Understanding a Domain Name
A domain name normally consists of two parts - your company name and the organisation
type/region. For example, Acme Toys is the company name therefore the domain name is
acmetoys.com.au -.
The .com.au indicates Acme Toys Pty Ltd is a commercial organisation in Australia.
.com.au Commercial organisations in Australia
.net.au Network infrastructure and Internet Service
Provider in Australia
.gov.au Australian government and semi-government
departments in Australia
.org.au for organisations, clubs and various forms of
affiliated groups in Australia
.edu.au Australian educational institutions in
Australia
.asn.au Australian Associations in Australia
.com Commercial organisations in the United States
.net Network infrastructure and Internet Service
Providers in the United States
.gov US government and semi-government departments
.edu educational institutions in the United States
Country Codes
Below is a short list of countries and their respective two letter abbreviations. For a
full list please refer to: http://www.webcentral.com.au/workshop/countries.htm
Country Domains
Antarctica aq
Australia au
Canada ca
China cn
France fr
Germany de
Hong Kong hk
India in
Israel il
Italy it
Japan jp
Malaysia my
New Zealand nz
Singapore sg
Taiwan tw
Thailand th
United Kingdom uk
Exceptions To The Rule
Usually you can tell where a company is located by looking at their domain name. Normally
.com, .net and .org would be indicative of a company or organisation located in the United
States, but because there are less restrictions for the .com domain, a company located in
another part of the world can register a domain which ends with .com, .net or .org.
WebCentral can register your name in the .com domain, however, a surcharge applies. This
surcharge is necessary because there are millions of registered domains and it's often
difficult to find a domain name that hasn't already been taken.