The key to an effective presence on the World Wide Web is simplicity. As the World Wide Web gets more crowded, and has more and more users, it becomes more important both to stand out in the crowd and to allow users to get to you easily.

Registering your Domain Name provides you with a unique address recognizable anywhere on the Internet. It means that your address goes from being something like http://www.maine.com/yourcompany to the much more easily remembered http://www.yourcompany.com. Big difference.

In order to get the simple address, you need to register a domain name with InterNIC, the agency currently responsible for assigning unique names to subscribers. There is more to it than that, though. One must make arrangements for what is known as a Primary and Secondary DNS, both here at MaineStreet and at another internet site.

In order to use the domain name effectively, you need to set up a virtual server or email. It's not automatic!

Domain Service
MaineStreet provides regular domain name service and will register you at InterNIC. You need a business account with us, and there are other charges involved. The InterNIC will charge you $70 for two years of use of the domain name. We charge $40 one time to register you with the InterNIC and to provide and arrange the required Primary and Secondary DNS. We charge $60 annual to maintain the records.

MaineStreet will set up your Virtual Server, call for our current rates.

Please Note
Setting up a Virtual Server does not mean you automatically get your own web site, email address space, or anything else. You still need to get someone to make you a web site, and to help you develop the range of services that can make the Internet work for you. It is a little like buying a piece of real estate on which you plan to start a business: You have the property and the store, but you still need to fill the store.

A Note About Costs and Services
Some setups are straightforward. Others require constant maintenance and software modifications. This is often custom work, and we will work out the charges for your services according to your own needs. When you are ready to develop an Internet presence of that scale, we can work out with you the best, and most cost-effective, way to proceed.

What to do with Your Domain

At the simplest level, you might simply want to use an email address like user@yourcompany.com. If you have a number of users on a LAN at your company, you may want to assign them addresses like Charlie@yourcompany.com and Mary@yourcompany.com or even CustomerService@yourcompany.com.

If your company has good name recognition your customers will expect queries for http://www.yourcompany.com to come directly to your homepage.

There are infinitie ways to configure your services: mail mapping, UUCP, co-located servers, WANs, LANs, etc.... Call us!

One Step at a Time
Take one step at a time and get comfortable with it before proceeding. We will always recommend what we feel to be the most sensible and economical configuration for your business. We'd rather you start with something that works and grow than find you've bought more than you need, or worse, something that is not at all what you need.

The FBI can take records of your visiting this site and we are prohibited by law from telling you if they do. We minimize record keeping accordingly.

http://WWW.MaineStreet.Com/services/domains/index.html rev 2005-11-01