Digital Pacific Company Blog » Domain Names

How To Get Your Business Online

Digital Pacific — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:17:30 +0000

While making money on the Internet is certainly not as easy as it used to be, there are still plenty of opportunities out there. With a realistic approach and plenty of patience, many people are perfectly capable of making an income online. While there are freelancing opportunities to accommodate a wide variety of skills such as writing, web design and much more, starting your own business from scratch is somewhat more challenging. One of the greatest attractions to starting an online business is that the costs are minimal. Keeping your goals realistic is also essential. It’s wise to completely ignore the outlandish promises made by companies and individuals selling get-rich-quick schemes and instead start out with a plausible plan with goals that you can actually reach if you work hard enough. Consider the following steps for building a money-making website.

1. Be Inspired

Consider your skills and your level of knowledge in certain areas. You’ll want to think of a niche which you know plenty about as well as something which interests you. Since you’re going to need to provide quality content and something of value to your visitors, you need to be knowledgeable in your field. Of secondary importance is coming up with an idea that is ideal for making money.

2. Register a Domain Name and Hosting Package

The only costs involved in starting an online business are registering a domain name (web address) and getting a web hosting package. The costs only run into a few dollars per month and the costs will only ever increase if you have an enormous number of visitors and you need to start paying for more bandwidth.

Choose your domain name carefully. It’s good practice for search engine optimization (SEO) to include a relevant keyword or phrase in your web address. You should also keep it short and memorable. It’s also a good idea to register multiple domain names which all direct to your main website. Ideally, you should register your domain name for a longer time, such as five years. The search engines favour long-term registrations.

You’ll also want to decide whether to use a local domain name ending in the country code for your location or a .com address. As a general rule, you should only use a localised domain name such as “.com.au” if the content of your site is primarily relevant to an audience in that country. For the most part, all other sites are better off using a .com address. There are plenty of other options, however.

3. Get WordPress

WordPress is the industry leader in blogging software. Free and open source, WordPress was originally designed exclusively for blogging. These days, however, just about any type of site can use the WordPress software. It’s easy to use and does not require any knowledge of HTML, although having such knowledge will certainly come in useful.

There are countless themes available for WordPress. The themes govern the entire appearance and layout of your site. You’ll want to choose this carefully since changing it later on when you have lots of content can be complicated. You should also choose a theme which is SEO-friendly. There are both free and premium themes available.

To save yourself from going through the hassle and complication of installing WordPress yourself, you may want to go for a hosting package that has WordPress included and installed on your new website. This means that you’ll be able to start uploading content to your site as soon as you’ve registered. Digital Pacific provides free WordPress hosting application installation with most web hosting plans.

4. Set up Your Social Networking Accounts

Social networking is a major part of online business. You simply cannot ignore it if you want to have any chance at success. You should also install buttons linking to social networking sites on your webpage. These buttons should appear beneath every article in your site. This allows visitors to easily share content that they like with their friends on their favourite social networking site.

There are dozens of popular social networking sites out there, but there is no need to get involved with all of them. You should definitely have a Facebook account which you can use to post links to your content, provide updates and much more. You should also consider starting a Facebook fan page for your business as well as joining groups relevant to your niche.

Twitter is another essential tool for Internet marketing. Twitter is more business-orientated and it provides a way to get followers which will always receive updates about your site. Other popular social networking sites which you should consider include digg.com, technorati.com, linkedin.com and stumbleupon.com among others. These sites are focussed on sharing websites, promoting and ranking them.

5. Setting up Advertising

Unless you’re selling something such as an eBook, the main income from your website will come from advertising revenue and affiliate programs. The first thing you should do is get a Google AdSense account and install it on your site. AdSense automatically provides advertisements related to the content of your site. When a visitor clicks on an advertisement, you get money. There are many other pay-per-click advertising programs out there too, such as Chikita and Amazon. Be careful not to overdo the advertising on your site as this will only turn visitors off.

You should also join affiliate programs. Affiliate programs allow you to advertise products and services which are relevant to your niche. You get a percentage of the sale every time a visitor makes a purchase having been directed from the advertisement on your site.

6. Provide Content

Now that you have your website up and running, you’ll want to provide content for it. Your content should be unique and high quality. It should be well researched and error free. Providing something of value to your visitors will keep them coming back for more. It will also help your search engine ranking.

Add content to your site on a regular basis. Uploading a new article every couple of days is ideal. Before you know it, you’ll have a rich site full of content to keep your visitors occupied. When you make a new post, you should also go through all of your social networking accounts and share the link to it so that potential visitors will be alerted to the fact that you’ve updated your site. This requires commitment, but it is essential that you stick to a regular schedule when it comes to updating your site.

To build a successful website for your business, just follow these simple steps and you will start to see some positive results. To find out more about domain names and the various web hosting packages offered at Digital Pacific, give our friendly team a call on 1300 MY HOST.

How To Get Your Business Online is a post from: Digital Pacific Company Blog

Seven Good Reasons to Buy a Domain Name For Your Small Business Blog

Digital Pacific — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:13:31 +0000

If you are starting a blog for your small business it’s tempting to skip buying a domain name and jump right into a free blog hosting service. You’re trying to grow your business so you want to keep costs down where you can. Free is good, right?

Wrong. If you are at all serious about your company, be nice to your business blog and buy it a domain name. Here are seven good reasons why you should register a domain name for your small business blog.

1. If the aim of your blog is to market a business then it must look business-like. A self-hosted domain is the first step to a professional looking blog. Internet-savvy readers simply won’t take seriously a blog like yourbusinessblog.freeblogsite.com. It looks amateurish. Readers will take far more seriously the self-hosted yourbusinessblog.com. It looks like a real site. Whether you’re selling a product, a service, or your own expertise, a proper domain name will inspire customer confidence.

2. If you don’t buy your own domain name then you do not own your own blog. Simple as that. While you do own the copyright to all your content, it is the free hosting site that actually owns your blog. This means you have no protection should they decide to suspend the blog or should the host site itself close down.

3. With self-hosting you have complete control over the ads you may to choose to place on your blog, unlike a free hosting site which may place irrelevant or even counter-productive ads on your blog. By having your own domain name and paying for hosting, you can select ads which are relevant to your business, or choose to have no ads at all.

4. A shorter URL address is easier to remember. Readers won’t return to a blog they can’t remember the name of. They are more likely to return to yourbusinessblog.com than yourbusinessblog.freeblogsite.com.

5. Buying domain names gives you multiple email addresses to the same domain name. You can have a different email address for sales, support or feedback for example, all at yourbusinessblog.com. This adds to the customer’s impression that you are a reputable and efficient company.

6. Using your own domain name from the start helps reinforce your brand whether it be a business, product or service. Your domain name represents your business, your blog and ultimately your brand. It is one of the first things people recognise about your blog.

7. If you don’t buy the domain name for your business, someone else might. If your business becomes successful, internet opportunists may register your business domain name in the hope of capturing some of your traffic or selling the domain for profit.

Having your own domain names for your small business blog may not be free but is relatively low compared to the credibility and business recognition (and therefore profit) you might lose by not having your own domain.

Seven Good Reasons to Buy a Domain Name For Your Small Business Blog is a post from: Digital Pacific Company Blog

5 Ways to Find Good Quality and Affordable Web Hosting

Digital Pacific — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 03:10:29 +0000

When you are trying to create your own website, finding a web hosting service is usually the first step in the process. A web host will give you the means to physically create a website by providing you with a domain name through a registry.

However, there are plenty of different web hosting services out there, each offering differing services and prices to cater to your needs. Free services exist but they are rarely reliable enough to meet the needs of a small business. There are also more expensive web hosting services that could end up charging you an arm and a leg. So how do you find a good quality and affordable web host?

1. Read Reviews
Online reviews of web hosting services are very instructive, and reading your fair share of these reviews can help you determine the best from the rest. While it may seem that some of the negative reviews are planted by rival hosting services to smear the competition, most hosting services allow users to post reviews on their website, enabling you to get an unbiased look at people’s opinions.

2. Review Support Options
The less you’re willing to spend on web hosting, the fewer options you will have at your disposal. Depending on your needs, that might be perfectly fine. Just make sure you know what you need in a web hosting provider before you sign up.

3. Factor in the Service’s Reputation
A reputable web hosting service is generally one you can trust to deliver in terms of price, customer service and functionality. There is a reason so many free web hosting services have a bad image, so try not to associate yourself with these providers.

4. Compare Suites
‘You get what you pay for’ is an old maxim that applies to almost every consumer purchase. However, do you really need to spend all that money on the deluxe package when the chances are very remote you will even need such a robust suite? When looking to sign up for hosting with Digital Pacific, if your unsure about which hosting package will suit your website, you can speak to one of the team members and they will advise you which package will best cater to your needs.

5. Evaluate Space
Do you need multiple domain names and a large amount of bandwidth for your site? Figuring out how much space your website will take up is essential to choosing the right suite. To be on the safe side, purchase a little more than you think you’ll need.

Finding a good quality web hosting provider is never easy, but with this article in hand you will have your site up and running in no time at all, and at a very affordable price.

5 Ways to Find Good Quality and Affordable Web Hosting is a post from: Digital Pacific Company Blog

8 SEO Tips That Will Skyrocket Your Websites Online Exposure

Digital Pacific — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 00:56:31 +0000

Getting your website noticed online can be a difficult proposition. Beyond choosing a catchy domain name, what tools are at your disposal to increase your online exposure?

One of the best tools available for this purpose is SEO — search engine optimization. This process works by creating web content that contains a certain number of keywords. When you’re content is properly saturated with these keywords, the chances of your website popping up in relevant search results is greatly increased.

Here are eight SEO tips that will boost your websites online exposure:

1. Keyword Selection

Keyword selection is the most important aspect to increasing your websites SEO. Make a bullet point list of 5-10 words that best describe your site. Then pick the three most relevant. These are your keywords and you should include them in your content, headers, titles and meta tags.

2. Evaluate the Competition

Are you trying to rank high with the keyword ‘iPad’? Then your chances of success are very slim. Millions of websites are competing for this very common keyword. Try to pick something a little more specific, like ‘green iPad leather case’.

3. Target Local Businesses

Although the internet isn’t contained by geographic boundaries, targeting your SEO content towards local businesses can really help boost your exposure. Having a local mindset means that you interact with regional businesses, and hopefully they will help to market your site both online and offline.

4. Domain Name
Your domain name has a big impact on your website SEO effectiveness. It can really be the difference between a trickle and a flood of online traffic.
Say that you want to create a website about dog food. Be sure to include your keywords in the domain name. For example, www.dogfood.com. This will greatly enhance your websites SEO.

5. Use Social Media

Social media is an inexpensive way to improve your websites SEO. Not only can you extend your websites reach to the social networking sphere, but you can also add a more personal touch to your content. Tailor your content for social networking just like you would if you want to optimize for Google — use your keyword in every wall post or tweet. But be sure not to overdo it.

6. Develop a Trusted Reputation

One of the fastest ways to destroy your websites credibility is to engage in spam-like SEO. Don’t post meaningless spam comments on blogs. Instead emphasize quality over quantity, choose a reputable web hosting service, and don’t let your site fall prey to cheap marketing gimmicks.

7. Quality Content

Remember, people will be the ones reading your content, not search engines. Therefore, write your content in an easy to understand and entertaining manner. If you’re bored writing the content, it is quite likely that people reading it will be bored as well.

8. Links

You can increase your websites online exposure through quality links. Start listing your site on various directories and begin to develop relationships with sites and blogs that are similar to yours.
Optimizing your site for the big search engines is a complicated affair, but with these eight SEO tips, your website will be ranking well and drawing thousands of new hits!

8 SEO Tips That Will Skyrocket Your Websites Online Exposure is a post from: Digital Pacific Company Blog

The 13 Highest Selling Domain Names of All Time

Digital Pacific — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 08:30:05 +0000

If you decide to get involved in the business of selling domain names , you can make a great deal of money from it. Some domains may only sell for a few hundred dollars, but there are a select few that could end up making you millions.

So what are the highest selling domain names of all time? Here is the top 13:

1. Insure.com – This domain name was sold in 2009 for a staggering $16 million. It seems incredible that a simple domain name of less than ten letters could sell for such an astronomical amount, but that is the potential of the domain name selling business.

2. Fund.com – In 2008 this site was sold for $9.99 million. As can be seen with insure.com, domain names based around the insurance industry can be sold for millions of dollars.

3. Business.com – In 1999 this domain, along with its own dedicated servers, was put up for sale and sold for $7.5 million.

4. Diamonds.com – People associate diamonds with wealth and high society, but many would be surprised to find out that diamonds.com sold for an incredible $7.5 million.

5. Beer.com – The first food and beverage site on our list, Beer.com sold for an amazing $7 million. Quite a bit more expensive than the $5 schooner!

6. Israel.com – Back in 2004 the owners of Israel.com were given $5.88 million for their domain. It represents an incredible return on their investment.

7. Casino.com – Many people expect Casino.com to be much higher on the list of the most expensive domain names, but it only sold for $5.5 million.

8. Toys.com – The toy industry is worth billions of dollars worldwide, so it is of no surprise that Toys.com sold for $5.1 million.

9. AsSeenOnTV.com – This domain sold for $5.1 million back in 2000. Out of all the domain names on our list, people are most surprised to see AsSeenOnTv.com. Unlike the other 12 sites, AsSeenOnTv.com is comprised of four words as opposed to one. This is what makes its high price so surprising.

10. Korea.com – The second national domain name on our list, Korea.com sold for $5 million in 2000.

11. SEO.com – Considering how much money is made through online marketing every year, it is of no surprise that SEO.com is in our list. It sold for a respectable $5 million.

12. Shop.com - At $3.5 million, Shop.com is yet another domain name that many expected to receive a much bigger price when sold.

13. Wine.com – It seems odd that Beer.com outsold Wine.com in the most expensive domain names list. All accounts would point to the opposite, but when it was put up for sale in 2003 it only received $3.3 million.

The internet has created whole new industries in which people can make millions of dollars. Selling domain names is just one of these industries, but as can be seen in the preceding list, there is an incredible amount of money to be made in selling domain names.

The 13 Highest Selling Domain Names of All Time is a post from: Digital Pacific Company Blog

How to Make Money Selling Domain Names

Digital Pacific — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 08:18:11 +0000

There are so many ways to make money online – you can create AdSense websites that earn money when people click on your banner ads; you can sell wholesale items on eBay for a huge profit; you can even work as a freelance graphic designer or a freelance writer on sites like Elance.com and Guru.com. But one of the best ways to make money online is to sell domain names.

Domain names are defined as “hostnames that identify Internet Protocol (IP) resources such as web sites”. They are incredibly easy to purchase, but it does take some time to develop them into profitable websites.

So how exactly can you make money selling domain names?

1. Supply and Demand

Like any offline or online business, selling domain names is all about supply and demand. Some domain names are in high demand; for example, social.com recently sold for a whopping $2,600,000! You can bet that there were multiple bidders that drove the price up to such an astronomical number. But other domains, especially those with very long URLs, will find it very difficult to sell for a reasonable price.

So what is the lesson here? Try to find domain names that are short, catchy and memorable. Although there are not too many left, you can still find the odd gem.

2. Private Sale or Auction?

There are advantages and disadvantages in both methods. With auction sites like Flippa.com, you have a level of security that is offered by the site. Also, auction sites are very useful for people who have niche specific domains; without online auction sites, buyers and sellers would have a hard time meeting. You do have to pay a small fee to the auction site though.

On the other hand, with private sales all the money goes straight to your pocket. You can also sell your site to global corporations for millions of dollars if you contact them privately. There is, however, less legal protection if you decide to go down the private sales path.

3. It’s All about Marketing

Selling a site is just like selling any product, in that your marketing campaign must be effective if you want to be successful. Work out beforehand how you are going to market the site and raise peoples buying temperature. A great way to do this is to establish a loyal group of followers.

Your site must be informative, entertaining and helpful if you are going to grab the attention of internet users. Base your site around a concept; let’s use pet food as an example. If you create a website dedicated to gourmet pet food you can guarantee that a group of pet lovers will flock to your site. Once your site gains some loyal followers it will be much more attractive to potential buyers.

4. Transfer Site Ownership

Once the sale is complete you must transfer the website from your dedicated server to the new buyers server.

Selling domain names doesn’t have to be a complicated affair, just follow the steps in this article and you are sure to succeed.

How to Make Money Selling Domain Names is a post from: Digital Pacific Company Blog

Ten Tips for Picking the Right Domain Name

Digital Pacific — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:57:37 +0000

Choosing the right domain name is extremely important if you want to maximise the traffic your site receive online. With a great domain name , you can easily outrank even the most competitive sites.

So how exactly should you go about picking your domain name? Here are our top ten tips:

1. Do Your Keyword Research

Before you do anything, brainstorm five keywords that are related to your website. If you plan to sell ‘dog food’ online, then your keywords may be:

Dog Food
Doggie Biscuits
Pet Food
Healthy Pet Food
Food for Dogs

Once you decided upon your five keywords, try to combine as many keywords into one. For example, ‘Healthy Pet Food for Dogs’ would be a great combination from our hypothetical list.

2. Make Your Domain Unique

You don’t want your potential visitors to confuse your site with another more popular site. For example, if you’re thinking of creating a video sharing site, don’t call it YoTube. Make it unique and memorable

3. Make Sure Your URL is Easy to Type

Short and sweet is the golden rule here. Try to use common, everyday words in your domain name. You don’t want to scare people off with too many z’s, q’s or x’s.

Also, it is a lot easier to put short and easy to digest URL’s on business cards and flyers.

4. Only Register .com, .net or .org’s

This rule applies more to websites that are looking to create a brand. Fortunately, you can get these domains at Digital Pacific for under $10. They even offer dedicated servers!

5. Avoid Infringing Copyright

So many sites have gone under because they used a domain name that infringed on a big corporation’s copyright. To ensure that you don’t make the same mistake, check out copyright.gov before you buy.

6. Don’t Use Hyphens or Numbers

It may seem like a good idea to break up your domain name with hyphens or even a few numbers. Unfortunately they are notoriously hard to type and this frustration can cost you many potential visitors. It is much safer to simply avoid them.

7. Steer Clear of Trends
You want your website to stay fresh and in vogue for years to come, so don’t pin it to some silly fad. For example, if you want to setup a website on men’s pants, don’t call it ‘Jims Parachute Pants.com’ but instead ‘Jims Funky Pants.com’. This way you can keep your site fresh for many years.

8. Look Closely For Embarrassing Word Combinations

Always spell out your potential domain before you buy. This way you will avoid any embarrassing word combinations. For example, the keywords ‘Experts Exchange’ seems harmless enough, but when you use it in a URL – www.expertsexchange.com – it puts forward quite a different message!

9. Avoid Slang if Possible

If you have a choice between www.sarahsboutqie.com and www.sarahsBOOTieck.com , go for the URL with plain English spelling. You don’t want to scare off visitors with an unfamiliar domain name.

10. Don’t Delay

With millions of people online and buying domains, chances are you dream domain won’t stay unbought forever, so get it before somebody else does!

Ten Tips for Picking the Right Domain Name is a post from: Digital Pacific Company Blog

How to use Domain Names to Protect your Online Brand

Digital Pacific — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 07:08:03 +0000

It is important to begin developing strategies to protect your business’ brand as soon as you launch its web presence. A key element of your online brand is a good domain name.

You can find strategies for selecting a good domain name in a number of places. However, some basic principles to keep in mind are to try and keep the domain name simple, keep it close to your business name or how people refer to your business, and make it easy to pronounce and spell by avoiding hyphens, numerical characters and unusual spelling if you can.

Once you have selected a domain name that is available, you should register your domain with a reputable domain name registrar (a service that Digital Pacific provides). It is then time to start protecting your brand. It’s best to start doing this before you launch your presence, as the process will become more difficult and costly as your brand grows in popularity.

Prevent Domain Prospecting

Domain name prospectors buy domains that might be used by businesses that aren’t yet online. They are gambling that once a business decides it wants the domain name, it will be prepared to buy the domain off the prospector for an inflated price. This is also referred to as cyber squatting, and is a practice that has extended to buying similar sounding domain names and obvious misspellings of common words. Prospectors will often set up small portal web pages at a domain and use broadly relevant links to take advantage of affiliate marketing and advertising. These portals generate revenue through page views, high click through rates and affiliate purchases.

Domain prospecting is an issue for you and your business because typos happen all the time. Less savvy internet users may not even realise that they have typed in the wrong address and will think that a domain prospector’s useless page is your business. This is not a good outcome for you as you are unable to control the experience that these potential clients have while they are searching for your products and services.

Strike First

A quick and effective way to stop someone from squatting on variations of your domain name is to register the most likely variations yourself. You should consider registering variations across the major top level domains of .com, .org and .net, as well as the country level domains of your main markets for maximum protection. For example, in Australia this means registering .com.au, .org.au and .net.au domains where possible. AuDA, the body responsible for the governance of Australian domain names, places specific restrictions around registering many of the .au domains. This will reduce the likelihood of opportunistic squatting around your .au domain names, but will not protect you completely.

Guard Against Bad Publicity

Another domain name phenomenon worth watching is disgruntled customers (and sometimes competitors) using variations of your domain name to publish negative impressions of your brand. A common technique is to add the word “sucks”or something similar to the end of a domain name and use the site to publish negative reviews and opinions of a service. A well-known example is the large number of sites that have been created to discuss the service of PayPal (try typing “paypal sucks” into Google for a taste). While it won’t be economical to register every potential offensive domain, it could be to your benefit to own and control the more obvious options if you operate business that focuses on customer service.

Be Ever Vigilant

Protecting your brand through domain name ownership is not a “cheap and easy” task. Less reputable organisations will continue to look for new ways to gain an advantage off the back of your brand, and different techniques will continue to be developed. However, protecting your domain name has clear and immediate benefits for all businesses serious about owning their brand and reputation online.

How to use Domain Names to Protect your Online Brand is a post from: Digital Pacific Company Blog

IPv4 Exhaustion – Is The Internet Running Out Of Room?

Digital Pacific — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 05:37:05 +0000

As you may have already read, the internet is, in theory, about to run out of IP addresses. “What does that even mean?” I hear you ask, and I’m glad you did.

There is a lot of conflicting information about this address situation (also known as “IPv4 exhaustion“) and what it means for internet users, with the most obvious concern cited that somehow the internet is about to “run out of room”.

Rest assured that this is not the case. There are plenty of IP addresses for everybody.

What is an IP address anyway?

IP stands for Internet Protocol, which is a way for devices to communicate with each other over a network. While the technical details of the Internet Protocol and the network communications protocol stack are many and detailed, it is enough to know that every device that communicates on a network that uses IP needs to have a unique number. This number is referred to as an IP address. Almost every network currently in use, including the internet, uses IP as part of its underlying framework.

There are two versions of IP in use today: IPv4 and IPv6.

Why does it look like we are running out of addresses?

The way that IP is structured creates a finite number of possible addresses. The allocation of these addresses is managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which allocated the last large blocks of addresses earlier this year. While there are still many addresses available in already allocated address blocks, it is true that the supply of new IPv4 addresses is “exhausted”.

IP addresses were allocated inefficiently in the early days of the internet, leaving a large number of addresses unused and in the hands of private corporations and government bodies. As the number of people and devices attempting to connect to the internet has grown, the pressure has increased on the publicly available number of IP addresses.

While techniques such as private network addresses and Network Address Translation have been developed to combat the issue, IPv4 exhaustion remains.

IPv4 exhaustion is a concern as IP addresses underpin something that makes the internet easier to navigate — domain names. While machines can remember a series of numbers for a server address, it is not as easy for humans. Domain names were invented as a way of assigning natural language to IP addresses. After all, it is easier to remember www.digitalpacific.com.au than it is to remember 203.19.59.122.

Luckily for everyone, IPv6 is waiting in the wings.

What is the difference between IPv4 and IPv6?

The key difference between IPv4 and IPv6 in relation to the problem of IPv4 exhaustion is the number of addresses available for use. IPv4 uses a 32 bit numbering system, which allows for 2^32 or 4,294,967,296 theoretical unique addresses, although in practice the number available is smaller. By contrast, IPv6 uses a 128 bit numbering system, increasing the number of theoretically available addresses to 2^128, or approximately 340 undecillion (a number so large as to be almost meaningless).

Why are we still using IPv4 if IPv6 solves the problem?

A substantial obstacle preventing wide scale adoption of IPv6 is that software and hardware support is still maturing. While the latest versions of most operating systems now support IPv6 natively, hardware support is still immature, particularly at the consumer level. Consumers replace hardware such as routers and switches less often than they upgrade their software, leaving a large amount of legacy hardware still in use that is not IPv6 ready or capable.

Another issue is that IPv6 was not designed to be interoperable with IPv4. Anyone who wishes to offer an IPv6 service has to run it alongside an existing IPv4 service and use special network gateways to translate between the two different versions. This arrangement requires a service provider to maintain two separate services, increasing the amount of resources required to operate their business.

Should I be worried?

Short answer: no.

For the average internet user, the internet will continue as it has always done before. For example, Digital Pacific was recently assigned around 64 million IPv6 addresses, guaranteeing that your favourite web hosting company won’t run out anytime soon. This does not include all the IPv4 addresses still available for Digital Pacific customers.

The techniques that have been pioneered to combat IPv4 exhaustion will continue to provide enough space for the internet to keep growing in the short term. These techniques also buy time necessary to enable IPv6 adoption to increase and to enable more IPv6-ready consumer hardware to enter the market.

For now, there is still enough room for everybody.

IPv4 Exhaustion – Is The Internet Running Out Of Room? is a post from: Digital Pacific Company Blog

Domain Registration Scam

Digital Pacific — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 01:19:42 +0000

We’ve told you about domain renewal scams before and would like to bring a similar one to your attention. Once again we’ve chosen to call this a scam even though it is technically a legit, yet deceiving, business practice.

This letter was forwarded on to us from one of our customers who own a .com.au domain. The way the scam operates is through a document sent in the mail that looks like an invoice for your domain. In reality it’s asking you to register a slight variation of your domain name at a heavily inflated price. As you can see on the letter the stated domain is a .com where the recipient owns a .com.au domain.

Because these letters look like an invoice a lot of people are paying them, no questions asked, especially with the prospect of receiving a free gift (a portable DVD player in this case) for paying before a certain date. As we said, technically this is a legal operation – notice the ‘this is an invitation to register’ in small text – but it’s extremely misleading and unethical and we don’t want people to be taken advantage of!

What to do if you get one of these letters? Throw it in the bin. Or if it’s from a different letter, please let us know about it so that we can bring it to the attention of our readers.

Domain Registration Scam is a post from: Digital Pacific Company Blog