How do you get a URL?

[OneOfOne]

I am tossing a thought or two in my head at the moment and have an idea for a website/business...I could tell you what it is, but then I would have to shoot you :(

I am sure several of the people on IIS will know the answer to this question.

Is there a central place to go, or a number of companies that handle registration? How much? Do you have to do something with the URL within a set time? (No, I am not planning on squatting on a name) I know the name is available, so would a dot au be better for a business that would be of no interest to people outside of Australia, actually anyone outside Victoria (actually CBD) would have little use for the service. What is the difference in cost between a dot com versus a dot au?

Thanks guys

[koputai]

I have a few domain names, and a couple of sites. I have one name registered with an Aussie provider, and the other with US providers. I have one site hosted by an Aussie service, and the other hosted in the US. I've had these, and a few sites before, for around 8 years.
Aussie providers will always cost more, for both domain registration and hosting. I personally think it's better to have a .com rather than a .com.au .
I'll soon be changing my remaining Aussie stuff over to the US provider as the value is magnitudes better.
In the US I use GoDaddy http://www.godaddy.com

Cheers,
Jason.

[Blue Skies]

There's no central place to go and a number of ways of going about it. Godaddy, mentioned above, was one name given to me when I was looking around at getting a new domain name but I was generously given an oppurtunity to use the services of Flexihosting (http://www.flexihostings.net.au)s by a fellow forum member here. They have a "parking" option - I think that might what you are after if you want to reserve the name for an indefinite period. They also a free domain name with their packages. Worth a look :thumbsup: I'm pretty happy with how its going so far with them.

[MrB]

This guy is a member of another forum I frequent(AussieHomeBrewer), as far as I know, he and his wife will do the lot for you, and at pretty reasonable prices too!
Airgead Studio (http://www.airgeadstudio.net/)

[snowyskiesau]

You register a domain with a domain registrar or one of their agents. Typically, a domain name will cost you $35 for 2 years - less depending on the top level domain in which you register i.e. .com .net .com.au .net.au etc.
To get a domain registered will require that someone will manage the DNS entries on yuor behalf, assuming you're not in a postion to do this yourself.
Most hosting companies will do this for you when you take up one of their hosting packages, most will also manage the DNS entries required for your domain name. As someone stated previously, this is often referred to as parking a domain. i.e. the domain name can be looked up but it has no content to look at.

For example, I have a domain name registered with Webcity (http://webcity.com.au), they act as an agent for a domain registrar Enetica. The domain name cost me $35 for two years, Webcity charge me $6.95 per year to manage the domain name system entries. I also have hosting through them but that is a seperate agreement over and above the domain name side of things. Basically, the $6.95 charge, is to make sure that the DNS entry for my domain name points to the IP address of their server that has my website on it.

[acropolite]

Domain name registration charges vary markedly, sometimes it pays to shop around. There are also some constraints on .com.au registration. I've found Smartyhost to be good for both registration and hosting, they allow control of your domain redirection and email settings so no extra charge (as mentioned by Geoff) is applicable.