If you are going to do almost anything on the Internet, sooner or later you will need domain names and web hosting. O.K. No problem. There are lots of suppliers of domain name registration and web hosting space, right?
Right. But it’s best to use a bit of planning first. Ernest Hemingway once said, “Life is a game. They put you in without telling you the rules, then shoot you when they catch you off base.” No one told me the rules of the domain name and web space game. I had to get “shot” a couple of times and learn them as I went along.
What did I learn? Well, here’s a summary:
1. The sellers who advertise the most, push hardest, are easiest to find, are the most expensive.
2. Never get your domain name and your web hosting from the same place. Keep them separate.
[The reason is that if your web host has problems and their servers go down, you can simply redirect your domain's DNS info and have your site up and running on a different webhost in minutes. But ONLY if your domain is registered elsewhere. When problems come up (as has happened to me on 3 separate occasions, 3 different webhosts) the webhost will be unavailable for contact or unwilling to redirect your domain. With a separate registration service, YOU are in charge. With domain registration and web hosting at one place, that company will be in charge!]
3. Always have more than one webhosting account, each with capacity to handle the rest of your domains.
[Personally, I have 5 web hosting accounts, three of which each has the capacity to host all 60+ of my domains and websites. (2 are small experiments.) If one webhost goes down, I can move my websites there, immediately to another of my web hosting accounts. I can do this without having to ask anyone or open another account. I can do it at 2AM on Sunday morning on a holiday weekend if I need to. That way I am in control and relatively sure of being able to keep my websites up and running.]
4. Always have a recent copy of each of your websites on your hard disk so YOU can restore that site anywhere, anytime. Then backup your HD frequently.
[Either get a portable hard drive to use for backup, make CD's or keep backup copies online. You can get a free personal 2gb of backup space at mozy.com ]
So who would I recommend you deal with? Well, here’s the ones I use:
Registrars:
Both are no-nonsense, low overhead, customer-oriented outfits with good prices, good service.
Webhosting:
Both provide 5-6gb of storage, 30-75gb of bandwidth with unlimited domains and 99.9% uptime, starting at $3.95/month!
Also: India Nets that can start you off with excellent hosting for 1 domain for $1.99 a month or $19.99 per year! 10 domains for $2.99/mo, $29.99/year!
All three provide great support, very good prices and over 99.9% uptime. Again, these are not outfits I have just heard about, they are the ones I use every day and have been using for over a year now. I know from experience that these guys are good, and their prices are at rock-bottom for the quality of service they provide.
Jorge Chavez
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