Part of your virtual domain is a web site (e.g: http://www.myshop.com.au), where you can have information about your products or services. For example, you are looking at the Istos web site at the moment. With your virtual domain comes several email addresses, that may look like these:

orders@myshop.com.au

Domain Names
Domain Names (like myshop.com.au) need to be registered with an authority. Generally you need to be able to show that the domain name you want to register is either your registered business (or company) name, or a logical derivative of it (you aren't allowed to add any new characters, but you can drop characters). The only non-alpha numeric character allowed is a hyphen. If the Domain Name you seek doesn't follow these rules you will not be allowed to register it.

You may find that other countries' registering authorities, for various types of domain names, will have slightly differing rules. However these are the rules that generally apply in Australia.

We submit the domain name application on your behalf, based on the information you supply to us. The authority reviews your request to register a domain, and decides if your registered company name is similar enough to the domain name you want to register.

There are two main types of domain names available to Australian businesses and individuals. Your domain can be registered here in Australia, and will end in .com.au (com means commercial, there are several other types e.g: .org.au for a non-profit organisation). The .au is Australia's country code on the internet. Any web site you see that ends in .au is most likely for an Australian business (service, organisation, person, etc.).

The other way is to register your name at an international level, where your domain will end in .com (or .org) only - no country code. If you are truly someone who offers a global service, a .com domain may be more suitable. However, it is considered good etiquette to indicate what country you are in to people who visit your web site. There are no hard and fast rules regarding this, and either way, your web site will be visible to anyone, anywhere in the world.

It's simple to find out if your choice of Domain name is available for your use. Just click here to check the official database.

Assuming the name you apply for is not already taken, you should get it approved in a few days (may be longer for .org.au domains). We can check for you anytime over the phone if it is likely to be approved, by comparing it with an online database. Registering a .com.au domain costs approximately $54.95, payable each two years. Registering a .com domain costs approximately $50. These prices are not controlled by us, and may fluctuate.

Almost all domain names are portable, meaning if you are disatisfied with how your current provider is hosting your domain, you can change to us, with a minimum of fuss.


Web Site
Once the domain has been registered, it's "delegated" to us, and we "host" it for you. This means that when someone types in your web address (www.myshop.com.au in this example) into their web browser, they go to your web site, that is hosted by us. Initially they would see nothing, as you need to have your web site designed, created, and uploaded first. Have a look at our design page for more info on this. Or you can click here to find our charges.


Email
When you have your domain hosted with us, we give you five separate "POP" email accounts, meaning you can have colin@myshop.com.au, orders@myshop.com.au, and jane@myshop.com.au, etc. for example. This allows you to cater for five separate people or departments.

If an incoming e-mail gets sent to a person that does not exist (say, barry@myshop.com.au), we can set it up for you so that it will automatically be forwarded to the account you nominate; The alternative is to have the mail bounce (return to sender, user unknown), obviously not a good thing if you are running a business.

Some of our customers choose to go with an "email only" domain initially, to cut down costs. This means you have no web site, just email addresses (in the form of colin@myshop.com.au). Click here to find out the charges for these features.