[Nottingham] registering web domain

[Martin Waryniak]

Hi all,

this is not a Linux question but I though that you would be able to 
answer it anyway :-)
When you pay a company to host your website on a certain domain name, do 
you "own" the domain name as well or does it belong to the company that 
hosts your site?
And what's the situation if you register a domain name and pay for it, 
will any provider host your site under your registered domain name? If 
someone does host your website, is it still your domain name for a 
couple of years or so?

Thanks,
Martin

-- 
Martin Waryniak
School of Computer Science
University of Nottingham