Two Domain Name Questions

I have two newbie domain questions.Please help.

[Eterion]

Hi-
I'm new to this site so sorry if these questions have been answered.
First off some background info: I'm building my first website since 6 or 7 years, and I bought ONE domain name a few weeks ago.
Quest 1) Should I purchase "similar" domain names like mine? For instance, lets say theres a lowercase "L" in my domain name, should I purchase the exact same domain except with a capital i instead? That way to prevent similar sites? Or am I just being paranoid?
Quest 2) My webhoster keeps insisting that I purchase the .NET extensions for my site... does anyone feel this is really necessary?

[fischermx]

Quest 1) Should I purchase "similar" domain names like mine? For instance, lets say theres a lowercase "L" in my domain name, should I purchase the exact same domain except with a capital i instead? That way to prevent similar sites? Or am I just being paranoid?

If you have the money and you pretend to establish a brand arround your domain, sure, go for them.

Quest 2) My webhoster keeps insisting that I purchase the .NET extensions for my site... does anyone feel this is really necessary?

Similar response, if you have the money an pretend to establish a brand, go and buy all the extensions (com/net/org/info/biz/us), for $60.00 year it is really nothing if you try to protect a brand.

[Marcia]

Domain names aren't case sensitive. If you type in Widgets.com it'll still resolve to widgets.com

[fischermx]

He was refering to the confusion of the lowercase "L" with the uppercase "i" : I - l
Depending on fonts it could look identical, sometimes confusing the number one "1" with an uppercase "i", too.

[Eterion]

Yes, fischermx has what I'm talking about. I can remember one case while working at a national bank (which im not going to disclose due to the TOS), but a client basically had a huge identity theft thing going on cuz she clicked an email... which had URL already set out for her... it looked perfectly normal to her, but one of the letters were changed from a L to a capital i.