# [SOLVED] Domain name registrars questions..



## jasonramirez (Jul 17, 2012)

This question is just out of curiosity. I tried googleing it but did not find any answer. We buy domain names from web registrars like go daddy or network solutions and many others. My question is, how do they operate? Can I also be a domain name registrar like them (go daddy, network solutions)?

We buy domains names from them at an average of $10 per year.. Do they buy also these domains from elsewhere? If I search for a domain name and nobody owns it, can't I just make it mine?

Who gives domain name registrars the authority or capability to sell domain names? Is it by the government or a something else? Another thing I notices is that all these domain name registrars I have encountered so far have been American based companies. Is it (being a domain name registrar) really limited to Americans only?


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## Fjandr (Sep 26, 2012)

*Re: Domain name registrars questions..*

ICANN authorizes who may operate as a registrar. There is a yearly fee of $4,000 plus a variable fee due to ICANN. On top of that are the administrative costs paid to ICANN per domain registered and payments to whichever organization acts as the registry operator of the top-level domain you are registering. For example, for each .com domain registered, you would need to pay the registry fee VeriSign charges, as they are the registry operator for the .com TLD.


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## jasonramirez (Jul 17, 2012)

*Re: Domain name registrars questions..*

Hmm... So if a group of people were to figure out a way to bring ICANN and all of their services down.. the internet as we know it will be no more? 

I got this from the ICANN website...
"What Does ICANN Do?
To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer -- a name or a number. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination, we wouldn't have one global Internet."


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## SteveThePirate (Jan 12, 2012)

*Re: Domain name registrars questions..*

Very unlikely, ICANN only authorizes domain name regulations and registrations they don't host the whole internet.


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## Fjandr (Sep 26, 2012)

*Re: Domain name registrars questions..*

Exactly as Steve said. Bringing down ICANN would be akin to bringing down the transportation authority in a country. The road infrastructure would still exist an be perfectly functional.


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## jasonramirez (Jul 17, 2012)

*Re: Domain name registrars questions..*

But without the ICANN, wouldn't everything be a mess? Without rules and regulations, we could have duplicate IP addresses, similar domain names, etc. If I type in an address in the address bar, it would point me to maybe a lot of websites if they all use the same domain name.

The road infrastructure would still exist, but without signs and directions, we all would get lost along the way right?


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## Fjandr (Sep 26, 2012)

*Re: Domain name registrars questions..*

Well, it would mess up the L root DNS server, which is the only one directly controlled by ICANN, but it would simply mean no new updates belonging to that server would be propagated. All existing records would remain intact worldwide.

Perhaps you should read a bit about DNS, root name servers, backbone routing, and how the Internet actually runs. ICANN is an administrative organization. It's actually more akin to the DMV. If the DMV ceased to exist tomorrow, very little would change immediately. It would be a slow process whereby things would break down a bit, but there's enough redundancy that the annoyances would mostly be minor. The Internet is an incredibly resilient, redundant entity. It's not that easy to make it go away. You can only lop parts of it off by actually disabling all of the backbone connections serving a particular part of the world.


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