How does domain registration work? Who granted e-real-estate to a handful of companies, e.g. GoDaddy.com, to be doled out at cost to prospective webmasters? Are they government proxies or are they simply hosting services, and if you have your own servers you can just up and create your own URL any time you want without any hassle? Were these people that just went around in the internet's infancy and laid claim to every URL imaginable and now charge you to buy them away? I mean who actually "owns" the internet, or at least the rights to its expansion? I really don't know how this stuff works.


ibtlmgtfy

6/25/2010 4:02:24 PM

tubes and wires

6/25/2010 4:02:35 PM

ok so you have this non-profit called ICANN

they keep track of many top-level domains

you might be familiar with .com, .edu, etc. (note that that's etc., not .etc)

some countries have authorities that manage their top-level domains (e.g. .cz, .ru) but anyway

ICANN or whoever says "ok we'll handle the high-level shit, but someone else needs to manage the details"

so you get domain name registrars

which are basically accredited organizations who keep track of who owns what domain name

and what IP addresses those domain names should eventually resolve to

this is a gross oversimplification

but basically

joe blow off the street can't just hit up ICANN and be like "yo i own clownpenis.fart and it should resolve to this address"

he has to go through a registrar

[Edited on June 25, 2010 at 4:09 PM. Reason : ...]

6/25/2010 4:06:47 PM

interesting. so this ICANN is international and watches the whole of the internet, I assume?

so if i wanted to register http://www.clownpenis.fart whom would I ask?

i'm okay with a gross undersimplification, or a link to such


[Edited on June 25, 2010 at 4:11 PM. Reason : haha great minds]

[Edited on June 25, 2010 at 4:13 PM. Reason : your edit made my post moot but i'm gonna leave it anyway]

6/25/2010 4:11:01 PM

that sounds like some shit out of ass effects

6/25/2010 4:11:38 PM

I know a lot about the law and various other lawyerings, uh, I'm well educated, well versed.

so i have to question you on how familiar you are with your bird law?

6/25/2010 4:16:38 PM

ok so there are a few different types of top-level domains (TLDs)

there are country-specific ones, like .it for italy

countries generally issue and manage those themselves

i'm sure there's some international body coordinating that shit in the domain name system but i don't know the specifics

anyway

there are super-secret government shits that are mostly historical or infrastructure, like .arpa

naturally our government handles that shit

then there's kinda everything else

ICANN took that shit over from IANA which took that shit over from the U.S. government

again, gross oversimplification, but anyway

basically, if you wanted clownpenis.fart

ICANN would have to say "hey presto, the .fart TLD now exists, we're keeping track"

the registrars would be like "oh snap i need to sell domain names in this new space"

they run a special that's basically "give us $10 to cover admin fees we have to pay to ICANN"

you pay them

they pay ICANN

and they tell ICANN that in the .fart TLD, clownpenis should resolve to whatever address you specified

i'm sure a lot of people will say i have it wrong

and i'm sure i do

but that is the summary for the man on the street

which is to say people who have had sex

[Edited on June 25, 2010 at 4:24 PM. Reason : system not service]

6/25/2010 4:17:15 PM

I thank you kindly, sir!

I now have the KNOWLEDGE, that is to say the POWER, to further edify myself, should I deem it necessary now or in the future


I mainly needed to know if going to, say, GoDaddy.com for my website was legit or if it'd be akin to going through AOL to get the internet to begin with

6/25/2010 4:23:28 PM

godaddy is legit

their market share is crazy

Sonia recently purchased a registration and hosting package from them

6/25/2010 4:24:26 PM

Oops! Google Chrome could not find www.clownpenis.fart

Did you mean: www.clownpenisfart.net

6/25/2010 4:27:47 PM

i challenge crazy_carl to a duel

6/25/2010 4:29:03 PM

what the fuck is the internet?

6/25/2010 4:29:30 PM

dump truck

[Edited on June 25, 2010 at 4:44 PM. Reason : two words]

6/25/2010 4:43:58 PM

might you have questions as to how magnets work?

6/25/2010 4:50:48 PM