Every computer on the internet has a unique number, comparable to a phone number. Based on the fact that people can't memorize long numbers too well, the computers are additionally given names. Those computers which belong to a group (e.g. inside an enterprise) are combined to an area (= domain).

Domains are organized hierarchically, with a dot dividing each two levels of this hierarchy. The first position stands for the name of a computer. Best known are computers with the name »www«, which often provide the data for the World Wide Web-service of a company. Each domain holder may organize the hierarchy below his domain name according to his needs. For a domain »firm.de«, this could look like this:

• www.firm.de
• smith-pc.sales.firm.de
• jones-pc.sales.firm.de
• laserprinter.sales.firm.de
• server-12.org.firm.de
• reception.org.firm.de
• office.org.firm.de
• mail.firm.de

The top level domains are the highest level in this hierarchy. In the given example of »smith-pc.sales.firm.de« this would be the suffix »de«. A distinction is drawn between country specific domains, such as »de« for Germany (Deutschland), »fr« for France, or »jp« for Japan, and the so-called generic top level domains, like »com«, »net«, »org«, and the newer ones »info«, »biz«, and »name«.

In addition to that there are sponsored top level domains. They are being administered by sponsors and can only be registered by a limited group of users. Examples for sponsored TLDs are »aero« for the aviation industry or »museum« for museums.

Besides that there are a number of other domains (as for example »edu«, »mil«, »int«), which are of minor importance.

It is common practice to use the name of a company, product, or service as the name for a domain. Examples: »barnesandnoble«, »CNN« or »Ford«.

There is a rather small set of characters that is allowed for all top level domains. There is an international agreement on the lowest common denominator, i.e. the letters »a« to »z«, the digits »0« to »9«, and the hyphen. Beyond this common set there are great differences between the domains concerning which local language characters are allowed in the domain names, if any. These are then called »Internationalized Domain Names« (IDN).

For .de domains, there is a set of 92 additional characters available by now. And for .com and .net domains there have been substantial expansions, too. Other domains (like .biz and .info) at least allow for the usage of the Umlauts »ä«, »ö« and »ü«, which are of great importance for the German-speaking world. You can find more information on the status of internationalization for the various top level domains in this overview.

In many cases, there are additional restrictions, however, regarding the length of the domain names, for example. The exact regulations are described on the respective pages for each top level domain.

No. Domain names are not case sensitive. It does not matter if you write »BarnesAndNoble« or »barnesandnoble«, »ProDV« or »prodv«. Often notation is based on good readability.

Every domain name may consist of a maximum of 63 characters. However, short names are easier to memorize and are therefore preferred.

That depends on the top level domain. Most registries do not limit the number of domains a company may register, like .de domains, and .net and .info domains, for instance. Details can be found on our pages that specifically deal with each top level domain.

There are so-called Whois servers for this purpose. You can inquire these servers on our website. Each top level domain operates its own Whois servers. As a special service for you, we have created a »Global Whois«-page which makes it possible to inquire all the domains that can be registered at Knipp.

Every name can be used only once. The following principle is basically true: The early bird catches the worm. In the past, business people have tried to make profit by dealing with domain names again and again. However, legal practice in Germany takes into account if the plaintiff has a »legitimate interest«. For example, the Quelle corporation has a better right on the the domain »quelle.de« than the individual Heinz-Otto Quelle.

The contact data of the domain's holder and the domain's administrative contact will be stored. These contact information differ from top level domain to top level domain. Details can be found in the FAQ of the respective top level domain.

As mentioned above, computers are specified on the basis of internet numbers. The domain name server converts names to these numbers and vice versa. That is comparable to a company's telephone directory. The domain's name server is being operated by the company or by their internet provider. In case that the name server has an outage or isn't reachable because of a technical malfunction, there has to be at least one backup name server. Knipp operates the name servers for it's customers free of surcharge.

The registration via Knipp's DRS will be processed immediately. It does not matter if you use an e-mail application form or the web interface. The registration process usually takes only a few seconds.

Normally, every registration applies for 2 years. Detailed information on the period and on the renewal procedures can be found on our price list.

Simply use our Whois query service. You will also find out to whom the domain is registered.

Yes you can. Please use the transfer domain-function of our DRS (login required).

That depends on the type of modification. At Knipp, most modifications are free of charge. Details can be found on our price list.

No. Requests can only be made by using the web interface or an e-mail application form.

Modifications of domain data can only be processed by the registrar who has registered the domain. For example, Knipp cannot modify a domain as long as it is being administered by NSI. On the other hand, NSI isn't able to change domains that are being operated by Knipp (CORE).

To identify who has registered a domain you can use our Whois service.