Catalog.Com's Guide to Choosing a Domain

All About Domains

Catalog.com registers domains on your behalf, under the name of your own organization. The name is yours and can be transferred to other providers or used for your own server at any time you decide to leave our service.

Unless you request otherwise, domains registered through Catalog.Com automatically get three names:

myname.com
www.myname.com
ftp.myname.com

When you fill out our domain template, do not include "www." or "ftp." in your request. These names will be assigned automatically when we setup your domain.

Using your Domain Name

With Basic Service

With Basic Service, your domain name is just an alias for Catalog.Com. This means that you must include your account name as part of your URL:

http://www.yourname.com/account/

Users can get to your data via ftp to ftp.yourname.com, but will then need to connect to your account. We can also setup e-mail forwarding for your domain name for $5/month.

With Virtual Host Service

A virtual host makes our server look like it is running on a separate machine with your own domain name. Because of this, your URL does not need to have your account name, and would be:

http://www.yourname.com/

Users can also connect to your virtual FTP server at ftp.yourname.com. Virtual hosting includes e-mail fowarding at no extra cost.

Choosing a Top-Level Domain
A top level domain is the piece of the domain name to the right of the last period in the name. For example, in the domain name www.catalog.com, com is the top-level domain name. There are two categories of top-level domains: geographic and international. Catalog.Com can register and provide DNS service for domains under both of these categories.
Geographic domains have a top-level name of the two letter ISO country code. For example, the top-level name for the United States is US. The breakdown under the top-level of a geographic domain varies from country to country. If you wish to register a domain under a geographic domain, you should consult the rules for your country to determine where your domain should be placed. Here is an example of a geographic domain:
www.myhouse.mpk.ca.us
Catalog.com can register and provide DNS service for domains under geographical registries. We provide can DNS service for geographical registries that do not provide English language support, but we do not handle the registration process for these domains. If you need assistance with registration under one of these domains, we can provide it.
A few countries have opened up their country registrations to the international community. If the name that you want has already been taken in the COM domain, you may wish to check the registries for TO and NU.
International domains. There are four international domains. The InterNIC currently handles the registrations for these domains. The InterNIC charges a $70 registration fee to register a domain name under COM, ORG, or NET. This fee lets you use the name for 2 years. After that, the fee is $35/year to keep it. The InterNIC fee is in addition to our fees, and will be billed directly by the InterNIC.

COM This domain is intended for commercial entities (companies).

EDU This domain was originally intended for all educational institutions. However, the current policy limits further registrations to 4 year colleges and universities. Schools and 2-year colleges will be registered in the country domains. In the US Domain, there are subdomains, K12 and CC, under each state for this purpose. There is no charge for registrations under this domain.

NET This domain is intended to hold only the computers of network providers, that is the NIC and NOC computers, the administrative computers, and the network node computers. The customers of the network provider would have domain names of their own (not in NET).

ORG This domain is intended as the a place for organizations that didn't fit anywhere else. Non-profit organizations are typically registered under this domain.

Transferring a Domain

Transferring a domain from another server to Catalog.Com can be a smooth and quick process if you have made sure that everything is ready for the transfer before you make the request. The following guidelines will help to make this process go as quickly and smoothly as possible. Please note that these guidelines only cover domains that have been registered with the InterNIC. Please contact us if you have questions about domain transfers for domains under geographic registries.

Check the administrative contact for the domain. Make sure that the administrative contact listed for the domain is ready to approve a transfer request. If you are getting your domain from another company, make sure that the person listed as the administrative contact for the domain is aware that the InterNIC will be sending them a request to delete the domain. Make sure that they are willing to respond affirmatively to the message in a timely fashion.
Make sure that the administrative contact's e-mail address in the InterNIC database is up-to-date. This is very important because the InterNIC will not transfer a domain until they receive e-mail approval from the current administrative contact for the domain.
If the address is incorrect, go to the InterNIC update it. You will need your handle (the characters in the "()" next to your name on the InterNIC Whois Results page).
Don't change the organization name associated with the domain unless you have to. Changing the organization name associated with a domain name is regarded as a new registration by the InterNIC, and you will have to pay the $70 InterNIC registration fee if you do this.

You are now ready to fill out our template. When filling out the template, the only difference between transferring a domain to our system and requesting a new domain, is that you will need to check the "Is this a transfer" box on the domain page of the template.

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COM	This domain is intended for commercial entities (companies).
EDU	This domain was originally intended for all educational institutions. However, the current policy limits further registrations to 4 year colleges and universities. Schools and 2-year colleges will be registered in the country domains. In the US Domain, there are subdomains, K12 and CC, under each state for this purpose. There is no charge for registrations under this domain.
NET	This domain is intended to hold only the computers of network providers, that is the NIC and NOC computers, the administrative computers, and the network node computers. The customers of the network provider would have domain names of their own (not in NET).
ORG	This domain is intended as the a place for organizations that didn't fit anywhere else. Non-profit organizations are typically registered under this domain.