what company should I use to register a domain name

[Jeff16years]

I have never registered a domain name. Are they all the same? thanks gear sluts
-jeff

[NathanEldred]

Networksolutions.com is good.

[Jeff16years]

Thanks Nathan

[Meriphew]

godaddy.com

[idrinkalot]

if you register it with godaddy there is one guarantee: nobody but godaddy will own that domain-- FOREVER.
i registered a domain with them in 2002. renewed it in 2003. come 2004 my card had expired, and i forgot my password, and the website i had my e-mail address hosted at in 2002 had shut down. i called godaddy (long distance), and they said they couldn't do anything for me unless i gave them my credit card number that i registered with. i couldn't do that, so i waited until it expired. they automatically registered it for another year, so i called to ask if i could get it back. they said they would sell it to me for $20 plus an $80 registration fee. so i decided to wait it out until 2005. 2005 comes around, and a pseudo company that godaddy owns (one of about 30) now registers the domain and puts up one of those search portals full of ads. these sites are everywhere on the net, and i suppose the 10 cents they make a week on ad exposure pays the bills to re-register the domain indefinitely.
sometime last year i noticed a link saying "for domain offers, e-mail here", which sent me back a form letter saying i could buy it from them for $1500.

edit: obviously if the domain had any value i would have paid the $100, but this was just a non for profit organizations website (a .org, not a .com) and i wanted to keep up a notice explaining we had closed up shop. i wonder if theres anything against using a .org extension to fill with ads, since they're technically supposed to be non profit...

[DSD_Mastering]

I'd recommend either Network Solutions as well, or Blue Host.

Regards,
Bruce

[pramrod]

i have always used network solutions, but had a mildly disturbing experience recently. i went to register a domain of a new band of mine- suffice it to say that the spelling of the name of the band is uncommon and features z's instead of s's, etc. so not at all a common domain name. i went to network solutions to see if the .com domain was available, it was, i then went to my other computer (where i had my network solutions password stored in my passwords) and the domain was gone! the .net was available- then there's some bs about making an offer which must be above $100 to the douschemaster who stole it out from under me. now a month later, it is available again. so just beware- of what, i'm not sure, but it smelled fishy to me... enjoy pram p.s. still have all my domains with network solutions and didn't pay those botdousches and got the domain i wanted in the first place...

[narcoman]

Originally Posted by idrinkalot

if you register it with godaddy there is one guarantee: nobody but godaddy will own that domain-- FOREVER.
i registered a domain with them in 2002. renewed it in 2003. come 2004 my card had expired, and i forgot my password, and the website i had my e-mail address hosted at in 2002 had shut down. i called godaddy (long distance), and they said they couldn't do anything for me unless i gave them my credit card number that i registered with. i couldn't do that, so i waited until it expired. they automatically registered it for another year, so i called to ask if i could get it back. they said they would sell it to me for $20 plus an $80 registration fee. so i decided to wait it out until 2005. 2005 comes around, and a pseudo company that godaddy owns (one of about 30) now registers the domain and puts up one of those search portals full of ads. these sites are everywhere on the net, and i suppose the 10 cents they make a week on ad exposure pays the bills to re-register the domain indefinitely.
sometime last year i noticed a link saying "for domain offers, e-mail here", which sent me back a form letter saying i could buy it from them for $1500.

edit: obviously if the domain had any value i would have paid the $100, but this was just a non for profit organizations website (a .org, not a .com) and i wanted to keep up a notice explaining we had closed up shop. i wonder if theres anything against using a .org extension to fill with ads, since they're technically supposed to be non profit...

Websitting (or cybersquatting) is illegal, you should very easily be able to sort it out through the UDRP process. Ive done it a few times for variants on my company name - .tv .net and .org extensions and "adding an 's" - you also get a compensation which the squatter has to pay - i think its around $100 per month! The good news is - even if they're are in a none extradition territory if you can show prior use and lawful trading they'll get the domain stripped from them.

It comes under identity theft and carries a prison term for repeat offenders and a $100,000 fine per instance..... tell your $1500 bloke this !

[Bryan Talbot]

I strongly recommend that you look into OLM. I've been with them since '02, and have zero complaints. They bought NameRegistrars, so domain name registration is under the same roof.

I think that GoDaddy and Network Solutions have changed their ways, but I had real problems with both companies in the past.

OLM is A+.

[Jeff16years]

i went with network solutions.
thanks guys

[dingo]

Some interesting info on Netsol:

http://www.domainnamenews.com/featur...-underway/1450

[T_R_S]

Register.com cost me $150.00 for 10 years

[octatonic]

I register and host with Dreamhost.

They have an amazing amount of storage that accrues over time- I have around 300GB of storage with them and use it for secure session backups that never get deleted.

Awesome stuff.

[oudplayer]

Godaddy is cheap - I haven't had any issues with them except for annoying email newsletters that I seemingly can't unsubscribe from. I avoid the worries about renewing and stuff by registering for 5 or 10 year blocks. Private registration works out to about $15 a year, which is a great deal.

I had a lot of problems with network solutions in the past.

[narcoman]

Originally Posted by oudplayer

Godaddy is cheap - I haven't had any issues with them except for annoying email newsletters that I seemingly can't unsubscribe from. I avoid the worries about renewing and stuff by registering for 5 or 10 year blocks. Private registration works out to about $15 a year, which is a great deal.

I had a lot of problems with network solutions in the past.

learning the Oud right now !! Just thought i'd say - fab instrument.