Having just lost control of my domain name, can you advise how to avoid cybersquatters?

Domain names, the core part of the web and e-mail addresses that we type every day, are big business. Competition for memorable ones is strong, and even competition for ones that are a hamfisted mistype away from being memorable is pretty feverish. As per the column concerning web hosting a few weeks ago, it's clear that the process of registering and hanging on to a domain is shrouded in mystery for many - and where there's mystery, there's usually a few people getting ripped off.

The first sound piece of advice comes from Jim Player: "Don't automatically buy domain names from your ISP, or your web-hosting provider. If your relationship with them sours, they could be at risk." Indeed, it has recently taken me a year to get full control of a domain name I registered some years ago; in the end my impatience with the company in question forced me to cough up a completely unnecessary "transferring fee".

The lesson is clear: go with a seller that offers direct and transparent access to all the settings related to your domain name - renewal, transfers and hosting. Shop around, and seek recommendations; easydns.com and dreamhost.com are two US-based services with a no-nonsense approach.

It's a cut-throat, first-come-first-served world, and Jayne Brookes points out - from her own bitter experience - that you should keep that domain idea to yourself. "Then, if you find that it's available, just buy it. It should only cost between [pound]5 and [pound]15 for one year, and you can bet that if you don't buy it today, someone else will tomorrow."

Of course, there are unscrupulous types who register domains in the hope of levering more money out of people they know will pay up - the dreaded cy-bersquatters - but they're not the kind of people you should be doing business with. If that domain name is central to your business plan, consider changing the plan. If you believe you have a legal right to the name, the registrar of the domain will have a dispute resolution department - but the process will inevitably involve lengthy legal wrangling.

Once you've bought the domain, remember that you have merely hired it from the registry. Paul Lomax from Fibranet, whose freeparking.co.uk domain service is highly rated, has a word of advice for keeping hold of your domain purchase; simply don't forget to renew it. "The easiest way to lose a domain is to change your e- mail address and forget to tell the registrar. We try to help by reminding people to keep their details updated, and ironically we get a handful of customers complaining that they don't want junk mail from us! You can't win."

Due to the Earthquake in Taiwan on 26 December 2006, Hong Kong's overseas telecommunications services had been severely affected by the damage of several regional submarine cables, hindering the services provided by all Hong Kong's Internet Service Providers.

Hong Kong Broadband Network Ltd. ("HKBN"), a wholly owned subsidy of City Telecom (HK) Limited , with rapid response from staff and business partners, was one of the first service providers to restore overseas telecommunications service by 11:42 am, 28th December, 2006.

HKBN's rapid restoration was due mainly to the rigorous design of the HKBN network that ensured there are always 30% over-provisioning of bandwidth, equivalent to a 1.3 times bandwidth capacity over the average bandwidth utilization for customers. Although the recent disruption has lowered HKBN's bandwidth provisioning, this over-provisioning design had come into force thereby minimizing the impact to customers.

Whilst HKBN customers were able to resume their essential Internet services within two days, the majority of Hong Kong Internet users are still negatively impacted, even until today. This highlights the deficiency in the industry's existing telecommunication services' arrangements & contingency planning.

Appreciating the importance of communications, HKBN announced the launch of "bbAid" to those are who are still suffering from overseas bandwidth outage, providing immediate broadband service aid. Effective from 8th January 2007, PCCW Netvigator's broadband customers can register at hotline 3498 3498, where HKBN will install bb100 service (symmetric 100Mbps access) within 24 hours, with up to 200 installations daily. The "bbAid" is offered to provide immediate outbound communication services to those with urgent needs, with no contract commitment and installation fee required, and services charge being HK$10/day (US$1.30), with minimal charge is HK$20 (US$2.60). Should no contract renewal or cancellation notice be received from customer within 30 days after installation, such service will be terminated automatically after the said period.

Chairman of HKBN, Ricky Wong said, "As the pioneer of Hong Kong's telecommunication services, valuing the criticality of overseas telecommunications, we hope the bbAid will serve to relief the stress and inconvenience for consumers that are suffering from outage of international bandwidth."

Digital Rights Director offers turnkey media distribution platform that gives media owners everything needed to securely sell digital audio and video files. Customers are given their own Online Media Store with web-based administration panel that allows owner to customize store, edit or create media rules, and manage media, customers, newsletters, and orders. Service targets independent musicians and film artists as well as distance learning and corporate training applications.

Digital Rights Director customers are given their own "Online Media Store" with a web-based administration panel that allows the media owner to easily customize the store, edit or create "media rules", and manage media, customers, newsletters and orders.

The service allows a content owner to simply browse their PC for an available media file, assign a title, description, category, and delivery methods depending on whether the media should be streamed or downloaded.

Then the content owner assigns the media rules and price options he wishes to assign and with the click of the "Submit" button, the media file is automatically uploaded, packaged, DRM protected, and immediately made available in an included eCommerce web storefront with the assigned rule options.

The media rules enforce the guidelines under which a purchaser is allowed to use the media, and for a media file to be uploaded once, but sold with multiple rule and pricing options. For example, a video may be uploaded a single time, but sold with 1-play, 10-plays or unlimited plays option and each option could have its own price.

"This is unlike any other service we are aware of," says Jonathan Castleman, President of CyberOptic Group and former professional musician himself, "Customers get their own online storefront on their own domain, they get to determine their own delivery and playback options, set their own prices, and collect and keep their own money."

"All the media is protected against unauthorized access and distribution and all a customer needs to understand is how to fill out a simple web form." Castleman added.

Digital Rights Director comes with literally everything needed to quickly start selling audio & video files securely online including a web hosting account with a dedicated IP address, Windows streaming server for streaming media files, a robust eCommerce storefront, and DRM packaging and license delivery all available through a easy-to-use web interface.

Hong Kong Domain Registrations Available in Chinese

The Hong Kong Domain Name Registration Company (HKDNR) have introduced a new system to register domain names using Chinese language characters with the .hk extension. This is the latest of a series of moves to expand the range of options available with a .hk ending.

The Original Hong Kong Domain Names

The .com.hk .net.hk .org.hk .edu.hk are established Hong Kong domain name formats and follow certain rules for registration. The .com.hk requires a local Hong Kong Business Registration Certificate and .org.hk requires valid proof of charitable status issued by an official Hong Kong authority such as the police or revenue department. The .net.hk is solely reserved for registered Hong Kong Internet Service Providers (ISP) and .edu.hk for registered educational institutions such as schools. The .gov.hk is heavily used by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government.

Following this came the .idv.hk aimed at personal Hong Kong web users, but it has never really caught on. This does make some sense as almost all Hong Kong web hosting clients have business websites it was released at the dawn of the free blog account with a shred domain name so I do not think sales have been that good for the .idv.hk

.hk Domain Names Launched

Then, things  became a lot easier with the launch of the simple .hk domain name suffix or tld (Top Level Domain). As it was no longer required to submit documentary confirmation of a registrant's identity via mail or fax. These have been much more popular and are now widely used in Hong Kong.

Now with the launch of Chinese language domain names the Hong Kong Domain Name Registration Company (HKDNR) have one of the most comprehensive, stable and well run top level domain name registration facilities in the region.

HKDNR Chinese Domain Name Pre-registration Press Release:

HONG KONG, 6 December 2006 - Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited (HKIRC) and its wholly owned subsidiary Hong Kong Domain Name Registration Company Limited (HKDNR) jointly announce today the commencement of .hk Chinese Domain Name Pre-Registration Period from 4 December 2006 to 5 January 2007. During this Period, registration rights are given to existing .hk English domain name holders who registered their .hk domain names on or before 14 September 2006.

‘.hk’ Chinese Domain Name includes the simple ‘.hk’ category for general use, and ‘.公司.hk’, ‘.教育.hk’ , ‘.政府.hk’, ‘.個人.hk’ , ‘.網絡.hk’ , ‘.組織.hk’ for different groups of users. During the Pre-Registration Period, the .hk Chinese Domain Name being applied for must be in the equivalent category as the .hk English Domain Name that a registrant currently holds.

.hk Chinese Domain Name can be registered via the official website of HKIRC / HKDNR (www.hkdnr.hk) or our service partners. For queries, please contact HKIRC / HKDNR by phone (+852 2319 1313) or email (enquiry@hkirc.hk / enquiry@hkdnr.hk).

About HKIRC and HKDNR
Hong Kong Internet Registration Cooperation Limited (HKIRC) is a non-profit making organization endorsed by the Government of HKSAR to oversee the administration and assignment of the Internet domain names ending with '.hk'. Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Hong Kong Domain Name Registration Company Limited (HKDNR), HKIRC provides registration services for the English domain names ending with '.com.hk', '.org.hk', '.net.hk', '.edu.hk', '.gov.hk', '.idv.hk', ‘.hk’ and Chinese domain names ending with ‘.公司.hk’, ‘.教育.hk’, ‘.政府.hk’ , ‘.個人.hk’, ‘.網絡.hk’, ‘.組織.hk’, ‘.hk’; and other domains to be introduced from time to time in Hong Kong.