Domain Name FAQs

• 24 September 2013
• by: Kenny
• in: Tutorial & Guides
• note: no comments

Domain name is your most valuable web property after your website goes online. It's crucial to know about some knowledges for it so you can manage it professionally and keep it in safe place. Based our editorial experience with different registrars, we have gathered following domain name FAQs from every side.

What's domain and sub domain?

A wiki page provides detailed explanation. But in short, domain name is an address we use to access the internet. It's composed by 3 parts: Prefix, name and Tld. For example "www.name.com". Sub domain is created under top level domain such as "sub.name.com", the term "sub" can be anything. The purpose of sub domain is to create different sites without having to register multiple top level domain names.

What's domain certificate?

Domain certificate is to approve you have ownership with your domain. It's provided by your current registrar, you have to contact your domain support on how to get it.

What's DNS Server?

DNS is abbreviation of "Domain Name System". A DNS server can be understood the sub-station between website users and your web server. DNS server simply tells where the targeted location is when you send requests from your domain. Generally, a domain name DNS records include: A record, MX record, SPF record and TXT record.

What's DNS propagation?

DNS propagation is a process after you made any modification to DNS server records. Once there's any change for DNS server or records, it will take some time to reflect the changes. Normally it will take up to 72 hours for DNS server change and about 30 minutes for DNS records change.

What's Domain transfer?

It means to transfer your domain registration from one company to another. The procedures are followed by this:

Unlock domain from existing registrar -> Get authorization code -> Submit transfer request from new registrar -> Confirm the transfer. The entire process takes up to 7 days depends the actual situation.

Note: You can not transfer a domain within the first 60 days after registration. Domain transfer is free of charge but you will need to renew one year from new registrar end as normal operation. If your domain is going to expire within a month, it's suggested renew it before you make the tranfer.

What's the difference between domain transfer and DNS transfer?

They're completely two different things. Domain transfer means to transfer registration company while DNS transfer means to change your domain DNS server to hosting provider's setting.

What's domain hijack?

Domain hijack is also called DNS hijack. The concept is to attack DNS server or redirect your domain DNS to somewhere else so your website can't be browsed. To avoid domain hijack, you need a leading domain registration service and DNS provider, you also need to configure necessary security setup with the domain service.

What does different domain status mean?

Once your domain is registered, the whois search will return different status. Here's a list of status with explanation

• inactive – domain is not configured yet, such as no DNS server or not hosted etc.
• clientDeleteProhibited – you can not delete the domain by yourself
• serverDeleteProhibited – can not be deleted on server end
• clientUpdateProhibited – you can not update the domain
• serverUpdateProhibited – server end update is not allowed
• clientTransferProhibited – you can not transfer out domain
• serverTransferProhibited – server end transfer out is not allowed.
• clientRenewProhibited – you can not renew
• serverRenewProhibited – server end renew is not allowed
• pendingDelete – domain registration is pending deletion
• pendingTransfer – domain is pending transfer to new registrar
• pendingUpdate – domain is pending update
• clientHold – domain is hold by registrar, no update is allowed.
• serverHold – domain is locked on server end
• pendingVerification – domain registration is pending verification
• RedemptionPeriod – pending redemption after expiration date, max 30 days available
• RendingRestore – domain will be available for registration again, max 7 days

What's domain parking?

Domain parking is a service that allows you to show up a page without hosting service. It's often provided by domain registrar directly. It's popularly used by people who found a great domain but just want to resell it with good price.

How do I know if my domain is working properly?

You just need to verify this by ping. Open a dos prompt on your computer and type "ping yourdomain.com". If your domain is working properly, it should reply with your web server IP address. If it returns "request time out" then most probably your web server is down. If it returns wrong IP numbers, means your domain is not propagated yet, you need to wait longer time for DNS propagation.