1. What is a domain name?

Adomain name is a name, such as microsoft.com, yahoo.com,or rdsindia.com, which uniquely identify your company,product, service, industry or interests. They can be used for web sites and personal email addresses (such as you@yourcompany.com).. The machines on theinternet only understand addresses in numerical form,for example 64.62.254.192, so a domain name is usedto make the address easier to understand. The above address might point to rdsindia.com where "rdsindia"is the name of the company, and "com" is the partof the global network on which the machine sits.

2. Why do I need to register a domain?

Yourdomain (Internet address) defines your company's identityon the Internet. If people are looking for your company on the Internet they will often start by typing inhttp://www.yourcompany.com. Your own domain also gives you a professional looking Web and email address.

3. What can a domain be used for?

Yourdomain (Internet address) defines your company's identityon the Internet. If people are looking for your company on the Internet they will often start by typing inhttp://www.yourcompany.com. Your own domain also gives you a professional looking Web and email address.

Even if you do not intend having your own company email address or Web site, it is wise to reserve your domain as soon as possible, because another companymay register your name before you do.

It may also be a good idea to set up a temporary Webpage giving contact information about your company for people who are looking for your company on the Internet. Some 90,000 Internet domains are registered each month globally.

4. If I register my domain name, do I then own it?

Onceyou register a domain name, you then become the owner of the name. No-one else will be able to registerit. You can sell it, move it and retain full controlover it.

5. What do all the different domains, like .com, .net, and .org, mean?

Theroot-domain defines what kind or organisation youare, so it is important to pick the right one to register.Most companies will try to register a .com domain

There are many types of global root domain:

".com" is the american "commercial" root-domain. Many people think this is the most desirable as it portraysa company as being international.

".edu" is the american education domain - this domainis not available for registration unless you are anamerican educational establishment.

".org" is the global root-domain for non-profit-making and charitable organisations.

".net" is the global root-domain usually used by companieswho provide internet based services, but can be registeredby all.

As well as these global root-domains, there are also regional root domains:

".in" for India as a whole, ".fr" for france, ".de"for Germany, and so on.

New global root domains have also been proposed, suchas .firm, .arts, .rec and .nom, but these are not yet available.

6. What domain name should I use?

Generally,a domain name should be chosen which reflects your company or your web site's content, although thisis simply to make the site address more memorableto visitors.

Most companies with a known brand name which is importantto their business will choose to register their company name with the appropriate root domain extension (.com,.org etc..).

Choosing the right root domain is a bit more difficult,and really depends on how you wish your company to be perceived. See the section on 'What do the differentdomains mean' to help with this.

7. What do I do if my company name is already taken?

Thereis nothing you can do if the name you want is already taken. The alternative is to add a suitable extensionto the name eg.www.yourcompany-india.com.

8. Who owns the domain name service?

Everyone.The domain name service is a database laid out likea huge tree, with the root servers at the base ofthe tree, the domain servers on the branches, and the websites and individual machines on the leaves.The root-servers know about root domains. The domainname service is not a single entity, but a systemspread across thousands of machines in dozens of countries.

9. What does it cost?

Toregister your domain name, RDSIndia charges a registrationfees applicable based on the selection of the TLDs / Extension.

10. Can I include characters such as @, - and * in my domainname?

Adomain name cannot contain dots, spaces or any specialcharacters of any kind except the hyphen ( - ). So, even if the name 'chatindia' is taken, youcould still register 'chat-india'. Try to keep thename you register as short and simple as possible.

11. What is InterNIC ?

Essentially,Internic (Internet's Network Information Center) maintains the database of all of the.com, .net and .org names on the internet. Theymake this data available to all ISP (Internet Service Providers) so that when yousurf the internet, the ISP knows where to direct you.

12. Can you host my web site ?

Absolutely!You can look up our fantastic corporate packages inthe "Web Hosting Section"

13. Ok,I have registered a domain. What do I do now?

Once you have a domain/ web address, you need two things.
1. Space on a web server
2. Web pages

1)The reason for having a web address is to deliverinformation. So that people can access the informationat your address, it must be stored on a computer (server)that is connected to the internet. Also, this servermust be set up so that when anyone types in your address,the server will respond and send the information tothem.
2) Web pages contain the information that you wantto serve. Also known as a website, homepage or netsite,this is the "meat and two veg" or content of the worldwide web.

14. How do I get this "server space"?

RDSIndiaoffers server space to host your web site. We havea range of attractive corporate packages to suit yourconvenience. Look up the "Web Hosting" sectionto know more about this option.