Pricing

• $70 set-up fee. This includes domain name registration with the InterNIC, the first year's maintenance fee and set-up on ChicagoNet' DNS servers, plus configuration for up to 10 email aliases.
• $35 recurring yearly maintenance fee, beginning one year after registration. This covers not only the InterNIC's maintenance fees ($35) but the ongoing computer resources devoted by ChicagoNet to maintaining the domain name($35).

What Is A Domain Name?

Domain names are an integral part of Internet addressing. All Internet activity involves domain names for both the sender and receiver. You can think of domain names being kind of like city, state, and zip code all rolled into one.

The domain name in an email address ensures that the message will be routed to the proper place. A domain name consists of the rightmost two words after the "@" symbol in email addressing, i.e., chicagonet.net in info@chicagonet.net.  A company that registers the domain "company.com" will be able to receive email at an address in the form: username@company.com.

Domain names are also used in World Wide Web addresses, also known as URL's.  For example, if the company mentioned above that registered company.com were to create a web page, it could have an Internet address of "http://www.company.com".  See the information at http://www.chicagonet.net/service/website.htm to learn more about ChicagoNet web hosting services. 

How Your Domain Name Will Work

• All ChicagoNet customers fall under the Chicagonet.net domain unless they have registered their own custom domain names. The Domain Name Registration Form included with this information pack will allow you to register a domain name for your business or organization.
• The domain name allows your organization's users to receive email at the new domain.  All of  your organization's current ChicagoNet accounts will automatically be transferred to your domain when it is completed.  Your current email addresses "@chicagonet.net" will continue to work as well.
• In conjunction with one of ChicagoNet' commercial web hosting services, the domain name allows your web site to be accessed using the new domain name.  The domain name cannot be used with our personal web site package.(Home pages for personal users).

Rules for Selecting a Domain Name

• The root-level name, e.g. ".net" in Chicagonet.net, must be either com, org, gov, or net depending on the type of organization.
• VERY IMPORTANT: The name must not already be registered; most acronyms and common names have been registered already. If you are not sure if the domain you are interested in is taken or not, you may consult with an ChicagoNet Sales Associate at 708 656-6900, or you may check the InterNIC's database directly at http://rs.internic.net/cgi-bin/whois.
• The only characters permitted in a domain name are the letters a-z, the numbers 1-9 (the domain cannot start with a number), and the hyphen character. All other characters and symbols will not work in a domain name.
• The domain name should not be a trademark of another company

Domain Name Services

ChicagoNet provides many additional services along with every Custom Domain Name that we maintain. There are no additional charges for these services, except where specified.

• Although your official username must be unique on our system, you can receive email at additional addresses other than your username(s) using aliases. For example, if you want to have a username of joes@company.com but would like to receive mail addressed to sales@company.com and info@company.com at the same account, we can set up these aliases for you. This allows your company to have more email addresses than actual Internet users.
• We can set up subdomains for you. Subdomains are simply subsets of domain names, used to group addresses within a large domain. For example, if you have a domain of company.com, illinois.company.com would be a possible subdomain. Any time a "." precedes the ".com", there is a subdomain. Companies with branch offices in different cities often choose to make use of subdomains.
• If you already have a domain name which is active with or registered to another provider, then you may have the name transferred to our service. This is recommended if you intend to run e-mail or WWW services with ChicagoNet.  If this is the case, please contact ChicagoNet Sales at 708 656-6900 and request the Domain Name Transfer Application. This application includes a Letter of Agency which confers upon ChicagoNet the right to transfer the maintenance of the domain to our site.

Clearing Up Misconceptions

There are many common misconceptions about domain names. We will clarify here what domain names can and cannot do for you, the user.

• The number of dialup accounts you have at ChicagoNet is always exactly equal to the number of separate email boxes you have. Registering a domain name never changes that. Every user account must be unique on our system.  You can set up additional email aliases to existing accounts.
• The results of having a customized email address are purely cosmetic. In other words, nothing changes once you've registered your domain name through ChicagoNet other than the way your addressing appears to the outside world. Your domain name will not change the parameters of your Internet connection.
• Registering a domain name does NOT mean that you will automatically have a World Wide Web page with that domain name as the address. Web pages are available through ChicagoNet as an additional service. Please see our Web information at http://www.chicagonet.net/service/website.htm to learn about our web hosting services.
• Domain names do not automatically give you a static IP address, or an Internet host of your own. If your business or organization has a dedicated LAN connection through ChicagoNet, then you will have static IP addresses and additional Internet hosts. Dialup customers will always reach our system with dynamic IP addresses.