A Basic Introduction to a Range of Internet Related Concepts and Terms

What do I need to do if I want my own domain name?

First of all you need to decide what general form the domain name should take - eg www.allansonline.com; www.allans-online.com; www.allans.com; www.online-allans.org and so on.

You then need to decide if you want to pay for a domain name. Some suppliers will pay for your domain name for you but they will require to put an advert on every page you display on your website or they will restrict what you can do with your website in some way or another.

If you don't want to pay then do a search on the Internet for 'free domain names' and choose a supplier of your choice once you are fully aware of any constraints or limitations.

If you are happy to pay for your domain name search for suitable vendors and then make your choice of one which seems to offer what you want at the price you are willing to pay.

The vendors will usually deal with the whole process of registration for you. All you will have to do will be to quote your credit card number. Typically reasonable prices for a .com domain name would be $34 for two years registration - as of 19/09/2000 (www.buydomains.com). Others to try include www.freeparking.co.uk, www.getdotted.com, www.easyspace.com, www.yourown.co.uk, www.freenetname.co.uk. Please be sure that you read all the conditions etc before proceeding. www.freenetname.co.uk used to be completely free as long as FreeNetname is used as an ISP of yours and is accessed via a dial-up modem. Transfer of your domain name from FreeNetname also seems to be quite expensive.

It is worth noting that the UK domain names are much cheaper that the gTLDs. Eg .co.uk is much cheaper than .com. It should be possible to get a UK domain for less than £10.

Note that there is an annual charge for a domain name. The domain name is never permanently yours.

Probably the best way to start is to do a search on Google or some similar search engine to find sources of domain names. Try 'domain names cheap' or 'purchase domain names' or ..... Then read all the details to find out the costs and other related contractual matters. Read all details before making any commitment.