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A domain name is a web address that you can buy and have the exclusive use of. It is the address that takes visitors to your web site. You may well have free web space from organisations such as Geocities or your ISP but you will probably not be able to get a short catchy web address.
The main reason for having a Domain name is that providing it is still available you can choose your name, you will remain the owner of the name and can therefore change web hosts without changing your web address and most importantly it looks much more professional.
Domain names have a number of endings which generally but not exclusively mean the following:
.co.uk |
Represents personal or commercial site based in the UK |
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.org |
Normally used by organisations such as charities and non profit making |
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organisations. |
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.net |
Mainly used by ISP's |
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.com |
Represents commercial organisations. Can be world wide. |
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You can check if your preferred domain name is available and register it at domain name sellers within minutes very easily.
The cost of Domain names varies quite a lot. You really only need to go for the cheapest seller and prices start at about £10 for two years. You have to pay extra for additional years after this. These are the cheapest Domain name sellers I have found at the moment. Surprisingly although all domain names have to be registered with nominet or network solutions it is actually more expensive to buy direct.
Easily
This is the cheapest Domain name seller I have found. The price of .co.uk names are £9.99 and .com and .net names cost £35. The prices include VAT, 2 years registration, all registry fee's, web forwarding, e- mail forwarding for up to 20 e-mail aliases and free name transfer if required.
Not as cheap as easily but price includes free web hosting. Prices are as follows: .org.uk (£14.50 + VAT), .co.uk (£33 +VAT), .com ( £46 + VAT), .net ( £46 + VAT), .org ( £46 + VAT ), .uk.com ( £56 + VAT ), .uk.net ( £56 + VAT ). All Domain names bought through get dotted receive free unlimited web space and e-mail addresses.
However some companies in addition to selling you the Domain name offer other facilities such as web hosting which you may well feel is worth the extra cost. If they do not offer web hosting they should offer redirection or web forwarding which should be free.
If you can't think of a good domain name you can use the Domain Wizard to generate idea's at:
When you have your Domain name it needs to be associated with your web space. The easiest way of doing this is to redirect enquiries on your domain name to your web space. Most Domain sellers offer free web forwarding and e-mail forwarding.
If you need web space or you existing web space provider does not offer the facilities you require you will need to arrange a dedicated web site by contacting a web hosting company. Many Domain name sellers also offer web hosting.
In addition to your web space you may get other services such as detailed traffic statistics and more advanced features such as cgi support which may not be available with free web space. Prices and services offered vary considerably. The following are useful sites:
Bizland
Bizland offers an excellent free web site of 35mb and plenty of other tools to commercial web sites. You only have to have a banner ad on the first page and this can be a pop up banner so that it doesn't interfere with you web site design. Rating 9/10.
Offers free web hosting providing you receive less than 10,000 hits per month.
Offers free web hosting providing you receive less than 10,000 hits per month.
Last Updated 16/08/2000