March 2009

So…You’re thinking of your own domain!
Great idea!…Why?

The topic this month is Why and how to have a domain. There are a series of steps to be followed to go through the procedure including:

1. Deciding why you need a domain.
2. Deciding if you are willing to go though the hassle.
3. Determining if the domain you want is available.
4. What to tell your correspondents if you need a new domain.
5. Telling your new domain to your correspondents.
6. Arranging for the new account.

1 Deciding why you need a domain.

First of all, just what is a domain?

• It is arranging to purchase your own designation of the letters after the @ sign in youremail address.
• In my particular case, my domain is JIMDINKEY.COM which has a bit of sex appeal and is especially handy when you need to have someone remember your email address so that they can send you something.

2 Deciding if you are willing to go though the hassle.

Then there is the real reason: If your Internet Service Provider (ISP) needs to be changed, you don’t need to tell any correspondents of the change. All you have to do is change the ISP supporting your domain, and none of your correspondents will even know that you changed ISPs. I made such a change about a year ago and no SPAUG members were aware of the change.

So why would I feel the need to change ISPs? In my case Earthlink was not performing and their personnel in India did not know the answer or I could not understand the answer. Either way, the desire to change was extreme. I even wrote it up in the October 2006 newsletter (Google-search: SPAUG Earthlink 24).

Having stated why you might need to obtain and use a domain, how to do it is as follows:

3 Determining if the domain you want is available.

Mentally decide where you would like your domain hosted. Two come to mind: Tucows and GoDaddy. Go to one of them and click on the web hosting. Interestingly, when I did the test, Firefox would not work on the GoDaddy site and I had to use IE. With millions of domains, you will probably find that many are already taken, so use the site to fish for a domain name that is still available. Don’t ignore the different suffixes and if your name is SMITH, plan on some creative efforts. Pay your $15 and wait for the confirmation.

Our speaker of years ago, Les Laky, who specializes in domains, is also a good possibility. Google-search: laky domain keeper. See note below.

4 What to tell your correspondents if you have a new domain.

Now that you own your domain, you need to contact your current ISP and let them know the domain name. The setup is virtually instantaneous and they are all well schooled on how to handle a new domain.

5 Telling your new domain to your correspondents.

If you now own a domain, then you need to tell all of your correspondents your new email address and note the progress as they shift over to the new domain. Often a signature file is used to remind your correspondents of your new address. This process you will have to do once as a first and last time you will change your email address. Once this process is competed, you will never have to do it again.

6 Arranging for the new account.

Finally, if you are attempting to get away from a non-performing ISP, and you can see that all of your correspondents have gotten the word, you can than set up a new ISP, test that it is working, and then inform your new ISP to activate the new domain. There will be a process that takes about three days to become fully effective, but the initial shifting will be about half a day. While our domain will be with the 13 master servers for the net, the thousands of sub servers will take quite a bit of time to trickle down. For a few days, you will want to monitor both the old and the new email address. When I shifted from Earthlink to Sonic.net, no one knew I shifted other than me – and I no longer had to talk Indian and now for the three calls that I have made in a year, I receive a phone pickup on the second ring and I am speaking English to the actual person in Santa Rosa that will resolve the problem. There is a reason why SONIC.NET has such a high customer satisfaction rating.

Note from Les Laky: My website < www.DomainKeep.com > is a reseller for Tucows, and < www.DomainCharter.com > is a reseller for GoDaddy. In either case, I can help new registrants thru both the registration and emailbox setup. The pop email setup is usually straight forward.