Domain management
Domain Management.
By Clare Lawrence 1st December 2003
Clare is the CEO of Discount Domains Ltd a leading UK Domain name registration service.
The way you manage your domain name
name could mean the difference between your site being online or offline.
Paying careful attention to administration is an important consideration easily overlooked.
A mistake domain owners make is entering incorrect contact information at the point of registration this in turn means that their domain's WHOIS record is also incorrect.
There are several components to a WHOIS
record, all or most of which you will be asked to complete when registering
a domain name. These are:
Registrant: The person or organisation that registered the domain name.
Administrative contact: The person or organisation that will be responsible
for all administrative issues relating to the domain name, including
registrant information.
Billing contact: This is the person or organisation responsible for handling
any billing issues related to the domain name.
Technical Contact: The technical contact is one of the most important
aspects of your registration record. This is the person or organisation that should
be contacted regarding any technical issues pertaining to your domain,
and usually contains the contact information of the domain name registration service
that registered the address.
Should you ever wish to sell, transfer or otherwise update then the techical contact is usually involved.
There are also several pieces of information that are only available when a domain
name is queried via a WHOIS service. These include:
Registrar of record: The domain name registration service that registered the domain name.
Record last updated: The last time any sort of alteration/update was
made to the domain’s WHOIS record.
Record expires on: The date the domain name expires. When a domain name
expires, the registrant risks losing control of the name.
Record created on: The date the domain was initially registered.
Domain servers: This contains the DNS (Domain Name System) information
for a domain; there are usually two lines of DNS information. The first
is typically a site’s primary DNS information, while the second
contains secondary/back-up information.
Most registrars allow their users to update most of this information
at any time via a Web-based control panel. Make sure you retain your login
information when you initially register a domain.
Failing to complete any component of a WHOIS record fully and accurately,
or not keeping it completely updated, can lead to problems. An out of date email address, for example, may prevent you from
receiving the information required to renew your domain when its expiry
date approaches. Therefore, always make sure your information is up to
date – otherwise, you could eventually lose control of your domain.
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Clare Lawrence is CEO of Discount Domains Ltd – A leading UK provider of
Domain name registration
and
Web Hosting services. Please feel free to re-publish this article provided this reference box remains together with a hyperlink to http://www.discountdomainsuk.com Clare can also be contacted on clare@discountdomainsuk.com.
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