Thread: Buying a domain name...newbie advice

The quality of a domain name doesn't vary between different companies, therefore you generally just need to look for the cheapest option to register the particular type of domain that you want, unless you require any specific extras thrown in with the domain such as Web forwarding, DNS management, etc.

Originally Posted by Penguin

The quality of a domain name doesn't vary between different companies, therefore you generally just need to look for the cheapest option

The quality of a registration service *does* vary wildly, and "registrars" vanish off the planet on a daily basis, do you really want to risk your domain and therefore your entire internet presence on a no-name cheap reseller of a muppet of a reseller of ...

Although "age" of the company is not a guarantee of stability, it does at least indicate a history, which then tends to leads to there being negative reviews if the service is poor.

Pick one that has direct relationships with the registries for the domain types you want, they're more likely to be able to fix anything that goes wrong (and things sometimes do)

ALWAYS make sure the domain will be registered in your name, less professional registration companies create the domains in their own name so effectively retain ownership, which leads to problems later on

The facilities available a each of them, similarly varies, but should be the starting point - what *services* exactly do you require
- just registration, regsitration and dns, registration and forwarding, etc.

Your domain is possibly the most critical part of your internet identity, dont risk building an entire brand and having it dissappear when the registrar goes t!tsup.com just to save £1 /year - re the RegistreFly fiasco...

1-2-1-reg.co.uk doesnt exist - the domains never been registered
(makes a quick mental not to buy it for the SEO traffic now its published on a forums ...)
- so that would be a *bad* choice

maybe you meant 123reg (part of pipex, unless they've managed to sell it now) - large, established, not great on support, cheap for some domains, not so cheap for others, there are worse.

webfusion was hosteurope who sold out to pipex (this weeks chosen "company name" is back to being gxn) over 3 years ago ;p
keep up at the back ...

the pipex dsl service was flogged off and isnt called pipex anymore AFAICR, pipex is still gx is still 123reg is still hosteurope is still xo comms is still gxn is still gx network is still xoc is still donhost is still .... the name changes on at a least a quarterly basis ...

Originally Posted by othellotech

the pipex dsl service was flogged off and isnt called pipex anymore AFAICR, pipex is still gx is still 123reg is still hosteurope is still xo comms is still gxn is still gx network is still xoc is still donhost is still .... the name changes on at a least a quarterly basis ...

I love it when people keep their company hierachy simple don't you? Does anyone else think that board meetings are spent just drawing out flow-charts of the different divisions on the massive white board to get everyone back onboard?

Originally Posted by Mercyknight

Ok, thanks for the information so far, but how do I go about paying a one off fee and owning an domain name for life?!

How long are you going to live - find a registry that will take years*domaincost from you and "hope" they dont go belly up before you die

With the majority of domains types (come/net/org/biz/info/uk/tv etc) you never "own" anything per-se, you retain a right to have the domain listed in the regitsry zone files for as long as you continue to pay for it and no-one disputes your right to use it.