Lifetime Email Address -Part 2

As discussed in a previous article the best way of obtaining a lifetime email address is to register your own domain name.

Here we are going to look in more detail at domain names and how to choose one.

A domain name is in effect an address.

It can be the address of a Website and can also the address of a mailbox.

The email address has the general form mailbox@domain2.domain1

Where:
mailbox= name of mailbox e.g billg, billc
domain2= 2nd level domain e.g. IBM, Microsoft, Dell
domain1= TLD (Top level domain ) e.g. com, mil, gov

When it comes to choosing a domain name you are limited in the choice for the Top level domain (domain1) as they are pre-assigned by the Internet authorities.

However, you have complete choice over the second level (domain2) or third level domains; the only restriction is that no one else has already chosen it.

Choosing a Domain Name

Choosing your domain name is a two step procedure. Firstly you must decide on the TLD and then the second level domain name and in some circumstances a third level name.

Choosing a TLD

The first step is choosing a TLD (top level domain). For more information on domains names see -domain names . A complete list of available Tlds is given at http://www.techdictionary.com/domainlist.html, but the most common ones are .com,. org, .net, .info and .country (i.e. uk, de etc) .

The most common domain name on the Internet is the .com domain name, and this has been used, and can still be used to create your own personal lifetime email address.

Besides the .com TLD any of the others TLDs can be used in the same manner and so personal email addresses of the form.

can be used.

However they were not meant to be used that way and they don't look quite right. The .com is however a bit of an exception in that it has been used so much that its use, for any type of address, is acceptable.

The .Name TLD

The Internet authorities have already pre-assigned a domain name for use by individuals for personal /lifetime address --It is the .name TLD.

This would seem like the ideal choice for your TLD. But is it?

.Name Second and Third levels

The .name TLD was previously (pre January 2004) only available as a third level domain.

That is, you couldn't register smith.name but had to register steve.smith.name. this was to stop one person taking the entire namespace for "smith" (in my example).

The problem with it is if you wanted to register a name for the entire family the only way was the register the names individually i.e.

dad.smith.name
mom.smith.name
son.smith.name
daughter.smith.name

This is far from a ideal situation as what happens when son number 2 comes along and his name is already taken. Besides which it is very expensive as each one requires a separate registration.

Email Addresses and Web Address for third Level .Name Domains

Even though you may have registered the domain name as dad.smith.name you can receive email addressed to dad@smith.name. I.e. the third level name looks like a second level domain as far as email is concerned.

However if you decided to host a web site the address would be: www.dad.smith.name or dad.smith.name .

Because of this I can't say that I'm a big fan of third level .name domain names.

Second level .Name Domain Names

However since January 2004 you can also register second level domains.

Which means that you could now register smith.name ( if still available) and assign email addresses like anyone@smith.name as you need them, just like with any other domain name.

In addition if you hosted a website using this domain name the address would be:
www.smith.name

This is exactly the same way that other TLDs work.

Second or Third Level Domain Name?

Always when possible go for a second level domain name as it makes your address shorter, easier to use and is cheaper.

However when using second level domain names we have the same problem as with other TLDs.. Many are already taken.

Checking Domain Name Availability

Having decided on a domain name we now need to check its availability before we can register it.

All registrars that can register a .name domain name also have a facility for checking its availability.

There is a complete list of .name registrars at
http://www.gnr.name/registrarlist.html. Please be aware that not all registrars can register both second and third level domain names.

.Name or .com

Although the .name TLD was specifically meant for personal usage it doesn't mean that you should completely dismiss using alternatives.

I personally, and it seems many others do as well, prefer the .com and would only use the .name if the .com was already taken.

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Lifetime Email Address -Part 2