One of the important factors about the DNS is that it may be required to be dynamic especially when a particular domain is assigned to a computer with a changing IP address. In order for the DNS to have the capacity to be updated in real time, a system was created in order to address these required changes. The dynamic DNS therefore allows the domain name data to go through these modifications in real time.

How the dynamic DNS works is based on how DNS works although the dynamic systems integrated to the whole function allows more flexibility in its features. The importance of this function is that this gives the possibility for other sites to be able to establish a connection without necessarily to continuously track the IP addresses by this specific server. This is deemed helpful for sites that are also dynamic such as the consumer-focused Internet service providers. As an integral part of the Active Directory, the dynamic DNS needs to establish its maximum caching time by a few minutes in order to avoid any incidences of retaining old addresses in the different in the sites’ respective DNS cache. This also helps in the speed of contact between the servers.

When it comes to implementing Dynamic DNS in server operators, it can be initially done by miximizing the caching time or the intervals between the caching of the domains by a shorter period; in this case, the caching can be set to about one or two minutes.

Implementing dynamic DNS is also made possible through DNS hosting services where their serves retain current addresses in their database and provide client program that sends updates when changes in the IP addresses take place. Specific features in dynamic DNS hosting also depends on the service provider and the firmware that is used. For example, routers are designed to support specific dynamic DNS features such as the UMAX Ugate-3000, the first router that was able to support dnynamic DNS.

Another important note on the dynamic DNS is described by RFC 2136 as a protocol through the nsupdate utility. Although the dynamic DNS can be considered as an important feature for particular sites, an updating DNS can be also considered dangerous for security and stability reason. This is to say that it is important to utilize a feature that can authenticate dynamic DNS updates such as TSIG and using the HMAC-MD5 hash key.

Alternatives have been also designed such as Microsoft’s GSS-TSIG that usees Kerberos for authentication; this also automates the installation of hash keys. Hence, the GSS-TSIG has become a proposed standard and operating systems that run on Microsoft Windows 2000, Widows XP and Windows 2003 only uses this authenticated dynamic DNS support system. Hence, dynamic DNS has actually created a niche in different markets, especially when it comes to its potentia in the server ector. The dynamic DNS has also evolved with the continuous developments on Internet technologies, especially when it comes to better speeds and the available computer technology; this therefore gave an opportunity to the home server markets which has taken advantage of offering services for dynamic DNS functions. Hence, it is possible for small websites to become a host a dynamic IP address by merely installing relevat server setups which can still function despite its amateur level.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
‘Dynamic DNS’. 2008. Wikipedia. [Online] Available at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_DNS
‘What is Dynamic DNS?’. N.d. The Tech-FAQ. [Online] Avaiable at:
http://www.tech-faq.com/dynamic-dns.shtml

Domain names need to be recognized by the system; however, not all characters are able to be recognized through the typically used alphanumeric numbers. In this case, internationalized domain names have made text usage in DNS systems more flexible by means of including additional characters which the DNS can also read and translated. The intention of these domain names is basically to contained non-ASCII characters such as texts that contain diacritics and characters from non-Latin texts such as Arabic and Chinese.

As previously mentioned, these domain names, within the framework of the DNS, functions by means of representing the IP addresses through more recognizable name through text. Since that the text used is not necessarily universal, the tendency is that the initial system is restrictive.

The deployment of the IDN initially started in October 2002 when the Interet Engineering Streering group approved the publication of RFCS 34490, 3491 and 3492 which are the protocols on Internationaliing Domain Names in Application (IDNA). Basically, through the IDNA, the support for non-ASCII IDNs that are found within the DNS would be established. This will then allow the creation of DNS that do not have ASCII characters. By March 2003, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and a host of IDN-implementing registries developed a set of universal "Guidelines for the Implementation of Internationalized Domain Names” in which its fist version was published in June 2003.

One of the important factors addressed by these guidelines are the potential risks of cybersquatting and duplication of registered domain names which can bring confusion to consumers. In addition to this, the guidelines also made it a point to respect local languages and character sets that may be used in the domain names. Hence, one initiative was the deployment of language-specific registration and adminisration rules which can be accessed by the public. The registries also need to recognize the agreements with ICANN in addition to the fulfillment of requirements according to the guidelines.

Although initives on IDN seem to have only started recently due to the growing global response to the Internet, the idea was actually already conceived as early as 1996 by M. Duerst, with its implementation taking place in 1998 through T.W Tan and his team.

How the IDN works is initially to maximize backward compatibility. However, systems that support IDNA are only the ones that have the ability to read such domains although they can access non-ASCII sites. When an application is IDNA enabled, the system is able to convert from ASCII to non-ASCII and vice-versa, with the ASCII format utilized for DNS lookup. However, users are also able to read non-ASCII forms.

Conversions between languages are made possibel through ToASCII and ToUnicode which are both algorithms. In IDNA, each domain name level is applied separately per code. Each label can be also processed separately especially if a specific domain label is a non-ASCII; the processing of the conversion can be handled by different software such as Nameprep and Punycode.

It is also evident there are the advantages and disadavantages of using IDNA. Apparently, the IDN has allowed a more universal and flexible means to utilize language that are non-Latin in nature when it comes to the creation of domain names. However, the disadvantage can be found in the potential risks that come with the utilization of IDN application. These risks include cybersquatting and spoofing since that the utilization of full Unicode names can lead to the cretion of spoof sites or sites that replicate other sites. The challenge in this is that even the domain name and the security certificate can be spoofed in this format. What made this possible is not necessarily due to the faulty system offered by Unicode but rather the similarities of texts despite some interface differences; this shows that characters that look alike can be read similarly although the minor differences such as small punctuations and umlauts can be overlooked when reading certain data.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
‘Internationalized Domain Name’. 2007. ICANN. [Online] Available at:
http://www.icann.org/topics/idn.html
‘Internationalized Domain Name’. 2008. Wikipedia. [Online] Available at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalized_domain_name#Internationalizing_domain_names_in_applications

One of the important things to be reminded of when it comes to DNS was the necessity of its property as an open source; this is to say that the DNS has to be fault free and can be trusted by the Internet community.

Another important function of the DNS is its ability to provide a convenient solution to addressing. Given that the number of network users are increasing, the DNS is able to come up with an easier means of identification instead of using the IP addres of the computer. IP addressses are usually made up of a unique 32-bit number in dotted decimal form which was translated by the “HOSTS.TXT” table. The DNS therefore prevented the table from going through an overcapacity by effective functioning.

How the DNS works is significantly due to its essence as a hierarchical name space; hence, there is the top-level domains (TLDs), the second level domains, and so on. When the Internet was at the period of early developments, the identified TLDs depended on the name of the organization such as .arpa, .csnet, .bitnet and .uucp which were the four main organization-networks that were internetworked. Eventually, in 1986, these four groups, along with Postel and Mockapetris, initially came up with 7 TLDs: .com, .net, .org, .edu, gov, .mil and .int. These TLDs are assigned according to the function of a certain group or organization; the next chapters will explain further on these TLDs.

After the identification of a top level domain name, the second level domain name further identifies the uniqueness of an address. These second level domain name are therefore unique. For example, a number of organizations may share a .com, but only one of them will own a specific name following the .com; for example, there is only one yahoo.com and google.com. At this point, there is already a specfication of a domain although further specifying a domain is necessary as a user further navigates this specific domain. Hence, there is also the third level domain which specifies a series of other areas. At this point, it is possible that a domain already stops at third level since the created pyramid of hierarcy already allows the creation of unique paths without replicating another. The third level domain can therefore identify functions, geographical or other organization of any portion of the name space.

With this pyramid, the apex of the DNS already established thirteen root servers with each of these servers listing the IP addresses of the computers that contain the zone files fr each of the top level domain names. The hierarchy therefore makes it possible for the processing of the name-to-number distribution since there is no single central server that serves as a reference point of translation unlike the former centralized and “HOSTS.TXT” system. What happens is that through the DNS, when a user enters a query into the computer, the user “starts” at the bottom of the pyramid where a series of identification, through the entered domain name, becomes a means to create a direct path that goes through the computer of a specific domain. Hence, for example, if a user looks for the email page of the website of yahoo.com, the entered domain name identifies the .com as a commercial address (top level), and the proceeding relay of information takes place within yahoo.com instead of going through a centralized server. As a result, the hierarchy is able to identify the corresponding IP address that is specific within a certain domain.

dns-picDomain Name Space Workflow
(image from ‘Domain Name Space’, Wikipedia)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
‘Domain Name System (DNS) History’. 2008. Living Internet. [Online] Available at:
http://www.livinginternet.com/i/iw_dns_history.htm
Weinberg , J. 2000. ‘ICANN and the Problem of Legitimacy’. Duke Law Journal,
vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 187 +

By Kabir Bedi

Dmoz id the largest directory system on the internet listing over 4 million websites. Maintained and managed by human editors, this directory has increased credibility in the world wide web because it doesn't rely on automated robot based crawlers. That is why if you get your website listed on Dmoz, it can also play an important part in determining your ranking in Google search results. In fact, Google uses Dmoz results in its own directory. And this is why submission on Dmoz is a daunting task. Your website needs to be highly credible if it needs to be accepted by Dmoz.

Here are some tips that you should follow in order to make your submission on Dmoz a successful one.

Include detailed Contact Information

Make sure that you have your full and detailed contact information listed on your website including your postal address, addresses of all your branches, telephone numbers, email addresses etc. Physical addresses enhance the credibility of the business as people get to know the existence (and location) of the company. Dmoz straight away rejects websites that carry no postal address.

Don't Spam the Directory

Submit your website only once and wait. Even if it is not accepted readily, don't submit it again and again. This would be considered spamming and your website would get blacklisted altogether. Instead, submit your website once and forget about it for three to four months. Also, make sure you submit your website under one category only, the one that is most relevant to your business. Often it happens that big websites have more than one realm of business, and so they get confused about what category to submit in. There can be exceptions in such cases however otherwise it is highly recommended that you make your submission under one highly relevant category.

Include Quality Content

The Dmoz editors prefer websites that are rich in information and contain original and unique content. Therefore, before you submit your website on Dmoz, make sure you have some good quality content on your website. Search engines place increased value on Dmoz because it only lists quality websites and if your website lacks quality content, there is no way it could get listed there.

Submit under the most Relevant Category

Make sure that you submit your website under the most appropriate category. Search engines prefer Dmoz because it arranges the websites according to the links and the keywords thus making their job easier. Moreover, when you place your website under the right category your relevance is highly increased and there are better chances of your website getting accepted by the Dmoz editors.

List the Information Carefully

When you are submitting your website on Dmoz, make sure you furnish all the details very carefully. The information should be highly accurate. Read all the editorial guidelines and make sure you follow them through all the steps of submission. Without this, you wouldn't get your website submission to be accepted by Dmoz. Also, after you have submitted, store the URL of the category that you have submitted your website into so that you can make regular checks if your submission has been accepted or not.

Getting listed on the Dmoz directory is tough but not impossible. With the right techniques and guidelines you can get your website listed there and enjoy enhanced credibility on the Internet.

Kabir Bedi works as a senior web consultant at LeXolution IT Services, a professional website development company based in India. He has been associated with the outsource web design services industry for more than 10 years and has completed many successful web design projects.

By Jesse S. Somer

Having A Domain Name & Website

Just like all things in life, the ways to run a business are rapidly changing and evolving. The potential involved with having a domain name/web site is staggering to say the least. A web site gives the consumer a ‘shop front’ that is not only open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but is also situated right on their desktop. Instead of being locked into only the immediate area, the whole world’s marketplace becomes your sphere of interaction.

Customers can access information on all your products, no more salesperson with limited knowledge trying to explain something they no little about. No more waiting in lines for help, all people have access immediately.

The domain name of the website gives great freedom to the business process. Having your own name is like having an address, then infinite emails can be added to the name so different departments within the company can be reached without having to wait at reception. For example, sales@ Mary’s Plants.com will put the shopper in direct contact with Mary’s sales section.

As a business, the domain name adds professional authenticity, as your address is not affiliated with other companies. In the area of communication, the email system opens up many avenues. Instead of having to put clients on hold because of limited personnel, innumerable emails can arrive at once, even when there’s no one in the office. Then you can pick and choose which one’s to reply to first (the most urgent), while people browsing can wait till later. First come, first serve becomes obsolete as necessary customers automatically reach the front of the line.

Getting a website and domain name is an easy, simple, cost-effective process. You can register your name through web domain registrars like DomReg-M6.Net for as low as $15.00 U.S. per year. That is definitely a very limited risk compared to opening a store, renting a location, and the thousands of dollars involved in overhead costs. How can this be true? A key to the door for anyone who wants to enter a mega-mall that is as big as the Earth. Let’s hope you’ve got something special to share and trade with the global community!

As a webmaster, you must have been familiar with what the industry calls
"shared hosting plan" which is a cheap way to put your website. A hosting
provider can offers that service cheap because you only use a small amount of
the storage capacity of a server which is shared among many other users.

Unfortunately many of them only let you host one domain under one account. It
will not be a problem if you don't have a plan to build more than one websites.
But the story could be different when you want to do it in the future where you
will have to open an additional hosting account everytime you host a new domain
name. Imagine how much money you have to spend every month just for paying your
hosting service.

On the other hand, using a hosting provider that allows you host all of your
domains under one account will save your money over a host that insists that you
open a new account for each site. That way you can create several websites to
promote different products without having to be upset about any extra fees.

It is entirely up to you what kind of websites you intend to build. You can
build online directories, websites that full of contents and/or websites that
consist of one long sales letter that you can promote with PPC or ezine. Of
course you can promote unrelated products using only one website but it would
not look professional in the eyes of your site visitors. Keep in mind that a
good domain name is usually related to the content of a website.

Some multiple domain hosting companies also provide Fantastico. Building
different type of websites such as classified ads, online directory or blog can
be accomplished very easily by using this feature.

To make it better, you can even register your additional domain names through
a cheap registrar such as GoDaddy. After registering the domain names with the
registrar don't forget to setup the DNS addresses provided by your host. Then go
into the "add-on domain" sub menu in your hosting Control Panel and fill in the
blanks with the name of your new domains and the subdirectories for them. Do it
for each of your domains. Wait a few days (usually less than 48 hours) before
the master list the domain registrar updates will be shared throughout the
internet and all name servers know where to find your new domain.

With multiple domain hosting you can go about setting up specific email
addresses, subdirectories, databases and FTP accounts for each of your domains.
In fact there are no real differences between using a multiple domain hosting
plan and a conventional shared hosting plan.

You can find multiple domain plans starting at about $10 a month. Compared
with a conventional shared hosting, the price is not much different and even
might be cheaper than the price of your current hosting service.

With so many profitable products you can sell online, the move is one you
will never regret. Finally, it is your own decision whether you are ready and
willing to use a multiple domain hosting service and save yourself some hard
earned cash. The choice is absolutely yours.

By Heris Yunora

By Earl B. Hall

Search engine positioning is still a hot topic. Why? Because it can generate very targeted traffic, with a little effort, at almost zero costs.

As new people flock to the internet and search engines constantly change the rules, how is a person to keep up? Here is a new development that just might level the playing field for you, if you got stuck with one of those short non-descript domain names like xyz.com.

For the past couple of weeks many experts have been taking advantage of a change in Domain Name regulations that allows up to 67 characters in domain names. More than 3.4 million domain names, all limited to 26 characters, have been registered since 1993. The rules have changed again!

Why are longer domain names important and how does this affect me?

The reason you want keywords in the domain name is that many of the major search engines often give better positioning to, domains with keywords in them.

Don't like the domain names with a hyphen? Here's an interesting discovery. The hyphen seems to act as a delimiter, parsing each word separately and adding weight to your ranking. Example: cook-book-cooking-books.com

I did some searches and found that these long domain names are going fast, too. But, it's not too late!

John Audette's I-Search Discussion List, included a new post by the search engine expert, Webmaster T, who explained "Having a domain name with keywords in it is very important as it seems almost all engines are parsing URLs. Not only is the domain name important but also the directory and file names are definitely important." http://www.audettemedia.com/i-search

If you would like to do some research on these keyword stuffed domain names. You can perform searches and park your domain
name for free at http://www.abcHosting.net/whois1.htm Also, try their keyword generator to find other highly targeted keywords and phrases. It will also give you an idea of how often they are used in a search. A very valuable free tool.

By Karl Heinz Resch

Easy to find
An URL with your name or the name of your company is easier to find or even can be guessed correctly by your prospective visitors.

Easy to remember
Once your customers have found your Web site, it's much more likely that they will remember a short URL than one that reads http://www.somehost.com/members/you/index.html.

Independence
You can switch to another Web space provider and take your URL with you. Without your own domain name you would have to

• resubmit your pages to the search engines and directories
• find out who links to your site and inform them of your new address (hoping that they all change the links)
• eventually keep paying your previous hosting site for a while to redirect the visitors of your old pages to your new location.

Credibility
A lot of Internet users tend to trust a company with their own domain a lot more than one without. However, for others this is not relevant. What do you think of companies that can't afford their own domain name or are hosted on a free server? Serious businesses need to have their own domain name.

Easy to type
A short URL is easier to type in the browsers address field. It's also easier to add it to your SIG file or to write it on your business cards and print it on your business letters.

Protection
Once you've registered your domain name, no one else can take your name and register it. Try a Domain Name Query to find out if your desired domain name is still available.

Affordable
The registration of a .com domain with InterNic only costs USD 35 for one year. The first two years have to be prepaid.

More advantages

• You can have your own access-logs on your server and analyse them easier and faster.
• You can receive email at your domain name and have your own email addresses, like This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

By Mitch Keeler

Need help picking the best domain name? Do you want some assistance finding the domain name register that is right for you? Have you considered the privacy concerns you might be giving up by getting that .com of you very own?

I want to tackle domain names from head to toe to give people a guide to the confusing world of domain name registrations. There is no doubt that domain names are one of the most important parts of the web hosting game so the do deserve a little special attention.

Picking a Domain Name

The hardest thing about getting a new web site going is deciding what the domain name is going to be. I remember when I started this podcast, I wanted webhostingradio.com. Sadly enough though, it was already taken. WebHostingShow.com was my second choice though and I was able to pick it up with no problems at all. Of course when picking a domain name it has to be related to your web site or product in one way, shape or form.

Which domain name extension do you want to go with? There are plenty out there, but my usual rule of thumb is to go with a .com if at all possible. Why? This is the one that people know, are familiar with and is pretty much in the general public's mind when it comes to associating businesses with the Web.

Now where the rule might be broken is if you can get a better second choice than a first choice. For example, you want to go register greenlatern.com but it is taken. You do a little more research and find though that greenlantern.net is avaliable. Then it would be ok to go with the .net. Also you can do lots of creative things with the domain extensions too. An easy example of that idea would be del.icio.us.

When it comes to hyphenated domain names a lot of people out there will tell you they are good. They will then start going on and on about the search engines and good keywords. I think that is all a bunch of bologna. While search engines are important you need to keep in mind you are making a web site for people to read first, not search engine robots.

Check out these domain name search engines that will give you a little more help when it comes to finding out if a domain name is avaliable or not.

What domain name extensions are avaliable out there? Wikipedia has a good list of country code top-level domain name extensions.

Shopping for a Domain Name

Now we have your domain name you want picked out, where do we go to purchase it?

There are a number of domain name registers out there today. One of the most popular is GoDaddy.com. You have probably seen them at least on the Super Bowl, right? Usually when people reach this fork in the road that can go one of two ways.

Register the domain name with a third party or register the domain name with their web hosting company (if the web host provides that service). I like keeping all my eggs in different baskets - so I would stick with keeping your domain name registation and web hosting separate.

Go from domain name register to domain name register and try to find the best deal with the most respectable name. Somebody like GoDaddy.com for example. You might also want to check the ICANN list of accredited registers. That would be the best place to find out if the domain name register you find is a fly by night setup or a real online business.

Now this brings up a new idea that you must keep in mind when shopping for a domain. Make sure that when you register it, the registration is done under your name and not the name of the company setting it up for you. You want to make sure that you will own the domain name and the rights to that domain name. If you can't find it in their small print when signing up you might drop them an e-mail to make sure.

WHOIS and Anonymous Domain Registration

What is the whois database? The whois database is the big dump where everybody's domain name registration information gets tossed into a big search-able pile. This way anybody can find out the name, home address, phone number and more of the person who has registered any domain name.

It started as almost like a phone book for system administrators to find out who owned that next server over. The whois system though hasn't matured any at all over the years though. It might have been ok when there were 25 people out there with domain names and servers but with millions? That is a little scary. Well I would say for businesses, having this information to turn to could be very handy but for Joe Newbie who is registering his first web site it is a big security concern.

Now I could go on and on about how the whois system is broken and we need a replacement, but that is for another podcast. They did kind of fix the problem, the only issue here is you have to throw more money at it. Money fixes everything right? Due to the problems with the whois database a new business has come up for domain name registers and the like. It is often called anonymous domain registration or privatizing your domain name. Many domain name registers and web hosts offer it as a secondary service and the price usually isn't that bad. For $5 or more a year they will replace all of your information in the whois database with their own.

Now some people would suggest that you could just put in fake information when signing up and you would be in the clear right? The problem with that, and I speak from the domain name register and web hosts' side on this one, is it makes it very hard to verify your identity when you say you are Huckleberry Hound from Nowheresville, Texas. Now if you had a PO BOX avaliable to you that might be one work around - since it is a real address but not your home address. Another fix would be to use your work address when signing up for new domain registrations (just make sure you clear it with your boss first).

Watch Out for Domain Slammers

So what have I left out of the domain name discussion? I would advise you to keep up to date when your domain name registrations are due. The reason is that there are places out there that will try to steal your registration away from the place you have it now and move it over to them. This is called domain slamming. An example of a company that does this shady practice is Domain Registry of America. They have been known in the past to send you a letter via snail mail (another good reason there to privatize your domain registration) to your house, to your front door and tell you..

"Oh no, your domain name registration is running out. Fill out this form and we will register it for you for another year. You only have to pay us $49.95 and you will never get another letter like this."

Then at the bottom or back of the letter in really tiny print it will tell you, "This is not really a bill, it is an advertisement by a butt monkey trying to steal your domain name registration." Ok, maybe the "butt monkey" part really isn't in there but you get the main point behind the idea. If there is any question at all about your domain name registration, go to the web site of your domain name register and check there first.