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Money matters: Investment structure
Graham Macdonald
MBMG International Ltd.
One of the basic problems with many of the consistently
top performing investment funds is that originally they were not set up to
accept investments from retail investors and therefore they are almost
invariably structured as non-distributing offshore funds (roll-up funds).
This means that, for UK investors, while income can
roll up gross when the capital remains invested, a charge to income tax
arises on disposal of units. A disposal for tax purposes includes
encashment of units, switching between funds, and assigning units to
someone else, for example to children or into trust.
The fact that gains are subject to income tax makes
such funds unattractive on purely tax grounds in comparison to authorized
unit trusts and offshore distributor funds, as gains on these funds can be
reduced by CGT taper relief and they can be offset against the annual CGT
exemption.
Whilst you retain your UK residence, one way of
sheltering such funds is to invest through a tax free ISA. There are
several kinds of fund plans on the market which qualify as ISAs. The
problem with this route, however, is that the type of individual who will
understand fully investment in such funds will tend to be wealthy. Such
funds also generally have high minimum entry levels, usually between GBP
50,000 and GBP 100,000, so the GBP 7,000 ISA limit restricts choice and
the level of return that is tax sheltered. Also most of our readers have
already given up their UK residence and therefore are ineligible to invest
in ISAs.
An alternative for investors is to invest via an
offshore bond wrapper. Most funds are capable of qualifying as investment
links within non-personal collective investment bonds. The tax-efficient
bond wrapper can add considerable value to the overall investment story.
The tax treatments of encashments of funds held within offshore bonds can
produce attractive results through the use of the 5% withdrawal allowance,
top slicing and time apportionment relief.
However, even leaving the ability to encash tax
efficiently, returns can be improved by investing in roll-up funds via a
bond wrapper because of the benefit to tax-free switching. This is an
important, as sooner or later almost all investors either want or need to
switch funds, whether because of changes in economic conditions, a change
of fund manager, better alternatives or simply changed investment
objectives.
It’s doubtful whether direct investments into funds
can be effected as cheaply as via the institutional terms passed on to
investors through bonds, but for the purposes of this article, let’s
assume that somehow the investor manages to negotiate institutional terms
for himself and thereby saves the bond company’s charges of around 1%
upfront and ฃ600 p.a.
To illustrate this point, let us assume an investment
of GBP 500,000 and a return of 7% pa after fund charges. After five years,
the return before tax but after charges would be ฃ690,723 for the
bond and ฃ701,276 for the direct holding in the fund. The difference
is due to the ‘additional’ bond wrapper charges.
However, if one assumes that a fund switch occurs in
year five, and the client is a 40% taxpayer, then the picture changes
significantly. The amount available for re-investment through the bond
remains at GBP 690,723 as no tax is payable.
However, the amount available for reinvestment on the
direct holding drops to GBP 620,766 because over GBP 80,000 income tax is
payable at the time the switch occurs.
Carry this example forward for a 25 year term, and
assume full fund turnover every five years, and the net returns after tax
would be GBP 1,788,589 for the bond, and GBP 1,474,884 for the direct
holding. A total difference in return of GBP 313,705, solely as a result
of the ability to switch tax free within the bond wrapper.
Part of our job at MBMG International is to devise exit
strategies from the bond to further increase net returns for our clients
by, for example, utilising the 5% per year exemption, timing withdrawals
to avoid/reduce UK tax, or assignment to a spouse or children who may be
in lower tax bands.
Remember that UK nationals fall out of the income tax
net as soon as they become non-resident (effectively as soon as they go
overseas if they remain there for a complete tax year or more) whereas the
Capital Gains net still applies until they’ve been overseas for 5
complete tax years.
The above data and research was compiled from
sources believed to be reliable. However, neither MBMG International Ltd
nor its officers can accept any liability for any errors or omissions in
the above article nor bear any responsibility for any losses achieved as a
result of any actions taken or not taken as a consequence of reading the
above article. For more information please contact Graham Macdonald on
graham @mbmg-international.com
Snap Shots: A new way
!
by Harry Flashman
Successful photographers are very often ones who have
discovered a “different” way of seeing the subjects they (and you and
I) photograph. One such photographer was Man Ray.
 He
was an artist who used both paints and pictures to express his dreams and
fantasies. “I paint what cannot be photographed. I photograph what I do
not wish to paint.” With that aim in mind, Man Ray went on and broke
just about every ‘rule’ of photography that was ever thought up.
Man Ray rejected the ‘usual’, even his own name!
Born Emmanuel Radnitsky in Philadelphia in 1890, he adopted the name Man
Ray. He bought his first camera in 1914 expressly to photograph his own
paintings for collectors or galleries, but then came to explore the
artistic possibilities that this new medium could offer.
In 1921, at the urging of fellow Dadaists Marcel
Duchamp and Francis Picabia, Man Ray moved to Paris to join the growing
cultural avant-garde movement. There he worked in painting and photography
while supporting himself through portrait commissions and fashion
photography, which appeared regularly in such magazines as Harper’s
Bazaar and Vogue during the 1930s.
However, by this time he had gone past Dadaism and into
Surrealism. Man Ray sought to create a Surrealist vision of the female
form and began to utilize such photographic techniques as solarization
(originating from a dark-room accident), dynamic cropping, over
enlargement and over development in an effort to create this. His use of
what he called “Rayographs” where he placed objects directly on the
photographic paper to get the image, was just another of these.
After the Germans invaded Paris in 1940, Man Ray
returned to the United States, settling in Hollywood with the intention of
pursuing filmmaking, but this did not really hold him, and in 1951 he
returned to Paris, where he lived and worked until his death on November
18, 1976.
Now I am not suggesting that you rush out and place
unexposed film on your foreheads in a dark room and ‘think’ the
images, print the results and call it ‘art’. (It has been done
already, by the way.) What I am suggesting is that you should stop for a
while and consider something unusual, compared to your “standard” way
of taking shots.
Everyone gets into the habit of taking photographs in
one particular way. And habits certainly do die hard, even if it is just
always taking shots in the horizontal (landscape) format.
What I am suggesting this weekend is to devote one
complete roll of film to some new or different ways of doing things. Many
times it is impossible to predict what the final result may be. You may
have discovered a radical new approach, a highly individualistic way of
presentation. The end result may not be to everyone’s taste, but you
will never know till you try. And what is a roll of film worth compared to
the fun (and fame and fortune, perhaps) that this weekend could produce
for you.
To get you going, try these. Take photographs of
everyday things, cars, houses or even people, while lying on the floor
looking up. A baby’s eye view. It would certainly be worth re-viewing
some items from this very low viewpoint. OK, I know you will end up
looking up people’s noses - but it just might work. You won’t know
till you get the pictures back.
Other possibilities are taking shots with your car’s
headlights as the source of light. (Yes, it has been done before too, and
the end results were spectacular.) Put a red filter over the flash on your
camera and see what you get, taking photographs in the daylight.
Can you see where this week’s column (and Man Ray) is
taking you? Into the realms of the unknown, because it is from there, that
true ‘art’ photography comes. I do not mean great technical expertise.
Just art.
Let your imagination run wild and try it this weekend. You never know!
The ladies out there could even change their name to “WoMan Ray”!
Modern Medicine: Melanomas - Are you at risk?
by Dr. Iain Corness, Consultant
A few months ago I wrote about lumps and bumps
on the skin, that fantastic wrapping that we all need to keep forever, if we are
to remain healthy! And what a wonderful organ our skin really is. It regulates
the passage of water and electrolytes and keeps that internal collection of
bones and organs neatly covered with a self-sealing all enveloping wrapping. We
can’t live without our skin.
Unfortunately we tend to abuse our skin, and I must admit I
am no exception. Sun block is not high on my list of picnic requirements, even
though it should be.
Like all of our other organs, the skin organ can have
problems too, and these range from minor rashes, fungal infections, cysts, warts
and other “lumpy” conditions that we call tumours. Now the very word
‘tumours’ strikes fear in the hearts of many, but this is purely a term to
describe growths on the skin, which may or may not be ‘malignant’. In fact,
most skin tumours are not malignant (called ‘benign’), and even with the
malignant ones, the majority are not going to kill you.
Having said that, it does not mean that you should ignore
skin growths. While most will not kill you, they can make the last few years
very unpleasant if left untreated, like Squamous Cell Carcinomas (SCC’s),
Basal Cell Carcinomas (BCC’s) that eat you away and then the Melanomas that
can be fatal.
Yes, while your skin may keep you alive, it can also kill
you. Melanoma is also much more widespread than you would imagine. And the
statistics can be quite frightening. Take these US statistics - Melanoma strikes
people of all ages, all races, all economic levels and both sexes. It is already
the most common cancer for women 25 to 29 and the second most common cancer for
women 30 to 34 and the incidence of melanoma is increasing faster than any other
cancer. An American’s lifetime risk of developing melanoma is about 1 in 75.
Now those American statistics are not so bad compared to some
other countries. Two of the worst as far as melanoma statistics are concerned
are Australia and New Zealand. Why? Because these sunny countries have become
inhabited by fair skinned people from the northern hemisphere, a skin which does
not take the sun so well.
So where does that put us Caucasians living in a tropical
country like Thailand? At risk, that’s what. And I am sure you have all been
like me and suffered sunburn from time to time, one of the predisposing factors
in changing seemingly “innocent moles” into malignant Melanomas. Researchers
have also shown that overexposure to the sun as a child can result in an
increased risk of Melanoma as an adult. In my era, children were actually sent
out to play in the sun, because it was ‘healthy’!
The message with the Melanomas is to find the moles before
they change - and that takes a trained and skilled eye and sometimes a biopsy as
well. But it is worth the look. Melanoma can be fatal, remember. These dark
pigmented skin lesions with irregular borders invade the deeper tissues and can
spring up as secondary lesions as well. These are truly tumours that can kill
you. Wide and deep surgical excision is the treatment of choice, that often
leaves a most unattractive scar.
Prevention is much better than cure!
 Heart to Heart with Hillary
Dear Hillary,
I met a woman at the party last night and I can’t get her out of my mind. I
didn’t get her name as we only briefly saw each other across the room, before
she flitted away, so I haven’t even spoken to her, but there was that spark of
magic there in her eyes promising just so much. Can you help me find her again?
I think I am going mad with desire. She was wearing a yellow dress, and with her
dark hair and dark eyes, the effect was fantastic. I must find her again.
Peter
Dear Peter,
What sort of a love struck calf are you, my myopic Petal? How would Hillary know
where to find your lady with the bedroom eyes? I wasn’t even at your party. Or
perhaps I was and enjoyed it too much? Oh my goodness! Perhaps the woman was me?
Was I wearing yellow last night? Did she leave a glass slipper by any chance?
Back to reality. Have you had your hormone levels checked recently? You are not
going mad with desire young man, you are just mad. But to show that Hillary has
a heart, I have published your letter. If any woman answering to your
description calls, I will let you know.
Dear Hillary,
In this Amazing Thailand, with its Amazing ladies, it is amazing that any young
man survives holidays over here. At every turn there is temptation awaiting the
unwary and unknowing. My sister’s son, my nephew, is a shy young man, and has
been told by my sister that he is to come to Thailand to spend three months with
me. She has spoken to me and wishes for me to oversee this young man blossom
into adult life. I believe that the responsibility she wants me to take is too
great. Do you concur with my opinion on this Miss Hillary?
Marje
Dear Marje,
Without wishing to be seen looking as if I am ‘buttering’ you up, Marje, I
must concur (love using words like that) with your sister. I think the young man
should just be brought over here and Hillary will do the honours for you, so to
speak. By the time he is ready to return to his mother he will know all about
wine, women and song, provided he has been given a decent sized well filled
wallet for his and his tutor’s use. Oooh, Hillary is quite looking forward to
this. I’ll teach him all about French champagne and Belgian chocolates and
onwards and upwards from there. When does he arrive?
Dear Hillary,
Our driver had an accident in our car, which he took without our permission one
night, and was taken into custody by the police. Apparently he attempted to flee
the scene, but was caught. He now has to stay in jail until there is settlement
and agreement between our insurance company and the rider of the motorcycle he
crashed into. Is this the usual thing in these instances or should we have
intervened?
Unsure
Dear Unsure,
Firstly, never intervene on your own, no matter how well intentioned that
intervention might be. Thai law grinds along in its own sweet way, without any
need for ‘help’ from others. Just take the advice of a good and trusted Thai
lawyer. Your husband’s work will be able to supply you with some names.
Unfortunately, you will be without the car until everything is settled, but
that’s just tough luck, I’m afraid. Next time make sure your driver can’t
get the keys. Be prepared for the fact that you may have to rescue your driver
financially too.
Dear Hillary,
I have a 24 year old Thai girlfriend who I met over here in the UK and we have
been together now for almost two years and we have always managed to get along
well, despite differences in our ages (I am sixteen years older than she is). We
have been having a sticky patch recently but now she has decided she wants to go
back home to Thailand and leave me in the UK. What can I do to stop her leaving?
She says she will go at the end of July. I have told her the weather will be hot
and how different she will find Thailand compared to the UK (she left Thailand 4
years ago), but she is adamant. I don’t feel our problems are so bad that we
can’t get over them. Hillary, what do you suggest?
Jeff
Dear Jeff,
That’s not a very old head on your 40 year old shoulders, is it? If your
girlfriend has decided to leave, then you must go with her decision, my Petal.
She is 24 years old and sounds reasonably mature I would assume from your letter
(sorry I had to shorten it, but it was a little too long for publication),
although the fact that she has lived with you for two years might put a question
mark over this. You can ask why she came to the conclusion, (and it is a
conclusion, isn’t it Petal) but her decision is her decision - not yours.
Sorry. Better luck in the future. Get an older girlfriend next time, or lie
about your age.
Personal Directions: Happiness:
The Key
by Christina Dodd
“Success is not the key to happiness.
Happiness is the key to success.
If you love what you are doing, you will be
successful…”
- Albert Schweitzer.
The world is flat! It is not a happy place, neither is it
totally sad … it is flat!
People’s emotions are muted and pummelled by global
events and tragedies which seem to appear daily on our television screens
and as are revealed in ever more detail in our newspapers and magazines.
Today, I want to thank my good friend and colleague Peter Rowlings for
sending me the following article – “The Top 10 Things to Remember About
Happiness” written by Dr. Diana Robinson.
As is my want I always like to share with you writings or
thoughts that I find are thought provoking and mentally stimulating.
Happiness is one of the most widely sought after commodities on this planet
… yet indeed it is one of the simplest pleasures to be found and enjoyed!
Almost all of us want to be happy. Being happy is not a
skill taught in school. If we are lucky, our parents taught us about
happiness, either by example or by shared wisdom.
For the rest of us, there are some important things to
remember about happiness, and the art of being happy.
1. It is OK to want to be happy.
It is not unduly selfish, or materialistic, or
self-centered. Wanting to be happy is normal.
2. To pursue happiness is an inalienable right - to be
happy is not.
Some people seem to believe:
* that they have a right to be happy,
* that other people should make them happy, and,
* that when they are not happy they have a right to
complain about it and that complaining will cause them to be happy.
All three premises are false.
3. No one owes you happiness.
Assuming you are an adult, your happiness is not anyone
else’s problem. If you are a person who spreads happiness, then others
will probably want to contribute to your happiness. This is their choice,
not your right.
4. Happiness comes from attitude, from within.
We become happy when we cultivate an attitude of
appreciation and gratitude, when we focus on the good stuff. One way to do
this is by keeping a regular gratitude journal. This gets us in the habit of
looking for what is good in our lives, and when we focus on that we are
likely to be happy.
5. Owning more things does not make you happy.
Advertisers would like to make us believe that we can buy
happiness, but we cannot buy happiness by buying more things.
Wanting things goes back to our heritage as
hunter-gatherers. It was important to hunt, and to gather, but that was for
reasons of survival. For most of the people reading this, our ‘wants’
rarely relate to our survival.
6. Happiness is more a process than it is a goal.
When I get... when I reach... when I am... we may think
that happiness is something that will come, or will happen, one day.
Eventually, we will probably find that happiness is the
journey and that if we focus only on the destination we will never get
there.
7. Talking about unhappiness does not make you happy.
It is true that we all need to vent at times. The purpose
of venting is to express our dissatisfaction with something so that we can
move on.
If we vent just to let others know how badly used we are
and how awful something is, nothing new will happen. If we keep our mental
attic filled with unhappy stuff, there will be no room for anything else. We
need to get rid of it so as to make room for the happy thoughts to move in.
8. Happiness is more often accompanied by
accomplishments than by compliments.
Certainly it is nice to be appreciated, and we all need
to receive encouraging words from others. But they need to be based on fact.
The empty words that are just intended to ‘raise
self-esteem’ ring hollow when we know that we have truly done nothing to
deserve them. It is when we have worked and achieved that we can know that
the words ring true, and can really feel good about them and ourselves.
9. Memories of happy times can be stored up for
retrieval during the bad times.
Very few of us will never feel unhappy, will never fall
into ‘the slough of despondence.’ A major help then is to remember the
times when we were happy, and the fact that we have those memories ‘in the
bank.’ They are a part of us, they can remind us that we are capable of
happiness, and that the world is not always out to make us miserable.
When you are happy, consciously store up the memories -
they will serve you well.
10. Happiness comes from sharing happiness.
There are few joys as complete as those that involve
bringing joy to someone else. Happiness defies the laws of economics in that
it is not something that we have less of when we give it away. It is
something that grows greater for the giver as it is given.
The more you give, the more you have.
“Happiness is not a goal; it is a
by-product…”
- Eleanor Roosevelt
In our training courses and through our personal and life
coaching programmes we promote happiness as being akin to well-being. Both
well being and happiness are essential in the learning process. It is our
belief that contented minds - read happy participants - are more receptive
to new, exciting and sometimes radical ideas which may either in some small
or dramatically major way change forever their lives for the better.
As I said some weeks ago … Always look for the goodness
in people and you will be pleasantly surprised!
Until next time, have a tremendous week!
If you would like to write to me or contact me further
about any of our business skills programs, personal development courses,
personal / career counselling or life coaching services, then please email
me at christina.dodd@asiatrainingas sociates.com
Social Commentary by Khai Khem:
Get ready for the ‘Brain Drain’
(You never miss ‘em till their gone)
The old saying, “If you pay peanuts,
you’ll get monkeys” may not be common wisdom in Thailand, but it applies
here as well as any place in the modern world. For the average person in
this country, talent, backbreaking work and education are not appropriately
acknowledged and rewarded here. He or she must leave for foreign lands to
survive beyond a mere bare bones existence or suffer heartbreaking
disappointment and disillusionment - which will, in most cases, be their
future if they stay.
This is not news, by the way, but a long, sad tradition.
Thais (and foreigners) who stay against all odds are treasures beyond words.
Those who return after years and even decades of living and working abroad,
come back to help run the country and undo the damage caused in their
absence. Silently or publicly, we salute them, for we know that without them
we are less than a whole society.
In the professions, in government agencies and in
Thailand’s companies - big and small, earnest employees with honed skills
and adequate education are charmingly, blatantly or ignorantly exploited by
their employers who would rather dispense kind, but empty words and gestures
than monetary rewards and opportunities which would raise the standard of
living for their workers and give them an incentive to apply themselves in
their chosen field or daily job. That stingy mentality is equivalent to
shooting themselves in the foot.
This is why the brain drain continues to sap this nation
generation after generation while only the rich, powerful and well-connected
accumulate and horde the wealth and resources of the country. Too many of
our talented people leave for other countries which they know, not only
value their potential as human beings, but provide an open door for the best
of human potential to achieve higher goals.
These countries reap the benefits of the best Thailand
has to offer, leaving the nation the poorer for it, but never the wiser. For
example, Los Angles and New York City have a larger population of Thais than
Chiang Mai, and to our national disgrace, there are still plenty of reasons
why those numbers won’t change. If we could get an accurate count of every
educated and/or successful Thai that lives in a foreign nation and relocate
the lot to one of our less populated provinces - and give them a ‘city’
all to themselves - we’d have a metropolis that would rival Bangkok on its
best day!
People we need the most leave us for opportunities which
could and should be available at home. So how does the country carry on? By
dumping extra work and responsibility on the poor souls who are already
caving in under the load, or waiting out the problem - but never solving it
and very, very rarely changing the antiquated system. Thais are slow because
they are overworked, under-paid, and stressed out just trying get through
their lives in a country which leaves everything either undone or half
finished for a long list of reasons which are so old and neglected they are
“open secrets”, as we say.
Thailand’s progress has inched forward at a snail’s
pace compared with other nations that have fewer people and fewer natural
resources. Thailand simply yawns and replaces its Best and Brightest with
the left-over warm bodies waiting in the endless queue of na๏ve and
submissive cheap labor. We admit that Thailand has a long history of
‘job-collecting’ and moonlighting because one job doesn’t pay enough
to live on.
Newcomers to Thailand who come for business and
investment soon find the Thai workforce is pitifully ill-educated and
untrained by international standards. Most companies and entrepreneurs have
to set up ‘in-house’ training at every level for their Thai staff,
including language courses and basic job training skills. In the year 2004
this is an awesome task for any but the world’s largest corporations and
die-hards whose personal motives and agendas influence their business plan.
The fact that Thailand is not an officially bi-lingual
country and documented in ancient script is an added burden that simply
breaks the back of many potentially valuable investors who try to do
business here. If they manage to last, their rate of growth is stunted and
their ability to expand and reach out beyond their own backyard is thwarted.
Therefore their trained staff, although very able, is hamstrung.
Thailand’s protectionist laws prohibit a larger pool of
educated and skilled foreigners, who could manage or work behind the scenes,
from living and working here. This is a long-standing obstacle to
advancement and higher achievement, even though the kingdom is a tolerant
and open society in most other areas of life. Until this policy is
rescinded, Thailand will continue its crippled, lurching and agonizing
approach forward into the 21st century.
And what about Gray Power, which is an increasingly
acknowledged positive factor in modern economies? Older people (including
the foreign retired community) who have left their lifelong jobs and
professional careers are no more valued here than the young Thai brains who
will help foreign nations to forge their leap ahead of us in the global race
for technical, economic, industrial, political and social dominance.
They’ve been left on the sidelines to baby-sit extended
families and monitor communities as ‘elders’ without pay or benefits.
What a waste of a country’s wisdom, experience and skills. Nobody with any
brains really wants to work for free (or peanuts). Thailand does have a
culture of social magnanimity, but mostly only those with already-full
pockets can really afford it. In the poorer countries of the world, elders
and children always suffer the worst poverty. Infants are incapable of
contributing to their own economic welfare, but surely those over 50 and 60,
and even 70, who are healthy and active should not be barred from
self-sufficiency and earning a living by ancient and non-applicable customs
or federal laws or paid such a measly sum it’s hardly worth the bother.
In the 1980’s (yes, way back then) one of the hottest
university subjects and academic/social science careers in the world was
global demographics; the study of the word’s future movement of its human
population. Taken out of theory and put into practice, world demographics is
now one of the most demanding challenges we face going forward, and Thailand
slept through the whole exercise. Or so it seemed if you were living here
through those years. Selfish vested interests kept Rip Van Winkle sleeping.
Naturally. He was more passive when he was snoring (or drugged).
Catch up or be left behind as poor Rip was. There are
parts of Thailand where life harks back to the 19th century and whole parts
of our society that have been stagnating like a costume movie set in the
1930s. A minute portion, compared with our whole population, lives in the
21st century - the elite, educated urban Thais. Many of the brightest are
packing their bags at this moment. It’s too late to stop them. But it’s
not too late to reach those who will stay on and ready the nation for the
next step of development. That greater majority is our future, young or old,
foreign or national. We need each other.
PC Blues - News and Views: Domains and domain names
by Monitor
If you use the internet much - indeed, if you only use
e-mail - you will have come across domain names. What are they? And how do
they work?
Top Level Domains (TLDs)
There are a fair number of top level domains. There are
some international ones, and then each participating nation has one. The
best known international name is the dot.com ‘.com’. Others include
.edu, .gov, .int, .mil, .net, and .org. These were the original set. Since
then, seven more have been added - .biz, .info, .name, and .pro, .aero,
.coop, and .museum.
National ones include ‘.th’ for Thailand, ‘.uk’
for the United Kingdom’, and ‘.mw’ for Malawi. Even Antarctica has
one - but it doesn’t seem to be in use. They are all listed at
www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm. Unfortunately for Malawi, when I last
looked, dot-mw was owned by a Swede living in South Africa. Have a look at
www.mw, and see for yourself. Have a look at the BBC report in 2000, at
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/863396.stm
Sub-domains
All other domains are sub-domains, directly or
indirectly, of a top level domain. The most well known subdomain is
‘www’, by convention, the home page for the domain. My own domain is
‘haslock.com’: its home page is www.haslock.com. The Pattaya Mail
domain is pattayamail.com/: its home page is www.pattayamail.com. You see
that both of these are international domains.
Google, my favourite search engine, has an international
domain google.com. It also has national pages: www.google.co.th is the one
for Thailand. Let us take this apart. www is a subdomain, so we can throw
that away: the domain is google.co.th. The right-hand end is the TLD for
Thailand: no surprise here. The sub-domain is ‘co’, which tells us this
is a company. National TLDs usually have the following sub-domains, co,
gov, ac, and may have others. ‘CO’ is for companies, GOV is for
government, and AC is for academics - schools and universities.
If you have a domain, it doesn’t necessarily serve up
web pages. An equally popular use of the internet is sharing files. The
first place to look for files is in the sub-domain ftp, for example in
ftp.pattayamail.com.’ftp’ is the name of a program commonly used to
transfer files, and the initials stand for ‘File Transfer Protocol’.
There is no particular constraint on what you call your
sub-domains, or how you manage your domain. If the paper wished to it could
create the following domains, to divide up its content:
news.pattayamail.com
sports.pattayamail.com
adverts.pattayamail.com
events.pattayamail.com
editorial.pattayamail.com
letters.pattayamail.com
... and so on.
This is one way to use a domain - to publish material.
Another way is to sell subdomains.
Do you have an ISP (an Internet Service Provider)? And
does it give you webspace? That webspace will be a subdomain of one of
their domains. For example, I used to have a domain rosecottage.
fslife.co.uk - my ISP owned fslife.co.uk (among others) - and created such
subdomains for its customers. This, however, is only a half-way house. If
you want your own domain, to manage and control yourself, you have to buy
(rent, actually) it yourself.
If you want your own domain, with a public domain name,
you need a computer connected to the internet, even if only intermittently.
That computer will need an internet address - something like 123.234.67.78.
This is the internet equivalent of an international phone number. Finally,
you need to register the domain name, internet details and so on with a
registrar and pay a fee. (Is it obvious that the internet address and
domain name must not be owned by anyone else?) The usual way of doing all
this is by buying through a domain hosting company, such as easily.co.uk.
Their computers are always connected to the internet, and your domain is
hosted on their computers.
The domain name is registered with a registrar, and the
details are filed in an online database called a Domain Name Server, of
which there are many across the internet. These act like telephone
directories: for a given domain, they supply the internet address. Your
domain name may appear in a number of domain name servers, but only one of
these will be registered as the master. Any changes to the details must be
made to the master, and the various slaves will catch up with this at some
stage. If you buy through a hosting company, they are very likely to
maintain the master record.
You can access a domain without using the domain name if
you know the internet address. Go to the DOS prompt, or command line, and
type ping 123.234.32.12. Unless you are connected to the internet, the
result will be disappointing. Fire up your modem, and try again. You should
get a response that tells you you are talking to the Pattaya Mail host
computer, for this is our internet address. While you are there (connected
to the internet), try typing ipconfig. This will tell you your internet
address, given to you by your ISP for the duration of the connection.
This is all fun, but not reliable. Only the master DNS
is the authoritative source of such information. If you come back in six
months, we may have changed our internet address, but we won’t have
changed our domain name.
E-mail
E-mail addresses are part of domains. At a glance, you
can see that everything after the ‘@’ sign is a domain name. (There was
once a competition to find a new name for the ‘@’ sign. I forget what
won. Whatever did, nobody uses it!) Email illustrates one very important
aspect of domains: they may have more than one internet address, and may
therefore be spread over several machines. It is usual to hold email on a
different machine from a website. The demands on an email server (for that
is what such a computer is called) are completely different from those on a
web server (for that is what one of those is called). In particular, an
email server may filter your mail for spam, and for viruses. There are
companies which provide such services. Email servers which do this for you
go a long way to protect your desktop machine from attack, never mind the
waste of time downloading junk, and are well worth the money if they run
up-to-date filters.
Where do I get one?
Most domain name sellers are pricing the domain names at
about 900THB/year, but if you go to www.bkknic.com, and click on the button
labelled Domain Registration, you will find a table of good prices. You can
get a dot-com for 450 THB/year, which is probably as good as it gets. The
only disadvantage is that you have to pay for two years up-front.
Observe the niceties here. You are effectively renting
the name. You are largely paying for the upkeep of the domain name servers,
and the admin overhead.
You will have noticed that this website, www.bkknic.com,
offers web hosting too - and, again, at reasonable prices. If you are
running a website, a few hundred baht a month is a reasonable price to pay.
If you aren’t prepared to pay this, you aren’t serious.
Take care in choosing the name, and see what other
websites doing the same thing have called themselves. (How? Use a search
engine). Do not worry if someone has registered your first choice - it
means you are in the right area. Try putting hyphens in the name: they are
acceptable separators instead of spaces. They may even improve readability.
If you are going to do this, you will need some software on your own
computer, so you can see what the website will look like, or any changes to
it, before you put it on the hosting computer. I will look into this
another day.
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