To have a website you need two things: Domain name and Web server that will host your web site.
Domain name you get from a registrar, look for one accredited by ICANN. Your registrar will usually provide you with domain parking (one page hosting, so when someone types in address they come to a page that says “coming soon”) and ability to manage your domain name: edit your customer info, edit your admin and tech contact, renew domain name, lock or unlock domain transfer to another registrar, make your whois info visible to public or not ( some may charge you more for this), and the main thing – edit your name servers info.
Web hosting – Home for your website
When you decide to go with a particular hosting company – that company will give you 2 numbers for their name servers. You will then login to your registrar and enter these numbers into Name Servers info for your domain. It could take up to 24 hours for changes to take effect on all name servers throughout internet, but in most cases it’s just a few hours.
Many times registrars will offer hosting and hosting companies will offer domain names. Sometimes it will be the same company that does both: registrar/hosting, sometimes they partner with each other. Many times you will see resellers for both.
That’s when you see offers of free domain with hosting plan. This is a way to save money on domain name, but you should read the terms carefully because in most cases: you have to stay with that service for at least 60 days. Read the agreement before accepting, and make sure you know the name of the registrar you are buying a domain name from.
Important: Depending on how many years you have signed up for ALL domain names expire at some point. Make sure you remember when yours is due to expire and renew it before that day. Most registrars will send you reminder by email. Some offer some protection from expiration – read the agreement.
Warning: Know the name of your registrar! You might get a reminder about domain expiration from a different registrar that is trying to steal you as a customer from your existing domain registrar. It is up to you to renew it with your old registrar or pick a new one. Many registrars now offer “transfer lock” – protection from unintentional or fraudulent transfer of your domain name to a different registrar. If you choose this option – than some kind of extra confirmation from you will be required to transfer your domain name – read the agreement.
Whois is a protocol that is able to find info about any domain name. It looks up in the databases of registrars and gives you back the info it found. Many registrars have their own whois on their websites. To lookup info about domain name you can do on these websites:
ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers http://www.icann.com/
To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't have one global Internet.
Registrars (sellers of domain names) must comply with ICANN rules to be accredited. http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/
DNS Domain Name Services naming system for devices on internet that translates ip (internet protocol) numbers into human-friendly names.
My personal choice for domain registrar: Domain Registration Services (www.dotearth.com)
I don't have hosting plan with them, just a domain name registration.
I would not recomment yahoo domain regisrtation (which is actually a reseller for melbourne ltd in Australia) as I was helping someone who have registrered with yahoo and it was a nightmare in terms of getting support from yahoo or from melbourne.
And it looks like others have similar problems with yahoo:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/complaints/consumers-speak-yahoo-domains-nightmare-146782.php
http://w2.syronex.com/jmr/blog/2005/10/yahoo_domain_registration