The use of the Internet by a company mostly includes an own presence in the Internet,
e.g. a Web-Server. For running a Web-Server a name has to be chosen.
This name should have a reference to the company and has to be unique worldwide.
The name or the URL can be of different kinds. Some examples for a name for a
company called company GmbH (ok, this is a German company...)
onlineservice/user/company
Instead of 'onlineservice' stands here the name of the online service like e.g. 'www.onlineservice.con'.
The advantage of this kind of name is mostly the price: A Web-Server with this kind
of name is mostly free or costs at least only a little when beein a customer of the onlineservice.
Mostly it's very easy to configure such a Web-Server, because the onlineservice provides
a good documentation. A disadvantage might be the name of the onlineservice beeing in the
URL of the company.
Example for a homepage:
http://www.onlineservice.com/user/company/index.html
or
http://user.onlineservice.com/company/index.html
www.provider.de/company or www.company.provider.de
This name can sometimes be found if the company doesn't have an own Web-Server, but a virtual
server on a server of the provider.
Also here, the advantage is mostly the price. It's lower than having an own server hosted in a
computer center. The disadvantage is the name of the provider beeing in the URL of the company.
Example for a homepage:
http://www.provider.de/company/index.html
or
http://www.company.provider.de
www.company.de or www.company.com
Having this kind of name, it's unique for the company - the company has it's own Domain.
The server running with this name can be an own server hosted in the computer center of the provider
or can be a virtual Web-Server on a big server of the provider.
The server might also be located in the network of the company.
The connection of this server to the Internet should be fast and be reachable 24 hours a day.
If the server is located in the local network of the company, a protection of all internal
and sensitive data should be implemented. This can be archieved by a good Firewall combined
with Encryption and a good mechanism for Authentication.
Example for a homepage:
http://www.company.com/index.html
or short
http://www.company.com
The way to your own name:
Choice of the name:
In Germany, most ISP are member of the DENIC and so
there is hardly any problem for a company to get a name.
Other Domains might be registered by the concerning Registrar
(just an example for registering .com or .net Domains).
Some providers can register such Domains, too.
Very important is to follow the rules of the NIC for registering a name.
Since some time it's possible to register a name below a
new gTLD.
The price of registering a domain name differs. It depends on the Top-Level Domain
(de, com, biz,...) and on the provider or
registrar, respectively.
Mostly there is an installation fee (registration, Nameservice) and a regular fee per year.
Most Domains are fully connected. In Germany, when registering a Domain below de,
a so called MX-Domain is possible also. With this Domain, only E-Mail can be used.
Up to February, 1st, 1997, names could be reserved, too. This isn't possible any more.
First of all, the name of the company in the Internet should be chosen.
Today, very many names are registered, so it might happen, that the name of the company
isn't free any more.
At the moment, in Germany there are registered much more than 14.000.000 Domains
below de (Graphic).
So it's very important to think about alternatives for the name.
One possibility is to register company-gmbh.de instead of company.de.
A domain name isn't case sensitive.
A name registered at an official registrar, is worldwide unique.
Due to this, no peculiar characters were allowed in domain or server
names, e.g. ä, ö, ü, or ß. This restriction has been removed
some time ago. Since then, the DENIC eG. also accepts also names with peculiar characters
(so called Internationalized Domain Name (IDN)). Further information about this can be
found in the domain
guidelines.
Other special characters like e.g. $, %, &
or _ must not be used, even today. A hyphen is allowed, but neiter
at the beginning or end of the name nor at position 3 or 4 of the
name. So a Domain name has to start with a letter or number. Up
to October 23rd, 2009, some more restrictions had to be accepted,
e.g. the name of the Domain below de there had to have at least one
character a minimum length of trhee characters. Further on, the name of another Toplevel-Domain
was not accepted as the name of a Second-Level Domain below de.
Shortcuts from automobile numbers could not be registered below de, e.g.
HRO is the sign for Rostock in Germany which couldn't be registered as hro.de.
Domain names don't need to contain any letter any more. All these
restrictions are disestablished
now. Especially the new, short domains with one or two characters
will be registered quite fast. So today only a
few restrictions need to be considered. The maximum lenght of a name is
still 63 characters, excluding the TLD. The name has to comply with all legal aspects (see below)!
For sure, the name to be registered must be available.
Find out, if the name selected is available:
There are very many Domain names registered, so it might happen that somebody else has registered
the selected name.
For Subdomains below de DENIC provides a
whois-service, so it can be found out if the desired Domain is registered or not.
If it's registered, you can find here the name of the company and it's contact person.
Other registrars like e.g. Verisign have registered millions of com-Domains.
Here it's also possible to check, if the desired name is registered.
For the search over all Top-Level Domains the AllWhois-Server
can be used. From here, links to all other NIC's are available.
Choice of the partner for registering a Domain:
Usually a Domain is registered by the Internet Service Provider, but for some Top-Level Domains
you can do it for yourself.
When the ISP shall register a German Domain, he should be
member
of DENIC eG.
Then, the registration can be done directly at DENIC. If the ISP isn't member of DENIC,
the registration may take longer than two days - and maybe be more expensive.
The same thing is valid when registering a Domain below a gTLD like com, but here you
can also register it for yourself.
A Domain below de can also be registered without an ISP.
This has to be done by DENICdirect.
Using this way for registering a Domain might take longer - and maybe the cost is more than
registering via ISP.
Necessary information for registering:
Your ISP will help you if you have any questions about registering a Domain.
For the registration you have to provide following information (example for full connection of a Domain):
descr:
This is the description of the Domain, providing information about the organization registering this Domain.
The full name of the company and it's address has to be filled in.
This organization is the owner of the Domain.
admin-c:
Here the so called Administrative Contact is filled in. It's a person and has to be member of the organization
given in the description. Only the Administrative Contact can make decisions concerning changes of the owner,
it's connectivity and other entries. He or she can even close the Domain, which means a 'de-registration'.
tech-c:
Here the Technical Contact for this Domain is given.
zone-c:
The Zone Contact is a person beeing responsible for the nameservice of this Domain.
So he or she should be the person responsible for the Domain Name System of the organization.
These three contacts can be the same person, but that's not necessary.
If you register a Domain, you should be very sure that your organization is in the Description and
that the Administrative Contact is member of this organization. If this person leaves the organization,
you should be sure to change the admin-c before...
All information about the contact persons will be provided with a shortcut.
An example for this is the use of the shortcuts used in the RIPE database
(e.g. ML486-RIPE). There is a possibility to check the entries in this database by using the
whois service. Here you should find the
Administrative Contact beeing responsible for your Domain.
If there is no entry in the RIPE database, your provider will help you.
nserver:
Here the name and the IP addresses of the nameservers is given.
They have to be configured and they have to give authoritative answers for the domain
beeing answered for at the DENIC. The timings should be configured within a given
time range. This range will be tested by DENIC.
For registering a second level Domain in other Top-Level Domains the timings should
also be configured correctly, even it this isn't tested.
Usually, the Master Nameserver will be run in a company while the Slave Nameservers,
necessary for redundancy, will be operated by the ISP.
Also in this case, your ISP will help his customers.
Some more items that have to be given, but in most cases the ISP will help out.
Information about this can be found at DENICs Web site.
The most often asked questions and answers can be found in a
FAQ list, published by DENIC.
What to do if...
...the wanted Domain is registered by someone else?
The data about a Domain contain the administrative contact, which is the person
responsible for this Domain. He or she can be contacted by the company which wants this Domain.
Maybe it's possible to switch this Domain to the new company, if it's ok with the current ownder.
...the Domain is registered, but you have registered this name
(e.g. Trademark)?
Quite many courts deal with this topic.
Esp. registered Trademarks and patented names should be accepted when registering a Domain name.
Some hints for registering Domains and about law have been published by DENIC.
Here you find also a list with court judgements,
pointing out some legal aspects also.
...the connectivity shall be switched to another provider?
Even if e.g. the DNS is provided by the ISP, a switch to a new provider is possible.
In German this is called 'Konnektivitätskoordination', short KK.
The current ISP has to send an ACK if he acknowledges the change.
The work to be done is at least the same as a new registration.
Providers, beeing able to register Domains can also do a KK.
Further information about this topic
is provided by DENIC.
...there are technical problems during registration time?
The Nameservers have to operate correctly when a Domain is registered.
But even if this isn't the case, the Domain (de) isn't available for others.
The ISP having sent the registration will be informed by DENIC about details of the technical problems.
Then, there are four weeks for correcting the technical problems.
Until then, the Domain name is reserved (but not connected).
This information is given 'as is',
no warranty at all. |
