Domain Names

Anyone, not just businesses, can become the legal registrant of a domain name, although some domain extensions have their own registrant criteria.

A registrant is the individual or organisation (e.g. limited company, partnership, sole trader etc) that registers a specific domain name.

This person or organisation is the ‘legal entity’ bound by any terms and conditions associated with the domain name registration.

What is a Domain Name?

Computers connected to the Internet have unique numerical addresses so that electronic information is delivered to the right place. The domain name system (DNS) translates the numerical addresses of computers into more user-friendly names. The resulting domain names are easier to remember and help people to find information on the Internet.

Some examples of domain names:

bbc.co.uk
virgin.com
tesco.com

Domain names are used to identify and locate web pages and websites. For example, in the web site address “http://www.bbc.co.uk” the domain name is ‘bbc.co.uk’.

Domain names are also used in e-mail addresses, for example, richard.branson@virgin.com, that enable people to send and receive electronic messages.

Why do I need a Domain Name?

You need a domain name in order to host a website or use a personalised email address, however you do not need to host a website or use personalised email in order to register a domain name. You can start with just registering the domain name on it’s own, and then add services like website hosting and/or email at a later date.

Advantages of registering your own domain name:

• Domain names build credibility on the Web
• Domain names are portable
• Domain names produce a feeling of professionalism
• Domain names are memorable

Domain extensions, or suffixes, are categories of Internet domain names, and serve to describe the type of company, organisation, country or other category.

The technical term used for domain extensions is top-level-domain (or TLD). There are many categories from which to choose, and some extensions are more popular than others.

Be aware that for the majority of domain extensions, some exceptions apply, the category the domain claims to represent is not enforced. A domain name with the extension .co.uk may be representing a uk based business, but you cannot rely on this as anybody is allowed to register a .co.uk domain name.

Please find below a list of the most common domain name extensions used, a description of the category they are meant to represent, and whether any restrictions apply.

Extension: .com
Description: .com stands for “commercial,” and is the most widely used extension in the world. .com domains are registered in the USA and are therefore normally associated with US companies. However, similar to UK domains, there is no restriction on who or where the owner of the domain can be.
Restriction on registry: None.

Extension: .co.uk / .uk
Description: .co.uk implies a “commercial uk company” and is the most widely used extension in the UK.
Restriction on registry: None.

Extension: .org.uk
Description: Non-commercial UK organisation.
Restriction on registry: None.

Extension: .me.uk
Description: Personal name.
Restriction on registry: None.

Extension: .ltd.uk & .plc.uk
Description: As the name suggests, UKk limited company and UK public limited company respectively.
Restriction on registry: Company registration number required as part of the registration process. The domain name must match exactly that registered at Companies House.

Extension: .net
Description: .net stands for “network,” and is most commonly used by Internet service providers, Web-hosting companies or other businesses that are directly involved in the infrastructure of the Internet.
Restriction on registry: None.

Extension: .org
Description: .org stands for “organization,” and is primarily used by non-profits groups or trade associations.
Restriction on registry: None.

Extension: .biz
Description: .biz is used for small business Web sites.
Restriction on registry: None.

Extension: .info
Description: .info is for credible resource Web sites and signifies a “resource” web site. It’s the most popular extension beyond .com, .net and .org.
Restriction on registry: None.

Extension: .us
Description: .us is for American Web sites. It has the largest amount of available names in inventory.
Restriction on registry: Some apply.

Extension: .eu
Description: Company or organisation with an EU presence.
Restriction on registry: None.

If you have control panel details with your current registrar, we can do all these steps for you.

.uk Domains

You need to contact your current registrar and ask them to change the IPS tag of the domain to TECKNAONLINE. Some providers will do this through a control panel, but others will need a fax, email or letter to carry out the change. If you are having trouble contacting your existing registrar, or if they are unwilling to co-operate, please contact us for assistance.

.com, .org & .net Domains

Domain names in this category follow a different process of transfer to .uk domains. As it involves a multistep process we advise you to contact Teckna support team for advice and assistance. Before the transfer process can begin the domain needs to be ‘unlocked’ by the current registrar and you need an transfer “authorisation” code.

If you have a control panel access to your domain name you may be able to do this yourself, otherwise you need to ask your current registrar to ‘unlock’ the domain and supply the AUTH code.

Next please ask Teckna support to initiate the domain transfer. If you are having trouble contacting your existing registrar, or if they are unwilling to co-operate, please contact Teckna for assistance.

Any other Domain

Please contact Teckna support team for advice.

As the last step in the process, contact Teckna to add your Domain Name to a new or existing account.

Domain transfers are free of charge, providing the domain name is still active and not expired.

However, we do want to make sure that the request is authorised by the legal registrant of the domain.

Please make the request via the email address registered to your account.

We will then send a confirmation email to confirm the transfer is authorised. failing this you can send us, on business headed stationery, a letter of authorisation stating which domain name should be transferred and full details of where the domain should be transferred to.

For .uk domains this should contain the IPS tag of the new registrar, for all other domains it should contain the email address that will be requesting the domain transfer from Teckna. The authorisation can be sent to us via post.

We will not unduly delay any request to transfer a domain away from Teckna, however in some cases we may ask for additional information before actioning the transfer.

Please note that domain names cannot be transferred until a minimum of 60 days after initial registration.

Where a domain name has already expired, charges may occur in order to activate and transfer the domain away.

We will email you using the contact details you have supplied to us approximately 2 months prior your domain expiry date inviting you to renew your domain registration.

Once this invoice is paid, we will renew the domain name.

If you want to renew early or extend the registration period (normally up to 10 years is allowed), please contact support.

A domain name is made up of, from right to left:

• the top-level domain. This is the ‘.co.uk’ or ‘.com’ part, also called a TLD or domain extension. These are pre-defined and have special meanings
• the second-level domain. This is the part that you get to choose, providing it is not already taken. It can between 3 and 63 characters in length, can contain letters a-z, numbers 0-9 and hyphens ‘-‘. You would normally choose something meaningful or relevant to you such as the name of your business, family name or project.

You can search for domain names free of charge using the search below, and if the name you search for is free you can register and pay for it online.

The domain search and registration tool available on our website is a powerful domain name mechanism that lets anyone view a register database entry.

Enter your domain name and the domain name search will respond with information about your domain name.

Do

• Do select a domain extension that is representative of the locality in which you operate. If you are a UK based business operating in the UK, a .uk domain extension will be more informative to your customers than using a .com extension.
• Do check the spelling of your domain, as we will register any domain exactly as we receive it on your domain order.
• Do make the domain name as representative of your business or product name as you can. If your business name is already in use by someone else with the same or similar name as yours, try to add the town or area where you operate if you run a local business.
• Protect your domain name by registering both the .co.uk and .com domain extensions. Many customers will forget whether your website ends in the .com or the .co.uk extension, so why not make sure it can be found on both! (Two or more domain names can be in effect for and point to the same Teckna website).

Don’t

• Try not to use hyphens in your domain name if you can avoid it, people tend to forget them when typing in an email address or website address. Sometimes you have no choice!
• Avoid overly long or complicated domain names, or names that are commonly misspelt.

No. Domain Names are allocated on a strictly first-come, first-served basis.

If you wish to check whether a specific domain name is available to register you can use Teckna’s free online search facility.