A Domain Name for Life
By Larry Magid
February 7, 2002When I was growing up, everyone was known by his first name or a nickname followed by a last name. But now, most of us have a new identity: an e-mail address. It's as if we all have new first and last names. Our first name is whatever name or number our Internet Service Provider (ISP) has given us or let us select, and our last name is the @ sign followed by the ISP's name. I know hundreds of people with the last name @aol.com.
It's not just e-mail. The other night AOL Instant Messenger, which I was running in the background, started beeping with a message from someone named "spyguy1024." I had no idea who this person was, though he or she seemed to know me.
One problem with e-mail addresses is that they have to change when users change ISPs. I know some folks who don't really like their ISP, but they stick with it because they don’t want to go through the hassle of giving out a new e-mail address. And then there are those involuntary changes of address that happen if your ISP goes out of business (it's happened several times in the past 12 months) or your company lays you off, forcing you to give up your business e-mail address.
There is a solution. You can become a master of your own domain. There are nearly 100 companies, called "registrars," that will sell you a unique domain name that you can use indefinitely for e-mail or for a personal Web site as long as you continue to pay the annual fee to keep it active. You can have your own dot-com or your name followed by an extension (technically called a "top-level domain"), such as ".org," ".biz," ".net" or even ".name." New top-level domains are being introduced on a regular basis, once they are approved by the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (http://icann.org).
The oldest and most famous of the registrars is Network Solutions (http://www.nsi.com), which once had the monopoly on domain registration. The company, which is now part of VeriSign, charges $35 a year to register a domain name, though it recently started advertising a "limited time offer" of $29 a year.
Now that Network Solutions no longer has a monopoly, you have choices when it comes to registering your domain name. You can find a list of approved registrars by clicking the Registrar Information link at the ICANN Web site.
The registrar that I'm now using is GKG.NET, which charges $9.99 a year for up to 10 years. The College Station, Texas, company has been around for a while and, based on my experience, has excellent customer service. Unlike some companies in this business, GKG.NET actually answers customer e-mail -- usually the same day. For the annual fee, the company will not only register your site but also will give you the ability to forward one e-mail address and give you either a one-page Web site or a pointer to another Web page. For an extra $5 a year GKG's "Deluxe Parking" service will also host your e-mail and give you up to 10 e-mail addresses. So, for $15 a year, you and nine of your friends can have your own unique e-mail address. I've used this service to register larrymagid.com and magidfamily.org. I haven't done it yet, but I'm thinking of registering my kids’ names as dot-coms so they can use them when they get older.
Used in conjunction with a free Web site hosting service such as GeoCities, Tripod or AOL HomeTown, the service allows you to create a free home page that visitors get to by typing in a Web address of your choice rather than one of those convoluted addresses offered by the free sites. These free Web hosting services make their money by posting advertisements on member pages.
For my sister, I created a free Web site at AOL HomeTown and used GKG's parking service to point to her free AOL page. For my family site, magidfamily.org, I created a subdirectory on one of my own sites and aimed the domain to that subdirectory. By piggybacking on a Web site I already have, I don't have to pay an ISP to host an extra Web site for my family.
GKG's deluxe parking service automates the process of pointing your domain to a URL of your choice. If you use the company's free parking service, you'll have to enter a few lines of HTML code, but it's not difficult. You'll find detailed instructions at http://www.pcanswer.com/redirect.htm.
What I've described so far are the least expensive ways to set up a Web site. There also are hosting services that you can use for sites that are free of ads. Yahoo's GeoCities, for example, has an $8.95-per-month, advertisement-free Web site hosting service that allows you to use your own domain name.
If you do set up a personal Web site, there are some privacy issues to consider. First, when you register a site, you're asked to provide contact information that includes an address and a phone number. Whatever you enter is listed in the "whois" database that's available to anyone on the Net. Unless you want your home address and phone number listed, consider using an office address, a post office box or some other address and phone number.
If you do create a Web site, think about what you post. I would avoid posting a home address on the site and urge users to take precautions when posting information about their kids.
(Larry Magid is a syndicated technology columnist and the author of ‘‘The Little PC Book: Windows XP Edition’’ (Peachpit Press, 2002). Visit his Web site at http://www.pcanswer.com or e-mail him at larry(@)larrymagid.com.)
(c) 2002, Los Angeles Times Syndicate International.
Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate International, a division of Tribune Media Services
