Help for an Amateur Please?

[gennyl]

I currently have a domain name which came free with my ISP. I mainly use the domain name for email and although I have some webspace it does not really get used at all. (it currently houses a website for our upcoming wedding).

My ISP has upped its prices and I want to move elsewhere but I don't want to lose my email address and all mail comes in via their pop3 servers. They have said I can leave it with them for a cost of £25+VAT a year or move it elsewhere.

I have looked into moving it elsewhere and it is just a minefield of free companies doing everything to get your custom and I don't know where to turn. Can someone give me any guidance or recommmendatons? Is the £25 that my ISP are charging a good deal?

I would like to keep a small amount of webspace (just for uploading pics for friends to see etc) and would prefer no advertising banners but thats it for the web. (I use frontpage - so that should give you an idea of my web use lol).

Hope someone can help.

Lynne
x

 

[Ian]

£25 / year isn't a bad deal if you get the domain, hosting and mail access for that price. If you're happy with their service then it might be worth keeping it there.

You can go with other companies such as godaddy.com / easily.com to host your domain (which will be about £5/year, but you'd need to find a hosting company on top of that to provide you with hosting facilities).

 

[gennyl]

Hi Ian


Thanks for your reply. The domain isn't included in that price. I paid £1 for the first 2 years for the domain itself (special offer when you sign up) but they are saying this would cost an extra £53.00 per 2 year period when it is up for renewal.



Does this still make it a good deal?



I am happy with their email facilities but their web hosting leaves a little to be desired as they have non stop problems with their archiving function and without warning my website reverts to an old version and needs uploading all over again.



Lynne

 

[Ian]

Ok, that's not such a good deal anymore then! You can get domains from £5/year at many places. If your hosting reverts back for no reason than that suggests even more problems too.

Personally, I'd transfer the domain and hosting to another provider (given what you have said). I've used godaddy.com lots of times for domains, and they seem pretty good. They also do hosting for a couple of quid per month, although I've not used this myself I would expect it to be suitable

 

[gennyl]

Thanks Ian



I have just tried godaddy but it doesnt have the option to transfer a .co.uk web address.



Just to check also, when the 2 year period is up, what will happen? Will someone contact me to offer me a renewal? Is it better to not renew and then go and purchase the domain from scratch? Or is that a really dumb question?



Thanks again



Lynne

 

[Ian]

Ah, I didn't realise godaddy don't allow inbound .co.uk transfers. Perhaps someone else here can recommend a UK domain registrar that they've had good success with. I use easily.com for a couple of domains and they have been good.

You could let the domain expire and try to renew it yourself - but you run the risk of letting someone else grab the domain before you do. Even if it isn't a popular domain, there are automated scripts out there snapping up expired domains - either to get cheap traffic or to sell back to the original owner. I wouldn't advice risking it

 

[SlimJim]

The Registrant with whom you registered your domain name is able to give you a huge discount on renewal because they generally only have to pay £5 + VAT for the renewal for 2 years. If you go the DIY route you may end up paying Nominet's £80 + VAT charge. Nominet will in fact invoice you for the domain if your registrar doesn't renew it and you will have the opportunity to keep the domain when they do that. They also provide a list of members here but I cannot make any recommendation as I use Madasafish and at the moment new members of Madasafish cannot transfer in a domain.