Do I need your service?
If you are a user or a company who wants to be connected to the Internet, you don't need us: we do not provide connectivity to the general public. Please talk to any one of the many local ISPs (Internet Service Providers), who frequently advertise in the Information Technology section of many newspapers. 
If you are a user or a company who wants WWW service or register your web page, you don't need us. ISPs provide the former, while many local and overseas registries (e.g. www.w3.org) register web pages. 
If you are a company who has a valuable trademark or tradename and want to prevent other people from using it as a domain name, you don't need us. We do not reserve or otherwise protect names. Please talk to your lawyer for legal protections. Likewise for those who want to register many good names to sell; it is very difficult to grab hk domain names. 
If you want to register domain names like xyz.com or xyz.com.tw, you don't need us, because we only register names like xyz.com.hk. Contrary to popular belief, you are not forced to register with HKNIC just because you live in Hong Kong. You are free to register with the InterNIC (for .com domains), with the CNNIC (for com.cn domains), and whosoever you want, all depending on what domain you want. 
If you are a company who is already connected to the Internet, and wants an ISP-independent domain name like xyz.com.hk, you want to register with us. However, you still need help from your ISP, because most companies need an ISP to set up two name servers, which are absolutely essential to register a domain name.

What is the HKNIC?
The Hong Kong Network Information Centre (HKNIC) is a public service administered by the Joint Universities Computer Centres (JUCC), who sets the policy. It is currently operated by the computer centres of a few universities of Hong Kong. 

What do we do?
Only one thing: we register domain names ending in hk, so everyone knows foo.com.hk exists, and where to go to find the servers for that domain. Technically we do that by entering the domain name you want in our database, and point that name to the two name servers you provide. 
What you want to do with that domain name--e.g. set up web servers and email servers--needs to be coordinated with the way the name is resolved, so most people ask their Internet service provider (ISP) to provide both regular network services and name resolution too. 

What? You DON'T register www.xyz.com.hk?
That's exactly right, we DON'T register domain names like www.xyz.com.hk! Instead, we register only names like xyz.com.hk, so you can create your own www/ftp/mail/accounting/billing/.../whatever.xyz.com.hk. www is like a phone extension; you don't need to tell your phone company you want a particular extension. Once you have a company phone number (xyz.com.hk), you can create thousands of extensions (subdomains like www), without the need to register with anyone at all. Contrary to popular belief, domain name does not always start with www; many other network applications need domain names too. 
So, please do us a favour. Don't tell us you want to register www.xyz.com.hk. Thanks. 

Where do we go from here?
Talk to your ISP to ensure that the network services (www, email, ...) you get will be coordinated with the way your domain name is resolved. They can send us the application form on your behalf; there are technical data in the form that only those providing network service know what to put it. Only in the rare case if you are a big organization and want to provide network services yourself should you set up your own name servers (not exactly simple) and send us the application form directly. 
Please talk to your ISP for details, and thank you for your interest in an hk domain name. 

If you cannot find answers in the above sections, please email to hostmaster@hknic.net.hk, thank you. Last Update: 22-May-2000