Where is the best place to get a domain name?

[Spoonfrog]

I am considering moving on from the rather ragged:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vingilot/fortified_places/

to something a little more manageable and professional-sounding such as:

fortified-places.org

The question is: where is the best place to get a domain name? I have been looking at freeparking.co.uk but I'm not really sure how to find the best place to buy a domain name. What experiences has everyone else had from domain name sites?

[faze3]

Don't think it really matters where you get the name from - it's the hosting that matters. Any available site would be ok to check availability and purchase your name and it can then be transferred once you find a host.
Alan.

[webado]

Domain registration and website hosting are 2 different things. Don't confuse them. Some registrars also provide hosting. Some webhosting companies also provide or rather facilitate registration of domains. But they are still separate products.

It is best to keep your domain registration separate from your webhosting. Any registrar who insists on forcing you to get hosting from them or webhosting company that insists in your getting the domain through them are to be avoided like the plague.

I will readily recommend www.godaddy.com for domain registration - but not for webhosting. They have a great user interface to manage the domain registration aspects, something not all registrars offer,. But as I said, the webhosting by them is not worth the trouble and even less the money.

For webhosting is all depends on what you actually need. They have to provide namer servers so you can point the domain properly to the hosting - so ISP's are generally out, as are many free hosting providers. I would opt for hosting on Linux servers, unless there's a particular need for features only available on Windows servers such as ASP support.

[bushman7]

Godaddy is the biggest domain registrar. The first one I ever used was Directnic, but they are more expensive then Godaddy.

But faze3 is right, it is the web host that really matters. I know Directnic comes with free hosting, but has banner ads. You can pay to remove them, something like $15 a year.

I bought a great deal off ebay, though not sure if most of the sellers on there for web hosts are real or not. Maybe I got lucky.

EDIT: Hadn't seen chrisooc's post.

[faze3]

Have a look here
www.123connect.co.uk
Alan.

[jonra01]

I'm with Christina on this one. Godaddy is my registrar of choice. Prices vary considerably from one source to another. You shouldn't pay more than $10 for a one year registration.

Web hosting accounts can be found for anywhere from $3.95 per month to hundreds of dollars. Hosting for an average site shouldn't run more than $3.95-$9.95 per month.

Before choosing a hosting plan you should make a list of the features you will need for your site. Things to think about are whether you will need one or more databases, number of email accounts, programming language support, anonymous ftp, and the amount of needed bandwidth.

Be careful about locking yourself into a longterm account, even if it will save you money over the course of a year. You might use the service for a couple of months and find that it doesn't quite measure up to your expectations. If you have prepaid for 12 months you would either have to stay or take a loss for the unused months.

[Spoonfrog]

Well I was thinking I could just keep my website on my ISP webspace at ntlworld, and then mask it with a domain name. The ISP webspace I currently use is good (there is no size limit or bandwidth limit), though it doesn't have a cgi bin, which I understand is needed to make a guestbook - something I would like to do at some point.

[paulzon]

Hi Spoonfrog!

I'm sure that John and Christina are right about GoDaddy etc, as they are usually right about other things, but I have heard one or two less positive things about them in amongst the usual recommendations, although as they are very large this may just be the law of averages. I agree strongly that it is right to keep your registration separate from your hosting, as I have heard quite a few tales where businesses have built up a domain, had problems with hosting, then have more problems trying to extricate their domain from the host they are leaving.

However, I would recommend that you register with a company in your own country also, should you have any legal complications further down the line. I presume that you are from the UK ("NTL") so I would recommend www.easily.co.uk for registration. I have used them for many domain registrations, for both myself and others, and they have never given me one problem. Don't just go for the cheapest BTW. For hosting I wouldn't worry about the nationality, I know of many good ones in the UK, US, Germany etc, as well as many bad ones unfortunately. Currently, I would recommend www.bluehost.com, who are based in Utah (land of God fearin' polygamy!). I had a few problems with them very early on, but since then they have been magnificent for both myself, and the people I have recommended them to for a long time, and my "uptime" has been 100% for ages now. Their space, bandwith, flexibility, features and reliabilty are truly top notch too!

Before I forget, I also believe that Christina (above) has some webhosting too! ... She is a very nice, honest, helpful lady (except when she wants to hit me with a frying pan! ) so perhaps you could have a word with her as well!

Hope this helps!

Paul (www.zonicweb.net)
Museum Of Bad Album Covers

[webado]

Me hitting you with a frying pan?
Oh, darn! Must've frogotten the little pink pills again!

[trackerm]

You get what you pay for.

If you get a cheap domain name it will be linked to a shonky host that will make it administratively difficult to transfer later, when you have grown a brain, to a better host.

If you are in a country that has a localising button on Google like Australia where you can search for Australian sites then you will NOT (I'll say that again for the effect you might read it) NOT show up in Australia if you are .org or .com... it only works if you are .com.au or .org.au

OK, not always, it can be fudged.

The hosts server needs to be in the country of the search, but many budget hosts actually have their servers in another country (like the usa).

My girlfriend who doesn’t listen to me (I don't think I have ever had one that does!) has been having these problems for 7 months.

Yours in happiness

Mark