Should you or shouldn't you
Do you really need one? If you don't, save yourself some money - it is always cheaper to host your pages at someone else's domain than to get your own, unless you intend to host other people's web pages. You will have to pay for the name itself, as well as paying for the hosting of it.
Getting a domain simply means registering your "name" with a registry, and having that name assigned an IP address on your server. The registries send out the names and the linked IP addresses all around the world each day. All it really means is that someone can type www.your-name.org instead of 195.135.124.28. It is much easier to remember a name than a number.
There are numerous countries that have registries, despite the popularity of Network Associates US domains (.com .net .org), you can quite often get a name from some other place. Especially if you live somewhere other than the US, consider using your own country's registry. You are much more likely to get the name you want, and many are less expensive. Especially try to get one of these if you are a tourism site for a country or some other country-specific site. Any server that can host domains can host any domains, if they cannot, they are either running a very old server, or have bad tech support - in either case you don't want to use them!
WARNINGBefore using any of the cheaper domain providers, please read this article. I found this in the UK, but I would be surprised if it was not also happening elsewhere. Basically, some of the sites are keeping track of domain searches and buying the domains for resale. I always do my searches directly from NIC (for .com .net and .org) and then get the domain. Since I have not used all of the sites, below and cannot guarentee that none of them pull this, I'd advise you to also do your searches from NIC whois. If you find the domain you want is available, buy it as quickly as possible. Likewise for non-US domains, try to search from the main provider, then buy immediately.
Domain Registration
- Alldomains
- Everything you ever wanted to find in domains - links to the country registries and whois, also sells domains for several countries. They are offering "generic" 2 letter extensions: .ac, .cc, .gs, .ms, .sh, .st, .tc, .tf, .tj, .to, and .vg. Also several regular country domains (including US of course).
- Dotster
- Domain names at $15 per year! They also have a program for bulk registration.
And
they have a program called "Namespinner" to offer you creative alternatives
if your preferred name is already taken. US .com .net and .org only. - RegistryWeb
- Based in Australia. US domains vary from approximately $26 for 1 year down to $13 for 10 years. (prices vary with exchange rates). They also sell Australian, New Zealand, UK and a number of other country domains, 25 countries in all! They also offer: free domain parking, redirection and free DNS servers. Also free web hosting. Take a look!
- InternetRegistration
- Sells US domains for $27.50 for one year, down to $19.50 for 20 years. Buying 10 domains for 2 years is the same as 1 for 20 years. Essentially bulk pricing. They will also let you transfer domains from other registries to them via a very user-friendly interface.
- All
UK Domains
- Offers Registration and Web site/ mail forwarding for UK domains £35, (including VAT). Will also host the site for £60, with the domain name free, as long as you have your domain hosted there for at least one year.
- Name
Secure Domain Name Registration
- Get it while it's hot - offering 2 years for $35 (limited time offer) - that's half off NIC's price. Another excellent place to register US Domains. They offer domain name forwarding and email forward for those who want a domain name secured, but are not quite ready to use it yet.
- Domain Name Registries
- All of them, as near as I can tell. Handy reference if you are looking for a new domain name, or have a client who is, and you don't want the usual com, net, org address. A lot of countries will let you buy a country domain even if you are not in that country. It might be fun to have a domain ending in .am, .at, .no, or .to!
IP Registries
These will tell you who an IP address belongs to. They are not DNS lookups, but they can be handy for finding out who runs what on the Internet. They also have the links to the DNS whois for their areas of the world. w
- ARIN: Whois
- ARIN is a nonprofit organization established for the purpose of administration and registration of Internet Protocol (IP) numbers for the following geographical areas: North America, South America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa.
- APNIC Whois Search
- The 'realm' of APNIC can be described as simply 'Asia Pacific', which covers roughly a third of the world from Afghanistan in the Middle East, to Pitcairn in the Pacific Ocean.
- RIPE NCC: Whois Queries
- The RIPE NCC performs activities primarily for the benefit of the membership in Europe and the surrounding areas.