I checked on the net about TLD’s (that’s Top Level Domains) and domain name details and this is that I got :

".com" names were originally designated for commercial (for profit) organizations or individuals but now are typically used for any purpose.

".net" was originally for network providers, but can now be used for any purpose, commercial, non-profit, or personal.

".org" was originally designated for non-profit organizations or groups, but now can be used for any purpose, commercial, non-profit, or personal.

".edu" is for 4-year, degree granting colleges/universities ONLY.

".gov" is for US Federal Government agencies ONLY.

Of course this only applies to the US but it makes sense doesn’t it?

Last time I checked, CMPB does none of the things associated with a dot com. I think that they should have gone with a .gov.sg, org.sg or something. What the hell is this all about? So I checked on the local internet registration site and found this out. These are the guidelines that are given for the application of a domain name here :

.com.sg

Applicants for domain names under this category must be commercial entities which are either registered or are about to be registered with the Registry of Companies and Businesses (RCB) or its equivalent, such as the Trade Development Board (TDB), or any other professional associations (e.g. Board of Architects (BOA), or The Law Society (LawSoc). A foreign company which is not so registered may only apply for such a domain name if it has a representative in Singapore. This local representative must itself be registered with the Registry of Companies (or its equivalents) and Businesses and be authorized by the foreign company to apply for the registration of the domain name.

This category is for network providers in Singapore. Applicants for domain names under this category, please see these detailed guidelines on requirements.

This domain is for "Not-for-profit" organizations, i.e. non-commercial entities.

Applicants for domain names under this category shall either be registered or are about to be registered with the Registry of Societies. Town Councils and Community Centers should also apply under this category.

This domain is for all government organizations.

Applicants for domain names under this category must be members of the Singapore Government, which include Ministries, Organs of State, and Statutory Boards. (hmmm... who does this sound like?)

This domain is for educational institutions.

Applicants for domain names under this category must be educational institutions registered with the Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore. All primary and secondary schools on the list (given by MOE) must register and obtain their domain name from MOE.

This domain is for the registration of personal domain names.

Once again, shouldn’t CMPB be a .gov.sg? I think so. This is why when we decided to set up this website, we did go through a number of versions of the name. All TLD’s of teamabsolut were available. We settled on .net since we were a bunch of people that were interested in bikes and riding.

I also heard that MINDEF is thinking of going on line. So what are we going to have next. MINDEF.com? What a joke. Really Mr SBA, if you don’t understand that internet revolution, that’s fine but don’t mess it up for the rest of us. Its bad enough that we have to put up with proxy servers and now this. Unless we set up a teamabsolut company, this website could never exist in Singapore! One step forward for technology, ten steps back for free enterprise and internet freedom.

The best part of this story is this. I checked the web for the owners of www.cmpb.com and guess what I found. It’s registered to some guy at 290 BVARASM 80, CMANAGUAP, TE 00000, NI .That’s Nicaragua. Ha! And if Mindef is thinking of going on line, www.mindef.com is registered to Ketelmeerstraat 192, Lelystad, FL 8226 JX, NL. That’s in Holland. So I don’t think that we’re going to be seeing any of these URL’s in use here!

And the other thing I don’t get is why it costs so much to register a domain name. Anywhere in the US, you can register a .com, .org and so on for US$30. Here in this technologically advanced country that we live in, using the nic.net.sg, I have discovered that it costs an person or a company S$60 for the first domain name and S$120 for the next domain name. Where is all this money going to? I don’t get any of this. But at the end of the day, I’m just glad that we have our little home on the net and don’t have to deal with all of the SBA and goons at Sg NIC.