buying domain names

popadom

Ok, dumb question:
When you buy a domain name, do you own it.

The reason i ask is ive seen sites like 123 reg that say you can buyit for 2 years for 68.00. I thought if you brought is (some ive seen are 2.00) they you own it, or do you rent it?

thanks

googler

You 'buy' it at a rate agreed with your registrar.

If you stop paying, you lose ownership, and someone else can snap it up.

popadom

thats silly, so if you buy a website you have to keep paying for the name?

jayme1

you dont buy a website you just rent the name of the website (this is because it has to be registered in the 'phonebook' of the internet addresses world) you then have to set up a website and rent a server or set up your own at home, you then tell the website name to redirect your website name to your IP address of your server where the website is being hosted, sites where you buy domains usually have tools to make it pretty easy to do all this.

also if you just want to have your own domain for email you dont need all the 'server' bit, you just rent the site from the domain registrar and you can use something like google apps to set up an email account.

(this is just how I *think I* understand it, I may be completely wrong maybe someone will clarify it for me and you)

googler

rgay1992 wrote: »

thats silly, so if you buy a website you have to keep paying for the name?

Yup, you buy the rights to the name for a set period, and you need to renew after that period.

bob_man_uk

yes it is like renting the name, but you do have the right to move it to whichever company you like, for example, if somoene has hosting thrown in with a domain name, you can transfer the domain to then and use the free hosting

hamcaster

You're essentially renting the domain name from the registrar.

$68 is pretty expensive for 2 years (more so if the 68.00 is in pounds), unless this includes hosting for your site, or is a premium domain. .com domains are usually around $9 per year (often cheaper if you have a coupon)

popadom

why cant you buy it outright?

victor2

rgay1992 wrote: »

why cant you buy it outright?

Probably for the same reason you can't buy a phone number outright. It's yours as long as you rent it. Stop paying the rent and it becomes available to give to somebody else.

popadom

victor2 wrote: »

Probably for the same reason you can't buy a phone number outright. It's yours as long as you rent it. Stop paying the rent and it becomes available to give to somebody else.

not with mobiles you can just have a number on pay as you go

jayme1

rgay1992 wrote: »

not with mobiles you can just have a number on pay as you go

you dont technically own a PAYG phone number or even the sim card, but effectively yes you can keep your number on a PAYG sim as long as you use it every so often (usually 180days), but the 'ownership' is still with the network.