What characters can be used in a domain name?

Domain names can only use letters, numbers and hyphens. Domain names are also NOT case sensative.

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What characters can be used in a domain name?

The maximum length of a full domain name (the entire thing, including dots) is 253 characters.

Each individual part — for example, “invictanet” in invictanet.com — can be up to 63 characters.

These limits have been the same for years and are part of the DNS rules.

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How many domain suffixes are there?

Currently there are around 1,500 domain suffixes, also known as ‘Top Level Domains’ such as .com, .eu and .uk and more are being added all the time.

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Can I permanently own a domain name?

You can’t permanently own a domain name, you lease it for a period between one and ten years. Generally at Invictanet, we purchase on re-new domain names on a two yearly basis. Providing that you pay for the domain name when it’s due, you own the domain for that period and nobody can take that away unless there’s a dispute.

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How can I transfer a .co.uk domain name between ISP’s?

Internet Service Providers in the UK will have a Nominet Tag where all the domain names that they host are registered under. To move your domain name, you need to find out the Tag of the new ISP and then either login to your control panel or ask your current ISP to re-tag the domain name to the new ISP’s tag. This shouldn’t take any longer than a few hours to complete. Once the domain name has been re-tagged, the new ISP should enter their name servers and the move is then complete.

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How can I transfer an international domain name such as a .com between ISP’s?

Login to your domain control panel or contact your ISP and ask them to un-lock your domain name and provide an ‘Auth-Code’. An ‘Auth-Code’ is an alpha-numeric code that you can then send to your new ISP. Once received your new ISP can request the transfer. The releasing ISP will then contact the owner and admin contact for the domain to confirm whether or not this is a valid request. If the owner and/or admin contact confirms that the request is valid, the transfer will happen within hours. If the admin and owner do not respond to the transfer request, the transfer will take five days.

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How can I change the ownership of a .co.uk domain?

If you’re the owner of the domain name, you can login to Nominet with the email address that the domain was registered to and change the ownership. There is a charge from Nominet to do this but if you have any difficulty, we can help by making the change for you via Nominet.

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What can I do if someone has registered a domain domain that infringes on my Trademark?

If someone has registered a domain that you feel infringes on your brand, trademark, or legal rights, there are ways to challenge it. The first step is usually to find out which company the domain is registered with – a simple WHOIS lookup can show you this. Most disputes start with the registrar, so it’s worth checking with them first. Sometimes the easiest approach is to contact the domain owner directly. A polite message can often lead to a transfer or cancellation without any fuss. If that doesn’t work, there’s a formal process called the UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy), which is handled by ICANN-approved providers. To succeed, you’ll need to show that the domain is confusingly similar to your brand, that the owner has no legitimate interest in it, and that it was registered in bad faith. Taking legal action is a last resort. It’s usually more expensive and time-consuming, and in most cases, disputes are resolved through the UDRP process without going to court.

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What is DNS and how does it work

DNS (Domain Name System) is like a phone book for the internet. People use names such as a website address, but computers need numbers to know where to go. DNS is what connects the name to the number. When you type a website address into your browser, your device first checks to see if it already knows where that site lives. If it doesn’t, it asks a DNS service to find out. That service looks up the website name and finds the correct numerical address for it. Once the address is found, it is sent back to your computer. Your browser then uses that address to connect to the website’s server and load the page. To make things quicker next time, your device remembers the address for a while.

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