Internet Domain Names Glossary

The jargon associated with domain names can be confusing. Adding to that is that the jargon can be used slightly differently between different domain types eg .COM and .COM.AU. This glossary should help you through the mire.

Administrative Contact

The domain name administrator is the person or role (eg technical support officer - if you do not want a specific person nominated) who has the authority to request the necessary decision or updates for the Domain.

Anti Spam

Our highly effective SPAM filtering frees up your mail box for important personal or business mail. This save time, money and frustration from dealing with the endless stream of junk that floods your mail box.

Through our domain manage interface you designate which email addresses are filtered and where to send the junk mail. The Enetica SPAM filter used by eNames has a success rate for identifying junk is around 90-99% which is staggeringly good.

The benefits flowing from SPAM filter can not be overrated. during testing one satisfied customer said SPAM filtering lifted a "weight from their shoulders" every time they read their email.

Anti Virus

Viruses are not only annoying, they are also dangerous and could cost your business big dollars in lost documents, lost time, lost productivity, lost intellectual productivity and the drama of disinfecting your computer. Through our domain 'manage' interface in the top bar you can activate virus filtering on specified addresses.

Our server is updated every half hour with the latest virus definitions so you can stay one step ahead of trouble.

If you don't already have Virus filtering, NOW is the time to act!

Spam and Virus protection can be ordered with any domain and email package and costs from just $30 extra.


auDA

The Australian authority for managing all domains within the .AU country code Top Level Domain or ccTLD.

Billing Contact

The billing contact for the domain is the person or role responsible for paying registration and renewal fees for the domain. A billing Contact has no authority to make changes or updates to the domain information.

ccTLD

Country code Top Level Domain

Channel Partner

A reseller of Internet Names Worldwide (the registrar for the .COM.AU domain space).

.COM

A Top Level Domain, which although a US managed domain is very popular for commercial organisations with a global presence. .COM has become a defacto name for the internet.

.COM.AU

The Australian Country Top Level Domain specifically for commercial business entities. The domain name must be derived from the owners name and the owner must have an ACN or RBN. Only one .COM.AU is allowed per ACN (Australian Company Number) or RBN (Registered Business Number). Internet Names Worldwide are the sole registrar for this domain space.

Contact

This is any person or role who represents the registrant in the administration of a domain name. Depending on the particular Top Level Domain there are various types of contacts defined: Owner/Holder, Administrative, Technical, Zone and Billing. Each of these has varying degrees of authority (in the order shown) with respect to the administration of the domain.

Contact Handle

Each defined Contact is assigned a contact handle at the time of the registration of the domain name. This is a unique code and password, identifying the contact. The information required for the contact handle is the contact’s address, phone number and email address. (If you have an existing handle from a previous domain name registration you can use the existing handle during registrations of subsequent domain names). Whenever your contact details change you should update your contact handle. You can do this at our website: www.enames.com.au

Delegation

The creation of a domain name itself doesn’t create a home for the web pages or email boxes, just as the registration of a company name with ASIC doesn’t create a physical presence. To use the domain name it needs to be delegated to a hosting service or ISP that will manage any services (eg email or web service) you require through its name servers. .COM.AU do not need to be delegated, however .COM names either need to be delegated or parked.

DNS

Domain Name System. This is a co-ordinated internet-wide system for translating an internet domain name into its IP Address. domain names are easier to remember than the IP Address, for example http://www.enames.com.com.au is probably easier to remember than http://150.101.95.122 however both will find a website. The domain name also enables portability of domain services.

Domain

The domain encompasses all the resources associated with a domain name. This may include web servers, email servers, news servers or name servers. These services are not necessarily housed in the one server computer but can be distributed anywhere. Part of the domain registry will include the IP Addresses for each of the resources or services.

Domain Name

The user friendly name used to find a service on the internet. The domain name is translated by name servers into the IP Address of the host where that service can be found.

Domain Parking

Domain parking gives your domain a temporary home while you work out what you want to do with your domain name. Its similar to URL forwarding - but designed for those who don't actually have an existing web site URL, and simply want a placeholder page.

Domain parking is FREE with all domains registered or renewed through eNames

Email Forwarding

Our fully automated email forwarding system lets you control your email by allowing you to select what mailbox email sent to any of your domains ends up in. It is the most cost effective way to have email facilities added to your domain, and also the simplest. Just specify your current email address with your ISP as the destination mailbox and without you having to make any changes to your email software, our server will direct all email coming to your new domain direct to your desktop.

The default email forwarding pack comes with 5 aliases that you can assign to mailboxes. The 'single' pack collects all email at your domain and sends it to just one mailbox you specify, but is only available with id.au domains.

Email Forwarding can be used with any domain and costs just $99 per year.

gTLD

Generic Top Level Domain

Handle

A code that can be used to call up the details of a Contact person or role; Domain details or name server. A Contact Handle contains address, phone number and email address. A domain handle contains details of the owning organisation, and the contact handles of those assigned to administer the domain. A name server handle manages the full name and IP Address of the DNS Server that acts as the public authority of the resources available within the domain and the IP addresses of the servers handling those services.

Host

The word ‘host’ has many meanings depending on the context. Sometimes is means hosting service or ISP, ie the company you have chosen to house your web site or email boxes. It can also mean the actual computer acting as your web host or email host along with the various files making them up. Host is also used to refer to a DNS server as the domain host. More inclusively the word host can include any computer or device on the internet. Clear now?

Hosting Service

The company that physically houses your email server, web server or other service. You can separate the various services using multiple hosting services. ISP’s often provide hosting services, but the two aspects are totally different.

HTML

Hyper Text Markup Language. The standard computer language used to write web pages, and provide hyperlinks or links to other pages.

HTTP:

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. This specifies the method of accessing a web page on a web server. The method specifies the technical rules for accessing the page.

ICANN

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. This organisation manages the assignment of IP Addresses and Top Level Domains, as well as many other technical matters. www.icann.org

IP Address

The numeric address of resources on the internet, IP stands for Internet Protocol. The IP Number consists of 4 numbers 1 to 254 separated by dots. Every (public) server on the internet has a unique IP address. When a user types a domain name as a destination for a web page the DNS behind the scenes translates it to an IP address which the user’s browser uses to go to the web site. For example http://www.enames.com.com.au is probably easier to remember than http://150.101.95.122 however both will find our website.

ISP

The Internet Service Provider or ISP is the organisation that provides the equipment, communications and technical know-how for a user to access the internet. Some ISP also act as web or email hosts?. You will use your ISP’s email gateway when sending email even if you do not use them as your mail host.

Mail Host/Email Host

The organisation keeping your mail boxes. Mailboxes are temporary storage areas where email is deposited until collected by the recipient.

Name Server

A computer that performs the translation of domain name and services into their IP Addresses. Name servers are also known as DNS servers.

.NET

A Top Level Domain traditionally intended to be used by organisation such as ISP’s and other generic internet services. There is no enforcement on its use and is becoming popular alternative to .COM.

.NET.AU

The Australian country Top Level Domain, is limited for use with organisations that will maintain a public name server. Typically this will be hosting services or ISPs.

.ORG.AU

The Australian country Top Level Domain is only for non-profit or charitable organisations. There is currently no fee for registering in this Domain, however registration can take months to complete, and requires description of the nature, activities and aims of the organisation and reasons for registering in this domain. It is essentially only for use as a public service and not for any commercial aims. You can directly register free in this domain at www.aunic.net/tdorg.html

Parking

This is where a domain name is delegated to a Name Server but for which service such as email or web service haven’t yet been provided. It is not necessary to delegate or park .COM.AU domains however .COM are always parked at the registrars name servers until properly delegated.

Registrant

The owner of a domain name or the person who is registering a domain name for their own use.

Registrar

The organisation that acts on behalf of a registrant to effect a registration of a domain and to manage its updates.

Registration Fee / Renewal Fee

Most Top Level Domains TLD’s and ccTLD's require an initial registration fee, and periodic renewals. The .COM.AU names are registered for a maximum period of two years (Note some resellers offer to manage registrations for longer periods but the reality is the name is registered for a two year period only and their management relies on the reseller renewing the name every two years - care should be taken with these long term arrangements). Other TLD’s have different period and fees for registration. Generally if you have delegated your domain name the name host will send you renewals, be careful of organisations offering renewals to ensure they are who you expect and that the domain is really due for renewal.

Registry

The central database of the records for every domain name in a particular Top Level Domain.

Server

A server is a computer or software running on a computer that provides a specific type of service such as web or email services.

SRS (Shared Registry Services)

This is applicable to the .COM domain where multiple organisations act as the registrars. It provides additional competition and has been available in the USA since 1999.

Sub-Domain

Once you hold a Domain you can sub-divide the name into smaller chunks, eg sales.yourdomain.com.au which could refer to web pages located on a different server. This resource information is recorded on the Name Server for your domain The information here is privately managed and controlled. For instance the domain name .AU.COM is often confused with the .COM.AU domain space, the former is just a privately created domain (eg www.au.com) where the holder sells sub-domains as a commercial interest.

Technical Contact

This Contact person or role is authorised to make changes to the name server information, eg the IP addresses assigned to the DNS.

TLD (Top Level Domain)

The highest level in the domain name system eg .COM, .NET. Besides these generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) there are country code Top Level Domains (ccTLD), eg .au and .nz. The ccTLD is often combined with a gTLD such as in .COM.AU which in reality is a second level domain.

URL Forwarding

URL forwarding lets you point your domain to your existing web site without spending lots more on hosting. For example, if you registered the domain name mycompany.com, you make www.mycompany.com point to another URL - say, one hosted with your ISP - or even a free hosting service such as geocities.

The advantage of this, is that you can get rid of your long URL address, such as:

http://www.yourISP.com/users/yourname/

and replace it with your own brand. URL forwarding can also offer significant savings over traditional domain hosting. With our unique URL management facility, you can specify where to point your domain as well as providing a title and META tags for search engines. Our system is totally invisible to your visitors, we do not place any advertising on your web site. The URL forwarding features are accessible from the domain 'manage' menu.

URL Forwarding is FREE with all domains registered or renewed through eNames.

Web Host(ing) / Web Server

The organisation or the server computer at an organisation which contains your company’s web page files.

WebMail

Webmail is email delivered through a web browser enabling roaming access to email by keeping it on a server. Webmail is frequently available from your domain name mail host. There are also free services (subsudised through advertising) used by individuals without domain names, eg Hotmail and Yahoo Mail. Organisations are often cautious of Hotmail and similar accounts as they are frequently used for spam or junk mail from organisations or people hiding their true identity, and many corporations filter out mail from these addresses. We can provide you with Webmail for your domain where it is hosted with us.

Whois

A public search facility and database for displaying the owning organisation and Contact details for a Domain. Each registrar maintains their own “whois database”, so you first need to check which registrar is maintaining the data. In Australia with ..COM.AU you can use the the Search page on our website www.enames.com.