Buying domain names

[Pace]

I've been looking at other options for my domain names. Taking Distributed@Murc as an example, I pay £12 for the domain, and £24 for the hosting, which is fine.

However, as I add more and more sites, the costs start to build up.

I'd ideally like a larger hosting package (which I've already looked into), with multiple domains pointing to it.

Therein lies the problem My current host requires you to take a hosting package with each and every domain name. So brings me to the question, where do I buy domains?

I'm thinking about GoDaddy for ".com", but what about ".co.uk"?

Any suggestions (whether it be for ".com" or ".co.uk") will be much appreciated

Oh, and I'd ideally like them to be cheap

Thanks in advance,

P.

[GNEP]

I used freeparking.co.uk - buy from them and you can transfer to another isp without cost (i.e. be careful that the domain that you are "buying" goes into your name and not under the name of the company that registered it for you).

G

[Pace]

Ok, I've looked through the FreeParking stuff, and it appears they offer email forwarding. If I own the domain, could I setup a POP server at pop.mydomain.com ?

I'm sure my server admin can do anything, I just want to make sure I don't have any restrictions from the domain purchase side.

I suppose it would help if I knew *anything* about DNS...but I know very little

GNEP: Do you know if Freeparking allow me to edit the MX records?

[GNEP]

Pace,
Still being on crappy 56k dialup, I know very little. I have used freeparking for email forwarding and my own little site (it's only got a "send me a message" form on!). 10 individual email addresses and a generic (i.e. anything.else@domain.co.uk) one is more than enough for me.

But the reason that I mentioned them is that AFAIK you can get them to register the domain name etc, and then transfer it to your own/someone else's DNS or whatever without freeparking charging you. Which is good. For more than that, it's time to get the experts here out.

Probably a specific ADSL forum or something is where you'll have to ask - isn't there something like http://www.adslguide.org.uk/ I think?

Anyway, sorry not to be more help...

Gnep

PS do let us know what you find!

[Pace]

Just a note while I wait on our networking experts...I'm not hosting it on my own system

I'm looking into independent hosting, but that's the easy part - it's getting the domain name to work that worries me, don't wanna be stuck with some inflexible system.

Hopefully it wont just be me and you in here

[GNEP]

Yup - I was hoping some of the others might join this cosy little thread!

But more seriously - when I used to work in the biz, there were a few more ISPs around. If you are going for the whole hosting package, then it might be worth taking a look at someone like clara.net (http://www.clara.net/) - we used to use PSInet but of course like so many others they have gone bust.

Any decent UK hosting ISP should be able to register a domain or 5 for you - .co.uk or whatever. Just make sure that they do so in your name, as that gives you more flexibility later on.

G

[Pace]

Ok, thanks again (getting quite romantic in here, dinner for two anyone...? Candlelight? )

P.

[omegaRED]

I`ll take a glass of red wine, thank you.

[GNEP]

Already drunk enoguh tonuight thanslk!!!

G

[Paddy]

Paul.

I have bushe.co.uk registered and hosted with Freedomnames.co.uk. Avoid them like the plague! Find a company that will edit you MX records and provide a backup mail server for free. With my current setup they want £150 per annum Bugger that!

If you are still going to use your dialup then you need some redundancy built into your mail server, so that when it's off line, mail doesn't bounce back to sender.

I've been setting it up with sasq and rugger. PM/IM me if you need anything specific

[Cobos]

I'm using directnic.com for registering my .com domains and I'm very happy with their service. Though I only use them for registering the domains since I've got free hosting through a friend. But take a look at their pages, they were one of the earlier ones to offer 15$ yearly registration fee....

Cobos