Domain Registration

In this posting, I shall discuss how you can register for a domain name.

I shall briefly introduce the domain name system (DNS). Every computer in the internet has a unique numerical address (consist of a string of numbers and dots called IP address) so that two computers know the identity of the other. For humans, a string of numerical numbers may not make much sense. The DNS was therefore invented to correlate the numerical address to a word (which we call domain name). The domain name must therefore also be unique, otherwise given a domain name the unique computer cannot be identified.

In the human world, there is more than one "Jacob Gan". When a system tries to communicate with "Jacob Gan", more than 100 persons may be pointed to. It has no way of knowing which the correct "Jacob Gan" is, unless other qualifiers are added to identify the correct "Jacob Gan". This is one reason why the human world is so much more complicated and confusing, but in some ways more interesting as a result. DNS prevents this confusion from happening in the internet.

Since the domain names are unique, when you try to register for a domain name, it must not already been registered by another party. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers. This function was originally performed under U.S. Government contract by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

The registrar that you try to register your domain name is therefore an agent of ICANN. The better known registrars include

1. Yahoo!

2. IX WebHosting

3. StartLogic


You have the option of registering your domain name for 1 year, or 2 years, or even 5 years. You can continue the registration. However, you have to pay the new registration fee before the expiry of the current registration if you do not want your domain name deregistered. The registration fee varies from registrar to registrar and most of them are in the region of $5 to $20 per year.

The next posting will be on hosting of your site, by yourself or by another.

Jacob Gan