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.