DOMAIN NAME & REGISTRATION

WHAT IS A DOMAIN NAME?
A domain name is a name or phrase that is used to uniquely identify your website on the Internet. Domain names make it easy for everyone to find your website and create your identity.

WHO OWNS THE DOMAIN NAME?
When you register a domain name, you are establishing ownership of the domain and it will belong to you for as long as you continue to pay the yearly fees. As the owner, you may host the domain with any ISP or web hosting service and may change at any time.

HOW DOES HAVING A DOMAIN NAME PROVIDE ISP INDEPENDENCE?
With a domain name, such as www.yourcompany.com, your website name and optional E-Mail is not specific to your current ISP. Even if you change ISP's, your domain name will not change. Contrast this with having a website name associated with your ISP, such as www.myISP.com/yourcompany. If you change ISP's, you will not be able to transfer your domain name and this will mean you have to manually inform everyone about your new website location.

WHAT DOES A DOMAIN NAME COST?
The domain registry charges $15/year when you sign-up. As long as you continue paying the annual registration fee, you will own the domain forever.

IS THE DOMAIN REGISTRATION FEE THE SAME THING AS HOSTING A WEBSITE?
No. The domain registration fee (paid directly to one of the registrar companies), only covers the cost of registering and maintaining your name. You must separately arrange with an ISP or web hosting company to host your website itself (the server and storage services that make your website available to the public). Voicegateway.com Web Services has very affordable web hosting plans starting as low as $7.95/month, prepaid annually.

IS THE DOMAIN REGISTRATION FEE INCLUDED IN THE WEB HOSTING CHARGE?
Since the fee is fixed by the domain registry, just about all web hosting companies, including SPIV Technologies Group voicegateway.com, will list their charges and plans excluding domain registration fees. This allows an apples-to-apples comparison, but don't forget to add the initial $15/year for the domain name when you are calculating the total budget for your website.

WHAT IS THE DOMAIN REGISTRATION FEE SOME ISP'S OR WEB HOSTING COMPANIES HAVE?
This fee is an administrative fee that is in addition to the regular domain registration fee.  Some web hosting firms charge additional handling fees or administrative fees for registering your domain name on your behalf or transferring an existing name to their servers. At Voicegateway.com Web Services, we do not charge any handling or service fees for your domain registration.

I WANT TO REGISTER A NEW DOMAIN NAME, BUT I'M NOT SURE WHICH NAME I WANT. IS THERE AN EASY WAY FOR ME TO CHOOSE A NAME MYSELF?
Yes, at Voicegateway.com Web Services, we have setup a domain registration page where you can search for the domain name you want and when you have found it, you can apply for the domain registration right on the spot to get things started.
Simply visit www.voicegateway-domain-names.com  and get started today.

I WANT TO REGISTER A DOMAIN NAME TO LOCK-IN MY NAME, BUT I'M NOT READY FOR A WEBSITE. DO I HAVE ANY CHOICE OR IS IT ALL OR NOTHING?
Registering a domain name without activating the website it often called parking a domain name. At Voicegateway.com Web Services, we offer a free domain name parking plan. Our Self-Service Parking plan is free and easy.

Simply visit www.voicegateway-domain-names.com  and register your domain name yourself. All domain names registered through our web site will be parked automatically for free.

When you are ready to upgrade to a full website, simply contact us and we will activate your account with any one of our affordable web hosting plans.

I ALREADY HAVE A DOMAIN NAME, CAN I TRANSFER?
Yes. At Voicegateway.com Web Services we will transfer an existing domain name to our servers at no charge. All we need is your authorization and we start the transfer process.