Looking for a reliable hosting/domain company

[chaosWyrM]

Because when you attempt to change hosts, your old host technically own your domain name. They will offer to sell it to you for some exorbitant price.

The only way you own your own domain name is to register it yourself through a third party registrar.....

i did not know this at all.

soooo....if i already have registered through my host...how do i go about taking ownership of the domain? do i have to wait for it to (almost)expire and then register it through a 3rd party?

[Vintage73]

Because when you attempt to change hosts, your old host technically own your domain name. They will offer to sell it to you for some exorbitant price.

The only way you own your own domain name is to register it yourself through a third party registrar.....

i did not know this at all.

soooo....if i already have registered through my host...how do i go about taking ownership of the domain? do i have to wait for it to (almost)expire and then register it through a 3rd party?

If your domain came "free" with your hosting, I'm not sure what you could do until it's time to leave your current host. You could always ask nicely, but they may not like that you're thinking of leaving with "their" domain. If you registered and paid for it separately, then you could transfer it away at any time by having it released and doing a transfer at another registrar, such as Namecheap.

DO NOT let it expire, or you may lose it forever. There's a list out there that allows some people (or organizations) to see what domains are expiring, and the moment it becomes available, they nab it, sometimes for years.

I hate to be all doomsday about all this, but it's actually happened to me (just about all of these situations).

[cryophonik]

I've used aplus.net for hosting for many years and have always been happy with their service, customer support, value, etc.

When I created a website for a new project last year, I made the mistake of going with bluehost for dirt cheap and would not recommend them. The one time I needed customer support, they were useless, and I've been hammered with spam (primarily third party web developers) ever since signing on with them.

[chaosWyrM]

Because when you attempt to change hosts, your old host technically own your domain name. They will offer to sell it to you for some exorbitant price.

The only way you own your own domain name is to register it yourself through a third party registrar.....

i did not know this at all.

soooo....if i already have registered through my host...how do i go about taking ownership of the domain? do i have to wait for it to (almost)expire and then register it through a 3rd party?

If your domain came "free" with your hosting, I'm not sure what you could do until it's time to leave your current host. You could always ask nicely, but they may not like that you're thinking of leaving with "their" domain. If you registered and paid for it separately, then you could transfer it away at any time by having it released and doing a transfer at another registrar, such as Namecheap.

DO NOT let it expire, or you may lose it forever. There's a list out there that allows some people (or organizations) to see what domains are expiring, and the moment it becomes available, they nab it, sometimes for years.

I hate to be all doomsday about all this, but it's actually happened to me (just about all of these situations).

crap.

no it was free with the hosting. im using ipage. i cant really say im actually thinking of leaving...i havent had any issues using ipage, though looking at how they compare...it seems hostgator is better. im really more concerned about owning it myself...which i thought i did.

[Vintage73]

If your domain came "free" with your hosting, I'm not sure what you could do until it's time to leave your current host. You could always ask nicely, but they may not like that you're thinking of leaving with "their" domain. If you registered and paid for it separately, then you could transfer it away at any time by having it released and doing a transfer at another registrar, such as Namecheap.

DO NOT let it expire, or you may lose it forever. There's a list out there that allows some people (or organizations) to see what domains are expiring, and the moment it becomes available, they nab it, sometimes for years.

I hate to be all doomsday about all this, but it's actually happened to me (just about all of these situations).

crap.

no it was free with the hosting. im using ipage. i cant really say im actually thinking of leaving...i havent had any issues using ipage, though looking at how they compare...it seems hostgator is better. im really more concerned about owning it myself...which i thought i did.

There's still a chance you could get them to allow you to transfer it. Not a huge chance, but a chance.

You could leave it as-is and just stay with your host and not pay anything additional, when you finally do leave, there's a chance they'll allow you to take your domain with you for a fee. Some do, some don't.

If you were happy with what you have, don't worry about it unless your host starts getting iffy with their service. If they're keeping up their end of the bargain, there's really no serious need to worry.

[dnekm]

If your host gives you the domain name for free, or a modest fee - they registered it themselves. Usually for several years at a time. When you change hosts - this can be a problem. If they are listed as the technical contact for that domain name, it can become really difficult to make changes to what nameserver the dns servers use.

Anyway, yes - if you are looking to change hosts you mat be screwed. I lost westgatesounds.com that way. That is why my domain today is westgatesounds.net.

When we first got online - westgate.com was actually purchased by someone who knew of our gallery and publishing house and attempted to sell us the domain at a ridiculous price. That is how we wound up with westgatenecromantic.com, and westgatenecromantic.net.

I have had reluctant webhosts in the past attempt to block dns nameserver changes that would move us away from their hosting but, because our domains were registered to us, eventually I had the blocks removed and we were able to change hosts...

Hopefully, you are happy with your host and the issue will not arise. But if you decide yo ever change hosts you may have to change your domain to some variant of your current one....

[firepile]

I've recently been screwed by my domain provider and I'm now looking for another company to buy my domains. Any suggestions?

https://www.namecheap.com

[chaosWyrM]

Hopefully, you are happy with your host and the issue will not arise. But if you decide yo ever change hosts you may have to change your domain to some variant of your current one....

yes im happy...but out of curiosity, ive looked a little more into this. it seems that if i wanted to change my host from ipage to hostgator...i could simply keep the domain registered through ipage and have it point to hostgator.

hostgaotrs website also says they can do a full domain transfer for free. when putting my domain into their transfer checking tool...it says i can just pay 8 bucks to transfer it (though i think the free option is available).

namecheap says i can transfer to them for just under $10.

so...is this not as much as a problem as it seemed?

[dnekm]

If you want to sure.... Do a WHOIS lookup of your domain name. Note who is listed as the administrative contact and who is the technical contact. That will let you know who really own the domain.

If you want to change hosting, it really all comes down to paying the new host and then you going and changing which nameservers the DNS servers look for. That is why you need to be the technical contact.

I am not sure if hosting companies are playing together nicer these days than they have in the past. If they are - that is a benefit to you.

But, if you change from ipage to hostgator, ipage will still soak you for the domain name registration - which they have already paid for. (Another benefit of doing a WHOIS lookup on your domain is you will be able to see how long they have registered for. But be warned - after the domain expires it will be bought by speculators thinking you will pay to get it back. That happened with me with westgatesounds.com....)

As long as all of the respective hosting companies and those holding the domain names agree to cooperate - changing things should not be much of a problem.

Where you can run into problems, is if one hosting company decides to be a prick and not let you go. I actually went through this with westgatenecromantic.com and my second webhost. It was ONLY because we owned the domain and I was listed as the technical contact that I was able to remove the blocks through ICAAN and get the block removed.

I would like to think that the world of webhosting has improved since my early experiences... I cannot say with any certainty that it has. There will always be bad companies. Just hope you are never hosted by one.