Whitebox Hosting

What is a domain name?

A domain name is your address on the internet. All the websites that you visit, and the e-mails you send, have used a domain name in its address. Business, organisations and people register domain names in order to 'own' their own place out on the internet.
Once a domain name is registered to a person or company, it is that person's to use exclusively as long as they continue to pay the renewal fee.

A domain name gives your business its own unique identity on the World-Wide Web.

Do I need to register similar domains such as .com, .net or similar domains to my current domain?

The expense of registering an additional domain name is minor in comparison to the costs that will be spent on marketing your domain name and business.
There are instances where competitors register similar domain names to leverage off marketing that companies have done for their domain. eg. .net.au domains have been registered against .com.au. The last thing your business needs is to spend time and money marketing your domain only to have a competitor benefit from a similar registration. It is worth considering additional registrations.

For example: The domain name "www.ebay.net.au" is registered in an attempt to benefit from typos made by visitors trying to reach "www.ebay.com.au".

How long can my Domain name be?

A domain name can be up to 63 characters long -- including the 4 characters used to identify the Top Level Domain (.NET, .COM, or .ORG).
This opens up a whole new world for domain names, but can also lead to some confusion if you are not careful. Extremely long domain names can be difficult to read but inserting hyphens can make things easier to read. Take a look at these two domain names as an example.

eg. alongdomaincanbehardtoread..com.au

a-long-domain-can-be-hard-to read.com.au

Do not type the www. before your domain name when registering.

How can I check to see if my domain name is still available?

When you begin registering a domain name, you will search the domain name database (which is known as "WHOIS") to see if your requested domain name is available. You can easily use our Domain Search function which is located above to search for your domain name.

If your search returns an 'available' message then you may proceed in registering your domain.

How can I choose my domain name?

Choose a name that reflects the nature or purpose of your web site or business. Try to keep it short and memorable. Imagine quoting it to customers on the phone and having it displayed on your business cards and letterheads.

If people find your domain on a list of pages through a search engine, a catchy recognisable domain sometimes grabs the most attention.

Can I change a domain name?

Once a domain name is registered you can change it. You can register the different domain name you want and stop using or redirect traffic to your new domain.

Once I have registered my domain name, how long may I use it for?

If there are no legal or trademark disputes, your secured domain name will be yours for as long as you maintain the registration fees.

What am I allowed to include in my domain name?

The only valid characters for a domain name are letters, numbers and a hyphen "-". Other special characters like the underscore "_" or an exclamation mark "!" are NOT permitted. No spaces are allowed.

What if my desired domain is the same as a trademarked name?

Generally, if you've registered the name in good faith, it's not a name belonging to an internationally known company, and you can show that you have a legitimate reason to use that name then you are likely to be able to keep that name.

That may not be the case if it can be shown that you purchased the name for the express purpose of re-selling it to a company with a legitimate claim to the name.