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Posts tagged ‘Domain Name’

21
Jan

Privacy, Blogs & Domain Names

Privacy is a good thing

Practical Privacy and Domain Name tips

The bottom line is, a domain name can help brand your blog or website, especially if your blog becomes popular. The reasons you might want a domain name are nicely explained by Dena Haines here. Now besides the “whys” of getting a domain name, there are some very important privacy issues to know if you do acquire a domain name.

I was actually involved with the domain-name boom in the early 2000s. We had quite a lot of domain names. Mostly it was my brother’s business, but I designed his website. This involvement caused me to learn about the domain name business. Acquiring a domain name can lead you to many uncharted waters with a myriad of choices.

Before I go down the path of reducing privacy risks, the next two paragraphs are on picking a domain name, and some related thoughts. Then back to reducing privacy risks. One side note, the Post Office Street Address Service (mentioned later) can also resolve the problem of porch pirates who steal your packages.

Domain Names Tips: A blogger named Erin Michaela put together a fine article loaded with tips on picking a domain name, where to buy one, what to do and not do, and other salient topics. Start with that link to get some good tips on picking a decent domain name. It’s not totally comprehensive, but it’s solid enough.

Maybe get a domain name, maybe don’t: A domain name is not mandatory, but it might be useful for recognition or your “brand”. If you want to blog, there are many ways to do this fast without a domain name. You can start blogging in the next 15 minutes by signing up for a Google account, and using blogger.com, or getting a free WordPress account. Of course, you’re reading my blog now at Medium.com. While Medium.com is apparently free, I did have to pay $5.00 a month to get past some annoying restrictions. I’m using medium.com at the moment, but I am also trying different options such as WordPress. You can even host your own website on your own private server at home, or through Amazon Web Services if you possess the technical foundation.

One very important and overlooked aspect of domain names is your privacy. When you buy a domain name, it’s mandatory to provide your contact information and have it in the very public WHOIS database. Everyone can see it. If you do not use precautions, you will be spammed at your address, phone, and email relentlessly. The contact information includes your name, physical and email address and phone number. This is required by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

You really want to protect yourself from spammers, marketers, online fraudsters, stalkers and so forth. I’ve owned numerous domain names and was at one time spammed a bit at my mailbox and email address.

You can protect yourself with even a few safeguards.

  • Use a private domain name registration where available. I recommend two companies for registering a domain name, NetworkSolutions, and NameCheap:
  • NetworkSolutions has a very good privacy feature explained at this link. If you use them, seriously consider their privacy service. They have a practical example of this service at this link (scroll down at that page).
  • Another company called namecheap.com has a wonderful privacy feature called whoisguard available for free when you buy a domain with them. Please seriously consider that feature if you use them, it is free for life as I type this article. In principle, I recommend any registrar that offers a viable domain name privacy feature. I just happen to have first-hand knowledge of the two above.
  • Get a Google Voice phone number (free) and assign it to your phone. You have increased controls over spam and can even block people, spammers, companies with a sound that makes it appear that phone number is no longer valid. You are not giving away your primary number this way. If you move, you can point your Google Voice number to your new number easily.
  • Buy a post office box and get the Street Addressing service and assign your domain name registration to your PO Box even if it is private. (This is for the United States, contact your nation’s mail delivery agency if you are outside the US.) Please see their important explanation quoted below.

With this service, you will have the option of using the street address of this Post Office location for your mailing address in addition to your PO Box number. For example, if a Post Office is located on 500 Main Street and you have PO Box 59, your mail would be addressed 500 Main Street #59. You will also be able to use the street address to receive most packages and deliveries through private carriers, such as UPS and FedEx. Both Street Addressed mail and PO Box addressed mail can be delivered to your PO Box

https://www.usps.com/pobox/customer-agreement-for-premium-po-box-service-enhancements.pdf
  • There is more to the topic on domain privacy at this Domain Privacy Wikipedia article, it doesn’t quite read like a legal document but it’s useful to know, or to have as a reference.

Here’s what we’ve covered.

  1. If you buy a domain name, consider using one of the mentioned registrars and use their form of privacy guard to protect your contact information
  2. Consider a Post Office box and Google Voice to isolate yourself from spammers etc.
  3. In the United States, you can use the Post Office box to also receive packages from deliveries by using the U.S. Postal Service’s “Street Addressing Service” explained earlier.
  4. I didn’t cover it in detail, but you can take your domain name you purchased from NetworkSolutions.com or Namecheap.com and assign it to your blog/blogging service. I’ll make a blog post on that along with a list of blogging services another time in the near future.
  5. You can run your own server at your home, and point the world to your server. Please only do this if you have the technical foundation and understand the ramifications. This will be another future post. You’ll need to maintain your hardware, operating system and software and monitor it against people who will attempt to take over your system.
  6. You can rent a server, even short term from Amazon.com Web Services. They offer a one-year free virtual micro-server. You have to pay for the service after that. It’s a good quick short-term solution, and they have many useful options. I recommend this only for those who have the technical foundation to stand up to this.

While I am not a representative of Red Hat and my views about Red Hat are just my own, I am a member of the official Red Hat Accelerators community, which gives me the connection to Red Hat and through which I engage with other RHA team members.