How to get your own personal .com.np for FREE

Actually this was originally an e-mail but since a lot of my frens have been asking me about the procedure, i thought it would be helpful to others too to put it here.. The following steps apply to personal webpages, but can be followed to obtain a .com.np for other purpose too..

First of all, some background. The official registrar for .np ccTLD (country code top level domain) is Mercantile Communications and it provides it for FREE! The official website for the registration is Register.com.np. However there are some paperworks involved too.

Most importantly, you need to be a Nepali citizen and you need to submit the photocopy of your (Nepali) citizenship ID to get the domain.

Keeping that in mind, here are the steps to get a .com.np:

1. First of all you need a webspace ready. It's good if u have a webspace already, but since here we're talkin about getting a .com.np for free, lets opt in for some free ones. You can choose any but make sure it supports domain parking facility. Awardspace and 110MB are some good ones that i know. (But as you know free are free. If you want a solid and reliable hosting, i recommend paid ones).
   
2. Register for the webspace and get the DNS addresses. Look somewhere in the settings of the hosting site. It usually has ns1, ns2, etc as prefix. For example, for awardspace.com, the DNS addresses are ns1.awardspace.com and ns2.awardspace.com.
   
3. Now you also need to get the IP addresses of the DNS server. To get that, go to shell (command line) and enter something like 'ping <address>'. It'll give you the IP address..
   eg, ping ns1.awardspace.com
   Get IP addresses for all the DNS servers of your host.
4. Now the registration part, go to www.register.com.np and check the availability of domain. Remember, you can register only the name that corresponds to your actual name. For example, i can get www.jwalanta.com.np or www.jwalantashrestha.com.np but not anything else. So be careful while choosing name. Put it exactly what your citizenship says. Anything different and chances are your application is gonna be rejected.
   
5. Ok back to registration form (http://www.register.com.np/form.asp). Enter all the details. In the primary and secondary name server, put the DNS addresses that we got from step [3]. No need to fill up ternary name server. Or if you want, just copy secondary name server.
6. Submit it and the name will be reserved. (It's only reserved, not registered).
7. Now put the domain name you just reserved in the domain parking option of your webhost. [important!]. For example, if i reserved the domain name jwalanta.com.np, i'd put that in the domain parking option.
   
8. Write an application, get your citizenship photocopied and take it to Mercantile Communication's office at Durbarmarg, Kathmandu.
9. It'll take around 2 days to process the application and perhaps 1 more day for the DNS servers worldwide to be updated about your domain.
10. Congratulations, you've got your personal .com.np!

BTW, don't forget to visit my website: http://www.jwalanta.com.np :)