Help for newbie. Domain names. How to purchase

henmuffin

Hello. I am hoping to have a web site address for my business and was wondering how to go about buying a domain name. I haven't got experience in things :money: Thanks very much.

Dollardog

I got the domain name for my business fron 1and1,

http://www.1and1.co.uk/Instant?linkOrigin=Instant&linkId=hd.mainnav.domain

If you click on this link, it tells you the prices and you can input the name you want to see if it is available, if it is, you just pay the fee and there you are.

gb12345

I wouldn't recommend using 1&1. They are fine when you are with them, but when you try to cancel they conveniently don't receive your cancellation request and then set a debt collection agency on you.

As to the OP's post - you do realise that there is more to it than just buying a domain name - you will also have to get hosting and get a website produced for you.

digp

if you are after a uk domain name try fasthosts.co.uk
if after a .com/net/org try namecheap.com
BUT do not use them for hosting
for hosting use layer7host.com or [URL="http://#"]medialayer.com[/URL]

paddyrg

I have used easily.co.uk for domain purchases since the 1990's - simple, reliable, helpful, inexpensive. There may be cheaper, but frankly a tenner for 2 years isn't going to break anyone's bank.

However - step back before buying domains and make sure you're buying wisely. Is your business really international, or just local? Do you need a .com (in which case you will need a contrived name as the sensible namespace is exhausted), or will a .co.uk suit better? Some large sites with international presences elect to use .co.uk as people prefer local. Hey, theregister and bbc are both .co.uk sites. You probably still need to be a bit contrived with your domain choice, but maybe less so.

henmuffin

Thanks for all your advice folks. :T

Dannycelluk

I am currently with 1and1 and I found it very easy to set up my first website. You can even insert a shop into the site very easily!it's also very easy to set up business emails etc, it does however have a monthly subscription

Mudd14

I've used 123-reg for about 10 years and always been very easy

Milky_Mocha

I have a question please about domain names and publicly available details.

I started to register with 123-reg and noticed that they charged c. £9 to protect your details from the whois search site, i.e. hide your name/address/telephone numbers. This really appealed to me but I was surprised you had to pay money for this so I did a search for an alternative.

I then went with 1and1.co.uk who state that they keep all contact details confidential (no charge). Has anyone who used 1and1 found that your contact details truly don't show up in whois (or equivalent) searches?

Brassedoff

I have read the comments on here with interest and am amazed at so much confusion in what is a domain, the difference between .co, .co.uk etc.

The type of extension
All domains are brought or offered by ICANNon a bid rate. So for argument sake you buy .com for $2.89. Most firms either sell at a profit or loss lead them in order to up sell. On the other side the larger firms own their own data centres, there are only two of them globally. Otherwise there's a wholesale market where firms place their customers with a rack space company for a year. Most never move, or if they do, move them across over 12 months.

Whether it be the top level domain TLD such as .com, .org, .info, .mobi, you find search engines look for the information on them first with any search. Top level domains are controlled by ICANN, the international domain registry body.

Second level domains and I will use the UK ones as example such as .co.uk, .org.uk, .com.uk, .ltd.uk all are viewed secondary to the search engines. .uk and other national bodies are governed by the national government agencies. In the case of UK, it Nominet.

If you are going to have any domains, have .com, .org and then.co.uk DO NOT leave your domains open. By that, don't buy a .com and leave a .co.uk out there. As your firm grows, others (mainly Chinese) will buy un purchased extensions and offer them back to you for £99. Something that could have cost you £1.99 at the start.

When I do a web plan for a client, I get them on average 11 domains so they have full brand protection.

When I first went to University to read business law, people thought of a name and checked with Companies house. Now they check to see it the domain names are available before anything else. It has changed completely.

Registrar

You have companies that either registry firms, or direct resellers of another larger firm, one name mentioned by another poster is a reseller, they have no control over domains in their names as they do not have access to the ICANN software (which you have to register with them to get and pay several thousand for it).

Up time

Some UK, in fact most UK firms don't use multi server technology. The aim of this is to ensure 99.9% up time. It's no use having a domain name if you cannot send or receive email, or your domain hosting goes down one pipe and is too slow.

Pick a firm that has multi nation hosting. I run side servers in seven sites. The main one being 4th generation hosting. A quarter of the hosting firms out there are 4th gen.

You also need to consider the ability of the firms servers to do autobak (Auto backup).

Choice

Too many look for a cheap £1 domain and then get hit in a big way for email, hosting, storage, or even software.

I see no use in supplying a domain without supplying the hosting, email etc. once you do that I find it easier and less hassle to give the customer free uploading of software such as Wordpress. What I mean by this is Wordpress is free, but most people do not know how to load it on their hosting loan if they are looking to have a dedicated company Wordpress. The free Wordpress hosting sends the wrong message. So make sure you have a company that auto deploys the software for you. That way you have no issues with mySql database.

Then there is free email. Email costs very little, only pennies. Most firms charge £19.95 a year. I cannot see the use of charging someone for their domain, hosting, registry and email. Adding it all up can cost £99. It's easier to charge for the domain and hosting, keep the rest free, the customer stays with you then. £26 is far more reasonable for a year. Genuine private registration (that means staying off whois) costs the registrar $1.65. Some firms claim to offer this free, but it cannot be free unless ICANN gets paid.

That's my explanation as far as it works for my firm, go and have a long look around as there are now hundreds of resellers, I have 46 on my books. Just watch that they don't charge you for moving etc

Brassedoff

paddyrg wrote: »

I have used easily.co.uk for domain purchases since the 1990's - simple, reliable, helpful, inexpensive. There may be cheaper, but frankly a tenner for 2 years isn't going to break anyone's bank.

However - step back before buying domains and make sure you're buying wisely. Is your business really international, or just local? Do you need a .com (in which case you will need a contrived name as the sensible namespace is exhausted), or will a .co.uk suit better? Some large sites with international presences elect to use .co.uk as people prefer local. Hey, theregister and bbc are both .co.uk sites. You probably still need to be a bit contrived with your domain choice, but maybe less so.

If you look at the BBC, they own all the "BBC" domains. They just chose to have B&B.co.uk as their hosted site. I use .co.uk for my UK based consultancy, .com for global, .us for the United States site. All are geosynchronous so a user with a UK IP only sees the UK site.