change the FROM address in your e-mail program.