Most domain registrars will give you access to a special screen
which allows you to purchase many domains at once, in bulk. You should
expect to get a substantial discount if you can take advantage of this
feature.
Masked URL Forwarding
This is URL forwarding, but the actual web address does not appear
in the browser address bar. In standard URL forwarding, the domain name
does not appear in the browser address box. For example, you have a
domain called "me.net" and a site called "tom.net/mysite". With masked
URL forwarding "me.net" would be shown in the address box. Without this
feature, "tom.net/mysite" would be shown.
MX Record
The MX record is a special entry in a name server which tells the
internet world where your email is routed. In general, this will be the
address of your web host, although you can often change it to point to
services such as Bigmailbox.com and Everyone.Net.
Most domain registrars will be able to change the MX record for you with
an email or telephone request. I have not yet found this in any web
management interface.
You should not expect to be charged for changing this record.
Name Servers
These are the machines that translate domain names to TCP/IP
addresses. Whenever you register a domain, you are required to input two
(or more) domain server names (and their TCP/IP addresses) into your
domain definition. When a person surfs the web, the name server is
queried to find out the address for the domain.
In general, use of a name server should be free from your domain
registrar and/or web hosting company.
Transferring a Domain
The act of moving the domain information from one registrar to
another. This is generally a reasonably complex operation requiring
signed documents and such. Most registrars will do a transfer for free,
if you purchase an additional year on the domain registration.
Transferring Ownership
Domain names are leased for a period of time (one year, two years
and so on). The person who leases the domain is called the domain owner.
Transferring ownership means giving (or selling) the domain to someone
else.
Some registrars will allow you to change this directly from their web
address. Others require signed legal documents.
Transferring ownership should be something that registrars will do for
free.
URL Forwarding
This feature is useful if you are hosting your site somewhere that
does not allow you access to a name server. For example, a GeoCities
free site typically does not give you this feature. In this case, your
domain registrar will allow you to enter your web site address in a
form. Their name servers will intercept requests to your domain name and
translate them to the actual web address.
URL forwarding is usually not incredibly useful if your site is hosted
on a paid web host. In these instances, the paid host usually has it's
own name servers, so URL forwarding would not be used.
WHOIS
The set of databases on the internet which contains all of the
information about who owns domains. This was simple a few years ago, but
with deregulation WHOIS servers are spread all over the planet. To learn
more about WHOIS, see "Networks
- WHOIS".
