Web experts, opinions needed for domain name registration... (1 Viewer)

[JohnRice]

I heartily agree with using a retail registrar and maintaining all aspects of your registration yourself. If you don't want to deal with that, have someone you trust handle it for you. I maintain all the registrations for the sites I design and host, and handle them all under one godaddy account. Anything else and there is just too much opportunity for problems.

 

[DaveF]

Thanks. I'm better informed, though still confused. I'm on my third combined-host registrar service in about eight years. Each time I've registered the domain name and subscribed to hosting services simultaneously from the same company. I've transferred hosting and registration twice now.

I've not before encountered this discount / retail concept, nor seen it labeled as such with registrars. Currently I'm with godaddy for registration and hosting; I assume that I can transfer the name yet again in the future if the need arises.

Perhaps you can provide a link to a service offering discount vs. retail services; where it's made clear that a discount registered name is actually yours to keep. I certainly don't want to lose my domain by accidentally choosing the wrong hosting / registration package.

 

[JohnRice]

Dave, just keep your registration with godaddy, even if you move your hosting. That is really best. Hosting services can be unpredictable at best, so I can't even imagine the hassle of always tying them to your registration.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

That isn't always true. Take startlogic who I mentioned above. They will register the domain for you but you 'own' the domain and it is in your name. You can take it anywhere you want whenever you want if you choose to not use their hosting anymore. I'm sure there are other shady, or smaller hosting companies that might pull that trick on you which is why I said it was good advice, but if you find a good host that you can trust you should be all right.

 

[JohnRice]

I think the point is, if you have to get someone else to change the DNS or other aspects of your registration, you are putting your registration at risk. I know of at least one business who was held "hostage" by their old hosting service, who changed the DNS, held onto the registration and didn't renew it. They had to wait 90 days until the domain was released and all along risked losing it.

 

[Carl Miller]

You can definitely get away from the standard blog look with custom blog template design today. Most decent custom blog design is being done with psd's created in Photoshop, sliced up and organized and then handed over to a coder to bring the blog functionality to the design. Find a good designer, and you can run a good looking site with the ease of blog software and not even be able to tell it's running on blog software at all provided it's not littered with the usual array of blog elements.

The uniformity of blog sites, and web sites in general today is more a function of current trends in design (web 2.0, minimalism etc) than a software limitation of the blog software itself.

 

[nolesrule]

GoDaddy.com is a domain name registrar. Their primary business is domain registrations. They also offer hosting, email and other additional service as add-ons to make an extra buck.


A Web Hosting Provider (WHP) is a comany whose primary business is website hosting. Often, they will offer to register the domain on your behalf and bill you annually. You have to be careful with some of these, because some of them will register the domain for you in their company's name, so you are SOL when you want to move, since they are the registrant and maintain the username/password to access the registration and renewal for the domain. That said, there are plenty of reputable WHPs out there, but you should read the fine print before registering a domain and signing on with them.

For most of my sites, I have a bulk reseller plan with WebHSP.com. However, I have one site, which is a mid-sized site, on Nexcess.net, which, in addition to personal-size accounts, hosts some impressive, high-traffic websites.

 

[Jay Taylor]

My favorite place to register domain names that lets you have full control over the domain name is Register.com. But you’re asking about the discount vs. retail aspect of this so I’ll give you the link to another company that I’m using.

I had two domain names registered with e-host. E-Host used Network Solutions’ reseller program to register domain names. When I realized that I had virtually no control of those two domain names I contacted Network Solutions and explained that I desired to have the ability to change the DNS data myself and have full control of the domain name. The rep at Network Solutions immediately said “Oh, you want a Retail Account”.

The Network Solutions rep walked me through the process of changing my account from a discounted reseller account to a retail account. By renewing the domain names for 10 years in a retail account the charge was $14.99 a year per domain name. I now have full control of everything that I desire concerning those domain names.

Here’s the link:
Network Solutions

 

[nolesrule]

As someone who has been in the business of registering domains for a long time, stay far away from Network Solutions. While occasionally their customer services can shine, most of the time it's atrocious.

I used register.com to register my first domain names, but I found them overpriced. Any OpenSRS reseller is pretty good because you can always go directly to OpenSRS for customer service. But I have found godaddy.com to have the best prices and customer service.

In these days of low-cost registrars, no one needs to be paying more than $10 a year for a .com domain if they go directly through a registrar.

 

[Jay Taylor]

When I had a Network Solutions reseller’s account through e-Host I felt like a red headed stepchild! Network Solutions’ customer service wouldn’t help me and told me to get help through my reseller, e-Host. Trying to work with e-Host’s customer service was like trying to make contact with Elvis’ ghost.

However, now that I have a retail account with Network Solutions everything works great. That may be because once you get full control of your domain name you may not need their customer service for the rest of your life!

 

[Scott L]

godaddy.com for domains

lunarpages.com for hosting HTML/PHP-based sites

350gb storage / 3.5 TB bandwidth for $6.95/mo 0_o

 

[JohnRice]

Also, some time ago I discovered that they either sell their account info or run a little scam themselves sending out some bogus "registration" form charging $35/year for absolutely nothing. It looks like it is a domain renewal, but it isn't. Most people just pay it and they are all getting screwed. I eventually realized these forms were only sent out to people who registered with Network Solutions.

 

[Marko Berg]

I believe the original poster has probably received all the information he was looking for, but I just want to second what was said in post #8:

 

[MarkHastings]

I've been using Bravenet since they were a teeny-tiny company. I've had no real major issues. They will also register the domain and give you control over it (i.e. Nameserver managing, Locking/Unlocking, DNS changes, redirections, etc.)