.de domain names

[chef]

I have recently bought a .de domain via sedo.co.uk and it's in the process of being registered to my german address. I have done various amounts of research and it seems that I believe I will have to nominate a registrar who will manage the domain. I presume that is the equivalent of saying 123reg will look after the domain so then i can manage it via there control panel.

All my current domains are registered via 123reg, however .de domains can only be maintained by registrars who are official DENIC members, DENIC being the german equivalent of Nominet.

So my question is, has anyone ever registered a .de domain and if so who did you register it with? From my understanding it must be someone on the DENIC members list below:

List of DENIC members

Any help gratefully appreciated.

Chef

[Bright Spark]

I 've got a dedicated root server with Hetzner.de who are pretty good and reputable, but I've never registered any domains with them.

[darmstadt]

Mine is all done through Strato. I bought my domain through them and they do the hosting for me too, never had any complaints

[Sysman]

I can't advise on the .de situation, but I got lucky and ended up with a separate registrar and ISP.

When that ISP gave me grief (i.e. no service but wanted paying) I was able to suspend my domain name with the registrar, and it fell off the face of the internet, and the ISP couldn't argue with that.

This did stand up in court. What I am saying is that keeping the registrar and ISP separate is a good idea.

Incidentally, the next ISP wanted 7 Euro per month for "managing" my DNS entry*, so I rolled my own, but I don't think anyone will ask for that kind of dosh nowadays.

* I wouldn't have objected to a one-off charge, but a constantly recurring charge seemed excessive.

[doodab]

The registrar is basically responsible for keeping the DENIC records i.e. the contact information and name server addresses, up to date.

As far as I can tell you can either find someone accredited by DENIC or manage it yourself via DENICdirect, which is only really an option if you like filling in forms in German.

DENICdirect ServiceCenter

Your registar will often operate name servers for your domain and allow you to administer the zone e.g. via a control panel, although this needn't be the case, for example if you operate your own name servers or wish to use another DNS provider.

[Sysman]

I found the DENICdirect ServiceCenter link when chef first posted, but I couldn't work out whether the 116 Euro (or was it 160 Euro?) charge per year applied to the basic level. Fine if you are managing lots of domain names, not worth it for one.