| Domain Name Basics | | | 14 March 2014 | |

In this article we will look at how to register your own domain, what are domain name disputes and who is behind it in South Africa, who manages domains, and how you can check who owns a specific domain. |

Bellville Campus
P O Box 1906
BELLVILLE 7535
Cape Town Campus
P O Box 652
CAPE TOWN 8000 DEPARTMENT OF iNFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

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NATIONAL DIPLOMA: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
LEVEL 3

SUBJECT: INTERNET PROGRAMMING 3

CODE: IRP300S

PROJECT: ASSIGNMENT 1 – Domain name registration

LECTURERS: W. C. ROTHMAN

I declare that this is the original work of the author. All information obtained directly or indirectly from other sources has been fully acknowledged.

Surname, Initials | Student number | Signature | FOUCHE, M | 212201018 | | MAYER, R | 212017705 | | HENDRICKS, K | 212037943 | | COETZEE, D | 212021265 | |

Contents Introduction 4 How to register a domain for your website (Kurvin Hendricks) 4 Domain name disputes (Michael Fouche) 5 Who manages Domains? (Ryno Mayer) 6 How to check who owns a domain? (Dylan Coetzee) 7 WHOIS 7 Reverse Internet Protocol (IP) lookup 7 Conclusion 7 Bibliography 8

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Introduction
In this article we will look at how to register your own domain, what are domain name disputes and who is behind it in South Africa, who manages domains, and how you can check who owns a specific domain. An Internet Protocol (IP) address identifies a specific connection on a particular network, a domain name, or website URL for example www.google.co.za points toward a particular host or computer. Therefore, if the machine relocates to a different network, the IP address must change, but the name used to identify the host may remain the same. One can have many domain names pointing to the same host. (J.PARE`, D, 2003, p.13)
How to register a domain for your website (Kurvin Hendricks)
Domain registration can be relatively simple, a quick Google search gives you a list of major Internet Server Providers, who allow you to register as well as host your site.
Susannah Gardner expresses the importance of a domain. “A domain is the name and brand of your blog, and the Web address (or URL). It gives visitors an idea of what your blog is about and who you are.” (GARDNER, S, 2010)
WikiHow has a step by step guide to registering your domain, the guide itself has two options when registering your domain, the first is to get hosting and a domain as an all in one package, the second being to get your domain registered without the option of hosting. (WIKIHOW, 2014)
The first step, adapted from WikiHow, is to contact your Internet Service Provider, to find out whether they will allow you to host your own web server, if so you are in luck, if not there will be other Internet Service Providers out there. For arguments sake I will use my own Internet Service Provider, Afrihost.
Afrihost allows us to register a domain with them, with both the option to allow them to host your website or you to host your own, either at home or with another hosting service. (AFRIHOST, 2014)
The prices differ, with the hosting option coming in with an initial cost if R97, without hosting the price is R197, in this case Afrihost will be your registrar as well. They are certified which is extremely important.
Choosing the most basic hosting and domain registration package, means you get a server to host your data. If you were to go the route of hosting your site elsewhere you will need a server. Afrihost gives you a few options with different price points and benefits. We will be reviewing the Gold package, which gives you 2 gigabytes of storage and the option of hosting a MySQL databases on their server. This is a well-balanced package at R39 monthly charge.
The above options will allow you to have you website up and running which will give you a great deal of control and allow unlimited traffic, which is really important if you want people viewing your site.
Domain name disputes (Michael Fouche)
Domain name disputes occur when two parties have conflict about a specific domain. (BARBARA, K, 1999) The one side will be the complainant and the other side the entity who registered the domain. (ZADNA, 2014)
The minister of communications in South Africa is required by section 69 of the Electronic communications act (ECT Act) to promote regulations to solve .za domain disputes. (ZADNA, 2014) The accredited registrar’s (ADR) procedures are regulated by the ECT Act 25 of 2012. (SIKWANE, R, 2013) ADR regulations require ZADNA to appoint and watch over suitable South African entities to serve as ADR providers. (ZADNA, 2014)
ZADNA has accredited two ADR entities in South Africa to resolve .za domain name disputes: the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa (AFSA) and the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law (SAIIPL). (ZADNA, 2014)
Domain name disputes handled by the ADRs’ mentioned above typically handle the following scenarios: * A person registers a domain name with the intention to sell it. * A domain is registered where it is similar to a business competitor. * A domain is registered, and is very similar to a well known company or trademark * A domain was registered by an ex-employee or internet service provider (ISP) * A domain name is morally bad, or offensive.
When a dispute is raised the following should be included: * The domain name in question. * The registered owner * The registrar or registry where the domain name was registered. * The reason for the dispute stating both why the complainant should have the domain, and why the registered owner should not.
(DOMAIN DISPUTES, 2014)
To file a dispute in South Africa one could visit this domain disputes website: http://www.domaindisputes.co.za/content.php?tag=4
Who manages Domains? (Ryno Mayer)

“An Internet Domain is a collection of addresses controlled by one server”. (BARNES, V, 2012) This is where the Domain Name Server (DNS) plays its part. A DNS is a huge database that connects domain names to IP addresses. (BRAIN, M and Crawford, S, 2000) Internet Domain Names are managed by an organization known as a Domain Name Registrar. The registrar must be accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) (J.PARE`, D, 2003). The Structure of the DNS can be described as an inverted tree. At the base of the inverted tree is the root and from it stems domains. The first domains below the root are known as top-level domains (TLDs) (J.PARE`, D, 2003) The TLDs are comprised of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) and country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs). Generic top-level domains include: .com, .org, .net, .edu and .int. Country-code top-level domains are based on the English language two-character codes detailed in ISO-3166, for instance: .fr for France, .za for South Africa, etc. Below the top-level domains is an assortment of sub-domains. These sub-domains, also known as second-level and third-level domains, are generally open to registration. (J.PARE`, Daniel, 2003) An example of a second-level domain would be “whois” part of the URL “whois.com”; the top-level domain would be “.com”.
How to check who owns a domain? (Dylan Coetzee)
There are several ways to find the owner of a domain: We will look at a WHOIS lookup (pronounced who-is) and a reverse IP lookup. (HENDRO, Alfan, 2010)
WHOIS
According to Amit Agarwal, when someone registers a domain they have to include basic contact information, which is stored in a public registry database. Using a WHOIS lookup tool anyone can access this information. (AGARWAL, A, 2012) Some examples of WHOIS lookup tools are: http://www.whois.com/whois and http://www.whois.sc/ .
Reverse Internet Protocol (IP) lookup
According to Amit Agarwal, when a reverse IP lookup is being run, it determines the IP address of the server that hosts the website. Therefore this is not the most effective method, because a person hosting a website can host multiple websites on the IP, each with different domain names. To find all the domain names on a specific IP, one can run a reverse IP lookup on for example http://www.spyonweb.com/ (AGARWAL, A, 2012)
Conclusion
In this article we shed some light on the basics of domain names; how to get one, where to host it, issues that could arise if someone else wants your domain, or if you want theirs, where to check who owns a domain, and who actually manages these domains.

Bibliography
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AGARWAL, A. 2012. labnol. [online]. [Accessed 12 March 2014]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.labnol.org/internet/find-websites-of-someone/20550/>
BARBARA, K. 1999. The World Wide Web. Mountain View, California: MayfieldPublishing Company.
BARNES, V. 2012. What's In a Domain Name: htmlgoodies. [online]. [Accessed 13 Mar 2014]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/webmaster/article.php/3582986/Whats-In-a-Domain-Name.htm>
BRAIN, M and CRAWFORD S. 2000. dns: how stuff works. [online]. [Accessed 13 Mar 2014]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://computer.howstuffworks.com/dns.htm>
DOMAIN DISPUTES. 2014. FAQ. [online]. [Accessed 10 March 2014]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.domaindisputes.co.za/content.php?tag=2>
GARDNER, S. 2010. Blogging For Dummies 3rd Edition. Boboken: Wiley Publishing Company.
HENDRO, A. 2010. adsense pub id reverse look up tools. [online]. [Accessed 12 March 2014]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.alfanhendro.com/adsense-pub-id-reverse-look-up-tools/>
ICASA. 2014. AboutUs. [online]. [Accessed 6 March 2014]. Available from World Wide Web: <https://www.icasa.org.za>
J.PARE`, D. 2003. Internet Governance in Transition. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
SIKWANE, R. 2013. Domain names - the High Court has its say. [online]. [Accessed 10 March 2014]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.ensafrica.com/news/Domain-names-the-High-Court-has-its-say?Id=1060&STitle=IP+ENSight>
WIKIHOW. 2014. Register a domain name. [online]. [Accessed 12 March 2014]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.wikihow.com/Register-a-Domain-Name>
ZADNA. 2014. ADR-Faq. [online]. [Accessed 10 March 2014]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.zadna.org.za/content/page/adr-faq>
ZADNA. 2014. Disupte information. [online]. [Accessed 10 March 2014]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.zadna.org.za/faq/entry/dispute-information>