Registering a domain name?

[Mrs Reschsmooth]

Hi all

Just after some advice on registering a domain name. Who would you recommend I use?
I have a list of accredited registrars but are they all the same?
Please help.


Cheers
Alicia

[radar]

Alicia,

if you want someone local, I use NetRegistry, they have been pretty good to me and a few of my clients. Their domain manager is also easy to use and reasonable price wise.

I've used Melbourne IT, usually good but they tend to be more expensive.

If you are also planning on setting up a web site, a lot of the hosting companies will give you a pretty cheap .com domain. So Dreamhost, which hosts this fine site , can give you a good package deal. I use them as well for one of my domains/web site.

HTH,

André

[michael_]

are you after .com or .com.au? i use aplus.net, cheap, reliable, easy to use admin panel

[Mrs Reschsmooth]

Hi

To be honest, I'm not sure where to start. At this stage I am just looking to register the Domain name and the website a few months down the track.
I'm looking at .com and .com.au - is it a good idea to have both?

I have heard of net registry...thanks for that.

Alicia

[ATJ]

Alicia,

I got my .com via Servers Australia for $13 per year. I signed up for a free web account at the same time. As my site grew (Bandwidth mainly) I moved up to the $9.95 per month plan.

[chewlinyip]

Hi Alicia

I actually just bought a domain name 2 - 3 days ago! why? I'm not really sure why I don't really need one, I've been spending a lot of time at home recently (I've stopped full time work) which is giving me too much time to buy things. I Digress

if your looking for something cheaper - i bought my domain from smarty host

http://www.smartyhost.com.au/?gclid=CJG ... ewodtGHsZQ

http://www.chewlinyip.net for $6 a year ! i think its a bargain. I havn't used it yet so don't try going anywhere... actually maybe i'll link it to my smugmug account

chew.smugmug.com or http://www.chewlinyip.net.. which is easier to remember? both are hard aye?

[stetner]

I would beware that some of the underhanded registry sites will reserve a name once you have searched for it at their site to see if it is available. Then you are stuck buying it from them or waiting until they 'drop' it again.

Therefore make sure you do your searches at a reputable place, and unfortunately I have not looked into a name for so long I cannot really recommend anyone.

Here is a page that describes it better:
http://tcattorney.typepad.com/anticybersquatting_consum/2008/01/dnfr-allegation.html

[gstark]

Alicia,

I have heard nothing but bad things about Smartyhost. Many of the cheaper Oz places don't actually give you control of your domain. They keep the keys locked up and let you have use f it ... provided you buy their services. Try and move your domain away from them, and they will basically tell you to go and get ....

Yahoo will try to sell you - every year - their domain service. Even when you've moved your domains away from them, they still will bill you, unless you actually go in and cancel the service.

So, make sure that you get to manage to the registry yourself. Leigh knows who manages our .au domains; all of our .com and .net domains are now through Dreamhost.

[methd]

godaddy here - cheap, USA based, and very reliable.

[Chaase]

1

[trotkiller]

I have also used Godaddy in the past, never had a problem myself

http://www.godaddy.com

[chewlinyip]

Alicia,

I have heard nothing but bad things about Smartyhost. Many of the cheaper Oz places don't actually give you control of your domain. They keep the keys locked up and let you have use f it ... provided you buy their services. Try and move your domain away from them, and they will basically tell you to go and get ....

Yahoo will try to sell you - every year - their domain service. Even when you've moved your domains away from them, they still will bill you, unless you actually go in and cancel the service.

So, make sure that you get to manage to the registry yourself. Leigh knows who manages our .au domains; all of our .com and .net domains are now through Dreamhost.

what bad things have you heard about em? what does it mean to manage the registry yourself? o_0

[radar]

Hi

To be honest, I'm not sure where to start. At this stage I am just looking to register the Domain name and the website a few months down the track.
I'm looking at .com and .com.au - is it a good idea to have both?

It doesn't matter if you don't have both, it depends on what your target market is to be. If you want to be known as being Australian, it is a good idea to have the .au domain. Note that to be able to register a .com.au domain, you will need to quote an ABN to the registrar. The .com.au domains also cost more.

cheers,

André

[Geoff]

I use netregistry and dreamhost for my personal site. Very reliable.

[michael_]

dreamhost reliable?

[Geoff]

dreamhost reliable?

I have found them to be, yes.
This very site is hosted there.

[dawesy]

I had a .com.au registered via netregistry and it was very painless. Never really used it an let it lapse. As has been mentioned an ABN is required to get an au domain. Netregistry will also let you host the site wherever you like, you just point the DNS records via their interface, so I was able use use nice cheap Dreamhost hosting for the domain. Don't think they're the cheapest around though.

[gstark]

Alicia,

I have heard nothing but bad things about Smartyhost. Many of the cheaper Oz places don't actually give you control of your domain. They keep the keys locked up and let you have use f it ... provided you buy their services. Try and move your domain away from them, and they will basically tell you to go and get ....

Yahoo will try to sell you - every year - their domain service. Even when you've moved your domains away from them, they still will bill you, unless you actually go in and cancel the service.

So, make sure that you get to manage to the registry yourself. Leigh knows who manages our .au domains; all of our .com and .net domains are now through Dreamhost.

what bad things have you heard about em? what does it mean to manage the registry yourself? o_0

Lousy service.

You don't get the keys to your domain registry.

Either of those would turn me off.

They're a marketing company, not a hosting or registry service.

[chewlinyip]

hhm... lucky i bought it for fun for onli $6

next time i'll use some one else

[gstark]

dreamhost reliable?

Within the context of inexpensive shared hosting, ultimately, yes.

I've used a number of different US based hosts, and within that context, DH are not entirely bad: the package is exceptional value, and I have yet to see a better one (all told) anywhere else. When you do encounter an issue, you find that your issues are responded to by real people, not by email robots.

I mentioned that the package is exceptional value: there are some little things that might not seem obvious at first, but can lead to some real savings and must, ultimately, come under the heading of making them seem very reliable in comparison with the competition.

Let me provide some concrete examples, and in so doing, I can and will compare with GoDaddy, which is where this site was originally host, when it grew to the point that external hosting was needed.

DH provides SSH access to a shell account. GD does not, nor do they provide much in the way of support for uploading data into a database. When we moved the site to GD, we needed upload, over a period of hours, and through the use of lots and lots of PHPMyAdmin screens, the data that needed to be inserted into the database. We needed to split, by hand, the larger tables into manageable units that we could upload within the data constraints of PhpMyAdmin. it was a major pain in the posterior.

For DH, we just grabbed an extract of the database, wrapped it up into a single file, and one liner in bash loaded the database ready for use. Minutes, vs hours.

GD provides backups of your data as a matter of course, and do DH. This is a given.

Issues arise though on the rare occurrence that you need to use those backups at some point in time. DH lets you do your own backups if you wish, and in addition, takes regular (hourly) snapshots of your system. And they gve you instructions on how to access those snapshots, and, for instance, restore your data. I have taken backups and restored them to different databases in order to perform some testing of new features. I needed to basically do this a month back when we upgraded the forum.

To get a restore happening from GD, you need to contact them. They get back to you, telling you what they have available. Might be yesterday's backup. Might be the day before, or the day before that.

You tell them which backup you want to have your data restored from, and they tell you it'll take a couple of days for this to happen. In the meantime, your site might be down.

And yes, you have to pay them for this service. I think it was US150 about three years ago!

The GD account I had was cheap. The DH account I have is inexpensive. If you have more than about three domains that you want hosting for, the options under DH become way less costly..

Oh yes, the Oz registrar that we use is Intaserve, and yes, they give you the keys to your registry.

[chewlinyip]

wow.. you know so much about it. If only i read this 3 days earlier.

[digitor]

About Smartyhost,

You don't get the keys to your domain registry.

What exactly do you mean by "keys"?

They're a marketing company, not a hosting or registry service.

According to their website, SmartyHost is a licensed domain name registrar from AUDA. Are you saying that this is incorrect?

I'm interested to find out the facts - I have a .com.au domain name registered through these guys that I have hosted elsewhere, it cost me $26 for two years, which I thought was pretty reasonable. There isn't any problem editing any of the contact details, or assigning nameservers, so I haven't had problems using them so far.

Cheers

[gstark]

About Smartyhost,

You don't get the keys to your domain registry.

What exactly do you mean by "keys"?

That means that you don't actually have control over your domain - access to the NS records, and so on. Your experience is different from what I've been told by others who have dealt with them, and your experience seems to be much better.

Your's is the first time that I have heard anyone say anything positive about them, and that is a good thing.

I hope.

They're a marketing company, not a hosting or registry service.

According to their website, SmartyHost is a licensed domain name registrar from AUDA. Are you saying that this is incorrect?

Nope.

But McDonalds would describe themselves as a restaurant. Is that correct?

[Mrs Reschsmooth]

Hi everyone

thanks for the advice. I knew you would all be full of info for me!

One questions - when you say "manage your registry" - what do you mean?

Cheers
Alicia

[digitor]

They're a marketing company, not a hosting or registry service.

According to their website, SmartyHost is a licensed domain name registrar from AUDA. Are you saying that this is incorrect?

Nope.

But McDonalds would describe themselves as a restaurant. Is that correct?

Well, hamburgers aside, (I can't quite see the analogy, I must admit) the fact remains that Smartyhost is a licensed domain name registrar. I can't comment on the hosting services that they offer, as I don't use them.

Cheers

[Gripboy]

I would beware that some of the underhanded registry sites will reserve a name once you have searched for it at their site to see if it is available. Then you are stuck buying it from them or waiting until they 'drop' it again.

Therefore make sure you do your searches at a reputable place, and unfortunately I have not looked into a name for so long I cannot really recommend anyone.

Here is a page that describes it better:
http://tcattorney.typepad.com/anticybersquatting_consum/2008/01/dnfr-allegation.html

Actually, it's possible for registry sites to 'sniff' ANY name search as this request is sent out to see if the domain name exists via another registry company. Your best bet is not to search for the registry entry until you are ready to buy.

[gstark]

Well, hamburgers aside, (I can't quite see the analogy, I must admit) the fact remains that Smartyhost is a licensed domain name registrar. I can't comment on the hosting services that they offer, as I don't use them.

The point, really, is whether or not Maccas make hamburgers.

Just because that's what they call them, doesn't make it so.

Just because Macca's marketing dweebs choose to call Maccas a restaurant doesn't make it so.

Let's perhaps look at this from another angle (and I really don't want to pick on Maccas for this, but ... ) ...

Do people go there because of the fine, high quality, cuisine that's on offer?

Or is it perhaps because a large proportion of their clientelle are dragged in by their kids, because that's a section (the kids) of the market that they wish to sell to?

The bottom line is that, ultimately, registration is registration is registration, and that is what you should be getting. Some places tell you you're getting registration, but don't actually deliver.

One questions - when you say "manage your registry" - what do you mean?

Alicia,

You need to ensure that you are getting full control over all aspects of your domain name. You should be able to directly assign the various roles to the domain - technical contact, admin contact, etc, yourself.

Likewise you should be able to assign the DNS - Domain Name Server - details, directly, yourself. And thus you should be able to set any legal value to this ... be it Dreamhost, Melbourne IT, GoDaddy, your own IP address for your home connection ... any of those are legal, and there should be no restriction imposed upon you by your registrar.

Equally, you should be free to be able to transfer the registration from A to B to C without let or hindrance. You should be able to unlock the domain yourself, get the transfer code very easily, go to another registrar and request the transfer, etc all without any sort of hassling from the registrar.

With Dreamhost, GoDaddy and Yahoo, this is a very open and transparent process, and this should be very obvious to the customer right at the start. If it's not, ask questions.

[michael_]

Hi everyone

thanks for the advice. I knew you would all be full of info for me!

One questions - when you say "manage your registry" - what do you mean?

Cheers
Alicia

say your website is hosted somewhere other than with the domain name people, ei you register a domain with aplus.nt (the guys i use) but your actual website information is hosted on your machine at home (basic example), you manage via the domain area where say mrsreschsmooth.com.au points to so whenever someone enters the address it will go directly to the domain, you also control the information about the domain ie who owns it, contact details, in some cases domain registration places also give email address's so you can manage (minimally) how they function, although in most cases thats done via the webserver control panel

[ryangolla]

I go with QiQ - http://www.qiq.com.au/

I'm also a web designer and always use them for my clients. Great value and customer service is excellent!

[gstark]

I'm also a web designer and always use them for my clients. Great value and customer service is excellent!

Could you please define "great value" ? I'm really not sure what this means although I've probably used it myself in this thread, but I have yet to see any Oz hosting service provide anything that remotely resembles value, let alone good value. That said, I am always open to be shown to be incorrect.


Could you also please revisit the location as described in your profile, paying careful attention to what is said on the forum front page and forum FAQ about the use of capital city names in your profile location? Thanx in advance for your future cooperation.

[digitor]

For reference, here http://www.auda.org.au/registrars/accredited-registrars/ is the list of AUDA accredited registrars. Others not on this list selling domain names are resellers, who may or may not give you the same services as an accredited registrar.

Cheers