What are domains and domain names?

In short a domain is the place on the internet where you store your website, this unique place is identified by a unique number called an IP address. Let us equate this to your cell phone. Your cell phone is your domain on which you store data like friends and relatives telephone numbers and other data, like photos etc. Your cellphone is traced and identified by the cell phone networks by your telephone number. Thus if anybody phones your cell phone number they connect to your 'domain' and are able to talk to you.

When you store friends' numbers on your phone you normally do so with a tag specifying their names. So if you want to call 'John', you merely scroll down to 'John' in your contact list and then press dial. Your phone translates John's name into his telephone number and dials the number for you, so you do not need to remember his number. On the internet this is exactly what a domain name does. Because IP addresses are difficult to remember e.g. the IP address (207.210.126.34) is not easy to remember one tend to remember the domain name e.g. netsa.co.za.

For instance, your cell phone contains and address book with names of contacts and friends. You can dial one of your phone book entries by selecting the name. The telephone will then "translate" the name into a phone number and dial...The telephone network itself does not know about your friend's name - nor how to contact her - hence your phone must "translate" the name into a telephone number that can be understood by the telephone network.

The process of converting Domain names into IP addresses is done by DNS servers which are maintained by Domain registrars who charge a yearly fee for the service they provide.

After registration, domain names must be renewed yearly. This is necessary to ensure that domain names that are no longer in use by the original registrant becomes available for re-registration, and to cover the costs of keeping the domain name online.

Domain name registration costs depend on the costs levied by the central domain authority PLUS the costs of an ISP to support and provide infrastructure for the domain name.

The domain authorities are responsible for keeping ownership records for the domains registered with them (who-owns-what) as well as to provide the infrastructure necessary to ensure people can find (view web page or send email) your domain name on the internet.

NetSA domain name registration costs

Domain name registration with NetSA includes the following bonus benefits:

• Optional URL forwarding (forward your home page to another web page)
  
• Real time statistics on visitors to your home page.
  
• Convert to full hosting at any time, without additional registration costs.
  
• Move your domain to another service provider at any time, at no cost.
  
• NetSA domain name registration is inclusive of initial registration and the setup of your parked home page.

These prices include VAT and all other costs are included i.e. the domain authority registrar fee, bandwidth costs, support, etc.

A domain name by itself does not entitle you to a web page, email or anything else. It's almost like registering a company name - it does not buy office equipment, office space, or anything else.

Registering your company name simply allows to to trade with a specific name - just as registering a domain name by and of itself does not automatically give you an online presence.

It is here that NetSA as your ISP provide a service by making your domain name "alive", i.e. provide you with a web page and/or email addresses for the domain name.

NetSA will then charge a fee to:

• Register the domain name on your behalf with the relevant domain authority
  
• Provide one or more options to make your domain "alive"

Depending on the costs levied by the central domain authority, and the costs incurred by NetSA to make the domain "alive", NetSA will charge you a fee for initial registration and for annual renewal. These fees are included in the Domain name registration fees in the previous section above.

The central domain name authorities charge a fixed and constant price for domain name registration. This means that there is a flat fee payable for .co.za domain registrations, and a flat fee for .com domain name registrations, and so on.

ISPs provide additional services for your domain name (as explained above) and will add an additional charge on top of the basic domain registration cost. Depending on the level of the additional services, the profit margin of the ISP and their pricing strategy, domain registration prices can vary greatly.

You are the best judge of when you are getting a fair deal, but consider the following:

No business can give it's product away for free and stay in business. Beware the "free" domain name. Once you start using your domain name it is worth a thousand times more than it's registration costs (and ISPs know this) - so read the fine print!
Don't allow yourself to be locked in - you must own your domain name 100% and be able to move it to another ISP with complete freedom as and when you choose
Make sure you use a reputable ISP - try to contact them before you buy to test their support. If you have to wait days for answers before they get your business, imagine how long you are going to wait after they have your business.
The old saying: "Don't judge a book by it's cover", applies to price vs. value too. Ask the lady who had her hair done by the cheapest stylist she could find.

As mentioned earlier on this page, registering a domain name is like registering a company name. It does not assure your presence on the internet.

NetSA thus offers the following optional services to get your presence "alive" on the internet: