How not to register a domain

Yes, avoid Network Solutions and Register.com because of their price and in the case of NSI, a terrible reputation. OpenSRS registrars like 000domains.com, Dotster.net, etc. will give you the best price.

what's new, i can't think of any yahoo service that isn't over priced.

What do you think of Registar.com?
Good or bad?

I don't know about their prices but a client of mine registered a name with them and then we wanted it moved to be hosted elsewhere and they took ages & ages before they finally released it & then didn't do it properly!

Quote: Originally posted by sponsortest.com
What do you think of Registar.com?
Good or bad?

Definitely avoid Register.com! They are overpriced and you can save a lot without sacrificing quality of service by using someone like 000domains.com.

You could try stargate.com or registerfly.com < US$9
The services of dotster.com and 000domains.com is counted though best but cost is US$12 -13

Depends on what you are looking

How can they charge so little to register a domain? I don't understand it.

Its basically volume game which they play. They have to pay a little fixed fee to Internic for every domain registration and they can charge their customers whatever fee which ranges from US$7 - US$35.

Lets say you manufacture a product which cost you US$5 . Now depending on the volumes ,the type of service you offer and the kind of margin you want to make you'll add on the cost and mark up the market price for the product.

This is the same game..no difference.

We have used 000domains for a while now. Never had a problem and at $13.50 I get what I pay for.

An excellent way to manage our domains through a great interface. It's all under one profile and I can make changes throughout the profile that affects all the domains.

You do really get what you pay for, they are out there looking for that "S" on foreheads.

Sara

Edited to change the price, I had it too high!

I would highly recommend godaddy.

http://register.godaddy.com

I haven't had a single problem with them. Prices are very good, great interface to manage multiple domains, and support is great. I recently transferred all of my domains over from networksolutions.

OUCH!

can anyone say gazzumped?!?!?!?

I have done mine through an australian domain provider and there control panel is excellent.

I second the motion to stay away from Network Solutions/Verisign. Have you ever tried to change nameservers on a site that is registered with them? First they act like they don't know what you are taling about and then they take forever once you convince them that this can be done. DUH!!

I am switching mine and my clients over to 000Domains. Out of 6 registrars that I have delt with this year, they are the best and easiest to work with.

UKReg.com and 123reg.co.uk normally provide a very cheap and reliable service. (sorry that they're UK sites!)

I'm so new here, my shoes squeek.

I am a domain-registration junkie. I used netsol in the past. Baaad.

I now have domains with dotster.com, joker.com, gandi.net, and active-domains.com. All of them are ICANN registrars except for active-domains.com (they are a re-seller for eNom).

All of these registrars are very good, and reasonably priced.

Gandi.net, however, is by far *THE BEST* of these registrars (as well as of the several others I have used in the past). Price is ~$10/year. Registration contract is tops. Domain-mgt interface is simple enough for even me to use (I can't simultaneously walk & chew gum.)

Aloha from Hawaii,
Bellgamin

Although I agree that Network Solutions charges too much for domain names, I found changing my domains nameservers a total breeze.I think it took me a whole 5 minutes to do the change through my account manager. 24-48 hours later the propagation was complete and I'm good to go. Exactly how did you others try to change your nameservers?

In the past I had some really bad times with netsol -- their forms & procedures were mind-boggling.

However, Daytripper has a good point. I recently transferred some domain names away from netsol, and the transaction went smooth as silk. I do believe those folks are really trying to turn themselves around. So... I for one will cease rehashing old (bad) experiences, and wish netsol the best of British luck in rebuilding their image.

All other Registrars pay NetSol $6/year for each domain name. Anything they sell domains for above $6 covers costs & profit, so $9 prices are certainly feasible if costs are low and volume is good.

I agree with recommendations for 000Domains - I've had domains with them for 3 years without problem.

I switched a bunch to GoDaddy last year, because $4.50 difference adds up when you have a bunch GoDaddy has been fine, although extra services are basic or not free. There is one 'gotcha' - they charge $10 to change ownership of a domain.

I'm currently checking out NameCheap - if they're for real, they offer better services and simpler procedures than GoDaddy for the same price.

joker.com is pretty good, about $10 or so

The best registrar is the OpenSRS ones (000domains.com). Maybe you pay a few dollar more "per year", but it is totally worth it. They are a stable and reliable company. Their control panel is very easy to use and yet has a lot of options.

000domains.com all the way!

If I'm not purchasing webspace to go with the domain and want to just park the name, I use freeparking.co.uk (they also have domain-parking.net for $) and domains are £9.99. They have all the facilities for forwarding, using under development pages, changing DNS, etc and I have had no problems with them at all.

Wheres the cheapest price? The lowest I've seen is $9.99

Quote: Originally posted by îþÐ
Wheres the cheapest price? The lowest I've seen is $9.99

Is that just for the name?

Quote: Originally posted by îþÐ
Wheres the cheapest price? The lowest I've seen is $9.99

The cheapest is GoDaddy at $8.95 -- however, cheapest doesn't always mean best. I pay $13.50 for 000domains.com because they are an OpenSRS reseller and have been very good to mean. That said, you should be fine with GoDaddy as I haven't heard anything bad about them.

GoDaddy is the best that I have ever used. They also don't have a service that you can bid on domain names before they expire like Dotster or some of the others.

The thing that's annoying me here in the UK at the moment is a company who call themselves 'The Domain Name Registration Bureau' and what they are doing is getting a list of 'just expired' domains, where they show as detagged because they haven't yet been released back into circulation yet, and then find companies who have similar domains, phone them up and say stuff like 'we have a company who wants to buy xyz.co.uk and we have noticed that it is very similar to your domain of x-y-z.co.uk and if you want us to we can stop the other company buying it and sell it to you for only £500. It's a complete scam and luckily so far only one client has actually fallen for it, all the rest have phoned me to consult me before they do anything!

well i've used directnic.com for ages now, havent had a complaint with them sicne i started using them, really helpfull and their control panel for their name users is easy to follow...

Now if i can only say the same thing for the past 3 server companys we've used for the site i run.... :-/

well, you know, maybe its just that im really cheap, and dont make websites for money, but i like spaceports, unlimited space for free. cant argue with free u know.

Quote: Originally posted by jammin
cant argue with free u know.

You can if they are crap and full of adverts! (not saying the one you are talking about is crap!!)

Quote: Originally posted by rivimont
I would highly recommend godaddy.

http://register.godaddy.com

I haven't had a single problem with them. Prices are very good, great interface to manage multiple domains, and support is great. I recently transferred all of my domains over from networksolutions.

agreed.

The only problem i have had with them has been not recognising my credit card.

Am sure that was partly due to joint accounts.

I have several domains through Assurance Domains... they're only $8.00 per domain for one year. So far they've been real easy to work with and get right back to you if you have a problem. Now they have a transfer service too.

I have used doteasy.com, they have free bannerless hosting, webmail, and popmail accounts as well as good domain management. They only charge $25/yr and less for longer-term contracts. http://www.doteasy.com/

I've used Dotster.com for a couple years...they have been good to me. I may check out this GoDaddy though...cheaper is definitely attractive to me these days.

I prefer enom.

wow ... you folks are tough on Network Solutions. Might have to look into moving my registrar this fall.

I ran across this site while looking to switch to another registrar. Has anyone out there had any experience with them? Their site is located at http://www.fruitfish.com. Really cheap but unheard of.

Just wanted to agree here on this one

I have had a number of clients who finally give up and just order another domain because Yahoo is so bad about responding to these types of requests. I do not think it is the price that is the big issue, although above most, but the terrbile service. They would go weeks without a response, and when a response came it was useless.

Networksolutions is the same sort of thing... There is a great site called veriscrewed.com and another called nsihorrorstories.com that tell the tale well

i have heard good things about 123cheapdomains.com

I recommend AffordableDomainNames.net for $13.75 a year. Its not the cheapest place but I know the owner and he is a class act!

I think that $15 and less a year for domain names are a reasonable price. I hate when I hear someone spent $30-$35 a year on a name. Actually makes $13.75 look cheap.

register.com is a complete rip off in my opinion.

I just had someones domain expire and they want $250 to reregister it. Basically they have taken it hostage.

It is an obscure .org name that no one would want except the owner. I told them to bug off and registered the .com version instead.

Dotster is great. Namebargain is OK but they are a reseller for register.com

Switching Hosting providers is a fairly easy, and still keeping your registrar. Primarily you would just need to change the DNS (Domain Name Servers) at your regsitrar to your new hosting provider.

How ever sometimes if you registered a name with a hosting company they will not let you make DNS changes b/c they want you to use their web hosting services. Then you may need to transfer the domain out to another registrar. Then point the DNS to your new hosting provider.

Hope that helps.

Not all hosting companies will hold your domain. I actually give them the freedom to manage the domain themselves. And if they want to move it, they can do that.

Just wanted to throw in my endorsement of GoDaddy.com. I've registered numerous domains with them and their service is excellent and cheap. And I've recommended them to friends who were about to take the $35. or so per domain plunge with Register.com or Verisign, and they've been happy too.

what u guys think about http://www.omnis.com/ is it any good????

Godaddy.com is a pretty good domain registration company.. I've been using them for some time now and really enjoy their service.. Although anyone reading this is welcome to come in and purchase a domain through me l l
I know if a person was looking for website hosting/ i could cut the domain cost all together

Ooops, sorry sticky didn't mean to break the forum rules.. sigh " some times things can be over looked "

If you think Network Solutions is bad, the company I used to work for registered all extensions for £60 + vat per year... That's $113!!!

Does that set a new record? and they're not even a registrar...

godaddy.com;)

No bad thoughts against GoDaddy. They are a great company. Good products, low prices and great customer service

Only thing is the annoying upsell of other products. Have to go through pages of adverts for other products to register a domain name. But they have to do that to make money as I'm sure there's not profit on their core product, so it's understandable.

how do you get a free .com domain???

do google, yahoo, etc. really register throught all this? NO (i think)

they set all that DNS stuff up. But then do you have to register your DNS server with the ISPs?????

(I don't actually know alot of what i'm talking about...)

Lycos are another one to stay away from. Their prices are cheap enough (around £1.99 a year for a .com i think it is) , but the customer service takes ages to get back in tough with you, and Nominet (the registrar) charge you £15 to move the domains away from them.

I got so sick of it all i actually closed my sites down with them because the customer service was so poor. Now that i've got my own hosting business i'll be moving my sites over to it once i can get enough spare time to FTP everything over. I'll even re-register my domains if i have to wait ($8 a year), but it'll all hopefully work out at the end of the day.

Thanks for all the info lads

If you're after a .co.uk domain, I'm going to recommend Telivo.com with some exceptions.

Currently .co.uk registrations for 2 years through them are £5! Which is great! But... either you buy a domain with them or you use web forwarding. Web forwarding is free - but in my opinion their web forwarding is not very nice. You have two options for web forwarding. 1) Your domain appears the same across every page of the site (basically you're viewing your site through an invisible frame which makes the domain static in the URL bar) 2) Your domain name appears on 1 page of your site and the rest of the site shows the URL of wherever the files are hosted. This might work for some, but in my case the domain name plus the URL of the remainder of the site suggested a conflict of interest.

The easiest way to get around it would be buying hosting from Telivo as well. But I knew of another hosting company that offered packages better suited to our needs for a better price. We needed less space and more extras (SSI, CGI, etc) but the extras were only on the more expensive packages. However, they do offer free domain transfers - so we ended up getting around it by finding a webhost who had a package better suited for our needs that would allow us to transfer domains from another company to them.

This might be considered 'bad form' to do, but we didn't set out to do it this way. We did end up better off for having done so as we have the hosting package we want for half the price of the nearest option from Telivo, and a domain name that was £10 cheaper from Telivo than from the majority of other domain registrars we'd come across.

I would definitely recommend, no matter who you choose to go with, making sure that domains are transferrable. You don't want to get stuck with something you're not 100% happy with and find out the only options are to pay to use their hosting as well. We lucked out. lol

Yes you are all right.
WOW things have changed.
At on time domains used to cost $150
Too many companies including Networksolutions charge WAY to much for new domain registration, renewals & transfers.

Also avoid paying your domain for more that one year!
Prices keep dropping, plus you don't need to get locked into one registrar for say 5 or 10 years.

More importantly then all of this is:
1: When you get a domain registered make sure you get your domain name user/pass. This is very important. You should have the ability to log in at any time to change your admin address & email.
2: Also make sure you are listed as the registrant. If your name is NOT the registrant name then you do not own this domain!
3: Make sure YOUR email is listed as the admin contact.

WAY TOO MANY hosting, domain & web design companies put themselves as the registrant and their email as the admin contact.

If they go broke or disapear you may lose control over your domain.
Because when your domain is up for renewal the email is sent to the domain admin's email. This should always be your email.

I will second what worldhosting says after my experience in the last ten days. My webhost went bust. One of my very critical domains which I've spent five years and tens of thousands of dollars promoting was in my name, but in the host's wholesale account at Netsol. If my experience is not sufficient warning nothing will be: I spent 20 HOURS on the phone to Network Solutions, about 200 emails to Netsol and ICANN and about 12 faxes to get my domain back. I hardly slept for ten days as I thought I'd lost the product of five years full-time work.

Always make sure that everything is set-up in the way WorldHosting has described.

question? Some one told me that if your site gets hits that someone can buy it right out from under you and you would lose it. So to be safe, buy a lifetime domain. Is this true?

I find its not a good idea to buy domains from UK sites because none of them are as cheap as the US sites.

How not? When you sign up for some plan you pay for hosting and for domain name separately. But if you don't want to register and pay for domain name you can enter your site using your IP.

Our company USA Domain Bank sells any domain name as many as you want for $1.99. You need only to purchase a hosting account that will only cost you $3.99 a month. We have 40 webmasters who re-charge their clients by adding $2 or $3 dollars on the top of what they pay.

We also own a Web Design company who re-sells the domain names and hosting and make a tidy profit on the other end when we bill the client.

Mike @ http://www.usadomainbank.com

Try Nxtdomains.com $8.95 domain names. and something $6.95 for transfers.

I also recommend godaddy.com. I set up websites for non-profits and small businesses (no charge for friends) and have found godaddy the best in terms of economical registration and hosting (around $8 and $4 per month respectively). And I agree, Network Solutions was a nightmare to deal with. Godaddy actually answers the phone: they don't have a toll-free number which cuts down on the junk calls.

Beware of readyhosting.com. I took over a website registered with them and hosted by them, and moved everything to godaddy. readyhosting has continued to bill us for over a year, in spite of phone calls and numerous e-mails requesting cancellation. This is possibly a scam they use, continuing to bill old clients hoping that many will just pay the bill and not question it. Otherwise it is just incompetence.

Lol.. That's a pretty high price.. I have never paid over 12$ for my domains..