Buying a website address
- Thread starter Bander
- Start date
Often, the hosting company you use will both register the domain name and host the site for you when you buy a plan.
Sometimes the problem with this is, if you ever want to switch hosting from one to another, it can be a real pain in the ass (as the domain will be tied to the first hosting place's system, often registered through some cheapo registrar that has terrible customer service.)
I have in the past registered domain names via networksolutions.com, although there are other places like register.com that might be cheaper.
So, I guess you have two ways of going with it... conveniently registering and hosting at the same place (often at a discount price), or registering on your own and hosting somewhere else (more work for you and probably paying more.)
-Terry
Sometimes the problem with this is, if you ever want to switch hosting from one to another, it can be a real pain in the ass (as the domain will be tied to the first hosting place's system, often registered through some cheapo registrar that has terrible customer service.)
I have in the past registered domain names via networksolutions.com, although there are other places like register.com that might be cheaper.
So, I guess you have two ways of going with it... conveniently registering and hosting at the same place (often at a discount price), or registering on your own and hosting somewhere else (more work for you and probably paying more.)
-Terry
I heartily recommend dreamhost.com.
Why?
I'm also pretty sure they don't lock up names if you look them up and they are free. PLenty of websites I've looked up to find un bought, only to find them still unbought months later.
Why?
- I've used them for 6 years with no outages, no loss of data, and no surprises.
- They have very reasonable rates.
- Their one-click installs work very well. Want wordpress on your site, or Joomla, or a wiki? Easy peasy.
- Their tech support is always quick and never gives you a hard time.
- Decent metrics software.
I'm also pretty sure they don't lock up names if you look them up and they are free. PLenty of websites I've looked up to find un bought, only to find them still unbought months later.
Buy the domain separate from hosting, I would think. That's how I've always done it. I go to godaddy or register.com, pick the site name, buy it and that's it. Do not get your site hosting from one of these registrars, they overcharge in my opinion. Instead get your hosting at a site like 5dollarhosting.com. They have been great over the years and it's only $5 a month.
definitely get the domain separate from the hosting package.
godaddy is a safe registrar and has good rates. There are some slightly cheaper but sketchier ones. I personally use Joker.com which is a couple bucks more expensive but only because I've been using them for about 8 years and don't want to transfer domains (kinda painful).
Register the domain then point the nameservers to your hosting site (info which will be provided for you). I use surpasshosting.com personally, which has been amazingly good for the past 5-6 years. Support has always gotten back to me within the hour when I've put in tickets. There are plenty of options for hosting, and I'm sure there are even some forums that rank them for you. But as a guide you shouldn't be spending more than $5-7 a month and you should get at least 200+ gigs of space and essentially unlimited bandwidth (in the terabytes at least). Make sure the hosting company used "cpanel" or some alternative. It makes setting up anything a breeze even with no experience at all.
godaddy is a safe registrar and has good rates. There are some slightly cheaper but sketchier ones. I personally use Joker.com which is a couple bucks more expensive but only because I've been using them for about 8 years and don't want to transfer domains (kinda painful).
Register the domain then point the nameservers to your hosting site (info which will be provided for you). I use surpasshosting.com personally, which has been amazingly good for the past 5-6 years. Support has always gotten back to me within the hour when I've put in tickets. There are plenty of options for hosting, and I'm sure there are even some forums that rank them for you. But as a guide you shouldn't be spending more than $5-7 a month and you should get at least 200+ gigs of space and essentially unlimited bandwidth (in the terabytes at least). Make sure the hosting company used "cpanel" or some alternative. It makes setting up anything a breeze even with no experience at all.
I'm far from an expert and wouldn't go by my advice, but what I did is, I bought halphillips.org from Godaddy, and then I signed up with Dreamhost and did the point-the-nameservers thing, so Dreamhost hosts my website. Then I did their one-click install for Wordpress (and went on to have lots of technical problems which were really my fault).
I use godaddy for managing all of my domain names.
It's always a good practice among developers to keep domain names separate from hosting plans...
let's say you want to quit your hosting plan and point your domain name to a tumblog or blogger account or something along those lines. Godaddy makes it pretty straightforward on how to point different domains to different content servers, and allows you to change where they are pointed to on the fly.
This is very useful if you manage more than one website at a time.
It's always a good practice among developers to keep domain names separate from hosting plans...
let's say you want to quit your hosting plan and point your domain name to a tumblog or blogger account or something along those lines. Godaddy makes it pretty straightforward on how to point different domains to different content servers, and allows you to change where they are pointed to on the fly.
This is very useful if you manage more than one website at a time.
Cool thanks.
The company's called Host Monster for the record. If anyone has heard anything good/bad, speak up now.
Also what's a good ticket response time? They said their average is 12-24 hours, but can be shorter. And 24 hour phone service. Since I'm not sure what to look for/expect, are these good?
The company's called Host Monster for the record. If anyone has heard anything good/bad, speak up now.
Also what's a good ticket response time? They said their average is 12-24 hours, but can be shorter. And 24 hour phone service. Since I'm not sure what to look for/expect, are these good?