Dotster Domain Registrar Information
All websites serving the Internet by their own "Domain Name" (ex: wizcrafts.net) must be registered with an ICAAN-Accredited Domain Name Registrar.
Free web hosts, or ISPs that provide free website space will not give you your own registered domain, as such, but will make yours a sub-domain of theirs (e.g. your-isp.com/~yourdomain, or, yourdomain.somefreehost.com). The free web hosts will also place ads on your website, which cannot be removed without violating your terms of service, and they may place restrictions on what type of advertisments you can place on your website. This looks and is totally unprofessional, in my opinion.
If you believe that your website is important enough to make it available to the world, it should have it's own registered domain name and an independent hosting company. While most web hosts also offer Domain name registration services I recommend using an independent Registrar. That way, if you have to change web hosts you won't have any additional hassles about getting them to release control over your Domain name (this happens). Dotster, Inc. is the Domain Registrar of all of my domains, including this website, wizcrafts.net (since the year 2000).
Dotster.com is a leading ICANN-accredited registrar capable of registering your .com, .net, .org, .ca, .cc, .tv, .us, .ws, .name, .info, and .biz, and many other top level domain (TLD) names. They feature very reasonable annual rates, a user-friendly account management system, and fast turnaround times for alterations to your Domain Name Server (DNS) information (should you change Hosting Servers).
By choosing to register your domain names with Dotster.com, you are guaranteed many value-added features that make registering domain names even easier and more enjoyable. NameSpin, multi-year pricing, and their dotPartner and dotAffiliate programs are only a few of the special services they provide.
Another benefit of having your domains registered independently of your hosting companies is that if you must change hosts for whatever reasons, you won't also have to worry about getting them to release control over your domain name. Some, not all, web hosts make a fuss about allowing you to transfer to another Registrar, or will charge a release fee. You can avoid this completely by registering your domains with Dotster, instead of with hosting companies. Then, if you switch web hosting companies you only need to login to your Dotster account and update the Name Servers to those used by the new host. That's it! A few hours later you will be able to access your website on the new host, although it may take a couple of days for the changes to become universally recognized (Internet cache and root name servers - geeky stuff).
Dotster offers new domain name registrations for $14.95 per year, for 1 to 4 years, with a sliding discount from 5 to 10 years. Domain Transfers are only $8.95, with one year added to your registration period for free ($11.95 for .info transfers).
Register your domain Today with Dotster!
Dotster assigns Domains ending in the Top Level Domains (.com, .net, .org), as well as .biz, .tv, .us, .info and others. They also offer suggestions for available alternate Domain names, revolving around your first choice.
Here is Dotster's sliding rates schedule for Domains ending in .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, and .name:
1 year = $14.95
2 years = $27.95
5 years = $67.95
10 years = $129.95
See a complete list of TLDs and rates, at Dotster.com
Use this search box to see if your desired Domain names are available. The results page will show all available extensions.
Note: The only valid characters for a domain name are letters, numbers and a hyphen. Special characters like the underscore "_" or "&" are NOT permitted. Domain names cannot contain spaces or begin or end with a hyphen, "-". Domain names can be up to 63 characters long including the 4 characters used to identify the Top Level Domain (i.e., .NET, .COM, .ORG, or .EDU).
Once you have purchased a Domain Name you will need to find a Web-Hosting Service to store and serve your web pages to the public. In addition to Domain registration, Dotster also offers web hosting plans, priced from $5.25/month (2 years). They have special deals from time to time, so click on the graphic to the left to read about their hosting plans and any specials being offered.
Building a Web site? Try Dotster's SiteBuilder FREE for 30 days!
About Dotster, Inc:
With three million registered domains, Dotster, Inc. is one of the world's largest ICANN-accredited domain name registrars. Launched in 2000, Dotster was among the first to offer discounted pricing (and their $14.95/yr domain registration fee is lower than many other Registrars. Dotster's domain registrations include free URL forwarding, free domain parking, free SpamShield, free TransferLock, and free ownership transfers. Customers can also add features like WHOIS privacy, e-mail services, web hosting, DNS certificates, and more. They are well known for their ability to deliver hard-to-find domain names and unique domain extensions such as .MD. They treat customers like family, and offer superior online account management tools and dedicated support from their customer care team in Washington state.