PCG Hosting Support

Domain Names - Registration

RELATED INFORMATION

Registration

Modifications

Deactivations

You've decided you'd like to set up a Web site online. The first step is to decide on a domain name.

Choose your domain name carefully, it will represent your "calling card" on the Web, E-mail and Internet in general.

A Few Things to Keep in Mind:

Your contact information is important - keep it current, both with PCG Hosting and with InterNIC
Keep the domain name short as possible and easy to remember - people will be typing it and it should immediately convey the concept of your company name, product, type of business, or corporate culture. Be ready to have this name on all of your printe d business materials.
Avoid anything that would be confusing, or possibly offensive.
Do not infringe on someone else's trademarked name, or you may get the domain name you wanted, but ultimately, find that you're not be able to keep it. Here is InterNIC's Domain Name Dispute Policy (Rev 03).

Keep in mind InterNIC's requirements for domain names.

Characters must be alphabetic (a-z), numeric (0-9), minus sign (-), and period (.)
Maximum total of 24 characters, including the top level designation (.com,.org, .net).
The actual name must be 20 characters or less.
First character must be alphabetic
Periods have special uses, it is best to avoid them.
Last character may not be a minus sign or a period.
Single character names are not allowed.
No spaces
Should not contain the word "gateway", unless the machine actually serves as a gateway.

Changing web hosting services is referred to by InterNIC as a modification, which requires a different procedure.

Before you fill out the registration form, there's one very important question:

Is my choice already taken?

You may check your domain name using the form on this page and then return here.

If your choice is taken, and you have previously trademarked it, and you want it for your domain name, take a look at: InterNIC's Domain Name Dispute Policy.

Note: This can run into a lot of time and money, so you may want to pick a variation on your name, instead.

How Do I Get The Process Started?:

Fill out our PCG Host's sign-up form, which includes a registration form for InterNIC. InterNIC's whole procedure is outlined at: Domain Name Registration Overview, but we take care of the first steps for you when you sign up with us. After we get your registration form, what happens next?

We check it for errors which might hold it up at InterNIC.
We submit it to InterNIC for you.
InterNIC will process it, when they have approved the domain name.
When we receive the ok from InterNIC for your domain, we enter it into our Domain Name Servers.
Once the entry is made into our domain name servers, it begins to "propagate" around the Internet.
On a regular basis, Domain Name Servers query InterNIC's server for new top level domain names that have just been approved.
They find the associated name servers listed in the registrations, which would be ours, if you have registered your domain through us.
They query the domain name servers for the IP address associated with your domain name.
They add it to their own domain name server.
This process generally takes anywhere from a couple of days to a week.

People from all over the Internet can now access your page.