So I read this page and thought I should probably find a better domain registrar. I currently use free web hosting and have my domain registered through the same company. It's kind of annoying because they charge extra for WHOIS privacy and I have to email them to get MX records changed. The page I mentioned recommends easydns.com, which looks pretty good but is $20/yr. Where do you register your domains and what is your experience?

Godaddy -- everyone uses it.

www.nodaddy.com

Try nfshost instead

namecheap.com is a good registrar.

I am a bit afraid now, according to the website you linked to* you should check via easywhois.com if your registrar really registered for 5 years when you paid 5 years. I paid 5 years, but it is registered for one year. I am pretty sure they will automatically renew it, but there is a chance... Let's just hope I notice. Never heard of problems with this registrar though, and it has been recommended by numerous people on another forum (not all IT pro's, but probably someone would have heard if there were problems).

*About that link: use http:// in front of the location, else it will break like it does now.

Any registrars I have heard recommendations of are Dutch actually, so no use for you I guess (unless you are interrested in a .eu domain, Versio offers the first year for only 2eur, renewal is 6. .nl and .be are even cheaper, no hosting plans attached).

Link is fixed.

I transferred to internet.bs. I like them so far. In retrospect, I think one should take the website I linked to with a grain of salt, since it seems to be trying to get people to go to a certain registrar at the bottom of the page. That said, it's probably good stuff to be aware of.

I use webs.com.

Eh... I prefer real web hosts instead.

Me too. One where you can actually FTP stuff.

I use NFShost.

Lol you can hardly call webs a webhost. They're more like the dutch equivalent of Facebook (Hyves): You can make some design, put it on your page, and post other crap on top of it (preferably in a way that you usually have to use ctrl+a to read the contents). On facebook the design is pretty much locked (as far as I know hyves and fb), but except that it's the same thing.

Quote Wikipedia article about webhosting:
"A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web."
About websites:
"A website [...], is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets."

So basically Facebook is as much a webhost as Webs :P


Anyway, I have my own dedicated server here at home. I know it is probably cheaper to get a VPS or shared webhosting, but I like having complete control of the machine and the network. I can put any OS on it I like, I can run any services I like, I can open and close any ports on router level, and I have to install and maintain everything myself. I learned a lot from it, and there are no restrictions as to what you can do with it.
It only eats 65Watts (though my parents pay the power bill) and nearly never uses the full upload speed (my parents don't need realtime services like VoIP or anything, and I QoS'd games). Mostly any time I need much speed myself I'm on the LAN connection.

The only thing I'm annoyed by is that I need the nameservers from my registrar. I am running BIND (DNS server software) and it is set to be the master of my domain (I'm sure it works, can explain how I tested it), but my registrar's control panel won't accept the IP or ISP's hostname as nameserver. Still have to call them about that...