What Is a Domain Owner?
A domain owner is the individual or company that has control over a certain domain. Understanding what a domain owner is, is useful if you are running a website, researching the source of an Internet communication or investing in domain names.
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Domain names
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A "domain name" or simply "domain" is an identifier that helps direct Internet users towards the websites they are looking for. You will recognize domain names as the parts of a web address that ends in .com, .org, .net and other suffixes. For example, the domain name for this website is "ehow.com." Domain names are not case sensitive and are not permanently tied to a specific server. The IP address to which a domain name redirects to can be altered, similarly to the way a number on your speed dial can be changed to dial a different number.
Domain Owners
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The domain owner has control over where the domain directs. Domains can be purchased from a registrar by individuals or companies. For example, ABC.com belongs to ABC Inc. and is currently directed to the website of the television network ABC.
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Identification
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You can identify the owner of a domain name by running a whois search. To do so, you can visit Whois Domain Search (see Resources) and type in the domain name to the Whois Lookup field. The domain owner will be listed as the registrant or domain owner. You can also see a list of historical registrants.
Benefits
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There are numerous benefits of being a domain owner. The primary, and most common, benefit is that you can more easily direct visitors to your website. Without a domain name, visitors would have to remember the IP address of your server in order to access it. IP addresses are a series of numbers, such as 192.168.1.1. With a domain names, however, are much easier to remember. For example, you can set up mywebpage.com to point to 192.168.1.1. If you get a new web server, you can redirect your domain name to your new IP. In this way, visitors can easily find your site even if you move.
Another benefit of owning a domain name is the ability to sell it. Some investors purposely buy domain names in order to sell them to those who may be interested in owning it. For example, an investor may purchase JoeCitizenforPresident2012.com in anticipation of Mr. Joe Citizen announcing his candidacy for president. Mr. Citizen would not be able to use that domain name without purchasing it from the domain owner.
Considerations
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If you are interested in purchasing a domain name and becoming a domain owner, you can either do so through a registrar, such as GoDaddy or DreamHost, or you can contact the current domain owner privately. You can often learn the contact information of the registrant by running a Whois lookup. Some registrars also have domain brokerage services to help facilitate the sale of domains between private parties. Otherwise, you can wait for the domain owners registration to expire, at which time you can purchase it through a registrar. The expiration date is shown in the Whois information.
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