Long story short. I let a "friend" host my business website some years ago which involved him putting the domain in his own name (unbeknownst to me) and then he stopped hosting it and I couldn't get my domain back in my own name. Just spotted it's free again as apparently he didn't renew it this year so I need to grab it urgently. What's the best domain registrant and website hoster? GoDaddy, 1&1, 123-reg.co.uk?
Any advice welcome.
The first one you can use immediately to grab back your domain before some other scrote hijacks it again. You need to define "best" as cheapest, reliable, helpful, facilities and bandwidth allowed.
Bugger. No it isn't available. Still, I'd be happy to get advice on domain hosters in case it does come up again next year.
123 will be quick and easy to get it registered, there won't be any hassle from them to move it elsewhere in future, I've never used 123 for hosting as they don't seem cheap for it.
if it's urgent get it registered, then worry about hosting and possibly moving the registrar later ...
I was going to say I just checked, and if it's the domain I remember you using, it's not available, the easy way to check direct from the horse's mouth is
These are the people I use. The owner used to service my business computers before he moved into web hosting. They are knowledgeable, helpful and friendly IME.
Colin Bignell
I've got a couple fo domains with 123, but only as registrar and DNS. There is no need to use the hosting that the registrar offers just configure the DNS to point at the relevant host(s), mail servers etc.
I managed to get a .com back under my control after it expired because the hosting co hadn't sent me a reminder and wouldn't answer emails, phone etc. Took a while and a bit of digging to find out which registrar they were reselling and a bit of form filling from the registrar but got there in the end.
On Wednesday 22 January 2014 08:04 Dave Baker wrote in uk.d-i-y:
123 Reg are reasonably competant -
I've used 123 for ages. Its good enough
howebver that des remidn me:
Nominet are pretty good in arbitrating these matters and if you were to approach them directly showing that the domain in question is in fact 'yours' you should be able to take over the domain directly with them.
Can't say I would recommend 123-reg at the moment - I have used them for years, but I am getting somewhat fed up with them for various reasons.
It depends on the area IME...
For domain registrations, yup agreed - still good.
For hosting - static HTML - fine. Anything more complicated - especially with a database back end - the hosting is astonishingly slow. They look the part, have a control panel that lets you install 60 - 70 odd common applications at the click of a button, but frequently you find they then don't work as installed, or the rest of the server stack is not configured in a way that makes them work effectively.
Email hosting - so so. Lots of flexibility in creating mailboxes and forwards - but the web site control is slow and flaky. Often if a mailbox gets too large (and there is no way to report on the size of the mailbox) it just stops working and you can't log in.
Tech support - their ticket system works ok, but frequently they seem incapable of reading. Also don't ask more than one question per ticket since they never seem to read to the end. On the phone they are better.
Billing and admin - generally ok.
I guess I could maybe get it back if I fought hard enough but I'm not sure I'm up for more hassle. I could set up a similar sounding domain and given how long my original one has been "off air" now it probably wouldn't make too much difference to potential customers, many of whom won't even know the first domain. Bit of a pisser though after having it for so many years. That's what comes of doing business with friends I suppose.
Have a look at
On Wednesday 22 January 2014 16:45 Dave Baker wrote in uk.d-i-y:
Yes - best avoided...
Most important thing is to avoid those which make it awkward, difficult or expensive to do whatever you want with it in future. Also decent, timely reminders of renewal can be very important.
Personally I use Easily - largely inertia but I have no reason to move. Work - we use GoDaddy and have had lots of issues with several others.
As it is a .co.uk domain yo could use nominet's dispute procedure. If the domain content was obviously about your company and you paid for the domain then you have a good chance of getting it back assuming it is your "friend" who still currently holds it.
In message , Dave Baker writes
There's no fighting involved. You get one shot at providing your evidence and then they decide behind closed doors. No appeal.
I use fasthosts
+1.
nominet are so damned reasonable its a pleasure to know.
You dont need to have a DNS entry or a host to 'own' a domain.
All you need is a code that says you own it. In essence it is an entry in the (nominet) database that says 'the name servers for this domain are here'...and that can be a null, plus contact information for the site admin and owner.
The minimal 123-reg setup is a DNS server record that doesn't need to do any more than say 'I am the DNS server for this domain'
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