Internet Domain management

Your domain name tells the world much about the company, so expert Internet domain management is vital. Firstly your domain presents a professional image to the world, so the top-level domain choice is essential. Many UK companies choose .com when “.co.uk” would be more appropriate. If they are a UK charity, a “.org.uk” would be the correct choice. If the “.co.uk” domain you want is unavailable, a “.biz” would be an alternative. For a UK Ltd company, a “.ltd.uk” would be the right choice.

Atomik.biz will advise on this important decision. The choice of domain hosts is essential, and buying on price is a mistake because the level of service is often inadequate and wastes time. Many people learn the hard way that buying a domain is cheap and straightforward, but the cost of transferring a domain is much higher than buying the domain in the first place.

Atomik.biz will take the pain out of Internet domain management and provide all the associated add-ons that successful businesses will need. Efficient management improves performance as well as gives the best value for money.

What is a domain

example.biz is a domain, different from https://www.example.biz, a web address or Universal Resource Locator (URL). Different again is auser@example.biz, which is an email address.

Registered domains won’t work without Domain Name Services (DNS). DNS converts the words we type, like www.example.biz, into the network addresses that computers need to communicate.

DNS has other records vital to efficient internet use and managing a company’s web presence.

What can go wrong?

The owner has registered a domain and lost the details of how to control it. The most common scenario is a domain is registered with a sales-focused company over the internet, often from overseas. These are cheap, but when the details are lost, it can be difficult to regain domain control. Some of these problems are due to the security systems designed to stop domain theft.

An uncommon problem is a registrar going out of business. One customer had an issue where another registrar acquired their provider and took over the billing but did not update the domain management. The new registrar was very unhelpful, and the domain became unmanageable. If a domain is a “.co.uk”, then this would not be too serious, but in this case, it was a .com which made it more problematic.

If not correctly configured, the service won’t work or other less easily diagnosed problems will occur. An excellent example of this is the problem of SPAM. Recent technologies and services are effective at reducing SPAM. One of these is the SPF record which is an entry in DNS. SPF records publish the addresses of machines authorised to send emails from the domain. Many domains do not have an SPF record, allowing SPAMMERS to send emails appearing to come from their targetted domain. This spam email often contains malware and results in a loss of reputation for the victim.

Who should manage DNS?

In our view, the systems engineer should manage the Internet domain, not the web developer, because the web developer focuses only on the website. In contrast, the systems engineer manages all aspects of the network infrastructure. Timely DNS changes must be possible without delays caused by liaising with third parties. The systems engineer is likely to have a better understanding of how all the associated technologies interact. Infrastructure changes usually happen outside business hours, and the systems engineer must make real-time changes.

There are other times when being able to make quick changes to DNS is essential. An example is a third party that sells an Internet service like an SSL certificate and requests a DNS change to prove domain ownership.

Drop catching domains

Atomik.biz offers a service to obtain domains that are currently unavailable. Many unused domains expire and become available. One scenario is where the domain is registered by a third party, like a web developer, who then ceases trading. The company loses control of the domain they think they own and can’t regain it. Domains that expire don’t become available for months after their expiry date. This grace period is unpredictable, so you can’t put it in your diary and expect to be able to register it at a predictable time. If other people want a particular domain, an automated system is more likely to secure the domain.