I need advice for registering a domain name

[zildjian]

I want to get a domain name secured, but I haven't done this before. I went to GoDaddy dot com and read through their agreement pages and everything, but I just want to make sure that I'm not going to make any mistakes at the beginning that I'll have to pay for down the road. Any advice would be much appreciated. I am not going to build any particular website currently, just want to get my name dot com registered pending I have any good use for it in the future.
Tips or advice? I'd appreciate it!
Thanks,
Brad

 

[MDS]

I'm not sure what the question is. When you go to register a domain name, the registrar will tell you if the name you've chosen has already been taken.

 

[zildjian]

I know that much. Is there any advantage or disadvantage in choosing different companies to register through (godaddy, yahoo's domain service or others)? Is there any particular plan or part of a contract that I need to make sure is a certain way or anything to avoid...?

 

[jinjuku]

I know that much. Is there any advantage or disadvantage in choosing different companies to register through (godaddy, yahoo's domain service or others)? Is there any particular plan or part of a contract that I need to make sure is a certain way or anything to avoid...?

Honestly, just register for a year. You will have the domain and you will have a year to get your learn on. There is really nothing to be wary of.

The question I have is this. What are you going to do with the domain?
We register all our static domains through Go Daddy, so far over 36 domains. Their interface isn't the best, but their prices are. For dynamic domains use DynDNS.org.

 

[zildjian]

Honestly, just register for a year. You will have the domain and you will have a year to get your learn on. There is really nothing to be wary of.

The question I have is this. What are you going to do with the domain?
We register all our static domains through Go Daddy, so far over 36 domains. Their interface isn't the best, but their prices are. For dynamic domains use DynDNS.org.

I think I'll use it for a webpage for my private medical practice: clinic information, procedures offered, info about me... One you'll definitely want in your bookmarks!!! It will be a few years before I could afford to build my own office, so I probably wouldn't use it much now since the pre-existing clinics already have webpages, but if I open my own office, I'd like to have the best domain name I can get now while a couple are still available.

One concern I was having is that if I register with a particular company (godaddy for example), after a year or whenever if I wanted to go to a different company other than godaddy (if there'd even be a reason to do so, I don't know), can I keep my domain name and change companies? I couldn't find anything about that, so I was afraid to go ahead and purchase through them in case it would lock me into always dealing with them as long as I kept that domain name, and I didn't know if that's the company to go through or not...

As far as dynamic domains... I have no idea what that means.

 

[jinjuku]

One concern I was having is that if I register with a particular company (godaddy for example), after a year or whenever if I wanted to go to a different company other than godaddy (if there'd even be a reason to do so, I don't know), can I keep my domain name and change companies? I couldn't find anything about that, so I was afraid to go ahead and purchase through them in case it would lock me into always dealing with them as long as I kept that domain name, and I didn't know if that's the company to go through or not...

As far as dynamic domains... I have no idea what that means.

We have been with Go Daddy for years, not leaving anytime soon. Even if you do, it should be a pretty easy, the registrar that you are going too will usually* take care of the transfer for you. This is provided that you have not let the domain in question lapse.

Hope this helps.

 

[adk highlander]

One thing to remember your domain is completely separate of who and how you host your web site. You will need to configure it to point to where your site is hosted. So the odds are you will just keep it with the people who register it for you. If it is your only one I would just go with godaddy.com but for the best service and customizations networksolutions is very good.

 

[zildjian]

I bought two domain names from godaddy today. $7 per year with coupon code I found using google, regular $9.99. $7 is as cheap as I probably will ever find, so I signed up for 10 years. I didn't add the email service to it, but know that email can be done somehow for free using your own domain name, so I'm going to look into that next.
Thanks,
Brad

 

[jinjuku]

I bought two domain names from godaddy today. $7 per year with coupon code I found using google, regular $9.99. $7 is as cheap as I probably will ever find, so I signed up for 10 years. I didn't add the email service to it, but know that email can be done somehow for free using your own domain name, so I'm going to look into that next.
Thanks,
Brad

That would not be quite correct. You are going to have some costs somehow running email for those domains. You either host them yourself (mail server and a static ip address) or you have them hosted.

I believe you should be able to get a static IP business class DSL circuit for around $70-80/month.

I would have them hosted. We run our own MS Exchange server and have three static circuits. Just the circuits alone run us $300/month

 

[Gimpy Ric]

I used to be in the very competitive hosting game. For super simplicity, Godaddy all the way. Buy the domain, let them host it, and be done with it. They are a huge company with 24/7 customer support, and have EVERYTHING you need to start from ground zero.

Good Luck

 

[sholling]

I use godaddy exclusively for registering my domain names. Unlike a few you own the name. Some others take ownership and you have a fight on your hands later if you decide to move.

 

[jonnythan]

GoDaddy is nice, I use them... but they do not provide custom DNS. Your site is at their servers (meaning you need to pay them for hosting) unless you have someone else provide custom DNS servers for you to host elsewhere.

I use GoDaddy as a registrar, ZoneEdit and DynDNS for custom DNS, and e-rice.net and a home server for hosting.

 

[jinjuku]

Thanks for the tip on e-rice. Too bad we are a MS shop (ASP, Front Page etc). But killer hosting rates. Yowza

Do you know if they to Front Page extensions on Apache?

 

[jonnythan]

e-rice is awesome. It's very... DIY though. You have to know what you're doing to get things working there.

I believe they support FP extensions, but don't quote me on it. Their support is responsive, you should be able to find out no problem.