Question
Mary J. writes:
"Where do people get those cool .com or .net addresses?...I've been meaning to get one"

Answer
04/12/99

Oh yeah, nothing beats having your own .com or .net address. Today just about everybody has one...ok, maybe not everybody has one but that will change soon because everyday thousands of people get one.

If you want to be a part of the .com or .net frenzy then I'd suggest you go to Network Solutions web site...Internic. Network Solutions provides web addresses to people who sign up for them.

Before you sign up for a web address or domain, keep the following in mind.

• There is a fee payable to Network Solutions for the service, the current fee is $70 for two years.

• There are renewal fees once the two years are up, the current renewal fee is $35 per year.

• You do not own the address, think of it as renting it.

There are other things you should think about before getting a web address, like the following.

• Once you get your address/domain, you'll need a company or ISP that offers hosting services so you can actually publish your site. Prices for hosting services vary, you can expect to pay as little as $10 per month all the way to thousands of dollars! It all depends on what you need.

• You should have at least some knowledge of building web pages and FTP software to be able to manage your files.

If you really want to get a web address then I'd suggest you do a lot of research beforehand and consider the many factors involved in getting one.