How do I register a Domain Name with UIS?

How much is each registration?

For .com, .org and .net the fee is $14.99 per year. This covers all fees and includes the Registry fee.

For .co.uk, org.uk the fee is $18 covering two years. Again this covers all fees and includes the Registry fee.

Please note, there are no hidden extra fees for the two years that you own your domain. You are free to alter the e-mail and web forwarding as many times as you need. You can also move your domain to another ISP, all without incurring any extra fees.

We will notify you just before your domain name is due to expire, and give you first option to renew your ownership of the domain name.

Are there any further charges?

No. The price you see is the price you will pay, that's assuming your chosen domain name is still available. However we will contact you again when it's time to renew your domain name and ask you if you still wish to keep the domain name or let it go back into the name pool.

Some other domain name registers only provide free web and e-mail forwarding for the first two years, but UIS provide this free service for as long as you have your domain name hosted on our servers.

What is email forwarding?

E-mail Forwarding lets you attach your domain name to virtually any existing e-mail account, allowing your friends and customers to send e-mail to your new personalized address "anyname@yournewdomainname.com". Our servers automatically forward the messages to the e-mail address you've specified.

For example, say you have a Hotmail account at abc@hotmail.com. You register the domain name "mydomain.com" through UIS.

Now your customers, friends, and family can send you e-mail at sales@mydomain.com, caroline@mydomain.com, or anyname@mydomain.com. Everything sent to your domain name will be forwarded to your abc@hotmail.com e-mail account.

If you decide to cancel your Hotmail account and set up an account at Yahoo called xyz@yahoo.com, we can change your forwarding settings to the new e-mail address at Yahoo. Your customers, friends, and family don't have to do anything new. They can still reach you at anyname@mydomain.com.

Benefits

Provides you with a customized, easy-to-remember e-mail address that you can give to customers, friends, and family.

Because we use a 'catch all' e-mail forwarding system, you effectively have an unlimited number of e-mail address. Any name you put before the '@' symbol of your new domain name will be automatically forwarded to the e-mail address you've specified.

Separates your e-mail identity from your e-mail provider. If you change providers, you won't have to send out notices to people you correspond with, because you'll still be able to be reached at your custom domain name.

What is web forwarding?

Web Forwarding lets you attach your domain name to any existing Web site, even "free host" sites. Traffic that arrives at your domain name (www.yourname.com) is forwarded through our servers to an existing Web address specified by you.

Many ISP's that you use to dial up to the Internet give you some free web space to host your site. You can use your new domain to send traffic to your new domain name onto your free space web site.

Advantages

Gives you a customized Web address that is easy to remember and come back to.
Users can simply enter http://www.yourdomain.com rather than http://btinternet.com/homepages/~abc123 to get to your site. Once you have your own domain people can simply type in http://www.yourdomain.com and be taken instantaneously and invisibly to wherever your web site is really hosted.

Lets you change Web hosting companies at any time without losing traffic. This is because people use your custom Web address to access your site, instead of the Web address at your Web host. When you change your host, you simply change your Web Forwarding settings in our Domain Manager, and changes you make will be visible instantly.

No banner advertising! Yes, some of our competitors also offer free web forwarding, but force you to display an advertising banner within the browsers window, not nice!

Keep your domain name visible in the browsers address window. We use domain masking for web forwarding which attempts to hide the web sites true hosting address, and display your domain name to the surfing public.
Disadvantages

Very old browsers will not automatically be forwarded to your true hosting address. By 'very old' we mean Netscape 2 or IE2.

Because URL masking draws an invisible frame in the visitors browser into which your real page is loaded, it is very difficult for a visitor to print or bookmark your pages.

What if I want a domain name now, but I'm not ready to sign-up for hosting?

We will register the name and hold it until you're ready to use it this is included in our fee. We provide free e-mail forwarding for your domain and 'point' your domain to our holding page or wherever else you specify on the order form.

Can I have more than one domain pointing to the same web site?

Yes you can, for example you may already have a web site set up such as 'www.yourdomain.com' and simply want to protect your name by registering other domains such as 'your-domain.com' and 'yourdomain.co.uk' and have them all pointing to the one web site. Web forwarding is including in the registration price.

If you move your web site to another address we will re-point your domain names as per your instructions.

Why would anyone want to register several domain names?

Several different reasons really here are just a few.

If you plan to have your own web site and it becomes successful, someone could register a similar domain name to yours and set up a site in competition. So you've done all the hard work advertising your domain name and they take a percentage of your visitors away due to typos. We have found that large companies who are Internet aware, always register several variations of their domain name to protect their investment.

It's also generally considered that registering a long domain name with relevant key words in the name, separated by hyphens (www.flowers-blooms-roses-delivery.com) will be positioned higher on some search engines. Whilst having a domain name like (www.flowersbloomsrosesdelivery.com) would have no relevance to a search engine.

It's best to have one domain name or more for search engine placement and a shorter one for humans to remember.

Another trend that's on the increase is individuals and companies registering domain names as gifts or rewards for family and employees. Apart from being a nice gesture it will have more significance as the Internet takes on a greater role in our lives.

Providing you renew your domain name ownership you can have an Internet address for life, no more missed e-mails when you change jobs or service providers. Friends and family can remember your address without having to write it down. Of course some people are even registering their own domain name as some kind of new chic fashion statement, why not it's cheaper than a bunch of Rolls Royce car keys.

How long will it take to register?

It takes a few minutes to register a domain name using our secure on-line credit card order form. You can start to use your domain name within 24 to 48 hours, this allows your name to filter around the Internet computers. If you want to check if your domain name is ready for use, just type in your domain name into your browser and if our holding page comes up it is safe to start using it for e-mail forwarding. As soon as you register a domain name you are given a username and password to gain instant access to our Domain Name Manger, allowing you to set up an unlimited number of e-mail forwarding address's

I don't have a credit card, what do I do?

We now only accept credit card payment for domain name and web hosting orders. Only accepting credit cards enables us to keep our prices so low, as the cost of processing cheque payments would make our services uneconomic.

What happens when I order a domain name using your order form?

Once you have selected which domains you want to order, you are asked to complete a short form. This form is used to specify who is to be the legal owner of the domain, and your name and billing address. Once you have completed this section you will be taken to our secure payment system. Here you are asked to give your credit card details for the completion of your order.

When you have successfully submitted your credit card details you are taken to a confirmation page. You may print this out for your records, but we also send an e-mail confirming you have placed an order with us. You should receive this confirmation e-mail within about 3 minutes.

This e-mail will contain all the information concerning your order, such as your contact details, time of the order, tracking number and the domains you have ordered. We also send you a username and password, for you to log on to our Domain Manager. If you didn't set up e-mail and web forwarding at the time of the order, you may log on to the domain manager and change or set up your e-mail and web forwarding as needed.

Will my name and contact information be publicly available?

If you have purchased a .co.uk or .org.uk country code domain name, the registration details will show only your name.

But with all other domains information about who is responsible for domain names must be publicly available to allow rapid resolution of technical problems and to permit enforcement of consumer protection, trademark, and other laws. All Registries must make this information available to the public on a WHOIS site.

UIS has no control over this requirement - it is an ICANN rule - however you can make sure that no private information is shown on this record.

To be more anonymous, you could use a P.O. Box address, mobile telephone number and a "hotmail-type" e-mail address.

How much does it cost to move my domain to another host?

No charge, because when you order a domain name we make you the legal owner of that domain name. We act only as the Technical contact for your domain name. We make it simple for you to move your domain name to another ISP, through our Domain Name Manager, which allows you to specify whose domain name servers you want to use.

What characters are not allowed to be use in a domain name?

.co.uk and .org.uk
Use only letters, numbers, or hyphen ("-") Cannot begin or end with a hyphen
Must have at least 3 characters, but less than 23, not including .CO.UK and .ORG.UK

.com .org Net
Use only letters, numbers, or hyphen ("-")
Cannot begin or end with a hyphen Must have less than 63* characters, not including .COM, .NET and .ORG

* .com, Net and .org domain names exceeding a total of 26 characters are supported by most web browsers. However, certain web browsers, e-mail programs and other Internet related applications may not support domain names over 26 characters.

What if I have ordered the wrong domain?

If you find that after you have paid for your domain name you have made a spelling mistake, it's too late to change. As you may have noticed from reading this FAQ, our systems are highly automated, so once you have submitted your credit card details as payment for your order, that's it.

Sorry if this sounds a bit harsh, but when you order a domain name it is registered with the relevant record keeper, and they provide no provision for correcting names ordered in error.

Please take your time when ordering your domain name, and check what you've typed is correct.

What if I want to sell or give my domain name to someone else?

The procedure for changing the legal owner of a domain name varies depending on which suffix (.com, .co.uk, .eu.com) you have.

.COM .ORG .NET

This is the most straight forward suffix to change ownership of a domain for. Simply log on to the Domain Manager, and edit the register owner box. Changes to this field will take about 24 hours to appear in a 'WHOIS' domain name lookup.

.CO.UK .ORG.UK

The record keeper for these domains is an organization called Nominet, based in Oxford, UK. They require you to obtain a form from them which both the present owner and the new owner are required to complete and send back to Nominet. Providing their security measures are met they will alter the registered legal owner within about three working days.

We have no involvement with these types of changes, but Nominet will not make a charge for altering the register legal owner of a UK domain.

We are not contacted by Nominet that this change has been requested, so it is advisable for you to send us an e-mail notifying us of the new legal owner. We do not make a charge to edit the details in the Domain Manager, and if requested, will can also set up a new profile for the new domain name owner.