Important advice about setting up your domain information when buying a new domain name…

Discover the basic definitions that make up your registered domain information. Understand what information is required and know what it means. Below is an explanation of the terminology used in the who-is content...

Who is the Registrant?

The registrant is the legal entity who has registered the domain name. This will be either you or your business. You must ensure that the registrant information is correct as this is the most difficult section to change should a dispute occur.

The registrant information contains the below:

• Registrant name:

  If you are a limited company, it should end in ‘Limited’ eg. Netflare Limited. If it is a partnership, it should be the name of the partnership. If you are a sole trader, it should be your name followed by ‘trading as’ then your trading name. (Some registries hold the trading as information separately).

• First Name:

  This will be the first name of the representative of the registrant.

• Last Name:

  This will be the last name of the representative of the registrant.

• Registrant Type:

  This will be either ‘individual’, ‘limited company’, ‘partnership’, ‘sole trader’ or ‘charity’.

• Company Number:

  This is your registered company number. This will be required for .uk domain names.

• Email address:

  This is your email address that will be used by the Information Registry to contact you. This email address should ideally be from a different domain to the one you are currently registering.

• Address:

  This is the registered address of your business. If you are a limited company, this should be the same address as that found on companies-house.gov.uk.

• Telephone Number:

  This should be you official business telephone number. You should include the International dialling code. For example, 01954 230986 should be written as: +44.1954230986.

Who is the Internet Registry?

The Internet Registry is the body that holds all the domain information. This will be nominet (www.nominet.org.uk) for .uk domains and Verisign (www.verisign.com/information-services/) for most other international top level domains.

Who is the Registrar?

The registrar will be the company that is authorised to register domains. This will be the company you are using to buy and manage your domain.

What is an IPS-TAG?

IPS-TAGs are labels used to identify the registrar (the company responsible for registering the domain) for registering .uk domains with Nominet. When you wish to transfer your .uk domain to another registrar, you will need to request that your current registrar change the IPS-TAG to your new registrar.

Who is the Registrant Agent?

The Registrant Agent is the company that acts on your behalf and buys your domain through a registrar.

Who is the Administrative Contact?

The Administrative Contact will be the name of the representative that is contacted to confirm any changes to the domain information. This could be you, but it is normal to be the registrant agent.

Who is the Technical Contact?

The Technical Contact will be the name of the representative that is contacted for any technical issues. This is normally the registrar.

What is the status?

The status is used to prevent the transfer of a domain without the consent of the administrative contact. This is not applicable to .uk domain names (see IPS-TAGs).

Different registrars have different state names, but there are only 2 states that matter, locked or unlocked.

The unlock state is represented with labels such as ACTIVE, LIVE or UNLOCKED. This indicates that the domain can be updated, renewed or transferred.

The lock state is represented with labels such as REGISTRY-LOCK, REGISTRAR-LOCK. This indicates that the domain cannot be modified or transferred.

What are Nameservers?

All computers on the Internet are identified by a unique number called an IP address. This is normally represented as 4 numbers separated by dots (e.g. 83.138.148.231). Since most people are not very good at remembering and using strings of numbers to identify computers, domain names are used instead.

Nameservers are the computers that translate the domain names into numbers so the computer can work out which computer you are referring to.

The nameservers listed in your domain information will hold a special file called a zone file which contains the IP address mappings for your domain. Whenever this zone file is changed, a signal is sent to update all the nameservers around the world.

There is normally a primary and a secondary nameserver listed in the domain information. The secondary nameserver is specified in case the primary is either too busy or offline.

For BusinessWebFactory, the nameservers should be set to ns.bwfserver1.co.uk and ns2.bwfserver1.co.uk.

Summary

It is important to make sure your domain information is correct. The registrant information should be your details and if you are a limited company, these details should be exactly the same as those specified on companies house. If they are not the same, you may experience difficulties registering for an SSL certificate.

Further Info

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Call to Action

Check your domain information using www.coolwhois.com. If there are any mistakes, take steps to correct them now.