WebCom Domain Name Services (DNS)

WebCom's domain name services exist to help WebCom users establish, configure, and maintain Internet domain names (your-company.com) as a part of their World Wide Web presence. Domain name service is available to WebCom users with the BudgetSite, BusinessSite, Sitesaver or WebCommerce service plans. If you have a PersonalSite and would like to take advantage of domain name service, you will need to change your service plan.

This documentation is your key to understanding how domain names work with WebCom. It includes full descriptions of all DNS service options and instructions for configuring your custom domain name to fit your needs. Even though reading these pages is not a requirement for successfully managing a domain, we recommend that you review this documentation if you have (or wish to have) a domain name. Experienced WebCom users might benefit most by jumping directly to pages that cover the topics related to their particular interests.

A domain name is a unique, personalized address that represents a given location (such as a Web site) on the Internet. Domain names make it easy for visitors to find your Web site and remember your email address. Registering a domain name is as easy as filling out the online domain registration form, or simply including the name you want when you apply for a new WebCom account. Having a domain name allows you to:

• Access your home page as http://www.your-domain.com/.
• Access parts of your web site with subdomains, such as http://products.your-domain.com/.
• Create email addresses such as person@your-domain.com.
• Access your files via ftp at ftp.your-domain.com/pubX/userid (where "X" is the number assigned to your account, i.e. pub1).
• Reserve your domain name and prevent it from being registered by another party.

For specific information about accomplishing these tasks, please see the How to Configure Your Domain Name portion of this documentation. For details on about registering your domain name, please see the Domain Name Services portion of this documentation.

Domain name hosting is comprised of two basic components: The registration of the domain name with a domain name registrar (or other domain name authority) and the virtual hosting provided by our servers.

If you would like to have a regional domain name (such as .uk, .au, .de, .jp, etc.), WebCom can host it for you. We can provide all the features and services that we offer for our other domains; however, you will not be able to use our online forms to register it. For information on hosting regional domains, please see Non-InterNIC domains.

Virtual hosting literally refers to the ability of one system to host multiple domains. When virtual hosting is activated for your domain name, our system from that point recognizes requests for that domain and serves the appropriate pages from your WebCom account. This is the part of domain name hosting that WebCom handles. Your domain name will not work properly if WebCom is not virtually hosting the domain. Virtual hosting is automatically activated for a given domain when you use any of the registration, move, or "activate virtual hosting" forms, or when you list a domain when you open a new account.

WebCom's virtual hosting relies on the fact the http protocol passes information which our server uses to determine what domain is being accessed, and therefore what pages to serve. Browsers that are two or more years old might use an older version of http that does not include this feature. Those browsers will not be able to access WebCom hosted domains properly. If you encounter this, simply upgrade your browser, or access the domain with the userid in the form of: http://www.domain.com/userid.

What is a Subdomain?

A subdomain is an extension of your domain that helps you to manage your site. It allows you to have additional, easily memorized hostnames (such as "products.yourdomain.com") which people can use to access specialized areas of your web site. Subdomains are closely related to the parent domain. If you do not have "yourdomain.com" hosted in your WebCom account, you cannot have "products.yourdomain.com". For more information about subdomains and WebCom, please see Creating Subdomains.