Get a Domain Name

The first step in the process is to choose and obtain a domain name. With most domain name registrars you must first determine whether a name is available, then you can register online. While many domain names are already taken, you can still find available names—one trick is to use multiple words or dashes in the name. For example, if beerbrewers.com is already taken, you could choose another name, such as beer-brewers.com, sudsbrewers.com, or beerbrewerz.com. Or you can use another extension, such as beerbrewers.org or beerbrewers.biz. Some registrars have restrictions on the usage of their Top Level Domains (TLDs); you can check the registrar’s web site to see if these exist.

Let’s say that beer-brewers.com sounds good, and it’s available. Now that we’ve chosen our domain name, we need to register it. Each registrar uses a slightly different process, so check out its web site. Most of them will need the following information:

• Name

• Address

• Phone/fax

• Technical contact information

• Administrative contact information

• Username and password for registration site

• Name and IP address of the DNS (Domain Name Service) server that will host the records

• Payment information

Registrars keep information only for the DNS server that will host the records for your domain; they don’t hold any information about the A records in the zones you created in that domain. Therefore, you need to provide only the name of the primary and secondary DNS servers that host records for that domain. When you set this up, it’s a good idea to have separate DNS servers hosting your site’s records. Often, if you have a major Internet connection (at least a T1), your Internet service provider (ISP) will act as your secondary DNS server with the registrar.

Note 

As you may recall from Chapter 8, A zone is a part of the DNS domain. Typically, the term zone is used to refer to a part of the domain as it pertains to the DNS server. The term subdomain is used to describe the section of the domain that a zone handles. When only one zone exists in a domain, either term can be used. An A record is a DNS Address record. This record type is used to identify a host resource record. It maps a DNS domain name to an IPv4, 32-bit address.