Who’s willing to give me the quick & dirty on registering a personal domain name…
Here’s the background. As the umpire scheduler for my officiating association I started using the web as a means to propigate my schedules to the umpires. I have always used the free web space given to me by my ISP. The problem with that is I hate trying to give people that URL. You know how it goes… httx://wwz.ispname.net/~eventually/you/get/to/my/webpage
it’s always a big pain in the ass. So, I want register my own domain. No big deal, I know… there’s a million places on the net to do so, but here are my questions…
For example, there seems to be many different prices. oneOfThesePlaces.com says the fee is $35/year to register, but another actually was down to say… $14/year. I thought I could register it through interNIC (or something like that) anyway.
What’s the benefit to registering from one place to the next.
Can I continue for now to NOT pay for hosting my website? In other words can I register my domain and when blahblahblah.com it typed in, it will go to httx://wwz.ispname.net/~eventually/you/get/to/my/webpage ?
(More specifically… I know that I can specify what IP address my domain should point to, but can you add subdirectory paths with your registered path too?)
To restate this one more time… I want to continue using my free webspace for now, until I get enough content to eat up the space. Doesn’t that make sense?
That’s good enough to start with… maybe after a few replies, I be able to formulate another good question or two.
Each company provides slightly different services for different prices. Some offer web hosting and domain hosting, some just domain registering. At any rate, you need to register the domain with a registrar. I reccomend register.com, they’ve been good to me.
This depends on how your ISP is set up. Some will let you point your domain at your personal web space; but this is something that needs to be configured by them. Some will charge an extra fee for it, some won’t. If your ISP won’t do it, there are a number of very cheap (on the order of $9 per month) “virtual domain” hosting providers that will provide web space and DNS servers. “Virtual domain” simply means that one big server is being shared amongst many low-traffic sites. (Thus the cheap prices.)
One example is One Hour Hosting, which I have used, though there are cheaper ones out there. (Again, the type of services they offer vary greatly.)
I forgot to mention one other option regarding Question 1:
Some registrar services offer very basic webhosting services as part of the deal. You could theoretically use one of these to host a single page that just sends a redirect to http://your.isp.com/~yourname/whatever.html.
The disadvantage being that your site will still sport the “ugly” URL, but people who have the domain name will get there without any extra effort.
You pay your hosting service twice. First, you pay for the right to the name. Different extensions cost different amounts. I think the last time I checked, .com went for $30-35/year, and .net went for $25-30/year. Your hosts may also charge you a small registration fee.
Second, you pay for the hosting itself. You don’t automatically get a chunk of webspace when you buy a name. The host will sell you a chunk of webspace for a certain amount of money per month. For example, I have IMHO one of the best deals around, 500 megabytes for $10 a month.
I will caution you on a few things:
A. Some places will hose you. If they advertise cheap domain registration, they’ll hose you on the monthly hosting fee. Make sure you know what you’re paying and how much you will be paying.
B. Some of the cheapest hosting will not include some of the stuff that comes standard with other places. For example, you may not have the ability to run Perl. It doesn’t sound much, but if you want any file that ends in .cgi on your site, (this includes the ever-popular Ikonboard) you need it.
C. Some places have a bandwidth transfer limit. This means that if you upload more than your limit, and/or if your number of pageviews exceeds your bandwidth limit, they’ll charge you extra.
http:/www.namezero.com gives you the redirecting URLs for free. It’s kind of considered bastardly to use NameZero, because once a name is taken, it’s taken. Personally, I’d advise anyone to go for the paid hosting. Yes, you lose money, but you get
good support. If NameZero screws up, you can’t really complain because they’re a free service.
reliability. Again, YOU’RE paying THEM, so you have the right to complain all you want, get your account flagged so you can do special things, etc.
Oh yeah, and avoid Network Solutions. I’ve never heard anything good about them.
i’d say the primary difference is service. which ofcourse only comes into play when something screws up. and price ofcourse, as you’ve mentioned. some sell the same thing for $35 , others for $15. it’s something vaguely like for $35 you pay for the brand name ( since you get a similar product for cheaper from another company )
Yes, you can NOT pay for hosting at this time. this would be a good idea in your case, giving you time to figure out what you really need before you lay down your cash.
so this saves you hosting charges, and allows you to continue with your current free hosting page, but with an easy to give out domain name ( which you can purchase thru the http://www.mydomain.com’s site for $15 a year, this is the payment that keeps the rest of their services free, even though they will serve you regardless of where you purchase your domain name from )
it also gives you options for email addresses and the works. ok, now i’m beginning to sound like a salesman, so why don’t you go over and take a look at their site instead.
My site is registered through 2004 with http://www.webwizards.net …it’s $15/year. Rob is a cool guy, it’s a smallish host out in California somewhere. I’ve had nothing but a good experience with him in about three years.
IANAExpert, but there is a book called (something like- at work, no reference) ‘Poor Richard’s Guide to Webpages’ (or ‘websites’ ) that is filled with every little detail of the behind the scenes stuff you want and need to know. It will definately save you more $ than the cost of the book and you will make better informed desicions about your particlular web needs.
I use ,and like, ‘Hostex’ as a hosting company.
I REALLY recomend this book.
I have several sites with http://www.softcomca.com. They charge $10 monthly for 50 megs, $10 a year for a domain, if you register through them. I have been really happy with them. They always answer my tech support questions in a timely manner.
There are SO many ways to go, as you can already tell. A super-easy way to go is to just get a site with GeoCities, and then buy the $35 domain with them. They will direct the domain to your geocities.com site. Pretty easy. Perhaps not the best deal, but does what you want - a domain, cheap. No fuss, no muss, if you don’t mind GeoCities.
I wouldn’t go with InterNIC either. I registered a domain with them once, and it was like Chinese water torture to get them to update my new web host. And they pretty much charge more (or at least not less) than anyone else.
If all you’re looking for is a smaller address, then check out http://www.cjb.net. It’s a redirecting service.
You sign up with them, and register a redirect. You sign up for say, “http://www.umpireschedules.cjb.net” and tell them to redirect it to your current webpage. And that’s it, no worries about hosting your domain name or paying for a registered domain. Just a quick, free way to shorten your address.
I got mine through http://www.easyspace.com, about 18 months ago. It was about $40 for two years (20/year) and email forwarding to [anything]@yourdomain.com was included.
And you don’t have to pay for their hosting services (unless you want to).
Instead, buy a redirect for about $10 per year, and whenever someone types in http://www.yourdomain.com, it goes straight to wherever you point it, such as your free Geocities account.
Rob is a cool guy, it’s a smallish host out in California somewhere. I’ve had nothing but a good experience with him in about three years.