Well I've decided that I want to buy a domain name for myself...but I'm not too sure how to go about it.

I've seen domain names going for anywhere from $7 a year to $7 a month. But if you're buying it shouldn't it be a one time fee? Are there any companies I should try to avoid, or companies that people have had good experiences with?

And once I've purchased it how do I use it? Do I just tell my host that I bought a domain name and he'll do some wizardry to make it point to my site, or is that something I need to do?

Well first. I recommended www.namecheap.com if you are going to buy a domain. I think it is Simple, cheap and easy to register. After you bought the domain, you need to ask your host for the DNS that you need to change in the member area in namecheap. If you don't know how to do, you might want to ask your host to do.
It should be something like
NS.host.com
NS2.host.com

yes, agreed namecheap.com should be the way to go. They are great. good luck with your domain purchase. And yes it's only $8.88 per year at NameCheap.com

Apart from respective countries domain names, all the other .com, .net, .org type domain names are handled and maintain by Internic. So simplistically speaking, you can say that all the domain name registrar are merely resellers for internic. No real difference in quality except perhaps how easy it is to use their control panels.

It is not really an outright purchase of a domain name but a lease to use it for a said period of time usually for between 1 to 10 years renewable each time. The $7 a year would be used to maintain the registry for the 12 months and that would inevitable cost them something to maintain.

I use www.godaddy.com and have never had any problems with them. Some have but it could just be an issue in the past. They go for $8.95 per year and if you register for a period of 10 years, it goes down to $6.95 a year.

After you sign up hosting with a web host, they will provide you information for their domain name server. You will have to go back to your domain name registrar and use their control panel with your assigned name/password to make changes to the domain name server entries. Just replace what is existing with that of your web host and you are done. Just wait for 24 to 72 hours for the change to propagate across the globe and it can be accessible.

Of course, your web host will have to set up your website barebone and enter your information into his domain name servers which acts as a database of sites on his server.

I would use godaddy, or EV1 Servers (AKA Rackshack) https://domains.ev1servers.net/

Moved to Domain Names Forum.

Additional information:
Rackshack is selling the names for only US$5.41/year. I doubt you can find any place that sells cheaper than that! :)

There were last month.... Godaddy's .US domains for $4.95 !!

(They once had a package where .BIZ domains were $4 a year!!)

I checked that rackshack ..does it mean Domain Names + tax?
Who pays tax when buys domain names? May be I need to pay them shipping and handling fees:D :D :D Looks like that ..
I've been using http://dewdomains.com (part of Tucows) for the last couple of years and have had excellent experience with them. I currently have about 20 domains registered through them. They're even less expensive than Godaddy..If you compare all the services...Right now, they have special promotion: $7.49/year (minimum registration period is 2years). The package includes professional forwarding and dns services..Unlimited hosts, Unlimited emails, pop3 box, dynamic ip support, private registration ( and GoDaddy charges extra $9.00 for this) I like those guys :stickout:

I have used them all and I must say that I am very happy to namecheap as my registrar. They are very professional and thir program is great :).

To point them to your site, I don't need my hosts servers' addresses. With bNamed.net you just enter the target URL and the domain is forwarded (and then you select if you want path forwarding as well)

so if you have a site for example www.geocities.com/webwormx/mywebsite.html you buy a domain for example webwormx.com at bNamed, and you just give the URL of your site.
As easy as can be ! :)


You also ask for domains with no renewal fees. The only ccTLD I have ever seen where you pay a one-time-registration-fee, is Greenland. A .gl name costs about 700 crones and you don't have to renew it, but you do pay extra when you change DNS (because then the nic.gl people must make changes to their database).

So if you have a DNS of which you're sure it will still be working within 10 years, then you register a .gl , point it to your DNS in the beginning and you just let it remain on your DNS. Costs : one time registration fee, and the next 10 years not a single cent !