Domains

A domain name is the unique address that points to a website on the internet. For example, this website is www.vivroc-websites.co.uk. The domain name identifies the location of your website and also allows you to have personalised emails such as "your-name@your-domain-name.co.uk".

Domains can be registered to an individual or a business and once the initial registration period has elapsed (generally after 2 years) they must be renewed. You will be notified automatically and billed accordingly.

All domains are controlled by registry authorities and in UK the authority is Nominet. For more information please visit the www.nominet.net website.

So how much would you expect to pay for your domain name ? Well prices vary by domain name extension (i.e. the extension being the suffix name such as ".COM"). At the lower end of the scale are the extensions such as .CO.UK while at the upper end are extensions such as .TV. There are also intermediate priced extensions such as .COM and .EU.

The prices start at £20 (£10 per year) for a CO.UK, £40 (£20 per year) for a .TV although an exact figure would be quoted based upon the the suffix selected for your site. The cost includes a two year registration fee. If you already have a domain name it can transferred to our servers when we start developing your website. We do not make a charge for this transfer.

PLEASE BEWARE that while buying your own domain name is not difficult with a great many companies offering their services on the internet, like most things in life there are good and bad companies and you must be careful. What appears to be cheap now may cost you dearly in the future when it comes to taking ownership or moving your domain name. While we will not charge you to move your domain name to our servers but your registration company might.

However, the registration services we offer guarantees that you or your business will be the registered owner. Moreover, you will own your domain name for as long as you continue to pay for its renewal.

So what's in a domain name and how do you choose the right name for you ?

There are several domain name extensions available although some have limited use, such as .ORG, .TV and .NET. In making your choice, you may need to be flexible as more than 20,000 domain names are registered world-wide every day and your preferred domain name may have already been taken.

We will discuss the choice of domain names with you to help you select the most appropriate name available. Although you may already have a preferred domain name, we recommend that you do not start to use this domain name in any way (e.g. on business cards, letter heads etc.) until we have confirmed that it has been successfully registered in you name or your business's name.