A domain name is essentially a signpost on the Internet. Every Website you've ever been to, and every email you've ever composed, has used a domain name in its address. People register domain names in order to "stake a claim" to a particular name -- whether for business or personal reasons. 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 yearly renewal fee. Our domain name is LebanonDesign.com.

 

Did you know that when you register a domain, your name, address, email address and phone number are immediately made available to anyone who wants to see them? That’s right. Your personal information is exposed 24 hours a day, everyday, to anyone, anywhere.

With a private ("unlisted") registration you have the power to make your information private.

(Not available for some domain names)

 

A web host is a service provider that places your website on a computer which is connected to the internet. This then gives people who surf the internet a way to access your website. The computer that the web hosting company uses is typically just like the computer you have at home, the only difference being that it is set up to serve up websites and is therefore called a [server]. The web host essentially rents out space to you so that you can get your website up on the world wide web.

 

Most Internet providers offer you a directory on their own domain. Most of the time, they look like this: http://www.yourisp.com/~yourname/. In addition to having to explain the little squiggle mark (~ which is called a tilde) to your less net-savvy customers, this can prove cumbersome on business cards and letterhead, and it does not reflect the unique nature of your business or homepage. Registering a domain name for your business or organization is essential to your marketing efforts. A domain name gives your business a unique identity on the World-Wide Web.

 

When you begin registering a domain name, we will search the domain name database (which is known as "WhoIs") to see if your requested domain name is available. If the domain request comes up with "no match" you will be able to register that domain name.

 

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

 

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. Please see the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy for details.

 

Choose a name that reflects the intent and purpose of your Website or business. Try to keep it short and snappy, and say it out loud, as if you were telling someone at a party to visit your Web page. Some domain names look good on paper but are confusing when you try to send someone to them over the phone. Keep in mind the image that it conjures... your domain name will be one of the ways people recognize or evaluate their sites for their interests when they are searching via MSN, Google, Yahoo! or other search engines. When facing a large number of choices, the snappiest domain sometimes grasp the most attention.

 

The only valid characters for a domain name are letters, numbers and a hyphen "-". Other special characters like the underscore "_" or then exclamation mark "!" are not permitted.

A domain name can be up to 63 characters long, plus the characters used to identify the Top Level Domain (.com, .biz, .info, .net, .org). Do not type the www. before your domain name when registering.

 

yourdomain.com is the name of the domain itself. www.yourname.com is the actual address of your domain on the Web. When your domain is hosted by LebanonDesign.com, visitors can reach your Website by typing either yourdomain.com or www.yourdomain.com. Both will direct visitors to the same Website.

 

The expense of registering and supporting a domain name is minor compared to the expense of marketing your domain name and your business. The last thing you want is for someone else (usually your competitors) to benefit from your efforts to establish your identity. You will see competitors registering names close to yours, trying to benefit from typos your visitors may make. For example, someone registered makromedia.com to try and benefit from typos by visitors to macromedia.com.

 

Yes, we will. For each registration you need two different domain name system (DNS) servers. In order to receive any of LebanonDesign.com's services your domain must utilize our DNS. Your registered domain name will automatically be defaulted to our DNS.

Note: If you move your domain to another DNS, you will no longer be able to use our services.

 

If you do a WhoIs search at Network Solutions or another registrar, you may get a result that looks like this:

Domain Name: YOURDOMAINNAME.COM
Registrar: GO DADDY SOFTWARE, INC.
Name Server: NS1.LEBANONDESIGN.COM
Name Server: NS2.LEBANONDESIGN.COM
{ ...}

This does not mean that GO DADDY SOFTWARE, INC. is the owner of your domain. GO DADDY is the registrar for LebanonDesign.com, which means that GO DADDY provides the service of registering our customers' domains. You are still the registrant, who is the owner of the domain.

 

When you receive the email confirming the registration of your new domain, there are many more steps still to be done behind the scenes. Your domain will be entered into the global WhoIs database, and your registration must travel to all the ISPs in the world. It will be 24-48 hours after you receive the confirmation email before you will be able to go to your domain with your Web browser.

 

There is one Registry for every Top-Level Domain. The Registry for .com and .net domains is maintained by VeriSign, Inc. The Registry for .org domains is maintained by Public Interest Registry (PIR). The Registry for .biz domains is maintained by NeuLevel, Inc. The Registry for .info domains is maintained by Afilias Limited. The Registry for .ca domains is maintained by Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA). The Registry for .us domains is maintained by NeuStar, Inc.

A Registrar is a company that can enter new domains into the Registry.

The Registrant is the individual or organization that registered a particular domain name.