I’m completely dumbfounded.
I searched up a domain name I would like, and it turned out that no one owned it, it was just a ”Can’t reach the site” message. My immediate thought is how can I get this site, it should be free right? Since I’m not actually renting it or buying it from anyone, it’s completely unused.
I google it up and can’t find a single answer, all everyone says is you need to buy a subscription from a company like GoDaddy, Domain.com, One.com and others. These companies don’t own the site I wanted, they must register it in some way before they sell it to me, so why can’t I just register it myself and skip the middle man?
Seriously, are these companies paying google to hide this info?
In: Technology
If anyone could register any name they wanted, people would try to use the same ones as others. We set up a global service that allows us all to agree on who owns what domain. We need to trust those allowed to add to that system, which means verification and fees. You can certainly become your own registrar, and register names on your own behalf, but it is very expensive if you’re not planning on registering thousands of domains.
Edit: Forgot to mention, you can use any domain you’d like, but since you’re the only one who agrees you own it, it will only work on your local network. If you set up your own domain lookup service that other people agree to use, they can see those domains too. This type of thing is often used for domain hijacking attacks. You get the victim to use your nameservers, then when they go to their bank website, they’re really going to the one you set up to look like their bank.
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