WHOIS Privacy

Domain name is web alternative to IP address which is used to identify your server or website. In other words it is string of easy to remember and easy to spell word(s) which identify your server or website and will hide IP address that most people aren't interested in seeing or using.

Domain name registration is act of reserving a name (read domain name) on the internet for certain period of time, usually this is from 1 to 10 years. Domain remain your as long as you renew it which prolongate expiration date. Domain expiration date is a date when domain become inactive (also called as expires) and available for public registration.

Since ST Domain Registry operates on a first come, first served basis - we proceed with domain registration immediately once order is placed and paid so domain name become reserved by a customer without any delay. Updates to root zone which propagate domain name servers settings takes no more than couple of minutes once domain registration has been completed.

Once domain expire - it will become inactive and enter renew grace period. Inactive domains removed from root zone and will not resolve into IP but still will be reserved by domain registrant. Renew grace period means that domain name has expired but current domain registrant is still able to renew it without any additional fee and restore full control over it. Domain is kept in renew grace period for 40 days and will enter redemption period after that.

Please refer to our knowledge base for more information about domain life cycle.

The Domain name system (DNS) is a system that translate your friendly domain name into IP address. This is not a server or software but more massive network of servers that comprises largest digital database in a world. Each server in this network is called name server (NS).

In the beginning, before world wide web, computers would connect to each other via IP addresses, which are more like strings of segmented numbers separated by dots. DNS attach your domain name to IP address so that your website visitors can easily remember and come back later on to the web addresses they have visited earlier.
As an example 5.150.255.234 is IP address for ST Registry WHOIS Server and domain whois.nic.st refer to this IP address.

Name servers (definition for NS) are servers that has DNS software installed on it which makes it a part of world wide web DNS system. This server is designated for managing domain name zones where each zone identify where origin name or its sub-domains should refer to. During domain registration process you are required to define name servers which is requirement from Domain Name Registry to propagate it on root NS.

To be able to apply zone settings from DNS zone management service provider you should define service provider name servers for corresponding domain name.