CTS-2333 (Unix/Linux Networking) Project #3
Register DNS Names

For this project you must learn how to register a DNS name.  (You don't actually have to register any names, which would cost money.)  Answer the questions below:

1. Suppose you wish to register a name for a new non-profit organization in the United States.  What TLDs (top-level domains) are available to you?
2. Suppose you decide to register your non-profit organization using the TLD .org.  With which registrars can you register your DNS name?  (Provide the URLs of at least two if possible.)  Which will register such a name for the lowest cost, and how much will it cost?
3. Suppose your company wants the DNS domain acme.com.  Is it available?  How did you find out?  (List the URL(s) you used.)
4. Suppose HCC would like to use the domain name .hcc.fl.edu.  Who owns this domain now?  What is the name and phone number of the contact person for that domain?

Spend some time exploring the IANA's web site and the ICANN's web site for information on DNSs and to locate registrars.  You can also check out www.internic.net/whois.html, www.zoneedit.com/whois.html, and other whois servers to see what names are taken and other information about them.  Finally you can use the tools dig, htdig (if available), or nslookup.  (Consult your local man pages for details.)

A list of TLDs can be found at IANA's website.  Many can be used for multiple purposes, such as .COM, .BIZ, etc.

Domain names are hierarchical.  A name such as W.X.Y.Z has a top-level domain of Z.  The next domain is Y.Z, then X.Y.Z, then W.X.Y.Z.

If some organization owns some domain name, then they control all sub-domains.  Thus the company (registrar) that owns .edu controls all DNS names that end in .edu.  For example, I control all sub-domains of wpollock.com, so to find the owner of www.admin2.wpollock.com, you can try to do a whois lookup of admin2.wpollock.com but if you don't find anything, you need to next try wpollock.com.

So if you can't locate W.X.Y.Z in the whois database, you need to try the next highest domain name of X.Y.Z, and the next (Y.Z), and so on until you determine the owner of the domain.

Submit your journal entries showing the steps you have taken and the answers to the questions asked.  You can send as email to (preferred).  If email is a problem for some reason, you may turn in a hard-copy.  In this case the pages should be readable, dated, and stapled together.  Your name should appear on the first page. 

Don't turn in your whole journal, you will need to add to it every day in class!  It is common in fact to keep the journal as a text file on the system (with a paper backup of course).

Please see your syllabus for more information about submitting projects.