A domain name is essentially a signpost on the Internet. Every website you've ever been to, and every email you've ever composed, has used a domain name in its address. People register domain names in order to 'stake a claim' to a particular name -- whether for business or personal reasons. Once a domain name is registered to a person or company, it is that person's to use exclusively as long as they continue to pay the yearly renewal fee. Our domain name is mintac.com, and we also own mintac.net and mintac.org

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We have built a domain registration process that you initiate from our web site. Once you've applied for the name, we accept payment, process the order with ICANN accredited Registrars Tucows.com, we are able to access the Shared Registration System from Network Solutions (NSI-SRS), and then the domain name is registered to you. This process can generally be completed within one business day.

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You can make changes to your domain name by usng the Mintac.com management interface at: http://domreg.mintac.net. Bear in mind you'll need your domain's username and password to make the desired changes.

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There's no difference between a name registered with Mintac.com and a name registered with Network Solutions. Network Solutions is currently better known because they ran the first domain registration business without competition for a number of years.

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Registrar: A "Registrar" (or "Domain Name Registrar") is an organization like Tucows.com or Network Solutions that has control over the granting of domains within certain TLDs (top level domains, like the generic .com/.org/.net or country-specific .ca/.us/.mx etc.).

Registry: The 'Registry' is the backend that registrar's have shared access to. Each registrar writes new names to a central registry database, from which the authoritative root (essentially, a table of all domain names on the Internet) is built.

Registrant: A registrant is the person or company who purchases a domain name. For example, Jessica Smith (registrant) registers the name jessicasmith.com through Mintac.com, a Registration Service Provider (RSP) of Tucows.com (registrar) who in turn writes the name to the central database (Registry).

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You assigned your username and password when you made your domain registration. If you have forgotten your login name and password (used to make modifications to your domain name record), you can obtain from Mintac.com. please contact hostmaster@mintac.com or send your request on our web site Login page. You can get our help within one business day.

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Domain owners, in general, have full control over their Mintac.com registered domain names. This means that the domain owner has the power to:

a) Change admin/technical and billing contacts for the domain.
b) Change ownership of the domain.
c) Change the nameservers that are authoritative for the domain.
d) Create sub-users and enable them to change some/all of the options in a, b and c above.
e) Change the password that enables a, b, c, and d above.

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WHOIS is a tool that permits people to access information about a particular domain name. Internic updates their WHOIS data at http://www.nsiregistry.com/whois/ twice every 24 hrs. This means the data it presents isn't as up-to-date as it could be. For example, if a domain name registration has been complete, it's possible this fact wouldn't be available to you for up to twelve hours. In contrast, with regard to names we register, Mintac.com WhoIS information is updated in real time.

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Originally, the three letter extensions after the dot (or Top Level Domain/TLD) were meant to denote whether the domain name was being used for business (.com) charity/non-profit (.org) or for a technology based company (.net). However, with the explosion of the Internet (and specifically, the world wide web) as a new business medium, the lines were blurred, and companies and individuals alike started cross-registering domains (ie. Me.com, me.net, me.org) just to protect their interests. Now, .com, .net, and .org names (the generic Top Level Domains) can be used for any purpose.

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Currently, Mintac.com doesn't register top level domains beyond the .com, .net, and .org specifications, but we're working towards offering registrations in various country code top level domains (ccTLDs) in the near future.

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No, absolutely not. Whois servers are just informational reflections of the root nameservers, it can take several hours for them to catch up with newly-registered domains. It's the root nameservers that make the difference in who owns a domain, not whois servers. OpenSRS, Network Solutions, and other ICANN Registrars have the same access to the root servers that keep track of Internet domains, their contact information, and their nameserver designations. Some whois servers update before others. Network Solutions, for example probably updates their whois servers for their own registrations before other registrars'. Once you register a domain with OpenSRS, either with the Web interface or the OpenSRS client software scripts, you can try going to Network Solutions and registering the same domain. If you've successfully registered a domain with OpenSRS, the very instant thereafter no one will be able to register that same domain with Network Solutions or any other ICANN registrar.

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Registrant (a.k.a. Organization), is the Company name or Individual name and mailing address of the "owner" of the domain. Usually this is the end user. In our standard domain order template this is combined with Administrative Contact under the header "Contact Information".

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Adminstrative Contact, is the name and e-mail address of the person that manages the domain using the Mintac.com management interface: http://domreg.mintac.net/cgi-bin/manage.cgi. This person may become the "real owner" of the domain, he/she is actually only the person who is able to make any changes on the domain. If a login/password is lost, the Web interface can e-mail this person with the lost password.

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Technical Contact: For a Mintac.com registered domain, this is almost always the name and e-mail address of the Hostmaster Team at Mintac.com. You can make change at any time after domain registration has been completed. This is a registrant's technical person, Your web hosting company, or any person who can answers any technical questions regarding domain.

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Billing Contact: The name and e-mail address of the person who pays the bills. This is probably the end user's accounts payable person. They will be contacted by Mintac.com about renewals. In the Mintac.com standard domain order template, there is a checkbox to make this the same as "Contact Info". If you do a whois lookup on another registrar's server, you get one other piece of information:

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As a rule, we don't delete domains registered in error. Registrants are responsible for making sure all information, especial alpha-numeric spelling, is correct before processing.

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If you want to create or modify nameservers which is based on your domain, (i.e. ns1.mydomain.com), you can do this on the manage interface at http://domreg.mintac.net/. Log in by your unique username and password, then you can access nameservers page to create or modify your own nameservers records on Internic Registry. Note: this only works for domains registered through us!

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"Lame delegation" describes the phenomenon of domains being associated with nameservers which do not actually have a zone file to describe that domain. A zone file defines, for example, which IP the www subdomain points to, which mail server the domain uses, etc. "Lame delegation" usually happens because someone has registered a domain but does not have access to nameservers, so they simply put some valid primary and secondary nameserver in to act as place-holders, even though none of these nameservers has a zone file for the domain in question - hence the domain is "lame" without a leg to stand on. This is a bad thing. Firstly, it breaks RFC compliance for BIND, whereby a domain should point to valid nameservers which keep valid zone files. Secondly, lame delegation indirectly uses computing resources without permission. Thirdly, if you type a lamely delegated domain into a browser, the request will not return a useful error message. To see the RFC for "DOMAIN NAMES - CONCEPTS AND FACILITIES":
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/htbin/rfc/rfc1034.html

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Yes after you register a domain name you will automatically receive an email confirmation. This email will contain the domain name you registered through Mintac.com as well as additional information to help you get your website on the internet.

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We do not only register your domain names, but do supply clients with professinal "under construction" web pages. Not only that, we support you your own lifelong Email Address by forwarding unlimited Email Addresses that associated with your domain name, e.g. you@yourndomain.com, any@yourdomain.com, to your assigned prominent POP3 Email Address. The supplymental service is free associated with domain registration.

A domain name tells visitors where you can be found on the Internet. Should you want to associate your domain name with a website, which will allow a lot of visitors to find your online services/products, you must purchase virtual hosting service from a reputable hosting company.

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After you register your domain, you must find a web hosting company or internet service provider to host your website for you. Some good areas to start: your local ISP or choose one of the many free web hosting sites available. Some people wish to only reserve their domain name for future use. In that case you need not find an ISP or hosting company.

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Individuals, organizations, ISPs, corporate resellers, etc. Anyone who currently wants, or is thinking of acquiring, a distinctive, individual presence on the Internet now, or at some time in the future. Domain names are for People In Business: businesses that want customers to find them on the Net, and who wish to communicate with their customers through e-mail. Domain names are for Information Providers: the Internet allows an unlimited number of people to have access to detailed information at little or no cost to the information provider. Domain names are for People Like You: if you want a recognizable presence on the Internet, a domain name will allow others to find you easily and quickly.

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Domain names are designed for people, IP addresses are designed for computers. If a company wants people to find their web site easily, they will need a domain name. Domain names are registered on a first-come first-served basis. The fact that someone may have incorporated under a name or even that they have filed a trademark application does not automatically permit them to use that name. All parties who have legitimate use for a name, share the same rights to a name. If a company conducts business over the Internet, or even if that company plans to do so in the future, they should register their domain name(s) now. Once a name is taken, it's gone.

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What if my desired name is the same as a trademarked name? In quick and simple terms, if you've registered the name in good faith, its not a name belonging to an internationally known company, and you can show that you have a legitimate reason to use that name then you are likely to be able to keep that name.

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One way to avoid trademark disputes would be to choose the right domain name and is similar to choosing the name of your company. You would not want a name that is similar to another company that people cannot distinguish between the two. For example, if your company is called Integrated Business Management, you would not want to resister a domain name of "IBM". This would be a sure fire way of inducing a trademark dispute!

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Provided that there are no trademark disputes, and that the annual fees are maintained, your secured domain name will be yours indefinitely. As long as you wish to use it, it will be yours.

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