One of the biggest gripes we have with hosting companies we resell for are the tricks they play with the nameserver.

Example: Our client has a site called, for example, www.widgets.com and they decide they also want to grab www.widgetsforsale.com but have it go to the same web site as www.widgets.com

One would think that we would be able to just add wigetsforsale.com to our nameserver with the same IP address as wigets.com. The A and MX records resolve to the proper address, and our job is done. HA! If only!

Here's the little scam/trick the hosting company does. They tell you you have a "virtual nameserver" which you can control. But it is a lie. You really have no control whatsoever over your nameserver. Want to add a domain name to "your" nameserver? Forget about it! The only way we'll get www.widgetsforsale.com into "our" nameserver is if we purchase never-to-be-used domain space from the hosting company. In other words RIP OFF.

We've looked high and low for an honest hosting company which gives us total control of "our" nameservers, but there don't seem to be any. So I am assuming that our only solution for this particular problem is going to a third-party DNS provider, since we're not interested in running our own.

What do the readers here recommend?

Thanks.

Well, you could just add a free pointer domain to the record. Some hosts call it parking. So you could "park" the domain widgetsforsale.com to widgets.com.

This is usually a free service.

Well, it sounds to me that you don't actually have a nameserver, rather aliased nameservers. This is similar to pointing a domain to another domain's IP address (often the server isn't even set up with the domain, so there is a limit of what you can actually do).

If you want control, you'd either have to actually run a nameserver or as you said, use a 3rd part provider. Sites like http://mydomain.com and others like it provide this service for free (though you'd have to use mydomain.com's nameserver when you set the domain up - or modify the nameserver records if the domain is already set up).

Sally,

Essentially what Michael said. It's just a matter of pointing the extra domains at the initial account... Not a lot of work (less than 5 minutes actually). You don't have an email address mentioned in your post and I can't advertise here *lol* Contact me if you'd like to discuss it.

Greg Moore