A name consisting of two or more (for example, john.smith.name) levels, maintained in a registry database. This name allows the location of related resources to be resolved on the internet using the Domain Name System (DNS).

Any individual, organization or company that are registrants of a domain are usually able to create sub-domains of that domain. For example the registrant of “mydomain.com” could create a sub-domain called sales, that is “sales.mydomain.com”

Top-Level Domains (TLDs) are the names at the top of the DNS naming hierarchy. They appear in domain names as the string of letters following the last dot, such as “.uk” in www.shetland.uk. The TLD administrator controls what second-level names are recognized in that TLD. The administrators of the root domain or root zone control what TLDs are recognized by the DNS

A domain name that has been registered in a given top-level domain. For example, “.co.uk” is a second-level name where “co” is the second-level label.

A class of top-level domain only assignable to represent countries and territories listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard. An example is “.uk”.

A TLD that does not correspond to any country code, such as “.net”

A registrar is a body authorized to supply domain names. The registrar has access to make changes to a registry by adding, deleting, or updating domain name records.

The registrant is an individual, organization or business who has registered a domain with a registrar. A domain is allocated to a registrant for as long as they maintain their subscription payments.

If you fail to pay the renewal of your domain subscriptions then action will be taken by the registrar. This action varies by domain type but a typical scenario could be:

1. Grace period: There is usually a 30 day grace period when no action is taken.

2. Suspension: After 30 days the registrar may suspend the domain rendering associated e-mail and web sites unusable. Payment of the subscription will re-activate the domain.

3. Redemption: After 30 days of suspension the domain may then be put in redemption. While in redemption the domain is queued for re-issue still recoverable but upon payment of the subscription and an additional fee.

4. Re-issue: After the redemption period is over you no longer have any rights to the domain and it will become available for registration by anyone interested.