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What do .com,
.net and .org stand for? |
.Com represents companies
or for profit organizations, it is also the most common
extension for domain names. Most personal web sites also use
this extension
.Net generally represents Internet Service Providers
and other organizations
.Org represents non-profit organizations or groups
.Info stands for information and is generally for
information type sites but not limited to that type
.Biz domains are used for businesses' sites
.US stands for United States and can be used for any
type of site
.WS means 'website' and can be used for many
different types of websites
Though these are general guidelines, you may use any of
these extensions when registering a domain name. If you want
to make sure no one else can benefit from your domain name,
it's a good idea to register all variations of your domain
name.
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Confused by
the terminology you hear people using? Read below for
easy-to-understand explanations of the most commonly-used
terms. |
Administrative Contact:
The administrative contact is an individual authorized to
interact with the registrar on behalf of the domain name
registrant. The administrative contact should be able to
answer non-technical questions about the domain name's
registration and the domain name registrant. It is strongly
recommended that the administrative contact be the
registrant or someone from the registrant's organization.
Billing Contact: The billing contact is the person
designated to receive the invoice for domain name
registration and re-registration fees. The billing contact
should be in a position to ensure prompt payment of fees.
Browser: A program which allows a person to read
hypertext. The browser gives some means of viewing the
contents of pages and of navigating from one page to
another.
ccTLD: Country code Top Level Domain. Also referred
to as non-US ISO country codes. TLDs in domain names which
reflect a specific country, such as .co.uk (United Kingdom),
.co.jp (Japan), .com.tw (Taiwan), et cetera. If you are
interested in such a name, you should check out this list of
domain name registries around the world: http://www.norid.no/domreg.html.
DNS: A distributed database of information that is
used to translate domain names, which are easy for humans to
remember and use, into Internet Protocol (IP) numbers, which
are what computers need to find each other on the Internet.
People working on computers around the globe maintain their
specific portion of this database, and the data held in each
portion of the database is made available to all computers
and users on the Internet. The DNS comprises computers, data
files, software, and people working together.
Domain Name: In short, a domain name is nothing more
than an alias for a numeric web address. Each web site on
the internet has a numeric address that functions like
coordinates on a map. Instead of pointing to a geographic
location on earth, these numeric addresses, called IP
addresses, point to a geographical location on the Internet.
Computers have no problems with locating and remembering
numeric addresses. In contrast, most humans have trouble
remembering long, complicated sequences of numbers. So, to
make surfing the web easier, the domain name system was
invented. This system allows people to use easy to remember
names for web sites instead of those number sequences.
Fully-qualified domain name: A fully-qualified domain
name (FQDN) is that portion of an Internet Uniform Resource
Locator (URL) that fully identifies the server program that
an Internet request is addressed to. The FQDN includes the
top-level domain name, the second-level domain name and any
other levels. An FQDN should be sufficient to determine a
unique Internet address for any host on the Internet. The
prefix "http://" added to the fully-qualified domain name
completes the URL.
FTP: File Transfer Protocol. The Internet engineering
standard for transferring files from one computer to
another, i.e. from a web creator's computer files to the
virtual server or vice versa. Such a transfer is made via a
special FTP software program such as WS_FTP or CuteFTP.
There are many Internet sites that have established publicly
accessible repositories of material that can be obtained
using FTP, by logging in using the account name anonymous,
thus these sites are called anonymous ftp servers.
gTLD: Generic Top Level Domain. In the US, gTLDs used
to describe organizational and political structures and are
usually given three-letter names. Over the past few years, a
number of these gTLDs have become "unrestricted", i.e.
anyone can register a domain in that gTLD. You do not even
have to reside in the US or be a business entity. For
domains outside the US, two-letter ISO (International
Organization For Standardization) country codes are used.
HTML: Documents on the World Wide Web are written in
a simple "markup language" called HTML, which stands for
HyperText Markup Language. HTML looks a lot like
old-fashioned typesetting code, where you surround a block
of text with codes that indicate how it should appear,
additionally, in HTML you can specify that a block of text,
or a word, is linked to another file on the Internet. HTML
files are meant to be viewed using a browser, such as
Netscape or Internet Explorer.
HTTP: HyperText Transfer Protocol. The protocol for
moving hypertext files across the Internet. Requires a HTTP
client program on one end, and an HTTP server program on the
other end. HTTP is the most important protocol used in the
World Wide Web (WWW).
Hypertext: Term coined by Ted Nelson around 1965 for
a collection of documents containing cross-references or
"links" which, with the aid of an interactive browser
program, allow the reader to move easily from one document
to another.
IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority): The
function that currently oversees registration for various
Internet Protocol parameters, such as port numbers, protocol
and enterprise numbers, options, codes, and types. The IANA
function is currently located at the Information Sciences
Institute at the University of Southern California in Marina
del Rey, CA.
ICANN: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers. ICANN is the new non-profit corporation that is
assuming responsibility from the U.S. Government for
coordinating certain Internet technical functions, including
the management of Internet domain name system. More
information about ICANN can be found at their web site,
which is posted at: http://www.icann.org.
InterNIC (http://www.internic.net):
The InterNIC is a concept for an integrated network
information center that was developed by several companies,
including Network Solutions, in cooperation with the U.S.
Government. Currently, the term "InterNIC" is being used in
conjunction with a neutral, stand alone web page (located at
http://www.internic.net) that is established for the purpose
of providing the public with information regarding Internet
domain name registration. InterNIC is a registered service
mark of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
IP Address: Every machine that is on the Internet has
a unique IP number - if a machine does not have an IP
number, it is not really on the Internet. Most machines also
have one or more Domain Names that are easier for people to
remember IP addresses are numerical, often 32-bit addresses
that are expressed as four numbers between 0 and 255,
separated by periods, for example: 216.168.224.69 For more
information, HowStuffWorks.com has an easy to comprehend
article on How IP Addresses Work as a part of its larger
article on How Domain Name Servers Work.
ISP (Internet Service Provider): Internet Service
Provider. While rather a generic term, ISP generally refers
to a person, organization, or company that allows its users
access to the Internet. In addition to Internet access, many
ISPs provide other services such as web hosting, DNS and
other services.
Nameserver: Sometimes called a "host". A computer
(server) that has both the software and the data (zone
files) needed to resolve domain names to Internet Protocol
(IP) numbers. Domain names must be programmed into a minimum
of two nameservers hosted on separate networks.
NIC: Generally, any office that handles information
for a network. The most famous of these on the Internet is
the InterNIC, which is where new domain names are
registered.
Parking: When a registered domain is parked, the
domain is reserved but remains inactive. A temporary Web
page is displayed until the site is unparked — or activated.
Domain name parking is often used by registrants who do not
yet have a hosting provider or who haven't yet built a site
for the domain.
Registrant: The individual or organization that
registers a specific domain name. This individual or
organization holds the right to use that specific domain
name for a specified period of time, provided certain
conditions are met and the registration (NIC) fees are paid.
This person or organization is the "legal entity" bound by
the terms of all applicable domain registration Service
Agreements.
Registrar: An entity with a direct contractual
relationship with, and special access to, a registry, that
inserts records on behalf of others.
Registry: A database associating DNS information with
some person, legal entity, operational entity, or other
referent.
Restricted top-level domain name (rTLD): A top-level
domain, such as .biz, .gov, .museum, .name, and .pro, that
is only available to registrants who meet certain criteria.
Root: The top of the Domain Name System hierarchy.
Often referred to as the "dot."
Second-Level Domain: In the Domain Name System, the
next lower level of the hierarchy underneath the top level
domains. In a domain name, that portion of the domain name
that appears immediately to the left of the top-level
domain. For example, the domainsforbeginners in
domainsforbeginners.com. Second-Level Domains are the focus
of domain speculators and have been the root of a good
portion of internet name disputes on the internet. It's
important that your second-level domain does not infringe
upon the registered trademark of another entity.
Server: A computer, or a software package, that
provides a specific kind of service to client software
running on other computers. The term can refer to a
particular piece of software, such as a WWW server, or to
the machine on which the software is running, e.g. Our mail
server is down today, that's why e-mail isn't getting out. A
single server machine could have several different server
software packages running on it, thus providing many
different servers to clients on the network.
Technical Contact: The technical contact is the
person or organization who maintains the primary domain name
server. When you register your domain name with us, we
provide our primary nameserver automatically and assume the
role of Technical Contact. The technical contact should be
able to answer technical questions about the domain name's
primary domain name server and work with
technically-oriented people in other domains to solve
technical problems that affect the domain name.
TLD: Top Level Domain. In the Domain Name System
(DNS), the highest level of the hierarchy after the root. In
a domain name, that portion of the domain name that appears
furthest to the right. For example, the com in
domainsforbeginners.com. top
URL: Uniform Resource Locator. An internet "address".
A draft standard for specifying the location of an object on
the Internet, such as a file or a newsgroup. They are used
in HTML documents to specify the target of a hyperlink which
is often another HTML document (possibly stored on another
computer).
Examples of URLs:
- http://www.cnn.com
- http://www.google.com
-
http://domainreseller1.hottestreseller.com
The first part of the URL, before the colon (often http),
specifies the access method. The part of the URL after the
colon is interpreted specific to the access method.
URL Forwarding: URL Redirection or Website
Redirection. In short, when the user types in one address
(URL) for a web site and is then redirected to a site, often
on a different server than the domain. Often the URL name
entered will be short, easy to remember URL while the
destination page is actually defined by a much longer,
harder to remember URL. It occurs when a Web server tells
the client browser to obtain a certain requested page from a
different location. The new URL may be on the same server or
a different one and may itself be subject to redirection.
The user is normally unaware of this process except that it
may introduce extra delay while the browser sends the new
request and the browser will usually (although not always)
display the new URL rather than the one the user originally
requested.
Virtual host: Also called an IPP. In order to
establish a full-time presence on the internet, one needs to
have computers that are connected continuously to the
Internet. Special hardware and software are needed as well
as constant maintenance of a full-time high speed connection
to the internet. A virtual host provides services to relieve
its hosted customers from the burden of dedicating costly
hardware/software and valuable human resources to its web
presence effort. Because the electronic frontage (or
website) actually resides on the IPP's computers, and not
that of the entity, it's virtual. This is where the name
"virtual host" comes from.
Web Page: Simply, a block of information running on a
world-wide server process identified by a specific URL. Such
pages are most often written in HTML. It is also possible
for a server to create a dynamic web page via special
scripts.
Web Site: Simply put, a block of information running
on a world-wide server process. A web site may or may not of
a group of pages related to one another, and is identified
by its Second-Level Domain.
WhoIs: A searchable database maintained by the
registrar, which contains information about networks,
networking organizations, domain names, and the contacts
associated with them for respective domains. Also, the set
of rules that describes the application used to access the
database. This site uses fasterWhoIs, an advanced engine
that quickly searches all registrars' databases for domain
name availability.
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I want to
modify the prices that I offer for each domain name that can
be registered/transferred on my Reseller storefront. Where
can I do this? |
- Login to your Private
Label Admin page from here:
http://www.resellercontrolcenter.com/login.aspx
- Click on Product Pricing
from the Products & Pricing menu.
- Click the '+' symbol to
open the pricing chart on the domain you wish to modify.
- Then modify the prices for
new registrations and renewals.
- Click APPLY before moving
on to the next domain.
- Choose the next domain
extension (TLD) to modify and make the changes as needed.
- The price changes will
take effect immediately.
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How do I
modify the look and feel of my Reseller storefront? |
Here are the directions so you can access the section
where customizations are made to your reseller site or
storefront.
- Login to the reseller
admin section at:
http://www.resellercontrolcenter.com/login.aspx
- Login.
- Choose the appropriate
selection from the "Design & Layout" menu.
- Make any changes and click
APPLY.
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How do I
modify default name server(DNS) information? |
- Click on "Product
Offerings" from the "Products & Pricing" menu.
- First, modify the name
servers under the "Hosting Name Server" section.
- Note: If you are offering our Hosting product then you
cannot modify the default hosting servers.
- Click "Apply".
- Update the "Parking Name
Servers".
- Note: It is recommended
that you not modify these as all forwarding, email and
custom parked pages use our default name servers.
- Click "Apply".
These changes will only affect domains registered after
you have completed the modifications. Any domains already
registered will not automatically have their name servers
modified. Your customers may change the option for each
domain name from the default one you specify.
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What payment
methods does Domains Out West accept? |
Currently, Domains Out West only
accepts credit cards for any of the services we offer. We
have streamlined our billing process so we can give you the
lowest prices for our services.
Domains Out West accepts these major credit cards:
- Visa
- Mastercard
- American Express
- Discover
- Paypal
- Online Check payments
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How do I
change the products I want to offer on my Reseller
storefront? |
- Login to https://www.resellercontrolcenter.com
- Choose Product Offerings
from the Products & Pricing menu
- From the next screen the
products that you can offer will be listed. Place a
checkbox next to the products you do wish to offer. Then
click on SUBMIT. The products you have chosen will be
available immediately.
- The next step is to set
the prices for these products. Follow the directions below
on how to set those prices.
- Click on SET OTHER PRODUCT
PRICES.
- Set the price for each
product that you are offering. All of the prices listed
are per year for each product except Domain Transfer of
Registration which is per domain.
**Note: You can only set the
price between the Minimum Sale Price and the Maximum
Sale Price listed for each product.
- Click on SUBMIT. The price
change will take effect immediately.
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How do I
change what domains (TLDs) can be registered/transferred to
my site? |
- http://www.resellercontrolcenter.com/login.aspx
- Login
- Once you are logged in
choose Product Offerings from the Products & Pricing menu.
- Click the checkbox next to
the domain extensions you want to offer.
- Click APPLY.
- Set the prices for the
domain extensions you have activated under the PRODUCT
PRICING.
- The changes will take
effect immediately after APPLY is clicked.
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How do I login
to the administrative side of my reseller site? |
Login to the Reseller Control
Center at: http://www.resellercontrolcenter.com/login.aspx.
From there you can:
- View New products and
features
- Manage your web site where
you can customize the site, Set prices, product offerings,
manage name servers, etc.
- View reports of the
domains registered through your Reseller storefront
- View Sales statistics by
date
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I lost my
Reseller Control Center password. What do I do? |
Please visit the following page
so you may have your Reseller administrative password
information sent to you by email: http://www.resellercontrolcenter.com/extranet/password_recover.aspx
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Who will be
listed as the registrar on any domain name registered at my
site? |
We have setup our Reseller
service to list your company as the registrar for most WHOIS
searches. However, we cannot control the information
contained in any WHOIS database, beyond our own, so Domains
Out West may be listed. We feel that this will not cause a
conflict among your customers. The technical difficulty of
listing your company in all the WHOIS databases is not
feasible at this time.
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How long
until a newly registered domain name can be seen or used? |
Any new domain name takes up
to 48 hours to become registered and fully effective on the
internet. You will not be able to publish or view your
site, receive e-mails or make use of your domain name until
that time frame has passed. That time frame is true for all
registers and just how the current domain name system works.
If you make any changes to your domain name such as modify
any of the contact information or more importantly, modify
the DNS or name servers attached to your domain name it will
be 48 hours before you can see the changes on the internet.
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I want to
register a domain name that is about to expire. |
You may offer the
Backordering service to your customers. Once a domain is
backordered, our system will check on the status of that
domain each day and attempt to register it if that domain
does become available. Only one person can back order a
domain from any of our reseller accounts. If the domain is
not released the backorder credit can be setup for on
another domain.
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Does my
customers' information on their domain name have to be
public? |
A customer who registered a
domain name with my Reseller storefront can have their
information listed on a WHOIS search. Is there anyway to
hide that information from public view? The information
listed on your domain name has to be made publicly available
per our agreement with ICANN, the governing body of domain
names. We cannot hide that information from public view at
this time. As well false information cannot be entered as
that will violate the registration agreement and your domain
name registration will be terminated. That is also by
agreement with ICANN. However, as a reseller you can
certainly offer the Private Registration services through
your Reseller site. With this service it is perfectly legal
to use the proxy information that we make available for you
and your customers.
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How do my
customers unpark their domain names? |
- Navigate to your Reseller
storefront.
- Choose DOMAIN NAMES from
the manage drop-down menu.
- Login with the current
domain login information.
- Choose the domain name to
modify
- Click on (click here to
modify) next to NAME SERVER INFORMATION.
- Enter the new name servers
to be attached to that domain.
- Click on SAVE CHANGES.
NOTE: Any changes to a domain name can take up to 48 hours
to take effect on the Internet.
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Can a domain
already registered to my customer be sold to someone else? |
- Login to your Domain name
management interface
- Choose the domain name you
wish to transfer
- Click on CHANGE OWNER
- Click INITIATE NEW CHANGE
- Click the YES radio button
and hit CONTINUE
- Enter the new Registrant
INFO and then click CONTINUE
- View the Transfer of
Ownership application and click CONTINUE
- You will receive a
confirmation screen on the next step
- The new registrant will
receive an email with the process to complete the
registration change. Once they complete that information
the domain will be moved to their account.
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Can my
customers cancel a domain name registration? |
Yes, they can perform this
function from the "Manage Your Domains" section from your
Reseller storefront. This is a permanent action and you
cannot undo this action. Unfortunately, there are no refunds
for domain name registrations that are cancelled for any
reason.
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When should
my customers renew their domain name? Will they be notified? |
Your customers will be notified
via email when the domain name is about to expire and can
then renew it from the MANAGE MY DOMAINS section of your
Reseller storefront. They can always check the status of
your domains and when they will expire from this section as
well.
Domain renewal emails are sent 90, 30, 15 and 5 days before
a domain expires.
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What happens
if I choose not to renew my reseller account? What happens
to the domains and other products? Do the customers lose
their items, etc? |
If you do not renew within the
reseller program, we move all products and customer accounts
from your reseller account to another reseller site we have
setup for just such a purpose. Your customers will not lose
any time they have left on their domains and other products.
As well, those customers will be notified by email of where
to login for the future and their current login information
will be valid. No further commission will be earned once
your reseller site is deactivated.
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How do I
forward my existing domain to my new reseller storefront? |
- Login to the account where
the domain is located that you wish to forward.
- Click on 'Manage Domains'.
- Click on the domain you
wish to forward.
- Click on the orange
'Forward Domains' button above the domain list.
- Paste the address of your
reseller storefront in the 'Forward To' box on the right
hand side of the page.
- Click on the green 'Save
Changes button near the bottom of the page.
- The forwarding will be
setup within 15 minutes of saving the setup. Please note,
any new domain can take up to 48 hours to show on the
Internet so that may delay the forwarding setup if
applicable.
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How can I buy
a private domain registration? |
- Go to your Reseller
storefront and select MANAGE MY DOMAINS from the
storefront.
- Log in using your domain
login username and password.
- Select Domain Names you
wish to add privacy.
- Check the domain record
you wish to make private.
- Click "Add Privacy",
you'll be prompted to create a Domains By Proxy Account
and proceed through the check out.
- In a matter of minutes,
your information will now be private and will not be
accessible through a WHO-IS lookup.
- You can transfer your
existing domain name(s) to your Reseller site. When the
transfer process is successful you can then convert your
public registration to a private one by following the
steps above to convert public names into private names.
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How do I know
if my tax form is on file with Domains Out West? |
You can check to see if your
tax form is filed from within the reseller control center.
Login at: https://www.resellercontrolcenter.com/login.aspx
If your tax form is on file, you will see the following text
listed: Your tax information is on file with Domains Out
West.
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I cannot
login to the Reseller Control Center What do I do? |
There may be several reasons why
you may not be able to login to the reseller control center.
You may have the wrong login ID or password. To recover your
password, please access the Password Recovery page to have
your password sent to the email address on file. You will
need to enter your login name and full email address. If you
do not have the correct login name, please contact Domains
Out West directly at: (480) 505-8822 or Email:
support@hottestreseller.com.
If you enter your login information, click the 'Login'
button and the screen refreshes back to the login page and
erases your information, there may be an issue with the
'cookie' setting on your specific computer. If you are
utilizing Internet Explorer 6.0 please follow these
directions to set the cookie setting to an appropriate
level.
- Open Internet Explorer.
- Click on TOOLS.
- Click on INTERNET OPTIONS.
- Click on PRIVACY.
- Change the SETTINGS level
to LOW.
- Click APPLY and then OK.
- Attempt to login again.
Please check the 'Help' function of the browser you are
using if you are not utilizing Internet Explorer 6. If you
still cannot login, please contact Wild West Domains
directly at the number or email address listed above.
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