General DomReg FAQs

A domain registration is the ownership of a specific domain name. This article lists the most frequently asked questions regarding domain registrations in general, as well as specifically with DreamHost.

A domain name is the address, or URL, of your website. For example, 'dreamhost.com' is a domain name.

Every domain name is unique across the planet and is assigned to whoever registers it on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Through DreamHost, you can register domain names followed by many extensions, such as .com, .net, .org, .info, and more.

There are many good reasons to register your own unique domain name, including:

• Permanent address for your site and email, as long as you keep the domain registered and have an active web hosting and email service linked to the domain.
• A unique domain name looks much more professional than a URL such as yoursite.example.com.
• Easier for people to remember than yoursite.example.com.
• Registering a new domain name in your panel is simple and only takes a few minutes.
• If you purchase a Shared Hosting plan through DreamHost, you receive one free credit that you can use on specific domains. This is for the first year of hosting. You can read more about this in the Free Registration article.
• Once your domain name is reserved, you own that domain name until you choose to let it expire. If you don’t reserve the domain name you want, someone else can reserve it before you get the opportunity.

If you want to own your own top-level domain (TLD) name, then the answer is 'Yes'. But DreamHost also offers the use of a free subdomain name under the 'dreamhosters.com' TLD. So, you don’t need to purchase a domain registration if you don't mind your site showing with 'dreamhosters.com' at the end (for example, example.dreamhosters.com).

If you purchase a DreamHost Shared Hosting plan, you are entitled to one free domain registration for the year, as noted in the following article:

• Free Registrations

Unfortunately, as the registry does not allow domain names to be changed after purchase, this is not possible. Once you have registered and reserved the domain name, you own it through its expiration date. Be sure to ensure that the spelling of your domain name is exact when you register it (i.e., that there are no typos or misspellings).

If you registered a domain that was not spelled correctly or want to change the domain name completely, you may also choose to register the new, correctly spelled domain name. Then, let the old one expire after the period you purchased it for has passed.

No. You don't need to register the domain with "www" as the "www" portion isn’t actually part of your domain name. Just register example.com without the "www." When setting up hosting for the domain, you can set up the "www" record to be hosted for the domain name as well.

No. DreamHost cannot assist with either the sale of already-registered domains or helping you contact a registered domain owner.

Here is a comparison of differences between domain registration and web hosting:

Domain Registration

Gives you sole ownership and rights to the name of your site. No one else has access to the actual name of the domain and it is taken off the market. However, owning the domain registration is only half of the process needed to have a website or email at your domain – you also need to connect that domain name to a service that offers you server space and bandwidth for your website content and email.

Web Hosting

Provides the server, network connection, configuration, and upkeep. You just need to upload your site to the server and configure your email via an online account control panel.

DreamHost offers both, and you can manage everything in one place via the DreamHost Panel.

When you buy a domain, you have the sole rights to that name for as long as your registration lasts.

However, there's a difference between registering a domain and having a site published online. When registering a domain, it's added to your panel as PARKED. This means it's been added to your account, but it's not available online yet. You must add a hosting plan if you want the site to be visible online.

If you have an active hosting plan on your DreamHost account, you can link that hosting plan to your new domain so you can start publishing content online by following these steps:

• Adding Domains & Subdomains

You can also point your domain name to another provider for hosting. In order to do that, please contact your external hosting provider for instructions on how to point your domain name to their hosting services.

There is usually a delay of up to 72 hours from when you first register your domain and link it to a hosting service until it is viewable online. This is due to DNS propagation, which DreamHost does not control.

Visit the adding hosting article for full instructions.

No. You can register any kind of domain. All four of these are "unrestricted" Top-Level Domains (TLDs), which means they have no restrictions on who can register what domain and for what purpose.

These four domains are some of the most popular when it comes to securing the name that you want. In terms of availability, .com is the most popular. If you can’t find your desired domain as a .com, you may want to check if it’s available as a .net, .org, or .info domain.

You can visit DreamHost's TLD webpage for a current list of domain extensions and pricing.

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) are domain names that contain characters other than unaccented Roman letters (A-Z), digits (0-9), and the hyphen.

It is currently not possible to register an Internationalized domain name at DreamHost. However, you can still host it at DreamHost after purchasing it from another company that supports IDNs.

View the following article for further details:

• International Domain Names

Government domains are currently not available to register at DreamHost; however, you can always register them at a different registrar and host them in your DreamHost account.

Depending on the domain extension, you can register domains for 1–3 years in advance. Some registries have limits on this.

You can also set your domains to renew automatically every year in your panel on the Manage Registrations page. To set your domains to renew automatically, simply click the yes link under the Auto Renew column to set this domain to renew automatically each year. You can also set all of your domains to renew at the bottom of the table.

You can renew a domain for up to 2 years, with payment required upon renewal. You can also set an automatic renewal option for your domain registration. You can read more about that here:

• Renew a domain registration

There are currently no discounts for multiple domain registrations.