Registering Domain Names

[TheWinterSnow]

I have spent the past few days working on a website and have finished is a few hours ago. I am going to host the HTTP server on my computer so I don't have to worry about hosts, but I still need a Domain name.

Now maybe I am confusing stuff a bit here, but it seems like Domain Registrars are providing servers and webspace AND the domain name. I just want to get a domain name so that my webpage has URLs for every page that is on the server.

Maybe someone can explain to me and give some recommendations of registrars.

Like I said before I will be running Apache as a VM on my computer, I just want the pages of the website to have something better than needing to type in the IP address.

 

[Atheist]

When I needed just domain I used domain.com and it was good. And when you are buying domains and/or hosting, be sure to check retailmenot.com for discount coupons - there are always some.

What's the rationale behind hosting the site yourself? But, if you really can provide a good up time and upload speed, why not.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

I am just being a cheap ass and I like the workflow of having direct control of the hardware, I am an EE/functioning IT guy and my internet is fast so why not? I don't have to worry about google ads to pay for the host and I can still throw ads in there to get some on the side cash. If the traffic becomes to high that cash can pay for a better internet connection. Though my upload/download speeds are overkill for the amount of traffic I will be having for a long time. And the site will be up 24/7.

 

[Sloan]

I've got domain names through godaddy.com and have been generally happy. they do deals often, but they will try to add on hosting, but just don't get it.

 

[TheDriller]

I've had good experiences with namecheap.com .

Also, beware that sites hosted behind a domestic IP may not be indexable by google. And in any case you'll need to either get a static IP from your provider or deal with some sort of dynamic dns setup.

I've hosted a toy site on my home computer before, it can certainly be done but in most cases you'll be better off forking out the few quid for even the cheapest shared hosting service.

Actually, now that I think about it, is your site just static HTML or are you running PHP ? If it's static then you can host it with site44.com (free), with your new domain name and sync the site files to their server through your Dropbox account. It's insanely simple and pain-free if you just want to put up some static content.

 

[StefTD]

check if there are some special sales or stuff, for example strato Germany has a special atm
where you get 3 domains, 2gb webspace, unlimited traffic, 200 subdomains and up to 200
mails with 2gb space each, too.
the whole set costs about 5€ per month normally, but if you order it now, it's free for a year,
you just have to pay the setup that costs 9€ once, you can quit it every month.
It's dirt cheap that way, support is decent and it just works, using it myself and for a few
customers, never had a problem.
There are probably other offers like this, it's way better imho when hosting it yourself, getting
a domain and stuff.

P.S.: if the page is about your loadboxes and stuff, I would hate it to see ads there, set another
page up or whatever for the ads to get some cash, but as soon as I see a semi-professional page
that shows their products I get a bad feel.
It's fine for magazines or forums and stuff, but I would NEVER add ads to my page, it doesn't look
professional and seems like you're a cheapass.

 

[DullElysium]

+1 for namecheap.com

They also have this chat that you can use when you have problems. And they're really helpful there.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Also, beware that sites hosted behind a domestic IP may not be indexable by google. And in any case you'll need to either get a static IP from your provider or deal with some sort of dynamic dns setup.

I have a static IP. The site is live and running, it just doesn't have a domain name as of yet.

 

[guitarguru777]

Do you have the DNS server setup up properly? If so just order a domain from GoDaddy, point it to your DNS server and your site will be live in under an hour.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Do you have the DNS server setup up properly? If so just order a domain from GoDaddy, point it to your DNS server and your site will be live in under an hour.

I was just going to ask how long it took for the nameservers to update the IP address of the server to the domain name. I guess I am waiting awhile then. Might as well do finishing updates to the page while I wait.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

And an hour later and the domain name still doesn't work. What else do I have to do other than set the "A Record" Domain name to the IP address?

EDIT: I see what happened, the webpage worked without the www in front of it, had to add a "www." subdomain that points to the home page. Now I have to wait for that to update.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Well it looks like you can only access the page if you don't type in the "www." part...that is going to cause some issues.

 

[Sloan]

Well it looks like you can only access the page if you don't type in the "www." part...that is going to cause some issues.

I had this problem once when using my domain for some blogger (google) stuff. I don't remember how I figured it out, but it might take a day or two for DNS changes to go in effect(?).

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Nope, still not working. been trying to google how to do it and nothing is coming up. The DNS changes to the IP address only took a few minutes.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

So 24 hours later and I still have an open ticket to tech support...this really fucking sucks. To top it off it has been over 24 hours since I submitted a sitemap to google and it hasn't gone through. Since my domain provider won't give me the actual XML file, I can't manually submit it to google.

So at this point, as the site is live, if you don't know how to correctly type in the URL, you cannot get to the page by searching google.

 

[guitarguru777]

If you cant connect with out the WWW there is a DNS issue. Ihad this problem years ago on one of my own servers. It took over a week for the "new freshly created DNS server" to register in routing tables across the world.

 

[aortizjr]

If it isn't responding to www, it could be a DNS issue depending on how things are setup. Most domain registers just point the domain to a DNS that has to be resolved from there.

But also check your apache configuration. Make sure that the ServerAliases have www in them as well as the primary domain. Depends of course on how that is configured as well.

I definitely get hosting it on your own, I did for years as well. But a few internet outages or even power outages that actually lost me business was a big deal. Plus if you add it up, hosting at home is expensive. You pay for faster upload speeds and the power draw adds up quick.

Power alone is more expensive than what it costs me to host somewhere.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

^^ The result of the www not working was because you actually have to set an A Record by the name of www to the same IP address as the domain name. Weird as www is in the same location as a subdomain but isn't a subdomain. Its all fixed now.

As for Google indexing the site, it finally went through but the sites still haven't been crawled and therefore not showing up in a google search, guess I will just have to wait.l

My overall problem now is just getting traffic because since the product isn't being sold by distributors, if looking for products like the loadbox they won't find the page and unless you have seen the sneap forum or the facebook page, you have no way of knowing of the website or company. Anyone that knows more on the topic feel free to fill me in.

As for my apache settings, they are just default, it is just setting up local IP addressing and port forwarding for incoming requests, and I don't have a default url setup in the code, it just defaults to the domain name.

 

[Steven Otto]

My overall problem now is just getting traffic because since the product isn't being sold by distributors, if looking for products like the loadbox they won't find the page and unless you have seen the sneap forum or the facebook page, you have no way of knowing of the website or company. Anyone that knows more on the topic feel free to fill me in.

Your best bet would be on inbound marketing. Create value for potential customers on your site, so you'll organically gain traffic. Since you a have lot of knowledge about gear, you could write articles about it and educate them.

Seth Godin is your new best friend.
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Permission-Marketing-Turning-Strangers-Customers/dp/0684856360[/ame]

 

[Sloan]

^^ The result of the www not working was because you actually have to set an A Record by the name of www to the same IP address as the domain name. Weird as www is in the same location as a subdomain but isn't a subdomain. Its all fixed now.

As for Google indexing the site, it finally went through but the sites still haven't been crawled and therefore not showing up in a google search, guess I will just have to wait.l

My overall problem now is just getting traffic because since the product isn't being sold by distributors, if looking for products like the loadbox they won't find the page and unless you have seen the sneap forum or the facebook page, you have no way of knowing of the website or company. Anyone that knows more on the topic feel free to fill me in.

As for my apache settings, they are just default, it is just setting up local IP addressing and port forwarding for incoming requests, and I don't have a default url setup in the code, it just defaults to the domain name.

thanks for this post, turns out it's been like a year and i actually still do have that problem, just thought it was working because lots of web browsers automatically stick www. on the url after navigating to the site etc...