Just need the domain name. No hosting service necessary.
Where to buy cheap domain names from?
gunnny on 09/08/2014 - 07:53
Comments
Thanks algy. This is the kind of input I am here for.
Anyone else want to share their experience with namecheap.com?NameCheap do good work.
I've had good experiences with NameCheap and a few eNom resellers, and some pretty shonky experiences with GoDaddy.
PS> Under no circumstances should you scout out domain availability with GoDaddy, they've got a reputation for registering domains that have been searched for, so that you're then compelled to buy it off them rather than anywhere else.
+1 Namecheap.
what sort of domain extension are you after? for .com.au use an australia domain registrar
.com only
-1 godaddy
-1 godaddy
-1 crazydomains
+1 namecheapBad experiences with both godaddy and crazydomains include having to fax in letterheads with directors signatures and explanation letters, then resend because their fax machine didnt print it out correctly or email copies werent received…. they generally made it as hard as possible to update contact info or help retrieve ownership etc etc
Namecheap support is ok and helpful
thanks guys. The Americans are open for business.
NameCheap are decent and cheap enough, just remember Whois privacy protection is an extra fee after the first year. It's thrown in for free with your domain registration at NameSilo (and they're cheaper for that too).
NameSilo are also have 2 factor authentication which you can use with an app such as Google Authenticator or Authy (better option) instead of relying on being able to receive an SMS message with your code. As someone who doesn't use roaming whilst abroad I would be unable to access a NameCheap account when away but NameSilo would keep on trucking.
Privacy/2FA/price puts NameSilo over NameCheap for me, although they're both good enough if you're not really that bothered about it all.
EDIT: Although you've not asked for it I also recommend CloudFlare as a DNS host instead of using the domain registrar themself. By setting up DNS at CloudFlare its easier to move registrars in future knowing you're not going to have to migrate/rekey DNS settings. CloudFlare are also just awesome with all the features they give (CDN, widgets, amazingly short TTL, bind zone export/import etc.)
Thanks so much. Can you summarize the steps for me if I were to go through CloudFlare?
1. Buy domain name from somewhere.
2. But hosting from somewhere. Then what?
3. Setup an account at Cloudflare? How does it help me?Regards,
GNo problem, but obviously I don't know your level of expertise so get back to me if it makes no sense although I'll be high-level…
Assuming this a new domain and not moving from somewhere then the rough steps would be:
- Buy a domain from a domain registrar such as NameCheap.
- Once it's registered, create an account with CloudFlare and register your domain with them - they'll set up some basic records for you. Technically they will import from the domain registrar used in point (1) if possible otherwise they'll crawl the most likely records on your domain and copy those over.
- On your domain registrar (NameCheap), change your NAMESERVER entries to the ones given to you by Cloudflare (there will be two such as bob.ns.cloudflare.com and alice.ns.cloudflare.com).
That's your 'domain' and 'DNS' set up.
Now if you buy hosting elsewhere you simply sign up with a web hosting provider and buy/activate whatever hosting package you want. They will give you some DNS entries you need to set get your site working. Normally they'll want you to set something like 'www.<yourdomain.com>' to one of their servers such as 'clientserv46.amazingwebhost.com.au' or something. This tells users out there that your www site is on that host's server. This DNS definition is done at CLOUDFLARE as they are your DNS HOST.
If you don't go with a dedicated DNS host such as CloudFlare, the above process still kind of holds but you make the hosting providers recommended DNS settings directly at your domain registrar (NameCheap) instead of with CloudFlare.
As for the benefits of using CloudFlare… At a basic level they give you the option of routing traffic through their own network or CDN (content delivery network). This gives benefits such as saving bandwidth (as they cache your site for you), improving performance (due to their caching and reducing your page sizes), some basic analytics, DDOS and blog spam protection. Over and above this you can choose to activate webapps to give additional functionality such as banner messages, email obscuring… lots and lots of things.
Sounds good, will have to give NameCheap a try. Do they do emails as well? I am new this whole thing
Namecheap charge extra for email hosting although they do basic redirection for free - so they will receive email to [email protected] and forward to your gmail or what-have-you. If it goes to an Outlook or Yahoo account you can set that to also be able to send email out as this same 'new' email address. This is good enough for most people and purposes. For info, Google recently removed this ability from their GMail accounts.
If you need more than this, then Namecheap charge about a tenner a year for their email hosting on top of your domain fees which isn't bad all things considered. Google Apps For Business is a great paid alternative if you don't mind paying for it and will use the extra features (many won't). A good completely free alternative I have set up friends with is Zoho. Both Google Apps and Zoho enable you to use email security features like SPF, DKIM, DMARC which if you are using your domain for business may help minimise your emails being flagged as spam as well as making you appear more technically proficient, if that's important to you. As an aside these security features are worthwhile for anybody running email on a custom domain - if everyone did it we'd have a lot less spam out there.
Ooops, replied to BennysEast in the wrong place. Removing comment.
zfa, thanks for all the inputs.
Namesilo sounds really cool. I will open an account with them I am thinking.
What happens when a provider of domain names goes out of business?
I am leaning towards running it through CloudFlare too, but will get my basic site up and running before I do that.
I will be using amazon to host my site as it gives me total control as to what I want to install in my server. Anything else that you mind suggest?
cheers.
No probs, any problems setting yourself up just PM me.
You can use NameSilo to register your domain and host your DNS, with Amazon hosting your site, then just slip Cloudflare in between them later pretty easily. Most CloudFlare users add them in 'after the fact' anyway.
I'm not sure what happens if a registrar goes under - never heard of it. As the domains are formally all registered upstream with ICANN and this would be a very big deal I suspect ICANN would just allocate the domains to another provider and then it would be up to you to migrate out if you didn't like where they'd ended up. There would be a flood of providers offering discounts to give your domains to them at that time I would think just as there'd be so much business up for grabs. It's not really something I'd ever worry about.
If you are worried about this then Google are themselves about to start selling domains (currently in beta stage). There's very little chance they'd fold in the foreseeable!
Only other thing you may need would be email on this domain? See my reply to BennysEast above where I covered that for him/her. NameSilo are identical to NameCheap in the manner in which they will forward on email to your existing email account free of charge. Note that using CloudFlare may interfere with this feature (not tried it but does for some providers). They do not sell email hosting themself though, you'd need to find that elsewhere (Google Apps or Zoho are my normal recommendations).
If you intend to have the domain more than a year, and the name is important to you, go to www.namecheap.com.It will cost you $10, but it will cost the same next year, and they have great services to go with it like $2 SSL and free DNS hosting for before you transfer it. Otherwise go to www.godaddy.com, only $4, but the next year is close to $20 and you risk losing the domain if they (profanity) up (happened to me twice on godaddy.com and crazydomains.com)