Onlist, since it's of general use. Can't comment on iserve, but they're probably ok for the job. Question is whether the job is ok for you, specifically the redirecting.
Email redirection should be fine; iserve would receive the email and forward it to whereever you say. You might want to ask what happens about spamfiltering, where and by whom. Number of email addresses is limited by how many you get from iserve; you can forward them all to the same destination if you like, and if you can handle e.g. procmail to sort them out again - assuming they contain s uitable characteristics like the address to which they've first been sent to, this ciuld be a problem as some email laces don't add reliable information for this. You can't use the To: or Cc: fields for this!! Web forwarding will work but it depends on what you wnat the visitor to see as address. The simplest is for iserve to redirect a.net to b.yourisp.net, the site visitor gets to see b.yourisp.net in his browser URL field. Not ideal. Some web redirection can use some cloaking scheme(s), the visitor keeps on seeing a.net, how robust that is depends on the specific redirection scheme. Most robust would be to channel all traffic through iserve, at the price you quoted I doubt they'd do that, as they'd have to pay for all your web traffic twice. > How tightly tied are 'having a domain' and 'hosting a domain'? Not at all, but many hosting companies want to also host the domain so they can make changes to the settings. They don't want to deal with you making those changes, or worse, Joe Average, who doesn't have a clue about domains, hosting, the difference between the two, or anything much else network reated. You can put the foot down of course. If it was me, I would never give up control of the domain (and its settings), but it's your decision on the package deal you might get. > If I make a mistake in choosing hosting companies, what are the likely > problems unravelling the mess? Dropping the hoster is as simple as changing the domain's settings (point it to a new web server). Controlling the settings means there is no argument about moving the domain to a new registrar, or the site hoster arguing that they won't release the domain for a new registrar because they think you owe them money. Changing settings like IP of web server on the domain can disrupt things for maybe an hour, perhaps up to 3h, perhaps only minutes. Shifting a domain to a new registrar can disrupt things sometimes for up to 3 days, although that largely depends on how you go about it and whether you also have control over the name servers (you typically don't though). Web forms require running a program on the server to send an email. Hosters usually see that as a reason for charging more (and right they are too). It's also a security risk for both you and the hoster, so it adds effort for the hoster, which translates into time, which translates into money. > Is it simply a matter of waiting for the > domain to expire *Never* do that. Just change settings on the domain's name server. Summary: it depends on what options are most important to you, and what you're willing to pay for them. Volker -- Volker Kuhlmann is list0570 with the domain in header http://volker.dnsalias.net/ Please do not CC list postings to me.
