Gents, I need help. Help with something so basic that I fear you will look down upon me and maybe even laugh.
I want to buy a domain and not host any site but try to use it as a personal email address. You know, like the kind Mike@Mikescoolwebsite.co.uk. I am not sure about the whole procedure. I tried to buy a domain name from godaddy a few minutes ago, and I was under the impression that an email address comes free with the domain name, but apparently that wasn't the case. They had some other extra options where they wanted me to pay £x/mo for an email address.
Also, I tried asking one of my mates, but he was sleeping, and after apologising for waking him up, he told me to buy a domain, and let him host it on his servers, because he will let me have as many email address as I want. I was happy with that, and I told him I will contact him tomorrow. But then I started thinking; since he has the servers, doesn't that mean he can basically look at all my private stuff?
I use, and have always used, dotster for most of my domain needs. I believe they come with free email hosting. Avoid GoDaddy like the plague. Avoid any domain reg company that doesn't do free DNS and email hosting.
>>23466 Having been grandfathered in, I didn't realise Google Apps for Domains had been renamed and has become a paid service. There might still be a way to get on board for free.
My experience with these registrar/ISP value-added email services isn't great. I remember wanting to switch away from them to Gmail (under my own domain) back in 2007. A big win back then was the efficacy of Google's spam filter. I'm not sure if that remains the preserve of specialist providers or what. I suspect the web interface won't be as polished either. Then again, I know Dreamhost uses Gmail for their customers now, so perhaps many companies do.
You don't want a friend to do it. That much is clear.
Hey chaps, I'm just bumping this old thread because I'm hosting a website from home (I don't expect it to get much traffic) and I'd like to register a domain name. I'm not sure if I trust any of the domain name registrars. Why did they decide to put domain name registry in private hands? It seems like something a trust should be doing.
Anyway, I'd like to register a .org or .org.uk domain, no frills. Where should I register my domain name?
I have complete trust in Gandi.net. I have dozens of domains with them and have never had a problem. They have never fucked me about and their tech support has always been prompt and efficient.
I've heard good things about namecheap.com and hover.com, but I can't vouch for them personally.
A mate of mine recommended DNSimple. I was about to sign up but then the tight bastard inside me wondered if I couldn't save myself $5 a month by going for some sort of free alternative.
It occurs to me that since my website is non-commercial and intended for local folk, I could just leave it as an IP address and disseminate a tinuyrl or something.
Given that I'm hosting from home, would this represent a security risk of some kind?
>>24962 There's a risk of your IP address changing, meaning you'd have to regenerate the links each time, and potentially anyone submitting anything to you (form data, cookies, etc.) could end up sending it to the wrong place when that happens.
Dynamic DNS is available for free from a number of providers (afraid.org, freedns.io) although I can't vouch for the quality of service. These services will allow you to direct a domain name of your choice to a dynamic IP. They should be fine if you don't need absolute reliability.
If you don't want to spend £5 a year for a .org.uk, there are free domain names available for a few TLDs. There's no catch, but you should be aware that these free TLDs are frequently used by spammers. Email you send from an address with one of these TLDs is highly likely to be filtered as spam. If you aren't planning on running a mailserver, then this won't be a problem.
>>24964 They're also generally considerably more expensive, and have some other limitations. TANSTAAFL, and all that. You're talking about spending an extra £20 a month to save £5 a year.