This webpage will guide you through the process of creating and using a domain name. But first, here is some basic information.

Every website has:

• a domain name
• a hosting account

The domain name is the "www.YOURWEBADDRESS.com" that identifies your website on the internet. Every domain name must be unique. The reason a domain name is "registered" is to ensure that only you own the domain name you choose for your website.

The hosting account is essentially a folder that can be accessed through the internet. When a domain name points to a hosting account, you can view the contents of the folder by accessing the domain name through a web browser. So, when I type www.sunpoweredproductions.com into the address bar in Internet Explorer or Firefox, the sunpoweredproductions.com domain name points to the hosting account associated with it and loads the files in that folder.

If you already have a domain name with another company you can still complete this tutorial. Skip near the bottom of this page to "Domain Name with Another Company".

If you have a hosting account with another company, this tutorial probably will not work. Skip to the bottom of this page to "Hosting with Another Company".

Purchasing a Domain Name

First you need to think of the domain name. In some cases it is as easy as using the name of your business, project or personal name. In many cases, someone else already owns the first name you think of. You may need to experiment with a few different names before you find one that you like which is available.

We recommend purchasing .com domains for businesses or private projects and .org domains for groups, associations etc. If possible, we also recommend purchasing both the .com, .org and .net of a domain name if you wish to protect the name.

Step 1
Log into your Account using your Account Number and Password, if you are not already logged in.	Click for Larger Images
Step 2
Enter in the Domain Name you'd like to register into the "Search Domains" entry field. Then click “Go”.
Step 3
On the next page, you will be notified if the domain name "is available" or "is already taken". You may need to try a few domain names before you find one that works. Keep an open mind... Once you have found an available domain name, select whether you would like to purchase the .com, .net, .org etc. and click “Add and Proceed to Checkout”. Note: If the checkbox associated with the.org, .com, etc. says "Backorder Now", that domain is not available.
Step 4
The "Registration and Checkout" page gives you the option to choose how many years you would like to register your domain name for and whether you would like to add several features like "Certified Domain", "Standard", "Deluxe" or "Protected" registration. You are welcome to read up on and purchase any of these added features. However, we recommend purchasing only the "Standard" domain registration and not to purchase the "Certified Domain", "Deluxe" or "Protected" features as they are not necessary. If you would like to purchase hosting or email now, you can do so by selecting the appropriate check box. For the purpose of this tutorial, we will cover hosting on the hosting page and email on the email page. Choose "No thanks. I'm ready to checkout." and click "Continue".
Step 5
Choose your Payment Method, check if you agree to the Universal Terms of Service and Domain Registration Agreement and click “Checkout Now”.
Step 6
Depending on your selected payment method, fill in your payment information and click “Checkout Now”. You may wish to save or print the receipt page for your records.

Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of your own domain name. No one else in the world can have the same domain name. The domain name is completely under your control. If anyone besides SunPoweredProductions.com ever sends you a letter or email notifying you that you need to "re-register" your domain name, they are not being honest. Usually, they are a predator type domain name registration company that tricks people into transferring your domain names to their registration service while charging double or triple the industry standard rates.

You are now ready to move on to Chapter 3 - Your Hosting Account.

Domain Name with Another Company

If you have purchased a domain name with another company, you can still complete this tutorial.

Since all domain name registrars are different, we can not provide an accurate tutorial for each one. However, we can provide some basic information.

You will need to change your domain names "nameservers". Essentially, the nameservers tell the domain name where to look to find the hosting account. You will need to login to your account with the other company, find where you can edit your name servers and enter the correct nameservers for our hosting. Our nameservers should look something like "ns51.domaincontrol.com" and "ns52.domaincontrol.com". We recommend you check this page for our most up to date nameserver information. A call to the other domain name registrars support may help. We also recommend contacting our support at (480) 624-2500. Note: our support deals with the technical issues of Hosting, Domain Names and Email ONLY. If you want us to help with anything Joomla related, visit our contact page and send us an email. As mentioned at the beginning of this tutorial, we do charge for our time answering questions.

It may take up to 24 hours for a nameserver change to take effect. However, it usually takes about 3 hours. Again, if you run into trouble, contact Support!

If you have an email address or email addresses already set up with a domain name registered with another company, take note of what those email addresses are. You will want to recreate those email addresses in your new web hosting account as quickly as possible when you change the nameservers. You can find out more about email in Chapter 4 - Setting Up Email.

Hosting with Another Company

There are some other hosting companies that have similar set ups for whom this tutorial might apply. We do offer Joomla set up and customization as a service. Visit our Contact page and send us an email describing your situation. We'll let you know what we can do and how much it will cost.