Another techy question for you brainboxes

[bobleponge]

Looking forward to my career change, which will hopefully be sooner rather than later, I'm starting to do some homework now.
One thing I've thought to be useful would be a (I think its called) a domain name.

For example, my email address could be bob@rubbishgardener.com

I think the @rubbishgardener.com is the domain name, but how do I go about getting one/finding one, how much do they cost, are there annual fees etc etc?

All help, as always huuuuuuugely appreciated.

[zazen999]

Ooh - and can I add to that some advice on the best place to get a website and how much it costs and how easy it is to amend it....cheers

[binley100]

oi Bob d'ya need a gardener?

[bobleponge]

I dont Bins, but I've heard someone a bit further south is looking for one??????

[binley100]

I was thinking more of a short term contract (ie coupla weeks) I have two lotties a garden and a centenary garden to manage y'know

[lizzylemon]

Hey Mr Bob, there are lot of domain name companies out there. Do an engine search for 'domain names' and there will be stacks. One that I use is 123.reg You choose the name you want for your web site www.boblesponge.co.uk or www.bobrubbishgardner.com and enter it into the search facility on their web site and they will bring up the choices they have.

It probably give you a list all starting with www.boblespong but they all end with different web surfixes like .com .co.uk .org .biz and then tell you how much they cost to buy for a year, 2 years etc. You pay them for the 'subscription' and then get a reminder to re-new the domain in the appropriate time, i.e a year later, 2 years etc

I'm not totally sure what the surfixes mean but I think they kind of tell people what type of business you are or at least thats what i think in my world. so for instance .com in my world .com is short for COMpany and the easiest for everyone to remember, so tend to be the most expensive web names and used by big companies. More examples are: .co.uk = .COmpany.uk / .org = charity based ORGanisation .ac = education.

What you have to remember is the web address is just that, an address. Unless you buy web hosting, it doesn't go any where so your next step is to buy a hosting package which is web space to hold your web pages. You can choose a package which gives you emails too. (I brought a home package for 2 years @45 quid, which gives me 10 pages and x-amount of email addresses, and x amount of download time from a company called Welcome to Streamline but there are so many and probably better packages)

Once you have your address and hosting package, you transfer the domain name over to the web hosting company (costs about 10 quid and takes a couple of days at the most) you will then have your email address surfix which matches your web address i.e bob@boblesponge.co.fr

This is a very basic explanation and I'm sure some one will expand or correct me, especially about the web address surfixes.
Hope that helps, Lx

[smallblueplanet]

I got some good priced domain names at Heart Internet

Domain names, domain hosting - register domains - Heart Internet

maybe not the cheapest but they've been reliable & straightforward.

I used nethosted for my website hosting, again not because they're cheapest (although they're not bad) but because they have great customer support. The Basic package has the database software needed to run WordPress and it has automatic setup software to use. That last means you can set up a WordPress blog hosted on your own website ie bobleponge.com/blog rather than wordpress.bobleponge/blog (or whatever it is).

Shared UK Web Hosting cPanel Linux MySQL 5.1 PHP 5 PostgreSQL 8.4

That's my tuppence worth...

[Glutton4...]

I love you lot - you've just saved me trawling t'internet for hoooooouuuurs!

[Chef_uk]

123 for me. Hosted with hostgator and linkwebhosting in the past.

you shouldn't have to pay to transfer the domain though. It comes with the hosting package as an option to add on a new domain using the "Nameservers" and sometimes the DNS servers.

[bobleponge]

Thanks for the replies, I nearly even understood some of it.
Just need to find a 14 year old who hasnt yet lost the power of speech to translate it to me into words that mean something to an elderly luddite.
Had a look at all the mentioned sites, and its all just far too complex for a bear of very little brain, but at least I know now where to look. Ta

[chris]

You should see where the chap who runs 123 lives, and what he drives

Me? I use enom.com as I've an account via a provider from a previous stint at running a business that gives good discounts. For UK domains, I tend to use ukreg.com as enom are stupidly expensive for a UK second level domain (.xxx.uk).

They're all pretty much the same though in all honesty. Some providers offer a better control panels for administrating your domain.

[lizzylemon]

Mr Bob, PM me with the bits you don't understand and I'll try to translate it a bit more if you like. If you ask something I dont know the answer to, we can ask CM and then he can explain to me and I'll pass it back to you, translated of course

[chris]

That wasn't that bad was it!

Edit: maybe the second level part is a bit ott.. sooo here goes:

a top level domain (tld): .org, .com, .net, .eu etc...

a second level domain (sld): .uk.org, .uk.com, .net.uk, .co.uk etc!

If you're after a cheap and reliable host with a decent set of features, bobleponge.. I'd recommend going with tsohost.co.uk - they're cheap, include a domain name and are stable hosts.

[Paul Sill]

I use one.com never had any issues in the 2 years i have been with them.

[Hilary B]

If you'd asked during Vinstock OH would have sorted it for you! I don't understand it at all, but he's done a handful of websites that we use, so he knows enough to make it go!