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Saturday
March 20, 2010 Since 1922 |
Getting registered on the Internet
By Aaron Barbee
Contributor Published May 10, 2009 Question: I’d like to get my own space on the Internet. How can I do that and what are my options?
Answer: Think of getting your own space on the Internet like getting your own piece of land. You have to go through the right channels and places in order to register yourself with the proper authorities. Once you have your own piece of land, you can then begin building whatever you want: Web sites, e-mails, blogs, etc.
On the Internet, there are special companies called registrars that will let you register a domain name (like food,com, pizza.com, etc) if it’s available. Once the domain is registered, you can then start thinking about what you want to do with it. Most registrars will also offer other extras such as e-mail hosting, Web site hosting, or a number of other services. Of course, most people are only interested in e-mail and Web sites.
You register the domain and all the other names fall in place. So, if you want to register your domain name as food.com, your e-mail address would be john(at)food.com and your Web site address would be www.food.com.
As I said above, you can register any name that are not already taken, or you may want to buy a name that someone else has. Keep in mind the broader and more popular the name, the more expensive it will be. Unless you’re planning on being a major Internet company, I suggest you just get what’s available. Some names such as FLOWERS.com or PIZZA.com have been sold for millions.
If you have a business, even if it’s not on the Internet, it’s a very good idea to register it. Having e-mail at johnsmith(at)smithfinancials.com looks more professional than josm123(at)aol.com. Again, the registrar will do all the work; you just pay a small monthly fee, probably around $10. If you just wanted to register your own personal name like a vanity address, you could be john(at)smithfamily.com. Keep in mind that name is very general so it’s probably taken too, but you get the picture. At a registrar’s Web site you can see what’s available and what’s taken.
You can do the same thing with a Web site as well. Once you have the domain, it’s very easy to add web hosting. In the above example with johnsmith(at)smithplumbing.com, your web address would be www.smithplumbing.com. That’s how it will work with all domains. You should know that actually building a Web site is a whole other topic and gets very complicated. I’ll write an article on that later.
In my opinion, the top registrars are www.
godaddy.com, www.register.com, and www.networksolutions.com. I listed them in order of my preference based on price and customer service. Good luck and have fun!
Check out my Web site www.TexasComputerGuru.com for supplemental information and previous articles as well.
Aaron Barbee owns Texas Computer Guru, a local computer services company for on-site business and residential needs. He can be contacted at 281-628-5099. E-mail questions for Aaron to sunnews(at)baytownsun.com.
Contributor Published May 10, 2009 Question: I’d like to get my own space on the Internet. How can I do that and what are my options?
Answer: Think of getting your own space on the Internet like getting your own piece of land. You have to go through the right channels and places in order to register yourself with the proper authorities. Once you have your own piece of land, you can then begin building whatever you want: Web sites, e-mails, blogs, etc.
On the Internet, there are special companies called registrars that will let you register a domain name (like food,com, pizza.com, etc) if it’s available. Once the domain is registered, you can then start thinking about what you want to do with it. Most registrars will also offer other extras such as e-mail hosting, Web site hosting, or a number of other services. Of course, most people are only interested in e-mail and Web sites.
You register the domain and all the other names fall in place. So, if you want to register your domain name as food.com, your e-mail address would be john(at)food.com and your Web site address would be www.food.com.
As I said above, you can register any name that are not already taken, or you may want to buy a name that someone else has. Keep in mind the broader and more popular the name, the more expensive it will be. Unless you’re planning on being a major Internet company, I suggest you just get what’s available. Some names such as FLOWERS.com or PIZZA.com have been sold for millions.
If you have a business, even if it’s not on the Internet, it’s a very good idea to register it. Having e-mail at johnsmith(at)smithfinancials.com looks more professional than josm123(at)aol.com. Again, the registrar will do all the work; you just pay a small monthly fee, probably around $10. If you just wanted to register your own personal name like a vanity address, you could be john(at)smithfamily.com. Keep in mind that name is very general so it’s probably taken too, but you get the picture. At a registrar’s Web site you can see what’s available and what’s taken.
You can do the same thing with a Web site as well. Once you have the domain, it’s very easy to add web hosting. In the above example with johnsmith(at)smithplumbing.com, your web address would be www.smithplumbing.com. That’s how it will work with all domains. You should know that actually building a Web site is a whole other topic and gets very complicated. I’ll write an article on that later.
In my opinion, the top registrars are www.
godaddy.com, www.register.com, and www.networksolutions.com. I listed them in order of my preference based on price and customer service. Good luck and have fun!
Check out my Web site www.TexasComputerGuru.com for supplemental information and previous articles as well.
Aaron Barbee owns Texas Computer Guru, a local computer services company for on-site business and residential needs. He can be contacted at 281-628-5099. E-mail questions for Aaron to sunnews(at)baytownsun.com.