domain name registration

[OrangeHopper]

I've identified a domain name I wish to purchase.

What do the domain name registration services provide and what should I be looking for when making the choice of which to use?

Are there any pitfalls to avoid?

[Spacecadet]

www.1and1.co.uk

[Sockpuppet]

Agreed. www.1and1.co.uk are good. I also use UK reg. ou'll know the site by the horrible orange and purple background.

[MrsGoof]

I've identified a domain name I wish to purchase.

What do the domain name registration services provide and what should I be looking for when making the choice of which to use?

Are there any pitfalls to avoid?

shock horror CUK has it's 2nd SKA, can she handle it? Scottie!

[OrangeHopper]

MrsGoof, I think your accouncement is a little premature.

Also, anything I produce could never be talked about in the same breath as a SKA.

[MrsGoof]

mouth and now been scrubbed with carbolic and bleeached.

[OrangeHopper]

Any other suggestions or advice?

[Paddy]

Any other suggestions or advice?

Yes. If you want to register Bla.co.uk also register bla.com bla.eu bla.biz bla.tv at the same time. If you don’t; by next morning you will find they have been registered to someone else.

[G8_Summit]

I used Netfirms - $4.95 for 12 months. Cheap as chips. They were also doing a fantasic offer of 12 months hosting package for $9.99 but that has now ended. Its now $99.99 !!!

[DeadKenny]

www.123reg.co.uk gets my vote.

The main pitfall to watch out for with any registrar is ransoming domains. i.e. if you register a domain, can you do what you want with it and transfer it out without being charged massive fees.

The key to this is being the administrative contact. I've learnt to my cost that if the registrar is the contact then all transfer requests to another registrar are passed to that contact and they'll refuse it unless you pay them a big fee. I wanted to transfer out because the bad registrar I had hiked up the renewal fees (a .co.uk would suddenly become £40 for renewal!), but I had to pay a £40 fee to get out and had to fax them the authority to transfer which they would ignore.

Places like 123reg are cheap, let you be the admin contact if you want and have zero transfer out fees. The online controls are great as you can configure pretty much what you like about the domain. UK based. I can't comment on hosting though as I don't use the ones they sell, I just host on my own server.