I am looking to start several web sites, one being a forum, most likely run with this software phpBB (http://www.phpbb.com). I am looking at using gearhost as hosting mainly becuase of the positive feedback I found here, among other places. And from what I can tell, I am allowed to run forum software on their servers. I will most liky be getting the platinum plan, details can be found here (http://www.gearhost.com/services/hosting/shared/prices-features.asp). I may use Feature Price (http://www.featureprice.com) although the guys who offer the unlimited bandwidth deal scare me a little. I do want someone to be around a little longer than 6 months. Anyhow, I do not own any domains and I have a concept on how name servers work and all and I know the ones I want arent taken, but if I have one hosting company register for me, are they registering it for me in their name, or is it in my name and they just so happen to be running off to teh registrar for me?

My second concern is public info found on whois. Being 18 and all means I live with my family still (yeah I know but thats changing in a few months). If I start getting adult spam snail mail and stuff like that, they will tell me "the internet is bad, it sends you porn". (They are a little behind). What are the chances of stuff (adult or not) showing up in my mail box (snail mail, email spam i really dont mind as much as I am the only one who sees it)? Is it possible to change that info after I move out in a few months? Or does it not matter and I should just put in a false address? I woudl think it woudl matter for possible legal reasons and stuff or something.

Well I guess for a first post I sure amde a fool of myself, can you guys help me out, it would be greatly appreciated.

And Ryan, I read your TOS and I wont be running any IRC bots or anything, just a forum, if thats ok.

Welcome to WHT. You did fine for your first post - better than many.

If you have a web hosting company register your domain for you, you need to ask them who the owner and admin contacts will be. The admin contact is the person who determines what happens to the domain - transfers, information changes, etc. You want this to be you. The owner should also be you. They can be the technical contact and should set up your DNS information regardless.

I would register the domain outside of the hosting service, but you are fine with the right host - ask beforehand and verify before you decide.

As for snail-mail spam, the only things I generally receive that are Internet related are domain renewals... Email spam on the other hand is everything under the sun.

You can certainly put false contact information in your whois data, but you run the risk of not being able to identify you as the domain owner should something happen to your domain. If your admin email address is no good, you will not receive domain expiration email or transfer notices. You may end up having your domain hijacked - and you would not even know it until it happened.

If you should happen to get your domain hijacked, you would not be able to prove you were the owned if you entered an address that was not your own... It's your risk though, so enter what you feel comfortable with.

As far as changing information in your domain record when you move - you should always keep this information up to date and accurate, so wherever your domain is registered, make sure you have full control and access to all the contact information so you can keep it current.

Good luck,

-t

Ok, two more quick questions:

I can change the contact info found in the registrar, right? who does that, my hosting company or me?

And is it not a good idea to you the email address I will be getting when i get the hosting account setup? IE say my site will be www.acronym.com, should I not use brian@mail.acronym.com? Because I dont have any other email addresses, aside fomr a yahoo one which I am not too fond of as they keep deleting my mail and bouncing back any emails i sent to friends at university of rochester.

Originally posted by Acronym BOY

I can change the contact info found in the registrar, right? who does that, my hosting company or me?

That depends on whether you control your own domain information or not. As I said in my last post, if your hosting company registers the domain for you, they may control this - otherwise you will contol this.

And is it not a good idea to you the email address I will be getting when i get the hosting account setup? IE say my site will be www.acronym.com, should I not use brian@mail.acronym.com? Because I dont have any other email addresses, aside fomr a yahoo one which I am not too fond of as they keep deleting my mail and bouncing back any emails i sent to friends at university of rochester.
You need to use an email address that works. If you don't, you won't get renewal notices, or transfer requests, etc. It doesn't matter if this is a free email account, or not, but it must work.

-t