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Ask Slashdot: Advice For Domain Name Registration?
codepigeon writes: I would like to ask for your advice on selecting a domain name registration service to use (possibly registration with website hosting?). The last time I registered a domain name was around 1999, so I am out of touch with the current offerings.
I have visited a few of the major players' websites. They seem (mostly) similar in prices and services. I have also seen both positive and negative reviews for those companies. I am concerned about being locked in, or surprised with hidden fees. (I paid $75US for a year of service in 1999, now it is only $10.99US?)
I have been trolling Slashdot for about 15 years and respect the views of the users here more than anywhere else. I would love to hear your advice and/or warnings in this matter. I am looking to register a domain name for a development studio that is at the ground level (read: I'm the sole member). I have published a single app to one of the big app stores already and want to have a 'web presence' to publish information about my software and give users a place to submit complaints/requests. I currently don't see the need for any kind of major backend support for the website; simple HTML or JavaScript.
Which is the most trustworthy company to use for registration? Which ones have hidden fees or privacy problems?
I have visited a few of the major players' websites. They seem (mostly) similar in prices and services. I have also seen both positive and negative reviews for those companies. I am concerned about being locked in, or surprised with hidden fees. (I paid $75US for a year of service in 1999, now it is only $10.99US?)
I have been trolling Slashdot for about 15 years and respect the views of the users here more than anywhere else. I would love to hear your advice and/or warnings in this matter. I am looking to register a domain name for a development studio that is at the ground level (read: I'm the sole member). I have published a single app to one of the big app stores already and want to have a 'web presence' to publish information about my software and give users a place to submit complaints/requests. I currently don't see the need for any kind of major backend support for the website; simple HTML or JavaScript.
Which is the most trustworthy company to use for registration? Which ones have hidden fees or privacy problems?
believe it or not, i've been using 1and1 for a few years now and had no problems yet.
and no, i dont work for them.
So it was you, all along?
I've been pretty happy with NameCheap, the CEO recently did a AMA on reddit, you should check it out.
sysadmins and parents of newborns get the same amount of sleep.
internet.bs
I like MyDomain... I don't care about their privacy policies or whatever, it's just a good cheap service. The GUIs on all the registrars are pretty awful, so I figure if they're all bad, go cheap. In over 15 years I've only seen a DNS related problem occur once or twice.
I use enom with a re-seller account. The gui is great, never had a problem really. Prices are very competitive.
Through and through solution.
Anything from anywhere will suit your needs, all the majors are good enough, and yes, domains cost $10 or less. Hosting can be had for a few $/month.
I'm not going to recommend anyone specific because most are not bad. I budget $1/month for my domain. I let my web site host do it. There's two big things to consider. Can you easily transfer to another registrar if needed? Can someone too easily hijack your domain? Exploring these questions will send you down the right path.
Besides that, you're probably fine with any of them. My GoDaddy experience can best be summed up as:
Let's just say I ditched them within the first month, and we'll leave it at that. I switched to DreamHost, and haven't looked back. Their service isn't perfect performance-wise, but it is so much better than GD that it isn't even funny. (Yes, I know you're just asking about domain registration, but lots of folks do one, then the other, so....)
And whatever you do, don't get your hosting from the same company that provides your domain names. There are far too many horror stories of hosting-related disputes leading to frozen domain names.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
I finally pried my domains out of godaddy's/domainsbyproxy's cold dark hands. Godaddy + domainsbyproxy privacy is ~$28/year, while google with privacy is $12. Plus, I can understand the service and not be deluged in upselling.
host with someone different from where you register your domain. That way if you find the hosting isn't to your liking, you can repoint your DNS and won't get held to ransom. What I'm doing at present is registering with MyDomain and then hosting on GoDaddy, which is fine for low-volume sites.
For my Canadian sites, I register with webnames.ca, use MyDomain's DNS service, and host on whatever's cheap.
Hover (www.hover.com) is great. No bait and switch tactics, spamming you on your way to checkout, sleazy superbowl ads or other gimmicks. And you get private listings included in the base price. They aren't the cheapest, but they are competitive. They will even switch you over for free.
No bullshit! https://www.gandi.net/no-bullshit
I've been using Dreamhost for over a decade now and I've always had both a good experience and a good feeling about the company. But then, asking this sort of question, the most prevalent type of answer will be from people whoâ"like meâ"have used only one service and are therefore recommending it. A lone data point wrapped in anecdote does not useful information make. So take my mention of Dreamhost merely as a single vote of confidence for that company. Check out their blogs and pricing plans yourself and compare. :)
Hover.com is really great. Simple interface, has all the features/record types you'll need, and they are just super helpful if you ever need to talk to them. Not tricky at all and nothing hidden. They are slightly more expensive but we're talking a few dollars a year and it's really worth it. I just can't believe how bad other services are by comparison. Godaddy's crazy complicated interface, Networksolutions is just plain terrible in every single possible way and then even worse somehow.. just use hover.
Highly recommend gandi.net
webnames.ca have been excellent, been with them going on twenty years.
cheap-domainregistration.com
$8.99 .COMs
I haven't used them for hosting, but no problems with name reg.
Subject is a bit pessimistic but it's based on my own findings back in 2008 (apologies if some of the links there don't work). The TOS/privacy aspects are probably still questionable for many of these places -- it's the "behind closed doors" sales of customer contact information that bothers me, and that's how crap like this ends up happening. The "Domain Registry of America" can die in a fire (look at how many years that bullshit went on for).
That said: today I use Gandi for the (now 5) domains I own, simply because 1) their web/management interface is better than others I tried, 2) support is very responsive if needed (and if you find bugs in the system, they eventually will get fixed, though it can take them a while), 3) they're affordable, and 4) they offer a good range/selection of TLDs (if that matters to you). Gandi is also fairly aggressive about rate-limiting/blocking WHOIS requests (no I am not a WHOIS scraper -- when you bulk-modify a few domains to change authoritative nameservers... do the math).
You really don't get anything added (that I know of) through companies like Symantec (you'd have known them as Network Solutions or VeriSign). If others have different experiences, cool! Share your experiences and codepigeon can choose based on what he/she needs.
It's kind of remarkable how awful the UIs are of so many registrars. I went through several (including some who had good UIs which turned to garbage (ex. WebLaunching)) over the years (1997 onward). Those I have "deprecated" records for: NPSIS (not sure when), WebLaunching (not sure when, but probably prior to 2009), eNom (2009), and Name.com (2012).
Hope this helps in one way or another!
I use nearlyfreespeech.net for domain registration
First, determine what are your needs exactly. Domain rental + DNS hosting? + web hosting? + mail hosting? You usually need domain rental (obviously) and DNS hosting (convenient to setup specific subdomains, have the mail handled by google, etc... and the major ones all offer DNS hosting for free (and a few emails). And if you need web hosting, a separate offer will not be much of a hassle - just setup of one or two IP addresses in your DNS - but could be more expensive.
Once you know what are the needs, check the various offers, check the reviews (from independent sites) and take the cheapest. Some people keep this wrong belief in mind that if you pay more you'll get more, more reliability etc... That may be true for other things. Not for domain hosting.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
I've used Crosswinds.net for a long time. (Disclaimer: It's run by a couple of friends.)
DDOS attacks hurt them on the hosting front since they aren't a big company, but if you're looking primarily for registration and a great customer service rep then I'd definitely talk to them.
I switch mine between namecheap and godaddy every year as they always seem to have a 99c for the first year for domain transfers and new domains deal non stop. If you are making serious money from your domain, you wouldn't want to do that and register for 10 years or some long time like that, in which case scour the domain name registrations deals forums everywhere eon the net and try to find the cheapest multi-year deal available.
One warning: stay away from 1and1. They are most dishonest outfit around. Nearly lost one of my old domains because they failed to tell me how to unlock my account to move to a different registrar. And they put you into auto-renewal plan regardless you want it or not. It is HELL over there. Word of caution from personal experience.
https://domains.google.com/about/
Fast, cheap, free private registration, good admin UI, and no hidden fees or upsells
Can't now a man buy a simple domain name without handholding? What's wrong with looking the options available and choosing for yourself?
last time I used a big name domain service, just searching for a name caused it to be locked, so I could not buy it from anywhere else. This site does not do that. They don't sell domains, but they do let you look for the best name without harming you. http://www.saferdomainsearch.com/dns/search.php
Avoid them like the plague.
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
Tigertech.net is a relatively small web-hosting company based in Berkeley, CA. Their prices are competitive for web hosting ... domain registration, complete DNS zone control, MySQL, and optionally WordPress is included.
Their customer service is astounding. And their documentation -- I've never read such helpful, friendly documentation anywhere. Just go look at it! Look at this section on how to use custom scripts on their site: https://support.tigertech.net/...
They're the sort of company that not only writes a lot of documentation on navigating the obstacle courses of other domain hosts when migrating to their service, but also they don't make it hard to migrate FROM their service, either.
I've recommended it to friends and clients and never heard a single complaint.
Try 'em out and see what you think!
Check Jimdo.com, you will love it. I use it and it does exactly what I need. I've been with GoDaddy before and can't complain either - ver good, U.S. based customer support. Moved to Jimdo, because I really like their comtent management system. Their offering is also a bit less confusing than GoDaddy's
I have been trolling Slashdot for about 15 years and respect the views of the users here more than anywhere else.
Are you doing it now? It's quite subtle if you are, I can't make it out.
Basic no-frills domain admin. German company AFAIK and have never pulled any dirty tricks. Prices have held steady over the last 10 years(!) too, quite affordable.
If you're on a private (consumer) ISP connection they even update their entries reasonably quickly (a few hours) making it practical to host domains without the dynDNS rigamarole. So long as your IP address isn't changing daily, as with some DSL providers, it's a great arrangement. (I'm speaking from the experience of a Canadian broadband customer, my ISP rhymes with 'raw').
Find a smaller outfit ... once they grow to a certain size and let their marketing goons settle in and run the show you don't want to be anywhere near the resulting cesspool.
Trying to get away from network solutions (lack of good service and not offering 2fa), I came across namesilo.com. The prices are good and everything works as expected. So far they have my recommendation.
cant go wrong, many domains w/ both over the years.
Presumably you are in the USA, but where you want your content hosted can hugely affect the answers you get here. I would recommend hosting outside the 'Five Eyes' if you care at all about your and/or your user's privacy.
It can't be said enough: DO NOT USE GODADDY! Everyone I know (including myself) who has used godaddy has their own horror story to tell. They are evil, lying, and corrupt to the core. It boggles the mind that they are still in business. They must be paying off the right regulators...
That said, I've used about a dozen hosts in the past two decades, and they all seem to jerk their customers around a bit, but not nearly to the level of GoDaddy.
Support is the most important detail to look for in a host. That said, I personally have yet to find a good (& affordable) host. Pretty much all of the rest are certainly adequate, but none I have found worthy of specific recommendation.
What people are saying about keeping registration & hosting separate is probably good advice, but personally I've never had an issue with that outside of GD.
In summary:
Registration: Whoever is cheapest. NOT GODADDY
Hosting: Whoever has the best support. NOT GODADDY
Good luck!
I've been using DirectNIC.com since the early 2000s (My oldest domain still registered with them is from October 2001) and I've had no issues at all. Early domain renewal emails, simple to use control panel. Even the ability to set up custom DNS records (or create NS records for your own DNS)
$10 a year for a .com, plus an ICANN fee of $0.89
iwantmyname.com is fast and easy checking for domain names namecheap.com is the best (afaik) for registration =) be well
I second Gandi, no problems so far
I used GoDaddy for a long time.
Then whatsisname, the owner guy, goes and shoots up an elephant in Africa.
Now, maybe that elephant needed killing, I don't know,
but it wasn't his problem to solve and he can figure out something more constructive to do with his millions as I see it.
So, in irritation that I was contributing to those sorts of endeavors, and even though I think Danica is hot,
I switched my stuff to Dreamhost as I too read that people were happy with them.
Now I am happy.
One time my credit card info got compromised.
DREAMHOST ALERTED ME TO IT!
And quite a bit before my bank, because DREAMHOST had found it on a bulletin board somewhere and compared with their records, as I recall,
told me I might want to look into it.
They was right.
I use domainmonster. No issues, reasonable price, just does the job.
Absolutely correct. Neither godaddy or network solutions are technology innovators. They are merchants of a commodity service. They are running a business model of attracting suckers as customers and providing minimal service (i.e. outsourced to India) while sneaking fees in at any given opportunity.
Both are all about marketing. That's why you see them sponsoring race cars in NASCAR.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Been using them for 5 or 6 years now
:(
Excellent (!!) service, competitively low prices, fantastic control over your domain (be the master of your domain!)
Switched from GoDaddy because of their extremely poor customer service and questionable business practices and politics
GoDaddy was a BIG supporter of SOPA and PIPA (google it up)
Also be sure to google Namecheap cupons and save a few bucks - there are always monthly specials
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
Gotta agree with Dreamhost first and foremost as a domain registrar. If you search back past Slashdots, you'll see folks have chimed in to say how simply searching and pricing your desirable domain name at a lot of registrars, effectively and immediately places your desirable domain name on other people's (or the registrar's) radar. In other words, it is not kept private for you, and if you delay much at all, you'll probably see someone else (like the registrar themselves) might very well snatch it up, so you'll at least have to pay more. I can vouch this doesn't happen with Dreamhost (I've tested it myself, along with the other registrars folks had mentioned, and saw those results too). Domain name searches at Dreamhost remain private. GoDaddy was one of the abusing registrars I am referring to, if I recall correctly. I've had assets on Dreamhost now for 10 years, this coming summer.
Also, if your website needs are as simple as you have written of, then dreamhost is an absolutely fine host. Their customer service is very good, prompt, and helpful too. A very good deal for the price, if your website needs are so simple.
That being said, I can tell you the cheapest level at Dreamhost is not suitable for a heavy CMS like Drupal. If you are running something like Drupal, then you should really buy the whole VPS. Dreamhost has invested heavily in their VPS options in the years since I was seriously trying to get Drupal to work over there, but I find Linode.com and digitalocean.com VPS options to be very good for the task. Also, just so you know, my recommendation for Linode and Digital ocean is based on my own rather heavy server installations and configurations.
Finally, domain names are like wo/men. All the desirable ones are already taken.
You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
Great for hosting - excellent support - and not bad for domain stuff. (They actually resell Tucows domain services.) I've never had a problem with them. They also are the official host for the Joomla i believe and excel in Joomla/Drupal/WordPress services.
I also use namecheap for domains but avoid their hosting. Kinda flaky.
And GoDaddy is to be avoided at all costs - not just for their service and upselling but for their support of SOPA.
... who is paying for that sponsorship?
you've been trolling Slashdot since 1999 and expect help?
Network Solutions
terrible, overpriced and almost anywhere you have to click to manage your services in their account manager is actually a predatory upsell in deisguise.
Did I mention terrible?
Renewal prices are same as registration prices. Privacy is free. Prices are cheaper than all other places, service is flawless.
Check if they do DNSSEC or are planning this in the near future.
Otherwise, you can't use some other techniques (e.g. DKIM) that will help prevent other people from sending mails in name of your domain name.
$8.99 or less (always) and free privacy and more :D Use them for all my domains now
Previous and 2nd choice is name.com, great support and nice people if you are into that kind of thing
http://Anveto.com - Web Design, SEO, Marketing, Analytics & Security
I used to host with siteground, an unlimited shared account that slowly had more and more restrictions added, causing most part of the site to act up. I moved to imageleet, they were great until a few years later they did the same. Even though i knew i used very little cpu it wasn't worth the fight. Instead i rented a vps for less than 1/8 the cost of hosting and did it myself, and if you're a bigger with no hugely sensitive info just go for it and backup a lot. You won't regret not being bent over a barrel. Not to say many VPS providers don't oversell and scam people but once you find someone you're happy with you'll be way ahead. I use namecheap for domains but I'm glad this came up on /. as I had never heard nor experienced problems stated above. I register for 10 years at a time though
'nuff said. Gandi is easy, fast, reliable, and above all honest: no hidden fees, no surprises, and all the functions you need.
I use it for all my domain registration, and I have never ever had a complaint with them. I have no idea if their hosting offers are as good as the DNS registration, though, and I have heard some bad things on their VPS. Make of that what you will.
I have been trolling Slashdot for about 15 years and respect the views of the users here more than anywhere else. I would love to hear your advice and/or warnings in this matter.
Flattery will get you nowhere.
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Whatever you do, don't check with a registrar to see if your domain name is available, unless you're prepared to buy it at that moment! I recently had GoDaddy appropriate a good domain name that I was considering. It turns out that this reprehensible practice is quite common.
We have used webnames.ca for over a decade. They are principled, courteous and honourable. We have never had an issue or been victims of lock in.
The Canadian dollar is tanking so it's great value for Americans (26% off)!
*** Don't be dull.***
The only general advice I can give you - since I'm not in the US and I presume you are - is to seperate your Domain Registration service from your hosting service. That way you can, in a jam, close down your hosting without having to give up your domain. Or simply redirect the domain if you have to scale or something.
However, it might be worth looking out for a Doman Registrar that offers to handle all the email stuff - setting up an E-Mail server is a real drag.
Most of my domains are tied in with an ancient hosting package, and it's a bit of a drag, quite simply because today I probably wouldn't use webhosting offers altogether but rather run my on webspace on some cheap Linux vhost.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Joker.com .com domain for a year, € 6,68 for a .de domain
I'm very happy with them. Cheap, a lot of fuctionality (DNSSEC, DYNA)
$ 13,70
Try mythic-beasts.com. I've been very happy with them and they offer hosting services as well, so you may find you can get all you need to run your site in one simple package.
Old-school stability without any Network Solutions-style exploitation.
If the shit hits the fan at a domain registrar there is a good chance your domain will remain active but with no way to reconfigure it until things are straightened out. If the shit hits the fan at a hosting provider there is a good chance your server will disappear.
So putting both at the same place seems stupid to me.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Your existing account has been grandfathered in, but any new user will have to pay to receive any hosting services.
gandi.net because they have anonymous redirection of the whois data. they handle hostmaster messages in store-and-forward so that your details are not given out. there are other benefits as well, not least that they properly grok ipv6.
Um...good luck with that.
I've been with them for years after my original registrar/host went belly-up. I was with GoDaddy briefly until they started the crap that they were doing (don't know if they still do, don't care). Anyway, NFS.net is inexpensive, they offer per-byte hosting, and they have an anonymity service available which I avail myself of. I definitely recommend them, they've been trouble-free for me.
When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.
Amazon offers domain name hosting which I use that many people probably aren't aware of.
It is $6 a year.
I've used many, but have had a domain registered with Network Solutions for 15 years. I've never had any issues with them, and have complete control over my DNS settings. However with others, sometimes I do not. EuropeRegistry for example, does not allow you to add TXT headers properly, and their documentation is a little sub-par.
--D
I have been on 1and1 for over 10 years (since they had done a "free 2-year linux hosting" around '04) and I have had zero problems. Very fast shared hosting, tried their virtual hosting, also good, great prices. They don't have such a good reputation, but if you read through the bad reviews, a specific pattern emerges: it always starts with a failed auto-payment. Just be very careful with your credit card, don't let it expire, don't let it go over-limit. 1and1 will not warn you twice and they will suspend your account quickly.
While for most uses I recommend 1and1, when I have needed a versatile linux server with 1-click backup, I always go to Linode. It is like you have your own VM server running, as you can make all kinds of Linux images with your custom partitioning and boot the one you want etc. Backup is auto or 1-click. More expensive than 1and1 of course, but you are not getting the same thing.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
Gandi.net. French open source geeks. They've been in the registrar business for about as long as you've been on Slashdot. Many consider it an advantage for their registrar to be outside US jurisdiction. Their terms of use and conduct in the face of legal challenges have received thumbs-up from privacy activists and lawyers.
PairNIC, operated by Pair Networks. From their web site: "Launched in January 1996 and profitable since its second month of operation...". I have hosted with them for many years and their reliability is unbeatable. If you are a US-based business you can't escape US jurisdiction anyway and probably won't mind paying a couple of dollars more.
Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
nt
www.joker.com never had a problem
"Don't belong. Never join. Think for yourself. Peace." V.Stone, Microsoft Corporation
Disclosure: I work for a very small ISP that offers hosting and domain registration.
Why go with one of the big corporations? All they want is your money. The smaller "mom-and-pop" providers and hosting companies are just as good, and possibly better then the big ones.
Our little ISP offers registration, domain privacy, web hosting, and email. Our hosting is mostly via FTP though we do have a simple control panel available. We offer support via email and phone.
We aren't the cheapest out there, but we are also not the most expensive.
Your hosting should be based on what you need first, then pricing. Just because someone is big and cheap doesn't mean they are good.
If you want to, check us out at http://www.netonecom.net/ We even still cater to dialup because our area is STILL mostly dialup because the big corporations don't think there is enough population density to change that.
az
Before you can register you need to find an unused name. The best way I know of for searching for unused domain names is to use the V3hois "Domain List" service at http://www.v3whois.com/domain-list.
The beauty here is you see all similar registered names which allows you to spot unused names. Also the names you are search for are never on the Internet so domain-name squatters never get a hint of what you are searching for no matter how they monitor DNS look-ups.
I use site5.com for registration and hosting of my main site. No issues and both services are pretty cheap. $12/year for registration. I use their NS (since they do the main hosting) and you can add subdomain entries on a whim.
I migrated away from NetSol years ago when they became a marketing machine.
EasyDNS has great support and is very easy to use. You have the option of an email address with them that appears in the official public record, but only works from within easyDNS.
I have a couple dozen domains with them.
Are you in the US, and do you need it registered in the US? Look, the current reality is, while you are 99.8% likely to be a normal person hosting normal content, the US likes to take what it sees as threats when it comes to domains.
With that said, simply put, don't use a registrar in the US. I'm fairly confident my domain isn't a target, or will ever be, but I frankly don't trust the yahoos at ICE, DHS, or FBI to make competent decisions when it comes to the Internet. Especially when it effects me. Your mileage may vary...
If the shit hit the fan at your domain registrar, your hosting may be useless anyways if you rely on that domain name as your business front. And if your hosting disappears, you'll have your backup that you can move to a new host. Right?...
I used to host my own sites on a couple of dedicated servers in the data center where I used to work. After leaving that position I had to migrate my sites so I spent a year making a pilgrimage moving my sites from one shitty host to another. At my current position they prefer to use AWS instead of hosting their own hardware (debatable) however for the price and the service (basically 100% uptime) AWS is perfect for what OP is doing. A t2.micro instance could easily host what OP's site would be and it's roughly $10/mo if you use the AWS Linux AMI. AWS of course has many other options that OP may want to investigate such as the Elastic Beanstalk.
So they were small time domain squatters who didn't tend to their domain names. Some of them expired, and they didn't get / check their emails. They then let them expire for more than 30 days and the domain when back into the pool, where (one can only guess) they didn't buy it back.
I can understand their emotional frustration; however, this makes about as much sense as being outraged because the city came along and removed a tree you forgot to water until it died, indicating that the right thing to do would have been for the city to water your tree when you forget and try to give you a reminder. A domain squatter's property is the domain names, and if you outsource (rely on their email system) checking up on expiring domain names), you effectively outsource the core competency of your business (keeping the domain names cared for).
I have been trolling Slashdot for about 15 years
So, it's been you all along!
Avoid GoDaddy like the plague, there aren't enough hours in the day to describe the horrors I experienced in dealing with them back when I was an ISP.
OpenSRS/Tucows is by far the best to deal with. Eliminate the middleman resellers and go to them directly. A lot of companies, including me, resell for them, but as the end user you're better off dealing with them directly.
Good luck.
Well, I like Namecheap, cheap and reliable, and with access to the new TLDs. Yet, if you're going to even cheaper, but without possibility of registring a domain with the new TLDs, than Namesilo is the way to go.
I pay $8/month for hosting with Arvixe.com (the Linux hosting is cheaper/month) and comes with a free domain name. If you're going to pay for hosting beyond a free "parked" page, it might be better to shop for hosting instead of shopping for a registrar.
They are inexpensive, provide a complete line of hosting services, and have been in business for years. Plus they are located in Canada.
Advantages: Offices in both France and the US. Provides a free 1-year domain-validated SSL/TLS certificate with every domain, and will happily sign a 4096-bit certificate despite advertising only 2048 bits. Provides free e-mail service with any domain, with up to five accounts and unlimited per-account aliases. Free WHOIS e-mail aliases. Free private registration for TLDs that allow it (a lot of them do, a few don't, some TLDs in Europe default to it). Lots of TLD selections, including some of the more obscure country-specific ones that not all registrars offer – believe it or not, there are still TLDs that need an e-mail from the registrar to change WHOIS information; Gandi has done this for me multiple times without any issue. Has a Xen-based hosting service with data centers in the US, Paris, and Luxembourg. Has a credit system for hosting, and a prepaid account that works with all of the services. No problems at all with domain transfers.
Mixed advantages/disadvantages: Militant about paper/fax documentation for things like company-to-individual ownership transfers, which in theory protects domains from being stolen through social engineering. Support is efficient and helpful, if a little terse at times. Substantial non-US presence, if hosting resources outside of the US is your thing.
Disadvantages: Not the cheapest; a year of registration seems to average between $12 and $16 USD. Website UI is a bit on the complex side, but it starts to make sense quickly. User names are of the form XY1234-GANDI, and can't currently be customized. There are a couple of unusual (to US people) fields on the company-specific administrative contact information forms (e.g. a SIREN number for tax compliance in France).
Conflict of Interest Disclosure Statement: I don't have any financial/employment interest in Gandi; I just host a couple domains and a Xen instance there.
I've had nothing but a good, solid experience with dyn.com, but they're certainly not the cheapest - a name is $15, DNS service to use it is $35. Dunno if there's a charge to delegate the name to a different DNS provider. They're still good at having subdomains pointing to not-so-stable IP addresses, though, and you can but are not required to set up your entries as you wish up to just a count limit (75 records per domain). Haven't tried their email forwarding from the domain stuff.
I haven't really tested performance but I've had a much better experience than GoDaddy.
Why?
They are reasonably priced. Definitely not the cheapest, but reasonable.
They are outside the US (Canada).
They actively resist pressure from people like the City of London police, unlike some other fairly well known registrars.
The guy that founded it, Mark Jeftovic, blogs frequently and aggressively about what he considers good service, and I find myself most of the time agreeing with him.
They do do web hosting as well, haven't used it myself.
Their real claim to fame is their DNS service, which I have used for several years, primarily because it is "real" DNS, as in I control all the records in the zone file, and supports dynamic DNS well.
There are not the cheapest, but they are a compan that cares, and it has shown in my dealings with them.
"Proximity to wonder has blunted our perception and appreciation of it" --Tim Hartnell in 'Exploring ARTIFICIAL INTELLI
I can only say anyone but GoDaddy.
I've been using dyndns.org since 1999, and upgraded to the paid service about 10 years ago. $30/year gets you, like, 30 custom subdomains, and some other features that I don't use much but seem useful.
Yeah, you have a bit less flexibility with the domains you can choose, but they have a great selection that you can get creative with. And the flexibility of being able to turn on a dime and switch hosts and IPs immediately is great... you don't have to wait hours or even days for DNS changes to propagate. Lots of clients for windows, linux, and even random wifi routers make it easy to update records to point to where ever in the world you boot up, ao you can serve stuff from home or anywhere in public clouds or even from your smartphone.
Certainly worth fussing around with in addition or even instead of a "real" DNS registrar. I think they still have a free tier, and are always useful for doing quick demos for hack days and such.
I have been using Gandi since around 2000. A few years back I was late renewing a domain and didn't get it submitted until the day of expiration - I had hours to spare. That, combined with delays in whois expiration data updates, made me very nervous so I phoned Gandi and...... I spoke to a real person! They were friendly and helpful! They told me no problem, not to worry. There is even a grace period of a couple weeks after expiration where you can renew without penalty.
I am now a loyal customer and it would take a lot for me to change. Saving a few dollars over ten years? Not a chance.
Their admin tools can be slow at times but have always worked. I've managed 5-10 domains at a time for over a decade - some with hosting at godaddy and some at other places. If I need to add service quick it's always been easy (e.g. a client decides they need godaddy's email blaster today or I decide they need a CMS set up for something they just decided to do this weekend).
Support has been 50/50 the few times I or my client has needed to contact them so it helps if you know what you're doing with domains, email, cms, etc.
I've been using GKG.net for almost 15 years for multiple domains. Would recommend.
After register.com going to crap ( non stop spam, terrible web interface, calling my customers and offering them FREE websites, trying to charge me $40 a year to extend my registration when they are charging new customers 1/3 that ) I've moved to Google domains and I am really happy.
If you can get an invite, I'd recommend Google Domains. Price is fair and the domain management interface is nice.
I don't know what to say about hosting. If you have static content, you can have github host your page at no cost. My only experience hosting dynamic content is out of my house--pointing my domains to my internal server.
... Geocities.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
I have a tiny search program written in perl (http://tmsw.no/pi-search/) ...
This is about the most useful comment I've seen on Slashdot in a while
gkg.net has been my domain registrar since 1999. Nothing but good experiences with them, which is more than I can say for 1&1 and GoDaddy. Your mileage may vary.
Given all the great comments about nearlyfreespeech.net, however, I may check them out as well.
I've received excellent customer service and communication for many years from these guys. Competitive pricing.
Just a great company. I have never had an issue and the staff/developers are fantastic.
I see quite a few people here recommend Gandi. I have to say I've had a really bad experience with them.
My biggest gripe is with their architecture, they have a very inflexible system which dictates that one user account is one entity and that entity's details are the same for each contact of each domain that is applicable. This means that if you want to change some detail for a single contact/domain, you have to create a new user account and transfer the domain to the new account. This transfer process is the normal domain transfer process and can be expensive and bureaucratic, even if you're not actually transferring the domain between people/entities. This is not something that they warn you about beforehand. I made the mistake of not checking that all my details on my domains were exactly the same before transferring them and ended up with five different user accounts!
On the plus side they offer two step authentication (although this didn't work out so well for Fastmail) and are very cheap, especially when you take anonymisation into account.
I'm just chiming in to agree. NetSol sucks beyond belief and is a small nightmare to work with, to top it off, you get to pay extortion level rates for poor service. I suspect their business model at this point is to basically rape and pillage fees from customers they still have from fifteen years ago when they were the only game in town.
----- obSig
There is absolutely no reason you have to use your registar's name servers.
Unless you want to avoid paying twice. If you don't use the name server that typically comes with the registration at no additional charge, you have to pay for both the registration and the name server.
Or if it's a commercial domain, just buy a really long registration.
Agreed, and some search engines reportedly use expiry date to rank legit sites above spamdexing sites.
I've had a few clients who were renewing their domains annually and had expired one or come close to it a few times because they were doing it annually, but when I pointed out that it would only be a bit over $100 to not have to think about it for years they jumped on the idea.
Even though domains can be set to auto-renew, they would still have to think about it every once in a while because TLS certificates do not auto-renew.
We used 1and1 and found that they were selling/leaking our email address to spammers. We have an email setup where we get emails to 1and1@domain.com, slashdot@domain.com etc so it is obvious who's passed our details on.
Of course! http://www.geek-domains.com/
Found this registrar recently, and so far very happy. Prices in line with the budget registrars. Lots of TLD available. Clean, modern DNS control panel: you can import a zone file and do other "advanced" things a geek would think to do, but it's also easy for novices. DNSSEC and SSL certs available, as well as web hosting, web mail, email services. +1, Like, Star, Favorite, etc.
Edith Keeler Must Die
I've had no problems with these companies after years of use: SRSPlus (as a reseller) domain.com Namecheap Dotster The least expensive, best UI, most perks, and best opposition to things like SOPA has been IME the Namecheap option. They usually are the cheapest and are always among the cheapest of the options, too. I also don't remember Namecheap ever reserving a domain for registration only through them after I did a whois lookup through their web interface. Network Solutions (NSI) did that until ICANN told them to stop. SRSPlus is part of NSI so that's a strike against them. So IME I can recommend a few, but mostly Namecheap.
That is the most meta-troll comment I've ever seen on /.
I switched from 1and1 to DNSimple for domain and dns management several years ago and I'm quite happy. DNSimple is not the cheapest but you get what you pay for so if you want awesome then pay for awesome and get DNSimple. They also have tools to quickly setup your domain records for third party apps like Google Apps, GitHub pages, etc. This AC highly recommends.
I think you'll find you only get the $10.99 price the first time. after that it's typically more like $25 or more a year for a .com registration. At least it is on godaddy.
I would like to switch off of godaddy, but I only ever remember to think about it when it's time to renew, and from what I've been told, during this renewal time your name is locked and you can't migrate away. Not sure if this is just a godaddy cash grab, or if that's the way ICANN works in general. I use godaddy only for the name registration; I do all my own DNS and hosting.
Used to be great, serious negative experiences lately.
Don't leave us hanging...
I like GoDaddy for registration. Their questionable business practices have actually helped me hold my domains for all these years, despite my not following through with timely renewal.
https://iwantmyname.com/ as recommended by Eric Mill
I had been registered via godaddy, and hosted by bluehost.com until last year, when I transferred my domain registration to bluehost as well. It just seemed logical to put it all together. No horror stories, and their pricing seems quite normal and competitive. Godaddy gave me some crap when I tried to transfer, but I finally managed to workaround their tricks and drop them.
As far as a host goes, I guess bluehost is alright; I really can't make an honest comparison of performance since they're all I've used, but overall I'm happy with them, decent bandwidth, pricing, and very little downtime. Decent support as well.
This all said, it must be a slow news day; domain registration is not that tricky of a procedure, even for non-IT nerds, and there are lots of good registrars to choose from.. except maybe godaddy and networksolutions.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
codepigeon - Full disclosure, I work for GoDaddy. We have made so many changes this past 2 years it is crazy. We have new hosting offerings, Cpanel, Managed WordPress, etc. All of which have been getting greatly improved reviews online. Our new CEO, Blake Irving, and executive staff are changing our ads, and are committed to web professionals, kick ass products, and women in tech. In fact Blake did an Reddit AMA as well and addressed many concerns that have plagued us and users in the past: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/c... Kindly,
I've been using them for domain registry for many years, and while not as happy as I used to be, I have no real complaints.
I have had some problems:
Moving client domains to other registrars has at times been difficult
They remind you waaay in advance to renew. And keep reminding you.
I forgot to pay once, despite the reminders. That got a little expensive BUT they didn't release the domain so I was able to keep it.
I would not use them for site hosting.
I am very happy with name.com for number of years - they are very professional, no spam, no nonsense registrar.
I switched to them after burning my fingers by having domain held ransom by web-host, so I decoupled name and hosting. It is great to be able to switch hosting without worries, trouble or cost. I use linode.com as host and manage my own webserver.
Whomever you choose, I recommend against choosing eNom. I had a spam problem so bad on my personal email that I went to the ends of writing my own incoming server to handle the issue. I've found that blocking email from domains registered at eNom to be extremely effective in curbing my spam problem with only a very small number of domains that I needed to whitelist. Looking though my reject logs, eNom seems to be making a mint with spammers that register domains, spam immediately with them, and then abandom them.
The whores get mad when the sluts give it away for free.
I have been using these guys since 1999 and have had no problems. Maybe they are more expensive than the cheap services, but I have no complaints.
I've been very happy with Gandi.net for my modest needs over the last decade. No problems, reasonable responses from tech support to the occasional question, cheap, and not based in the United States, which I consider a plus. I mostly use it for email and web forwarding, though.
Domains: http://www.internetbs.net/
Hosting: https://www.knownhost.com/
Do not do your search for a domain name at a domain registrar.
Some have been known to buy instantly that name without your knowledge then show you results that it can be yours for a much higher price then you expected to buy it.
Type in the name in the address field of the web browser first to see if the name you want is available then buy it at a reputable domain registrar.
These guys are crazy!
Please, whatever you do, avoid NFS at all costs!!!!
How are we liking EasyDNS these days? I've used them for years, but I have my main domain coming up for renewal later this year. It's a .com, I'm in Canada, if that matters.
--
Marc A. Lepage
Software Developer
I work for Conspire Web Services [conspireweb.com] but haven't had any problems with NameCheap for my personal stuff in the past.
As others have mentioned, if you're going to be trialing different hosting providers, pick a decent domain provider until you settle on a host you're comfortable with. Usually you'll be able to get a discount on your domain registration when bundled with a hosting plan, so once you've settled in you might be able to save a little cash (or spend a little more to ensure everything is adequately separated).
Do NOT register a domain with:
Register a domain with a domain registration company (duh!)
You should host your DNS elsewhere. Use a DNS-hosting company.
Host your website(s) elsewhere. Use a web-hosting company.
Host your email elsewhere. Use an email service provider.
This gives you maximum flexibility, and means that no one company can "hold you hostage".
It's ridiculous the mention names. People just vote for their favorite consumer-ish registration or hosting company. If you care about names, though - the ones that are mentioned are generally the ones to avoid...
Yup, this is a referral link. I've been using Bluehost.com for hosting and have customers signed up with them. Service just works, utility computing. Rates are reasonable with upgrade options available. I'll echo using another service for the registration, if Bluehost ever rolls over, I bring change the DNS and move sites.
I'm in the US and I'm wondering if there is any advantage to using outside internet services. With our government intruding on every part of our lives, could this be a protective measure? Some countries seem determined to protect privacy within their jurisdictions.
...omphaloskepsis often...
I started with EasyDNS when they started... loved the service hated the price...
Then I moved everything to GoDaddy because it was cheaper... the service is ehh.. the price is ehh but I HATE the upsells at EVERY FUCKING TURN... but using them for registering and Cloud Flare for DNS does pretty well for me
Just started moving to Google... pretty happy with it on par with EasyDNS and even cheaper than GoDaddy
http://hover.com/ is pretty cool.
Stop Computers/Cars Analogies on S
+Cheap.
+Significant discounts if you set up a pre-paid account by wire-transfer.
+Free whois privacy.
+Bare-bones control panel that does what you need it to do to manage your domains and nothing else. No stupid ads, no stupid Flash, no overdone AJAX, NoDaddy.
+"You need to renew!" notices seem to be sent out weekly starting around 6 weeks ahead and daily in the last week.
-Home page login form defaults to plain HTTP and you have to click a separate link to get an HTTPS login form (the rest of the control panel is all HTTPS, at least), so I find myself resetting my password every other time I change something because I'll forget to click the link to the HTTPS login form.
I just noticed this question now. I have used NameCheap.com since they were pretty much a brand new ICANN listed registrar. IIRC they were actually just a domain name reseller (through Tucows or Twocows - can't remember how to spell it) way back when and then they moved up the ladder and became actual registrars. That would be when I started using them a great deal.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."