Domain Name Training

Domain Name Training

The Basics

What is a domain name?

Instead of relying on us to remember the unmemorable, long-numbered Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, the internet kindly provides a more brain-friendly version; a domain name.

For example, remembering is much easier than 192.0.2.1.

What is a subdomain?

Subdomains are like a branch of your primary domain. They are an efficient way of breaking up your website and keeping it professional and tidy.

Because we own we have the opportunity to establish subdomains such as or to subdivide our website as we please.

Subdomains are most often used for the likes of testing, alternate languages and different regions.

They’re not the same as your primary domain and thus may not be covered by your SSL certificates, however Wildcard & SAN SSL certificates are designed to keep subdomains and their users safe. So, subdomains can be a secure option for your clients.

What is a TLD? Differences between the extensions / gtld/ cctld

TLD

The domain name extension is the part of that follows SSL247 - the .co.uk.

The bit following the domain name after the dot.

It could be .co.uk, .com, .fr, .net, .org, or .info. This is known as the top-level domain or TLD.

GTLD

gTLDs or generic top-level domains are primarily used to indicate organisations and businesses. It’s the .com or the .org following the domain name.

The most commonly used ones are as follows:

.com (commercial)

.mil (military)

.net (network)

.co (company)

.biz (business)

.info (informational)

.me (personal)

.org (organisation)

.edu (education)

.gov (government)

However ICANN, the organisation in charge of the global domain name system, is currently launching hundreds of new gTLDs (.solutions, .travel, .technology, etc.)

CCTLD

Many countries and regions use Country-Code Top-Level Domain Names to represent them.

E.g. com.cn for a Chinese commercial site, or org.cn for a non-profit organization based in China.

Co.uk is perhaps the most well-known ccTLD used for companies whose business interests lie in the UK.

ccTLDs tend to have certain requirements dependingof the extension.

These extensions can be more or less difficult depending of the TLD policy of the country. This isalways easier when the country is a member of the European Union.

Exotics extensions can need specific requirements to transfer or register the domain name.

It may request lengthy administrative procedures (Contract signed by every part, certified document…)

Every cctld is different; this is why this is so important to be correctly informed before doing your quotes, we have to choose our supplier according to these cctld’s requirements.

For instance: Some of these extensions need to have a local contact or being a trademark in the country, that is why they will need a local contact (trustee service) in the country that some of registrar can supply or not (OpenSRS doesn’t offer this, but EuroDNScan offer this for some extensions)

For some of extensions, the registration period is limited, for other ones the minimum period of renewal is for at least 2 years or sometimes you can register the domain name but not transfer it… It also happens that you have to wait for an agreement from the registry to transfer the domain name and it take a long of time to get an answer.

You can meet a lot of cases and you have to deal with it even if it’s hard and even if the process took longer than expected.That is why big transfers can take months to be entirely completes.

It is sufficient that one of these extensions take more time to be completed than the other ones.

This is also why domain names are interesting, no transfer is the same and each transfer is a new challenge!

What is a premium domain name?

A premium domain name is a domain name that is already registered and owned by someone, but made available for sale.

These domains are referred to as «premium domains» because they have a higher perceived value than most other domain names. This higher value comes as a result of the domain being generic, short in length, easy to remember and profitable.

Some are worth several million dollars such as gambling.com, CreditCards.com, Candy.com, Vodka.com, AltaVista.com, Wine.com, Shop.com, etc.

We use the term domain investment, domaining or domain name speculation, when someone registers domain names with the hope of selling them later at a high profit.

For instance: The last “famous” premium domain nameis due to the recent events in France with the domain name charliehebdoshooting.com

What is:a registrant / registrar / registry?

A registrant (Client) is the owner of the domain name.

A registrar (OpenSRS, EuroDNS, GoDaddy, 1-1…) is a company that has been cleared and recognised by ICANN as a legitimate seller of domain names.

A registry (AFNIC, Nominet, Verisign, Donuts, Uniregistry, etc.) is a database containing all domain names and their registrant information in the top level domains of the Domain Name System (DNS).

A registry operator, also known as a network information centre (NIC), keeps the domain data and generates a file containing the addresses of the name servers for each domain.

Every extension has got its own registry. You can contact the registry of the extension if you have issues with a transfer or registration for a specific extension (Afnicfor .fr for example)

N.B In case of dispute or a deposit of complaint you can contact the ICANN, which is basically the domain name authority.

What is the brand protection? TMCH? How does it work?

ICANN designed the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) as a database of registered trademarks.

Its primary responsibility is to protect brands and their intellectual property during the launch of the new gTLDs.

It basically allows brands to register their trademark during sunrise periods before a new gTLD becomes available.

This is a great way to protect your brand from cybersquatters and identity thieves.

For more information, please go to:

Once you’ve sent your data for validation to the TMCH, you’ll receive an SMD file. This file allows potentials registrants to apply for the sunrise phase of new gTLDs.

What does your account manager:

IPO Website

When you applied to the TMCH you are able to register your domain name thanks to the sunrise period:

What is a sunrise/landrush period?

Sunrise Phase:

This is to protect intellectual property rights holders: those with registered trademarks. Beforethat the new domain extension will be “open to public”, trademark holders are given the opportunity to register domains to their marks in the new top level domain.

So in the case of .co, people with a trademark on “example” would be given first crack at “example.co”. If there are multiple trademark holders for a given domain, some sort of resolution process kicks in (either a lottery or an auction).

Landrush Phase:

After the Sunrise period, the top-level-domain is opened up for “landrush”. This is when anybody and everybody can register new domains under the new space on a first-come-first-served basis.

Frequent questions that you can have:

How many times after a registration with a registrar can I move to another one?

After minimum 60 days of registration with your losing registrar.

How does a registration work? / Transfer? Process:

In the case of a registration:

Let me resume what you have to do in order to register your domain names:

- Send us the list of your domain names

- Fill the contact form and send it to us (Domain name Registration Word)

- Approve the request that you will receive by e-mail

In the case of a transfer:

Let me resume what you have to do in order to transfer your domain names:

- Send us the list of your domain names

- Disable WHOIS Privacy

- Unlock them (via them current registrar interface)

- Get the authorization codes of transfer (Via the interface too)

- Send us your DNS Zone File according to every domain name

(A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, SRV…), then after the transfer, you will be able to see and manage them directly from your MYSSL account (DNS Excel file)

- Fill the contact form and send it to us (Transfer Word)

- Once I would launched these transfers, accept the validation emails (With the authorization codes, these codes can expire after 5 days)

How can I do if my domain name has already expired?

When a domain name has already expired, this one will pass through several status before it destruction.

- Status EXPIRED DOMAIN: 30 days after the expiration date.

(From 0 to 30 day after the expiration date)

The owner is able to renew the domain name with classic conditions and classic renewal price.

However during this period, the domain name will not work (web service, mail etc. ...). It can’t be registered by someone else and can’t be transferred with another registrar.

- Status REDEMPTION PERIOD: 30 days after the EXPIRED DOMAIN status.

(From 31 to 60 days after the expiration date)

The owner can renew the domain name with a fee. Redemption fee

(Can be around $100) + Renewal Price

- Status PENDING DELETE: 10 days after the REDEMPTION PERIOD status

(From 61 to 71 days after the expiration date)

During this period the domain name is blocked. No action is possible (renewal, transfer or even reactivation).

After that period the domain name will be available to everyone. You will be able to buy it again as if it were a new registration.

Note: This is the general idea, but according to each extension conditions may vary.

AUTO-RENEW: Once we launch a transfer or a registration we automatically set the domain name on AUTO-RENEW. It’s easier and safer for clients who forget to ask their domain names to be renewed.

IF your client does not want to be renewed, you must specify, when you sell the domain name that he has to make the request at least ONE MONTH before the expiration date, otherwise the domain name will be automatically renewed and the client automatically invoiced at the expiration date for one year of renewal.

It would be a great time saver for us, it avoids to always create quotes for domain names which are about to expire.

Our main partners: OpenSRS/EuroDNS (API available soon). How do we choose them?

It mostly depends of the different TLD’s:

We mainly use OpenSRS, cheaper, easier, good support.

Unfortunately they have limits. They can’t supply a local contact when we need one and not a wide choice of Tld’s (especially the exotic ones).

EuroDNS is mainly used for exotic extensions because they can supply us a local contact.

Sometimes, depending on the demand, we can privilege EuroDNS for their European servers or their DNS services which are more advances… They have bigger possibilities but they are more expensive.

About DNS settings: What is it?

DNS records or Zone files are used for mapping URLs to an IPs. Located on servers called the DNS servers, these records are typically the connection of your website with the outside world. Requests for your website are forwarded to your DNS servers and then get pointed to the Webservers that serve the website or to Email servers that handle the incoming email.

What is a Name server?

NS record or name server record maps a domain name to a list of DNS servers authoritative for that domain. Domain names depend on NS records.

They indicate the servers authoritative. That is to say where the zone file is hosted.

Example of NS Record

Example.com. NS:

ns1.systemdns.com

ns2.systemdns.com

ns3.systemdns.com

The above indicates thatns1.systemdns.com, ns2.systemdns.com, ns3.systemdns.com are the authoritative servers for the domain example.com

Your client can have his own name servers, if it’s the case his DNS Zone is hosted by his own name servers, consequently, we don’t have to add it. We have to settle the domain names on his own name servers. We are not responsible of his DNS Zone.

If your client wants to be on our name servers we have to take care of his DNS Zone and we are responsible of it.

Types of DNS Records:

A

AAAA

CNAME

MX

SRV

TXT

A RECORD

An A record or address record.

Address Record, assigns an IP address to a domain or subdomain name.

Example of A Record with Syntax

IN A 69.9.64.11

IN indicates Internet

A indicates the Address record.

The above example indicates that the IP Address for the domain example.com is 69.9.64.11

AAAA RECORD

AAAA record or IPv6 address record maps a hostname to a 128-bit IPv6 address.

The regular DNS Address resource record is defined for a 32-bit IPv4 address, so a new one was created to allow a domain name to be associated with a 128-bit IPv6 address. The four “A”s (“AAAA”) are a mnemonic to indicate that the IPv6 address is four times the size of the IPv4 address.

Example of AAAA Record with Syntax

The AAAA record is to help transition and coexistence between IPv4 and IPv6 networks. An IPv4 name server can provide IPv6 addresses:

Linux AAAA 3ffe:1900:4545:2:02d0:09ff:fef7:6d2

CNAME RECORD

A CNAME record or canonical name record makes one domain name an alias of another. The aliased domain gets all the subdomains and DNS records of the original.

This allows you to have as many subdomains as you wish without having to specify the IP for every record. Use a CNAME if you have more services pointing to the same IP. This way you will have to update only one record in the convenience of a change of IP address.

Example of CNAME with syntax

Mail.example.com IN CNAME mail.example.net

MX RECORD

MX record or mail exchange record maps a domain name to a list of mail exchange servers for that domain.

Example with MX Record Syntax - Single mail servers

mydomain.com. 14400 IN MX 0 mydomain.com.

The MX record shows that all emails @ mydomain.com should be routed to the mail server at mydomain.com.

It is important that there be a dot (``.'') after the domain name in the MX record. If the dot is absent, it routes to ``mydomain.com.mydomain.com''. The number 0 indicates Preference number. Mail is always routed to the server which has the lowest Preference number. If there is only one mail server, it is safe to mark it 0.

SRV RECORD

SRV recorddefines the service provided by a determined hostwhich allows to control in terms of priority and use.Thanks to a SRV record, it is possible to locate via a DNS request, the server (hostname) providing a specific service (web service, http) for a specific domain.

Priority

The relative Priority of this service (range 0 - 65535). Lowest is highest priority.

Weight

Used when more than one service with same priority.

Port

Normally the port number assigned to the symbolic service but does this is not a requirement e.g. it is permissible to define a _http service with a port number of 8100 rather than the more normal port 80.

TXT RECORD

A TXT record allows an administrator to insert arbitrary text into a DNS record.

Example of what a client can gives you as a Zone File for a domain name (Axeinfo)

On OpenSRS

What is a DNS Propagation? (How many times my DNS changes can take?)

DNS propagation can relate to two things; updating information regarding changes to your DNS zone, or changes to your WHOIS information.

Changes to your DNS zone is usually quicker as it only affects a small number of servers. Your WHOIS information is more complicated to change as it is a global record of your domain available to every DNS server in the world.

Changes to WHOIS could take up to 72 hours.

Changes to DNS could take a few minutes, or a few hours depending on the servers.

What is URL forwarding?

Domain Forwarding is used to redirect visitors from one web address to another. Once a domain is registered, you can enable the domain forwarding service.

HOW CAN YOU SELL YOUR DOMAIN NAMES?

Our competitive advantages:

-All our transfers are free

-Free quotes.

-Free analyzes.

-Free investigations.

-Free transfers.

-Free local contact.

-Free advices

-Quick answers.

-Quick Interventions.

-Regular monitoring.

-Regular Updates.

-Dedicated contact.

-Phone support and E-mail support (Seems obvious for us but a lot of big registrars do not provide a phone number to their customer and their support can be unresponsive).

-We have no limits; we always find solutions to queries thanks to our reactive support. Our goal is to be able to answer to every demand.

-Many possibilities in DNS settings too (round robin, forwarding…)

-If our partners are not able to support a query or a special extension we can exceptionally work with another partner if it worth it.

-We can be flexible regarding every request.

-Convenient: You can have all your SSL certificates and all your domain names on the same account. It’s easy and convenient.

-Whois Privacy: You can access to the whois privacy, thanks to that you will be able to hide your domain names data on the whois data research.

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