Which Domain Registrar

[makario]

Hi,

I am new to this and looking for advice on how and with whom to register a domain name. Not looking at Hosting yet as I may get a smugmug account later and then use this domain name to direct traffic to my future smugmug page (this, as I understand it would be the way it work?? )

What I am looking for
1. Not too expensive ( $10 USD a year)
2. Webmail with min 5 email accounts
3. Should have a bit of webspace for a few web pages
4. Should allow the smugmug or similar redirection.
5. POP3 support (nice to have)

Please suggest provider that you deal with and and feedback

Thanks folks.

Cheers
Mak

[DaveB]

A domain registrar gives you a domain name, and optionally hosts it on their name servers, sometimes with email and web redirects.

You want webmail? POP3? You want a bit of webspace? You want a hosting provider.

There are companies who do both, but the functions of each are different.

I register my .com domains with GoDaddy (there are lots of discount codes around to shave the price down by at least 10%), and my .com.au domains with NameScout. All my hosting has been at pair.com for years now, but I could move that if I needed to.
There are benefits to separating the functions: start with a small hosting plan for mail/web, and when you later want to upgrade you won't feel tied into that provider if there's a better deal elsewhere. Just change where the domain records point and get rid of them.

[tasadam]

I use godaddy as well, for my .com but now I have a host with unlimited space and my godaddy is set to expire soon, so I will be switching my domain name to them as it's included.

[ATJ]

I started with ServersAustralia who did my domain names as well as free web hosting. As my site grew I upgraded to a paid account ($9.95/month). They have since unloaded the web hosting to Inticon. I started with "Free" and am now on "Mini".

My .com registration is $13 per year and my .com.au is $33.95 for 2 years.

[gstark]

Dave has given a basic outline of domain registration vs hosting services ... I'll try to add a little more to that ...

Registrar services are exactly that: yu only pay for the registration and lease of a nominated domain name. For a .com, .net or .org name, you should expect to pay no more than US$10/year. If you want a .com.au or .net.au, it pays to shop around: around Au$20 or less, per year. You usually need to buy the first two years registration as a starting point.

That fee provides you with just the rgistration only. No email, no webspace, no ftp ... nothing. As soon as you want email and/or a website and/or any other sort of public presence on the internet, then you need a hosting service of some sort. This can be had for free on some advertising supported services, or for anything from around US$40/year upwards.

Often, a hosting provider will offer a free domain name as a part of their hosting service account.


With respect to specific hosting and registrar services, I'll offer the following observations.

We've used GoDaddy in the past, but found their service offerings to be somewhat wanting: they did not (this may have changed) provide an easy means of loading lots of data into a database, and when a restore was needed, it was very expensive (obviating any saving) and slow to take place. For very basic service, they should be fine, but if you need more, then I'd suggest looking elsewhere.

By way of contrast, Dreamhost's service offerings are excellent, with lots of great documentation and ways to ensure that your system and backups and restores can be self managed at no extra cost. While they have a great attitude, their support can be found wanting (but better than GoDaddy's) and often by the time they get around to looking at your support ticket, the issue has been resolved. "Problem? No, we don't see that here ... "

As a straight out registrar only service, either will work for a .com, .net, or .org domain.

This site is currently homed at Bluehost, for both registrar and hosting. Support is far and away better than either of the others; they have a live chat facility, and I've had issues resolved within minutes, compared with days when using either GoDaddy or Dreamhost. However, they employ some very strange (mis)management practices. You get no notification of planned outages. Too much trouble for them to send a bulk email. If you overuse your resources on a shared host, then they suspend your account. Then they send you an email ... great idea, especially if your email is at an address on an account which has just been suspended! That makes a heap of sense, right? No, I don't think so either.

While the support is great, I won't be renewing because of their stupid management policies. Not getting repeat business in this realm is a very poor way to run a business ....

This site's database is hosted at RapidVPS. I'm using one of their virtual servers, and I am very happy with the levels of service and support. Serious support issues seem to be dealt with promptly, no matter the time of day. They offer shared services for around US$35/year, but don't have registrar services.

Whereas the other three's services are oversold (meaning that they offer all manner of ridiculous bandwidth and storage limits) the reality is that due to other restrictions (memory or CPU utilisation, or file count limits, for instance) the reality is that you simply cannot fully avail yourself of all of the theoretical capacity that you have purchased. In practice, not using what you've been oversold is rarely problematic, but bumping into some of their limitations - many of which are not clearly spelled out - can be an issue.

RapidVPS seems to offer much less apparent value, but the shared services are not oversold, and their limitations are realistic, and spelled out from the start.

Cheers.

[makario]

Thanks for the explaination Gary, ATJ, Tasadam and DaveB. Great primer for a novice like me. I am looking to start simple. First get the domain name that I like, and then get hosting, I am not great at programming and hence smugmug will be a future option.

Edit: Found the discount codes via google

Cheers
Mak

[makario]

got me a couple of domain names, yeah. All I need to do is to build a nice simple landing page and replace the ugly godaddy default one.

[tasadam]

So... I'm with Dreamhost now, and my annual account is due for renewal in 9 days.
That doesn't give me long if I want to find a new host, sign up, upload, and switch my domain over.
I have set up a gallery on my dreamhost http://www.tasadam.com/gallery2 and I see that it runs slow, with frequent 500 internal server errors.
I learn that I need a virtual machine or some such, to run the database on.
And, of course, it costs extra.
As Gary said, unlimited space and unlimited bandwidth, but try doing anything useful with the web space and it fails you.

Where do I go where I can run my gallery, host all my files (for hot-linking in forums and sharing with friends / family, etc), that's about all I want to do with it though I might set up an online shopping cart one day.
Seems I need to re-read this topic, unless someone can link me to where it's all spelled out. I'm fairly new to all this too - I certainly didn't know I needed a virtual machine until I read the Gallery2 forums when I struck problems.

Or maybe I should start again with Gallery3 assuming the lower overheads really will make a difference... ?

[gstark]

So... I'm with Dreamhost now, and my annual account is due for renewal in 9 days.
That doesn't give me long if I want to find a new host, sign up, upload, and switch my domain over.

Which says to me that you're looking at a new web hosting service, rather than a domain registrar. But relocating away from DH may well mean both.

I have set up a gallery on my dreamhost http://www.tasadam.com/gallery2 and I see that it runs slow, with frequent 500 internal server errors.
I learn that I need a virtual machine or some such, to run the database on.

Which is what I'm doing for this site. As it happens, our memory footprint has been a bit too big for the lowest level of service, and so I've just upgraded the package under which the DSLRUsers databases run.

FWIW, I've been running the databases on a VM at RapidVPS for the whole of this year, and thus far there have been zero complaints. Maybe three support issues, but zero issues in the way that they've been handled. The code that runs lives at Bluehost, and they will certainly not be getting a renewal.

And, of course, it costs extra.
As Gary said, unlimited space and unlimited bandwidth, but try doing anything useful with the web space and it fails you.

That's the real issue with the shared hosting services, and especially with the cheaper ones. If your sites are static, with little or no call for database interaction, then shared hosting should be fine. What I'm seeing is that the need for database services is one item that places higher demands upon a server.

File storage can be an issue, especially if you've become used to the so-called unlimited storage that the cheaper hosting sites offer.

One of the problems with the Dreamhost VM offerings is that you don't really know what your resource utilisation - and therefore needs - will be.

How does one determine the memory etc needs of your service? I don't have a clue.

Where do I go where I can run my gallery, host all my files (for hot-linking in forums and sharing with friends / family, etc), that's about all I want to do with it though I might set up an online shopping cart one day.

In your case, I might be inclined to look at their PS options, maybe start of with the basic level, and adjust to suit. The cost is about the same as a VM elsewhere, and if you've reached that point where you need a VM, then this would seem to me to be perhaps the lease painful option for you.

You wouldn't need to move anything, and it would give you the chance to see what your utilisation is going to be. That could be used as a guide towards any future moves you may need to make.

Also, it removes the need for you to find a different registrar: if you cancel your account at DH, then your registrar services also get canceled, so you cannot simply just move hosts without arranging for replacement registrar services.