How a domain registration works

Registration looks like a purchase and behaves like an application. Following the steps makes it clear who holds what afterwards.

The box on a provider's homepage that reports whether a name is free is asking the register a simple question and reporting a simple answer. It says nothing about whether the name is wise, whether anybody has a competing claim to the words, or whether a similar name is already in use by an organisation two towns away. A free result means only that no line for that exact name exists in that particular register at that moment. A choir checking the availability of its own title has learned one fact and should not read a second one into it.

The answer is also perishable. Names are registered continuously, and one that is free in the morning may not be by the evening. That is a reason to register promptly once a decision is made, and a reason not to discuss a shortlist in public before it is settled.

What the registrar collects

Registration is done through a registrar, a company accredited to write entries into the register on behalf of others. The form asks for the name, the length of the registration, and the contact details of the party who will hold it. Those details are not administrative decoration. They become the registrant of record, the party the registrar recognises as entitled to give instructions, so an entry made carelessly at this point takes real effort to correct later. This is where an organisation's own name belongs rather than a volunteer's, a point developed in the registrant contact.

Some providers sell through resellers, which adds a layer: the accredited registrar is one company, and the party taking the payment and providing the control panel is another. That arrangement works perfectly well until something needs escalating, when it becomes important to know which company actually holds the accreditation. The distinction is set out in registry, registrar and registrant.

The moment the record exists

Once the order is confirmed and paid, the registrar sends the request to the registry, and the entry is created almost immediately. From that moment the name is held, exclusively, and nobody else can register it. Three dates are stamped on the record: the date of creation, the date the registration expires, and the date the record was last modified. Those dates are visible to anybody who looks the name up, and they answer a surprising number of questions later, as described in WHOIS and RDAP.

Existing is not the same as working. A newly registered name points nowhere until nameservers are set for it, and until then a browser will report that the address cannot be found. That is normal for the first hours of a registration and is not a fault.

Verification and the first weeks

For most extensions the registrar is required to verify the contact address supplied. An automated message is sent, and it has to be acted on within a set window. Ignored, it can lead to the name being suspended even though it was paid for in full. This catches out organisations that enter an address nobody monitors, such as a mailbox belonging to a committee post that is currently vacant.

A new registration is also locked against transfer to another provider for a period after creation. That restriction exists to frustrate fraud, and it applies regardless of intent, so a club that registers a name at one provider intending to move it elsewhere immediately will have to wait.

What renewal actually renews

At the end of the registered term the entry expires unless it is renewed, and renewal extends exactly the same record: same name, same holder, new expiry date. Nothing is re-applied for and nothing is re-approved. Renewal can be automatic, which reduces the risk of forgetting and introduces a different risk, since an automatic payment depends on a stored card that will itself expire, often held in the name of a treasurer who has since handed over. The stages that follow a missed renewal are covered in renewals and expiry.

Registering for longer