I have about 10Gb sitting on my webserver so I host my own website. I use discountdomains.co.nz for the domain registration - by far and away the cheapest. It was a trivial process to direct web and email traffic to my home servers.
Changing domain providers is trivial - you just grab your current UDAI (basically a reference number for a domain) and plug that number into the new provider's form. Hey presto - you're with the new provider. You will get a new UDAI number as part of the process. However, there is one little snitch with this that can catch out the unwary. The new provider has no obligation to tell the old provider what has happened. Unless the old provider maintains their tables to delete invalid domains your domain will stay there until it expires, and possibly up to 90 days after that. I can tell you from experience that Clear and Orcon do not maintain their DNS tables. As such, if you still use the old DNS provider as your ISP, you can end up with DNS entries in TWO places; both being "valid". Your new provider will handle all DNS requests but will be overruled by your previous provider's DNS servers _for traffic within that provider's network_. There is no simple way to avoid this and the only approach that is guaranteed to work is to change the entries in your current provider's DNS entries at the time you transfer the domain to the new provider. I have not run across this but I am not aware that there is a process for deletion of domains if you cancel an account with a dns provider. I'm sure they would release the domain eventually but I don't see any obgligation for them to do this within a cetain timeframe. Does anyone know if a domain name becomes available immediately after an account is deleted, and if so, which providers do this? Again, the simple answer is to change your entries to the new provider before deleting the current account. Hope that helps, Brett. > -----Original Message----- > From: Andrew Errington [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, 28 August 2006 12:16 p.m. > To: [email protected] > Subject: OT: Domain names and hosting (again) > > Hi, > > Well, I've been away for the weekend, and I see that Alan is still > soldiering on with his modem. As I caught up with the thread > I was hoping > to read "...so I tried it and it worked!", but no such luck. > > Anyway, I want to set up a domain for a small company > belonging to a friend > of mine. He has a home page with his ISP, and obviously from > that position > we can take two further steps toward internet nirvana: > > 1) Get domain and redirect it to home page > 2) Get domain and independent hosting > > I came across an ad for iSERVE Ltd. (NZ's most popular web > hosting company, > apparently). For $38/yr I can get a domain name, and I can have web > traffic and email redirected (presumably to my ISP home page > and email) for > free. > > $38 for a domain and free redirection seems cheap enough not > to have to > think too hard about it. Has anyone used/is anyone using iSERVE? > > How tightly tied are 'having a domain' and 'hosting a domain'? For > example, do I need to care who I register my domain with, and > who I host a > domain with? I have no idea what to advise my friend, or > where to get help > from, hence asking here. > > My friend's website is tiny. 10Mb provided by his current > ISP is more than > adequate. No server-side interaction is needed (no PHP or > databases), > although an email form would be handy. Finally, only one > email address is > required, but three would be nice. > > If I make a mistake in choosing hosting companies, what are > the likely > problems unravelling the mess? Is it simply a matter of > waiting for the > domain to expire and re-registering with a new company? > > I think that registering a domain name and redirecting it to the ISP > homepage would be fine, but maybe it's worth going all the > way? The major > reason not to would be the $20 per 28 days hosting fee (which > is iSERVE's > current basic price). > > Off-list replies are fine for this, or replies to the list if > you think the > information will help others. I have searched the CLUG > archives and found > Carl Cerecke's thread regarding a similar situation for > Toastmasters, but > it didn't seem to reach a conclusion. > > Thanks, > > Andrew >
