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Purchasing a domain name
- Thread starter Shamus
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Hi
Could anyone please point me to a good site for purchasing domain names? I really have no idea how this works. .au extensions would be good, but .com would be fine too.
Thankyou very much for your help.
You buy them through a registrar. NetworkSolutions.com was the original one, but now there are many (cheaper) registrars. Personally, I've been using namecheap.com lately. Godaddy.com is another popular one.
Getting .au names, however, might require an .au registrar... I don't know which ones are good, or even if there is more than one.
arn
network solutions is terrible. AND expensive.
Godaddy is o.k. but annoying. They try very hard to 'add-on' things that cost you money.
Shop around, narrow it down to a couple, than send them an email question about something, and see who has the best/quickest response.
One company I dealt with years ago, outsourced the tech/help to a foreign country (India?). No kidding. It was next to impossible to communicate with them at any meaningful level.
You might also see what they have in hosting packages, as you will have to host it somewhere.
Godaddy is o.k. but annoying. They try very hard to 'add-on' things that cost you money.
Shop around, narrow it down to a couple, than send them an email question about something, and see who has the best/quickest response.
One company I dealt with years ago, outsourced the tech/help to a foreign country (India?). No kidding. It was next to impossible to communicate with them at any meaningful level.
You might also see what they have in hosting packages, as you will have to host it somewhere.
I just checked, and the people I use have .au available. I would highly recommend them. They are cheap, have great hosting plans and are very helpful. Here is a link:
http://www.namespro.ca/
(actually .com.au, .org.au and .net.au, is the way you do .au domains, as true .au is not available - just learnt that tonight, thanks!- source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.au )
http://www.namespro.ca/
(actually .com.au, .org.au and .net.au, is the way you do .au domains, as true .au is not available - just learnt that tonight, thanks!- source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.au )
To the OP:
As you start looking at registrars to purchase a domain name, and probably host your site with them, please take care and read the terms of service and the agreements very closely. I have a few domains registered, but I used Network Solutions as the registrar. I then found a hosting company that suited the needs I had and signed up with them. Once I got the information I needed from the hosting company (in particular, the IP address of my site), I then went back to Network Solutions and filled in the proper information for the DNS. This way I control my own, and am not tied into any one hosting site.
Consider this - if you want to change hosting, then simply sign up with the new one, install your web site, and when you are satisfied, then change the DNS at Network Solutions to point to the new place. The changes take a bit to propogate through the system, sometimes a few hours, sometimes only minutes if you play the cards right.
Yes - domain names can be cheaper at other places, but those damned TOS's and Agreements (have you ever really read the one at Go Daddy) sometimes drive me mad. And sometimes you end up getting what you pay for - cheap. <rant off>.
Network Solutions is not hard to work with and it's really a good thing to learn. Now - I get nothing from them for saying this - I am simply speaking from the last 12 years of experience working with them and maintaining networks. Now retired and loving it!!!
Arn - nothing against you or anyone else using the less expensive registrars - the above views are mine. I also had the luxury of running the primary DNS server(s), so that helped the situation.
I understand, in many situations you get what you pay for, so you shouldn't necessarily try to shave off that last $1/year at the expense of service.
Many people ran into big problems with RegisterFly this past year when they basically imploded.
That being said, I've had no problems with NameCheap.com. They are an ENOM reseller and they let you manage the DNS.
arn
namecheap provides DNS services that you can modify as you wish through their control panel. I don't host with namecheap... so if you have existing hosting, it should work fine.
arn
.com.au domain name registration
I personally use TPP Internet for all my .com.au domain names.
I run a web design business in Brisbane, and I find then very professional and helpful. You can actually call their number and get someone on the phone! They might not be the cheapest, but they do a professional service and are very fast and reliable.
http://www.tppinternet.com.au
I personally have several hundred domain names with them. If you get stuck on what to do give me a call or visit my site.
Http://www.devision.com.au
I personally use TPP Internet for all my .com.au domain names.
I run a web design business in Brisbane, and I find then very professional and helpful. You can actually call their number and get someone on the phone! They might not be the cheapest, but they do a professional service and are very fast and reliable.
http://www.tppinternet.com.au
I personally have several hundred domain names with them. If you get stuck on what to do give me a call or visit my site.
Http://www.devision.com.au
If you're using Network Solutions you're just throwing money away. Cheaper registrars like GoDaddy give you the same amount of control over your DNS, but at a fraction of the cost. I've also been in the business a long time and have never seen any advantage to using Network Solutions.
Network Solutions is great, but expensive and virtually useless at this point in time. The only rational for using Network Solutions today, is if you purchased a domain name reservation from them (for an expiring name on their network).
GoDaddy is perfectly fine, but annoying. BlueRazor.com is run by GoDaddy, and if you plan on purchasing multiple names, they provide a nice discount on each name for a small yearly membership fee.
eNom is one of the best. As of now, I believe GoDaddy is the #1 registrar in terms of registered names. Network Solutions used to be the first in tht regard, but stopped being competitive along with Register.com along time ago. eNom and GoDaddy are tops now. eNom's strategy revolves around using resellers (like TuCows/OpenSRS). eNom resellers can give you really good deals and incorporate all of eNom's great features for free. NameCheap is one of eNom's registrars. RegisterFly used to be as well, but split off on their own and have managed to loss a lot of ground on quality customer service.
Most eNom resellers look similar. I run my own eNom reseller called WebsiteNexus.com. GoDaddy also runs "WildWestDomains" and is behind many other discount registrars as well. If you're going to use GoDaddy, I recommend you just use GoDaddy or BlueRazor. If you're going to use eNom, I'd just use a reseller like NameCheap.
~ CB
GoDaddy is perfectly fine, but annoying. BlueRazor.com is run by GoDaddy, and if you plan on purchasing multiple names, they provide a nice discount on each name for a small yearly membership fee.
eNom is one of the best. As of now, I believe GoDaddy is the #1 registrar in terms of registered names. Network Solutions used to be the first in tht regard, but stopped being competitive along with Register.com along time ago. eNom and GoDaddy are tops now. eNom's strategy revolves around using resellers (like TuCows/OpenSRS). eNom resellers can give you really good deals and incorporate all of eNom's great features for free. NameCheap is one of eNom's registrars. RegisterFly used to be as well, but split off on their own and have managed to loss a lot of ground on quality customer service.
Most eNom resellers look similar. I run my own eNom reseller called WebsiteNexus.com. GoDaddy also runs "WildWestDomains" and is behind many other discount registrars as well. If you're going to use GoDaddy, I recommend you just use GoDaddy or BlueRazor. If you're going to use eNom, I'd just use a reseller like NameCheap.
~ CB
My favorite is NameCheap. I've been with GoDaddy but I couldn't take their horrible user interface. It's impossible to find your way around GoDaddy's domain control panel. NameCheap has a very intuitive user interface and also has great prices. I especially like NameCheap's Whois Protection so people can't grab my email address from my domain's Whois.
Yea, GoDaddy will call you asking you if everything is OK and try and get you to pay for hosting on an annual basis instead of a monthly plan. And you don't EVEN want to be late on a payment.
I am now using Yahoo Small Business to register new domains. They are about $10/year. I could register the domains with the same company I use to host the websites (A Small Orange), but I wanted the wanted both things separate.
I also used register.com for a client's site some time ago, and I think they are overpriced and don't offer good service for what they do. Also, a friend had a pretty bad experience with GoDaddy, plus I've read bad things about it online. I've never used it personally, though.
I also used register.com for a client's site some time ago, and I think they are overpriced and don't offer good service for what they do. Also, a friend had a pretty bad experience with GoDaddy, plus I've read bad things about it online. I've never used it personally, though.