Domain Registration - Who Owns It

[oo7ml]

Hi,

I am looking to register a new domain (.com) name and i have a few questions which i hope you domain experts can help me with:

1 - when registering a domain through an online domain / hosting company, how or who secures the domain for you once you have paid for it, is there a governing body that looks after all of these domains or who exactly owns each domain in the first place... who are you actually buying it from

2 - if i buy the domain from one domain / hosting company, is it ok to buy the hosting from another company... if so how is the domain name linked to the hosting that i eventually get...

3 - i can understand why you need to pay for your hosting every year but i thought once you buy a domain name, that's it, it's yours for life... so why do i need to pay / renew my domain name each year... do we not really own our domain names when we buy them... if not, who does own them...

4 - i see that some domain / hosting companies are charging €7 for a .com - others are charging €10 and others are charging €15... none of these come with any extra options so how and why do they charge different prices...

5 - how are new domain endings (.com .ie .net .org) created... i am starting to see more and more new endings... who allows you to create these and how are they created...

thanks in advance for your help

[tracknut]

1. When you register a domain, that registrar secures the domain name. ICANN (http://www.icann.org/)is the governing body behind all domain names and IP addresses.
2. Yes. DNS Nameservers are responsible for mapping your domain name to a specific IP and host.
3. No, you should think of your domain name as something you rent, or perhaps lease, for a period of time. You don't "own" it. ICANN does.
4. You also see some vendors selling hamburgers for different prices. Capitalism, free market, whatever you want to call it.
5. ICANN defines new top-level domains.

Dave