3) Once a domain is registered, who "owns" the domain name--the service provider or the client?
The domain name holder is the person or organization listed at the top of the WHOIS record. The WHOIS record is the report of the internet database. The administrative, technical and billing contacts are individuals who the organization trusts to handle issues involving the domain name record.
In many cases, the technical contact is a representative of the Internet service provider and the administrative contact is a representative of the domain name holder. In fact, this is the model the InterNIC recommends.
But regardless of who is the listed administrative and technical contact, the domain name holder is the organization who is listed on item 3a of the Domain Name Registration Agreement.
It is important to note that the organization name cannot be modified or changed. If a domain is being transferred to another organization it must be deleted and re-registered as a new domain.
4) I submitted an application rerquest and I do not understand the response I received.
You should receive one of several responses from the application process:
- A hostmaster response indicating receipt of the Domain Name Registration Agreement and providing the associated tracking number. Make a note of this number! When submitting questions related to the application, referencing the tracking number in the e-mail will significantly speed the response.
- A Domain Registration (domreg) response indicating the registration is complete and will be propogated with the next root server update.
- A Domain Registration (domreg) error message indicating the Domain Name Registration Agreement has a problem. The message will refer to an error within a particular field and references a document detailing the errors.
5) How long should registration take?
The process of registering a domain name is increasingly coordinated through an automated process called an "auto-parser." Once you have submitted a complete and correctly formatted Agreement, your registration request will be processed immediately and you will be notified via e-mail when processing is complete. This generally takes less than 24 hours - with some requests turned around in as little as 10 minutes. The time of the last update to the Whois database will be noted on the search results page.
Following the registration, updates to the root name servers are propagated Monday through Friday, at which time the DNS information for the newly registered name becomes visible to the DNS system. Domain names processed prior to 6 p.m. Eastern Time Monday through Friday should be accessible on the Internet on the next day; names processed on Saturdays and Sundays should be accessible on the following Tuesday.
6) What is the charge for domain name registration?
The cost for registering a new domain name in .com, .org, and .net is typically $25 (US). This fee covers the initial registration and updates to the domain name's database record for a period of one year. Following, registrants will be charged $25 (US) annually, on the anniversary of the initial registration, to renew the domain name. The billing contact will be sent an invoice by postal and electronic mail 30 days before this fee is due.
Information can be modified pertaining to your registration with the following exceptions:
Changes to the domain name itself; transfers of the domain name to another party; changes in the Organization's information that in effect represent a transfer of the domain name to another legal entity. These actions are not considered updates and require a new registration to be processed, which will be subject to the $25 (US) new registration fee.
7) What are the billing and payment procedures for a new domain name?
Under normal conditions, within 7 days after name activation, an invoice is sent to the billing contact by postal and electronic mail. Payment is due within 30 days. If payment is not received by the due date, the domain name is subject to deactivation and deletion.
When more than 10 names are registered in any 30-day period and/or when there is a record of bad credit risk, the Registrar reserves the right to apply different procedures.
Note - this invoicing procedure applies only to names registered under the NET, ORG, and COM domains. Separate procedures are in place for the EDU and GOV domains.
8) What are the billing and payment procedures for renewing my domain name?
30 days before the annual renewal fee is due, an invoice is sent to the billing contact by postal and electronic mail. Payment is due within 30 days. If payment is not received by the due date (anniversary date), the domain name is subject to deactivation and deletion.
When more than 10 names are registered in any 30-day period and/or when there is a record of bad credit risk, the Registrar reserves the right to apply different procedures.
Note - this procedure does not apply to names registered under the EDU and GOV. NSF will coordinate the payment and invoicing for those domain names. ROOT and inverse-addressing (IN-ADDR) remain free.
9) What are the valid characters for a domain name and how long can it be? Is "http://www" part of the domain name?
The only valid characters for a domain name are letters, numbers and a hyphen "-". Other special characters like the underscore "_" or an exclamation mark "!" are NOT permitted.
A domain name can be up to 26 characters long -- including the 4 characters used to identify the Top Level Domain (.NET, .COM, .ORG, or .EDU).
http://www.example.com is a uniform resource locator (URL) used by WWW browsers to find documents and resources on the WWW. It IS NOT a domain name (though a domain name is necessarily part of a URL). It SHOULD NEVER be used on the Domain Name Registration Agreement.
10) How do I determine the status of my domain name registration?
The registration of a new domain name is typically processed within 24 hours. Upon completion of the domain name registration, the requestor and technical contact for the primary name server will receive notification from Network Solutions. The new domain name record will show up in the publicly-accessible Whois database within 24 hours after the Agreement has been processed.
Go to the Whois database and type in the domain name you registered. If processing is complete, your query will return your domain name record. If you receive the message: No match for ... , you should check the next day. The Whois database is usually updated daily by 6:00 a.m. EST and includes registrations and modifications processed before 2 a.m. The time of the last update will be noted on the search results page.
It is possible that your domain name will be visible in the Whois database before you name is visible on the Internet. This is because, for your domain name to be visible on the Internet, information about your domain name has to be added to the Internet's zone files, a global databases of information about domain names that is updated on a different schedule than the Whois database. Domain names processed prior to 6 p.m. EST Monday through Friday should be visible on the Internet on the next day; names processed on Saturdays and Sundays should be visible on the following Tuesday.
If your domain name is in the Whois database (not on HOLD) and the information added to the zone files, you should contact your Internet Service Provider if you are still experiencing problems reaching the domain.
You may also use the Whois database to check to see if a modification has been completed.
If you have further questions about your registration status, please send email to: dave@ezstart.com
11) Why are some domain names "On Hold"?
The Whois database will show a status of "On Hold" if
- payment for the domain is not current,
- the domain name is involved in a trademark dispute, or
- pending server activation.
12) I never received any response to my submission.
The InterNIC's autoresponder will automatically send back a response to the sender if:
- It is sent to one of the role accounts (hostmaster, domreg, asnreg, netreg, inaddr, reassign, invoice, question, transfer, rereg).
- Note: This means that the SMTP header needs to list the above listed account either in the "To:" or "Apparently-to:" headers.
- It does not have a precedence of "bulk."
- The sender has a correctly formed email address in either the "Reply-to:" or "From:" header.
The response can be delayed (up to three days) based on local system load levels, transience across the net, or delivery problems at your local site. More than likely, a delay indicates an e-mail routing issue. Typically, a hostmaster response should be received, if not within minutes, certainly within a day. Please contact your service provider and assure the e-mail address used for the submission is valid.
13) What happens if I don't pay?
Under normal conditions, if payment is not received by the due date, the domain name is subject to deactivation and deletion. When more than 10 names are registered in any 30-day period and/or when there is a record of bad credit risk, the Registrar reserves the right to apply different procedures.
14) How do I transfer my domain name? EZStart can handle the entirre process for you. With just a simple phone call. The technical answer is as follows:
When you are ready to set up your web hosting service, your hosting service provider must take the responsibility for transferring your name to their facility. To transfer your domain to a web site or your service provider must contact InterNic directly, and arrange to have the domain technical contact and name servers changed to the service provider who is hosting the web site.
