It is not FwboNet’s responsibility to manage a domain name registered elsewhere. A domain name regsitered with us is automatically ‘pointed’ at it’s website. You can host a website with us and maintain a domain name registered elsewhere — however, it would be down to you to get the domain name ‘pointed’ at your website, not for us to negotiate your other agent’s Control Panel.
We would always recommend domain name transfer to our care. By contrast, if you wish to transfer your domain name from FwboNet elsewhere, we will do this promptly: there is no extra charge.
Decide what you would like your site to be know as, preferably something that describes your actvity in a memorable way. Ideally it should be a findable phrase — something you would type into a Google search window: for example, <buddhismyourtown.org>, <buddhistpaintings.com>. Search engines do seem to extract something findable from domain names.
Consider the connotation of the ending (the Top Level Domain name or TLD for short: .com .org .co.uk etc) element of your domain name wisely: a .com or .co.uk TLD should be used for a commercial endeavour, so it would seem inappropriate for many charities, where .org or .org.uk would seem more descriptive.
Use only lowercase letters. You may use whole numbers, but there must be no spaces or punctuation — although you may use hyphens ( - ) and underscores ( _ ) to break up compound words.
Although you may be aware of websites with multiple ‘dot’ separations in the domain name, you may not register a domain name separated by a period other than the TLD period(s). In other words you may register <foo.com> or <foo.co.uk>, but not <sub.foo.com> or <sub.foo.co.uk>. The second set of examples are subdomains of the first set. By analogy, this would be like moving into an apartment without the apartment block having been built. After you have registered your domain name you can (in theory) set-up unlimited subdomains — separate websites that don’t need their own domain name — of the parent domain name: <first.foo.co.uk> <second.foo.co.uk> <third.foo.co.uk> and so on. FwboNet allows you to have two free subdomains.
Bear in mind that your choice may well have been taken by somone else already, so consider a small number of alternatives. Your domain name must be unique, but remember that foo.com, foo.co.uk and foo.net are all completely differnet domain names, so if one variation is taken, that doesn’t exclude you from registering another.
In fact it is common practice to reserve highly similar domain names (e.g. <foo.com>, <foo.co.uk> and <foo.net>) to avoid confusion or competitive (or hostile) registration. Usual practice is to use one domain name to point directly to a website and the others to redirect (’alias’ or ’forward’) on.
We can register domains with the following TLD endings:
We will need to know:
FwboNet’s service policy was designed as a fallback in case of owner administration failure. This means that all other contacts (Admin, Technical and Billing) are regeistered to the FwboNet administrator. (N.b. there are always at least two FwboNet Administrators).
If you haven’ registered your domain name with FwboNet we strongly recommend you transfer it to our care. Our primary service is as a ‘Guardian Administrator’ — we won't just cut you off; we’ll ask you what’s happened first!
Getting hold of expired domain names is big business. A simple program monitors expiring domains and automatically re-registers them: the program owner then charges the moral owner a premium to get the domain back. This is effectively piracy — but it’s perfectly legal. It’s also one of a range of piratical practices that occur by taking advantage of administrative carelessness or confusion.
Piracy aside, it’s easy to find a renewal-lapse occur through simple oversight — it could happen to all but the most fanatically organised of us — so you need to make absolutely sure that your domain name is in safe hands, and that it will be renewed in a timely fashion. So, ask yourself before your regsiter whether you can guarantee that in two years time, you will still be using the same email address? If you can’t, then there’s a high probability that renewal notices will not reach you or your organisation — and that you will loose the domain name. Even if it's not picked up by a ‘pirate’ there’s always the possibility that a legitimate registrant might pick up the domain name — along with your site’s users!
Domain name recovery operations can be slow and frustrating affairs. In worst case scenarios they become effectively lost, with the moral owner of the domain name unable to gain control of either the domain name or it’s website due to clumsy initial registration practice.
On a related note, whilst nowadays it seems less common for people to receive completely false renewal fee demands (i.e. a notice claiming registration has lapsed when it hasn’t and demanding an exorbitant renewal fee), FwboNet clients have received advance renewal notices from other companies based on an accurate awareness of when registration will lapse. This is only marginally more ethical — it’s still a form of piracy and it still plays on admin confusion — and it almost certainly works profitably. FwboNet clients have narrowly avoided falling for this: there may even be clients who have fallen for it.
So whether people choose to register their domain names with the FwboNet business or not, please make sure that your business or Centre: