Domains

Wikipedia defines a domain name representing an Internet Protocol (IP) resource, such as a personal computer used to access the Internet, a server computer hosting a web site, or the web site itself or any other service communicated via the Internet.

ICANN, the non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers leads the domains managed by multiple organizations including:

• Google Domain Service

• GoDaddy

• WHOIS ICANN domain lookup - a database that documents the owners of domain names, and includes names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, dates, and IP addresses

• Name.com

• Namecheap.com

• 1&1.com

Newer and less-crowded domain suffixes include .xyz.

Protect your domain name by:

• Administrative detail monitoring

  • Domain owner - do NOT permit employees, website developers or other third parties to be listed as either the registrant or the administrative contact

  • Registrant - you are listed as the legal owner of the domain name

  • Administrative contact - the individual with rights to alter the domain record

  • Technical contact - the person responsible for technical issues with the domain

• Domain name registrar

  • Strong password

  • Confirm emails sent by domain registrar are not blocked by your email spam filter

  • Registrar has a permanent email address

• Lock the transfer of your domain

  • Domain name registrars provide domain lock/transfer lock/register lock to stop your domain name from being deleted, transferred or modified without your prior and explicit permission

• Monitor expiration dates

  • Set task reminders

  • Consider 

    • Multiple years renewal instead of annual

    • Combining multiple domain names to consolidated expiration dates

• Register domain name as a trademark

  • May prevent other parties from utilizing similar domain names

• Implement Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP)

  • Requires a particular code to be provided to a new domain name registrar before a transfer; thus providing an extra layer of security

• Obtain similar domain names

  • Alternate top-level domain names such as.box, .net. and .org

• Beware of spammers and other malicious communication

  • Responding to emails

Articles

• Naming Your Business

• Should you register a dotSucks domain for your company?

Also See

• Brand Marketing - the Brand

• Hosting

• Logo

• Website Name Check