[kictanet] of ICANN and acronyms

Thu Apr 5 09:16:05 EAT 2007

this is for all those who dont speak the foreign language of ICANN and the acronymsread on...
Domains Explained, Part 1: Registrants, Registries, Registrars and Resellersby Joey deVilla on Fri 30 Mar 2007 03:49 PM EDT  |  Permanent Link
In Monday's article -- Questions to Ask Before You Pick Your Domain Name Registrar -- Elliot
covered a lot of ground in his list of things you should know about
when picking a domain name registrar. In this series of articles, I'll
expand on what he wrote and explain some of the finer points of domain
names that you might not be aware of.
Registrants, Registries, Registrars and ResellersThe last question in Elliot's list was Are you a registrar or a reseller? If these terms, along with registry and registrant are unfamiliar to you, read on -- I'm going to explain what each one means.
Let me begin with the diagram below. It provides a brief description of each of these terms...
RegistrantRegistryRegistrarReseller...and also illustrates the relationships among them. I'll explain each of these terms in greater detail after the diagram:

RegistrantThe registrant
is the easiest one to explain. The registrant for a domain name is the
person or organization who registered and owns the domain name. If
you've ever registered a domain name, you're its registrant.
RegistryBefore I can talk about registries, I need to talk about top-level domains first. A top-level domain -- often shortened to TLD -- is the last part of any domain name. You're probably familiar with the generic TLDs .com, .org and .net and country code TLDs such as .ca, .de, .eu and .jp.
Each top-level domain is managed by an organization called a registry, which is responsible for:
Managing the domain names within its assigned top-level domain.Maintaining
the WHOIS database for that domain, which stores information on each
domain name in the top-level domain, such as the domain's registrant,
registrar and expiry date.Maintaining the root servers for
that top-level domain, which act as an "address book" for all
nameservers responsible for the top-level domain. I'll cover root
servers and other parts of the domain name system in a later article.RegistrarIn order to keep the domain name system working and stable, only organizations accredited by ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers,
one of whose jobs is to manage the assignment of domain names and IP
addresses) can register domain names. If you're curious about what sort
of process an organization has to go through to become an accredited
registrar, ICANN has a page that describes it in detail.
There
are a few hundred ICANN-accredited registrars worldwide; Tucows is just
of them. One way for you to register a domain name is to select one of
these registrars, who will electronically make the appropriate
arrangements with the registry and activate your domain name.
There's another way for you to register a domain name: through a reseller.
ResellerIn
the previous section, I mentioned that Tucows is a registrar. However,
we're a little unusual. We don't directly register domain names on
behalf of registrants. Instead, we sell our capability to register
domain names to other companies, who then resell this capability to
registrants. Hence the name reseller.
You're probably wondering why you'd want to go through a reseller rather than a registrar. Two very important reasons are:
Most of the time, you don't buy just a domain name by itself.
You also buy services that the domain name points to, such as a
website, a blog, email mailboxes and so on. A good reseller will often
offer package deals or bundles comprising what they feel are the best
services, just as a good retail store will carry a selection of what
they feel are the best brands.Customer service.
By reselling our domain name registration service, a reseller can spend
less time worrying about the technical and regulatory issues that
registrars face and spend more time on what's really important: their
customers.One thing to keep in mind when registering
domain names through a reseller: they're bound by the policies of the
registrar whose services they resell. Make sure you know which
registrar your reseller uses and what their domain name policies are.

Rebecca Wanjiku,
journalist,
p.o box 33515, 
Nairobi.00600
Kenya.

Tel. 254 720 318 925

blog:http://beckyit.blogspot.com/

____________________________________________________________________________________
Get your own web address.  
Have a HUGE year through Yahoo! Small Business.
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/?p=BESTDEAL
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