Hi all,

Even with Stargates's new fees of $13.95/year, I've been wondering what other registars out there offer the following features for the same or less than Stargate:

-One FREE web page
-FREE URL forwarding with masking/cloaking
Internic fees
-1 FREE e-mail account that includes forwarding, aliasing and browser based access.
-DNS Control Panel
-Online registrant/ownership changes

PLUS it's ICANN approved


Another question. Most often, we register domains with a registar and go find a host somewhere else. These registars offer some features for free, i.e. URL fowarding. But at the same time these features won't function if the domain does not have the registar's domain name servers. Is there a way for these features to work when hosting with another company?

Input appreciated.

Jessica

Jessica,

Any eNom reseller that has priced itself at $13.95 or less, and that refers its client to the use of the eNom end-user control panel interface at http://access.enom.com can easily match or beat those features -- with the sole exception of the email feature exactly as you've worded it.

eNom offers email forwarding -- and using a heck of a lot more email forwarding addresses (aliases) than just one. But to get a true POP3 email account through eNom, you must pay an additional fee ($20/year retail, but perhaps less from an eNom reseller). But eNom's POP3 email account does not include outgoing (SMTP) email (for that you use the SMTP that your ISP provides you). And it doesn't (yet) offer a web-based email interface (though that's coming relatively soon).

However, I believe there are eNom resellers that supplement eNom's offering by providing web-based email services, as you describe them. So, from them, you could have your feature list and then some.

Originally posted by Jessicam
Another question. Most often, we register domains with a registar and go find a host somewhere else. These registars offer some features for free, i.e. URL fowarding. But at the same time these features won't function if the domain does not have the registar's domain name servers. Is there a way for these features to work when hosting with another company?

A registrar is able to offer features like URL forwarding only if your domain name utilizes the registrar's DNS servers. The instant you specify in your domain's web-based control panel (provided by your registrar) that your hosting provider's DNS servers will be the DNS servers for your domain, you lose registrar-provided features like URL forwarding. Once you specify your hosting company's DNS servers, whatever features the hosting company offers is all you get.

My domains are registered at eNom -- the best of the bunch, as nearly as I can tell... and, believe me, I've researched it thoroughly. I never, ever use the hosting company's DNS servers. That way, I get maximum use of both my registrar-provided services, and my hosting company-provided services. And features like URL forwarding, framing (cloaking), etc., all continue to work.

When you sign-up for a hosting account, your hosting company should tell you the IP address that is being assigned to your site. Then all you do is go into your eNom control panel and create an (A)ddress record and point your domain at that IP address (both with and without "www"). And that's it. Your domain begins resolving to your web site in minutes. And you remain in control of your domain, never having to email your hosting company with DNS issues. Even subdomains, CNAMES, etc. are controlled by you using your eNom panel.

Why, I often ask myself, would any thinking person hand DNS control over to their hosting company when they can have it themselves via their eNom control panel with no adverse hosting consequences? I cannot tell you how many times I've been reading in my hosting provider's forums and seen message after message after message about something not resolving right or some other kind of DNS problem that can only be fixed by the hosting company's support personnel. It's a ridiculous and unnecessary construct, in my opinion.

Dear Gregg,

Thanks for your reply. It's quite informative! :) I do have some follow-up questions. I hope you don't mind. :)

Originally posted by DesElms
Any eNom reseller that has priced itself at $13.95 or less
I went to the eNom site but it's a bit confusing to me. It looks like they charge $29.95 per .com domain retail price. I guess that they have other prices for resellers, which I couldn't find. I'd like to know: How much they charge per domain for resellers? And how many domains would I have to buy at a minumum?. But then again, I don'k know if this would work for me because I only want to buy about 3 to 5 domains only.

Originally posted by DesElms
When you sign-up for a hosting account, your hosting company should tell you the IP address that is being assigned to your site. Then all you do is go into your eNom control panel and create an (A)ddress record and point your domain at that IP address (both with and without "www"). And that's it.
Very interesting. Does the host company give you an IP address even when you sign up for shared hosting? I currently have registered and host my site with Stargate. But I'm looking for another host. I have reviewed my account and I don't think I was given an IP address. They gave me the DNS server names though. Now, if I were to register with another registar other than eNom, what feature should I be looking for to be able to enter the IP address into their control panels?

Thanks again!

Jessica

Originally posted by Jessicam
But then again, I don'k know if this would work for me because I only want to buy about 3 to 5 domains only.



Seems like stargate.com using DomainXpress for 8.85 for two or more domains would make the most sense for you. Then just change the DNS to your new host.

Not all web hosts provide IP's, especially on lower priced plans. Most use host headers now. IP's are becoming increasingly more difficult to obtain.

Originally posted by Jessicam
I went to the eNom site but it's a bit confusing to me. It looks like they charge $29.95 per .com domain retail price. I guess that they have other prices for resellers, which I couldn't find. I'd like to know: How much they charge per domain for resellers? And how many domains would I have to buy at a minumum?. But then again, I don'k know if this would work for me because I only want to buy about 3 to 5 domains only.

eNom requires that you first sign-up for a retail account at $30/domain, just like anyone else. Then you email their sales dept and ask to become a reseller, giving them your LOG-IN name. They make you a reseller and then, in order to purchase your first domain at reseller pricing, you must deposit a minimum of around $500 into your reseller account. The amount you deposit determines your reseller pricing. A $500 deposit gets you a price of around $10/domain. Any domains you register at $10 per domain are deducted from the balance until it's gone. You may replenish your reseller balance at any time.

Originally posted by Jessicam
Very interesting. Does the host company give you an IP address even when you sign up for shared hosting? I currently have registered and host my site with Stargate. But I'm looking for another host. I have reviewed my account and I don't think I was given an IP address. They gave me the DNS server names though.

The IP addresses of the name servers that you've been given are not the same as the IP address that I was talking about.

When a hosting provider gives you the IP addresses and names of its name servers, it's saying to you, in effect, "Please go wherever your domain name is registered and specify that the name servers that should be associated with your domain name -- that will control its behavior -- will be our name servers. Then we'll take it from there." That sounds like what you're saying your hosting provider has done.

But if you want to use the URL forwarding and other cool DNS-related features that come with your domain registration at registrars like eNom, you must keep eNom's name servers -- and not those of your hosting provider -- as the name servers associated with, and controlling the behavior of, your domain name.

If you do that, then the only way to "point" your domain name at the shared server where your web site is physically located is to know its IP address (or the unique IP address that the hosting provider gives to your web site if, in fact, it did). That IP address -- your web site's IP address -- is different from the IP addresses of your hosting provider's name servers (the IP addresses it sounds like you were given). If you use eNom's name servers, then just forget about the name server names and IP addresses that your hosting provider gave you.

Instead, you need to ask your hosting provider to give you your web site's IP address (not to be confused with your hosting provider's name server IP addresses). This IP address can be either a unique, static, dedicated IP address that your provider gives to just your web site (an unlikely event, these days, given the fact that IP addresses are now becoming scarce), or, it could be that IP address of the main server on which your web site (and all the other web sites which share it) is(are) located.

If it's the former, then nothing more needs to be done except for you to go into your eNom control panel and create an "(A)ddress" record and points your domain name toward that IP address.

If it's the latter, then there's really still nothing more that needs to be done on your part other than to create the "(A)ddress" record in your eNom control panel. However, in addition to that, you'd need to email your hosting provider and make sure he knows what your domain name will be because your hosting provider needs to configure his shared server so that when it receives a request from a browser to view your site, it will route said request to the part of his server where your site actually lives. (Technically, it means he has to create some "VirtualHost" entries in his server's httpd.conf file, but I didn't want to get that technical here.)

NOTE: Rather than doing it via email, as mentioned in the preceding paragraph, some hosting providers have a place in their web-based hosting control panels where you can actually make that VirtualHost entry in his httpd.conf file. The control panel may not actually tell you that that's what happening behind the scenes, but often when you are given a place in a web hosting control panel to specify domain names and sub-domains, that's usually what the control panel is updating: The main server's httpd.conf file's "VirtualHost" entries. But I digress.

If your hosting provider says, "Sorry, we don't do it that way. To host with us, you need to make our name servers the ones associated with your domain name," then you need to decide if you're going to relent and agree to that, or whether you will insist on having eNom's name servers be the name servers that your domain uses to control its behavior. If the hosting company won't back down, then find another hosting company.

SPECIAL NOTE: Hosting companies that refuse to let you host with them unless you use their name servers are usually not trying to be jerks. They do it, among other reasons, so that spammers and fraudsters won't purchase hosting services from them without specifying a domain name -- a common spammer/fraudster tactic. It's part of their line of defense against being ripped off. And you can't blame them for that. But forward-thinking hosting providers will work with you and will allow you to have a hosting account with them and use your eNom name servers to define how your domain will behave. They may still require that you have a registered domain name before they'll turn your account on, and they may verify it first. And, thereafter, they may verifty that you've got your eNom control panel configured so that your domain points toward the IP address that the hosting company gives you (and cancel you if it isn't). But at least they'll let you use eNom's name servers if they're a more progressive and flexible hosting company -- which most are today.

Originally posted by Jessicam
Now, if I were to register with another registar other than eNom, what feature should I be looking for to be able to enter the IP address into their control panels?

All registrars let you enter your hosting company's name servers and their IP addresses so that your hosting company's name servers can then take over and control how your domain behaves. Either they let you enter it into a control panel or they make you send it to them via email. But telling a domain registrar the name servers that should be associated with your domain name, by one means or another, is the most basic function that *all* registrars have.

It's if you want to do *more* than that that the services of domain registrars begin to be different from one another.

If the domain registrar is like eNom and offers the use of its own name servers as part of your registration, then you will be able to go into its control panel and create "(A)ddress" records, and CNAME (alias) records, and MX (mail exchange) records and URL forwarding records, etc., etc., etc.

Many registrars offer services similar to eNom's. Just go visit the web sites of other registrars and you'll see mention of their web-based control panels and they'll list the things you can do on them. Always assume that, at minimum, you can specify any name servers you wish to control the behavior of your domain. But don't always assume, just because a registrar has a web-based control panel, that you can create "(A)ddress" records and CNAME aliases and MX records and URL forwarding, etc. You must look for those things. If they say they can do it on their control panel, then that registrar is, indeed, offering the use of its name servers... just like eNom. But watch out! Double-check to make sure that these control panel features are included in the price of the domain registration. Sometimes there's an extra charge.

eNom provides nearly all of its cool features for free -- as part of the basic domain registration cost. There are a few features that cost extra, and eNom is clear about that on its site. But none of the features that you originally specified -- with the exception of a true POP3 email account -- cost extra. And eNom isn't ready yet with its web-based email capabilities. We don't know how much extra that will cost when it finally becomes available.

eNom is by no means the only game in town. But eNom is, in my opinion, the best game, by far. That may or may not have been true early in eNom's existence as a company. But it's certainly true now -- or so that is my opinion.

Dear Gregg,

Many thanks for your post. I hope it will be of good use for many members here. I have sure learned a few things. I appreciate it very much.

I will keep all the things you've said in mind when choosing a new host and domain registrar.

Now I've got to do my homework and learn more about some of the things you've mentioned.

Your insight and knowledge are very much appreciated!

Best regards,

Jessica :)