Has anyone used 123Reg and which domains to have

charlysez

i also use 123 and have had no issues, i was able to forward emails to my own account quite easily too.

personally i would always try to get a co.uk because its memorable and most popular, i always think of .com being American and would probably not look at it if it came up on a google search, but hey, thats just me.

marvin

Crikey the cheap and trouble lot are out in full force arn't they!

I use 123 only for 1 domain which is not hosted there, but I know others who are quite happily.

It is cheap hosting and with that you should never expect miracles having said that my cheap host (1&1) is similar and has often been better than many very expensive hosts, I know one organisation who were paying in excess of £10,000 for their package per year and the hosts were awful, considering they were reselling someone elses service.

Having had expereience of both 123 and 1&1 custyomer service my advice is unless it is very simple don't bother! Both being equally poor and the time out on 123 is annoying when you have not received their reply!

If you are after a simple website then go for cheap hosting it will not let you down on what you need, if it is more complicated and more essential that the site works full time then you may be better paying for a custom service but in most cases this is not necessary.

And if you sign up for 123 make sure you get the cashback available this goes for many hosts out there.

As to protecting your domain by buying the others similar do this if there is only a prospect that someone will want to pinch your domain name and do you harm.

cloudberry45

I have used 123 reg with no problems at all. Had no idea what we were doing but everything seemed easy enough to use when starting up and all went smoothly. GOt a good bit of cashback too so make sure you check that out too if going ahead.

Kiramanic

I've not personally had any issues with 123-reg though I do know a couple of people who have. Both had different technical problems but the issue was more with the customer service (ie lack of any effort to help whatsoever).

They're fine for the most part, but just beware if you do need to contact them I guess.

As for domains, as others have said you're best off just grabbing the .com and .co.uk unless you have some huge marketing budget.

Paul_VW

I use them for .co.uk domains (through quidco for 7.5% cashback)

I use https://www.dreamhost.com for hosting and also buying .com domains

FatVonD

Booger, didn't even think of cashback

I've just started using them, their Instantsite feature isn't as straightforward as I'd hoped it would be (not helped by joining when it was down for improvements) but it's the first time I've ever done anything like this. I kept losing lots of stuff as the pop up window asking me if I wanted to save stuff was popping up *behind* the main window. (Might be a mac thing.) I've worked out the 'save' icon now and moved one of the pop ups to the side and if I forget to save at least the pop-up is appearing to the side every time now.

Their support seemed to be great and I was being *really* trying. I still haven't bought hosting yet and I'm not entirely confident I'll be able to get what I've put together up there without something going wrong!

happyfeet7

I use 123reg for all my .co.uk domains as they are the cheapest and I've not had any problems with them and I use GoDaddy for my .com's and any other extension as with coupons for .com's (promo749) you can get a .com domain for about £5 per year. I use HostGator for my hosting and it's advisable not to have your domains and hosting with the same company. The reasoning is that if your domains are shut down for any reason (or you forget to renew and someone else buys it), you can just move your actual site content to another domain without much hassle as your site is still on your hosting and vice versa, if your hosting gets shut down and you've taken backups of your sites, then you can just redirect your domain to your new hosting, upload your site and you're good to go.

Kiramanic

FatVonD wrote: »

I've just started using them, their Instantsite feature isn't as straightforward as I'd hoped it would be (not helped by joining when it was down for improvements) but it's the first time I've ever done anything like this.

You're probably better off just getting the hosting (with them or whoever, I like Hostgator) and installing a CMS like WordPress or something similarly simple.

Sounds complicated but lots of hosts actually give you an automatic installer tool to do it with so all you have to do is follow the instructions. I don't know if 123-reg actually offer a tool like that since I've never hosted with them but as I say, most do.

If you need a hand or any advice drop me a PM, I like making the internet a better place

marvin

Kiramanic wrote: »

You're probably better off just getting the hosting (with them or whoever, I like Hostgator) and installing a CMS like WordPress or something similarly simple.

Sounds complicated but lots of hosts actually give you an automatic installer tool to do it with so all you have to do is follow the instructions. I don't know if 123-reg actually offer a tool like that since I've never hosted with them but as I say, most do.

they do indeed offer one click applications that include wordpress and Joomla for CMS

talksr

April_Floyd wrote: »

Watch when buying domain names that you don't end up with hidden charges.

A lot of domain companies offer what looks like cheap up front, but when you go to set up email services or host your website that it costs more than it would have done if you had looked elsewhere.

I am not saying they all do it but many hosting companies offer really cheap domain names to lure you in - some even charge when you want to move it or make a simple change (like to a nameserver or an IPSTAG)

be careful and make sure you are added as the 'registrant' you can check this by looking up 'WHOIS' in Google.

I would add .com to your list, but don't bother with .eu and .biz unless you are large company or have a trade mark on your name

April is right, I got a smashing deal with them. It was a 12 month deal, on month 11, I emailed them to say the business never took off and I would not like them to auto-renew.
Month 13, I log in to my cc account to see a £150 unauthorised charge. :mad:
They tried everything they could to wriggle out of refunding.
Be clear on the small print and if you email them or have any correspondance, make sure you keep a copy for evidence!
They do very cheap deals, but you just need to make sure they charge you accordingly.