Domain name registrar refers to an organization or commercial body that manages reservation of internet domain names.
The process of Domain registration involves registering a domain name that identifies one or more IP addresses and suitable to use in URLs in order to identify particular web pages.
Domain names are formed by DNS (Domain Name System) rules. A domain name in general, represents an Internet Protocol (IP) resource such as a personal computer used to access Internet, a serving computer hosting a web site, and/ or any other service communicated via the Internet.
The individual or organization registering a domain name is referred to as a domain name registrant. The process of Domain registration needs utilization of services of domain name registrar, an ICANN or national ccTLD.
The registrants help individuals or organizations to register domain names using an extension such as .com, .org, .net, .info, .biz, .name, .pro, .tv, .mobi.
The registrar must be certified by a generic top-level domain (gTLD) registry and/ or a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registry.
During the process of registration, one needs to provide the contact information that will be available publicly through the WHOIS database. Individuals or organizations who are not comfortable providing their personal information, they can contact the proxy registrars.
The registrars will supply their own information. There may be a small fee for this. It is always advisable to go through the terms and conditions carefully before opting for a domain proxy. Anybody can go to a WHOIS search engine, and enter a domain name to see who has registered it.
The information of domain registration is maintained by domain name registries that contract with domain registrars to provide service of registration to the public. A registrar is selected by an end user, the former provides registration service.
The registrar thus becomes the designated registrar for the domain chosen by the user. The designated registrar may modify or delete information about domain names in the central registry database. For an end user, it is not abnormal to switch registrars calling a domain transfer process between involved registrars to govern specific domain transfer policies.
Domain names need to be renewed before the registration expires, or else the domain reverts back and not available to the users.