Selecting a domain name and
other background information

A domain name tells people (and the computers they use) how to find your homepage on the Internet. Our domain name is "www.webassist.com.au". A hosting provider such as WebAssist, assigns each domain name to a numerical IP (Internet Protocol) address. Since people remember names better than numbers, the domain name translates this number into words: www.webassist.com.au.

Most Internet providers (ISP’s) offer you a directory on their own domain. Most of the time, they look like this: http://www.domain.com.au/~yourname. In addition to having to explain the little squiggle mark (~ which is called a tilde) to your less net savvy customers, this can prove cumbersome on business cards and letterhead, and it does not reflect the unique nature of your business or homepage. Registering a domain name for your business or organization is essential to your marketing efforts. A domain name gives your business a unique identity on the world wide web.

We offer a free same day service to check if your choice is still available. We prefer if you provide us with three alternatives to check.

What if my desired name is the same as a trademarked name?

Generally, if you've registered the name in good faith, its not a name belonging to an internationally know company, and you can show that you have a legitimate reason to use that name then you are likely to be able to keep that name. That may not be the case if it can be shown that you purchased the name for the express purpose of re-selling it to a company with a legitimate claim to the name.

Choose a name that reflects the intent and purpose of your web site or business. Try to keep it short and snappy, and say it out loud, as if you were telling someone at a party to visit your web page. Some domain names look good on paper, but are confusing when you try to send someone to them over the phone. Keep in mind the image that it conjures … your domain name will be one of the ways people recognise or evaluate their sites for their interests when they are searching via AltaVista, Yahoo or the other search engines. When facing a large number of choices, the snappiest domain sometimes grabs the most attention.

For a .com.au domain name, your registered business name must form all or part of your domain name. For .com domain names, as long as it is a unique name, it can be registered.

The only valid characters for a domain name are letters, numbers and a hyphen "-". Other special characters like the underscore "_" or an exclamation mark "!" are NOT permitted.

Example: your name.com.au (not correct, No spaces allowed)

Example: your-name.com.au (is correct)

A domain name can be up to 26 characters long -- including the 7 characters used to identify the Top Level Domain (.NET.AU, .COM.AU, .ORG.AU, or .EDU.AU).