Hosting and Domain Registration

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 11:10 pm (20 years, 10 months ago)

Hi all,

Looking for some 'newbie' advice please, forgive me if I get any terminology wrong.

I am looking to register a domain name and to find a hosting service for a small business (estate agent).

First question is... are there any advantages/disadvantages in seeking these services from organisations in the country I live in. ie... I live in Spain, but would prefer any tech support in English, but I am wondering if having a site hosted in another country would make connections (for customers etc) noticably slower.

Also, is there any preference to having domain registration and hosting done by the same organisation or can these be seperate.

Another question, do I need to consider/be aware that either or both the domain registration service and the hosting service could go toes up. If so what would happen to, perhaps most importantly, the name registration.

As mentioned, I'm totally new to this and any advice would really be appreciated, including if possible, how I find reliable hosting and registration and how much I should expect to pay for a small business set-up.

Thanks very much for any help.

Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2003 2:31 am (20 years, 10 months ago)

Hi,

Host locally if you can afford to... using a host that uses servers in the US maybe a slower - but, for me atleast, is cheaper.

For domain registrations (.com, .net etc) I recommend GoDaddy - several domains with them and I am happy with the service I have received.

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

Hi Recall,

Those questions are actually good questions, and show you've actually thought about this (which is more than some people can say Very Happy

).

For domain registration, either you go with a reseller, or with a big company (I can recommend GoDaddy too). If you go with a big company, there is little risk of it going bankrupt. If you go with a reseller and it goes bankrupt, the parent company will usually deal with it, either by moving you to their billing system or by moving you to another reseller (which happened in the Cyberwings saga Smile

).

My advice is to not get your domain name from the company where you are going to host: they usually do not offer the best prices, and there is a risk they will hold your domain hostage or charge you extra fees when you try to move.

As to hosting companies going bankrupt, it happens weekly unfortunately. I have written a tutorial about questions to ask a hosting company before signing up at http://www.4webhelp.net/tutorials/misc/choose_host.php, however this will not protect you against everyone.

If you go with a company closer to home, it is likely to be more expensive as Warp said, but it is easier to go after them if something goes wrong. However my personal experience in France is that hosting is overpriced because of the lack of competition Sad

. The US is often quite cheap, and the average American company doesn't seem to be any slower than the average French company for me.

Before you sign up I would suggest posting here - we may not know the company, but we can at least look at their plans and website, and let you know if we think it's good value.

Taking a monthly plan is usually safer of course, since if the company closes you've only lost one month's worth (or less) of fees.

Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2003 7:39 pm (20 years, 10 months ago)

Hi Warp. Hi Daniel,

Thanks for the suggestions. I will go have a look at GoDaddy later.

Daniel...I'll also check out your tutorial (sorry I missed it). Strangely enough, I have looked at the hosting review site and this one... http://www.icdsoft.com/ ... seemed to score highly, so I have already aimed a few questions at them (don't know if they were the right ones) and at least they replied very quickly.

Have you heard of icdsoft. Seems to be $60.00pa and $5.00 for domain. Their service looks pretty comprehensive (from a novices (me) viewpoint). Perhaps you could have a look and tell me what you think. However, I have listened to your advice, so now looking at splitting the hosting/Domreg between two companies.

Thanks again for your help guys,
Recall

Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2003 11:32 pm (20 years, 10 months ago)

Hi Daniel,

I did go off and study your tutorial... thanks for the info.

I was very comprehensive, but totally due to my own lack of knowledge, I have to admit that I didn't understand some of... my fault entirely. I guess if I was to shoot off those type of questions to a hosting service, I wouldn't understand their answers Embarassed

I've done a quick and dirty cut and paste of some of the details on the service I mention in my previous post.... could you tell me, are the following 'basic' details good/bad/reasonble?.

Thanks

$5/Month (no setup fees)
$5 .com/.net/.org/.us registration
333 MB Web Space
$5 .biz/.info registration
Online Control Panel
30 days money back guarantee
24/7 FTP Access
Unlimited E-Mail Accounts
5 Subdomains for FREE!
24/7 Tech Support Ticketing System
Web Site Statistics
FrontPage 2002 Extensions
Webmail Personal CGI-BIN
MySQL Data Base
Password Protected Directories
Earn Extra $$$
Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
SMTP, POP3, IMAP Servers
Server Side Includes (SSI)
Unix Based
Graphical Hit Counter
5 Gigs Data Transfer & Hits
Super Fast Servers!
Custom 404 Page
Site Search Engine
PERL, C++, TCL, Python and PHP4
Can host any domain - com, biz, info...

Senior WebHelper Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 153

Try www.cirtexhosting.com, they have good deals and they just got a new server. If you do signup I would appriciate it if you put stingbaseball as your reffer.

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

Hi Recall,

That seems reasonable, although I have never heard of the company. You should think about how much space you need and how much bandwidth you'll use, since that will greatly influence your choice of a hosting company. Also think about how much you (or your client) is willing to pay for quality/uptime assurance: many hosts have uptime guarantees, and often the more you pay the higher the guarantee Smile

.

Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2003 7:34 pm (20 years, 10 months ago)

Thanks kdawg, thanks Daniel,

I'll do a bit more investigating... never knew it was so difficult Laughing

.