You get what you pay for.

True that's what I tried to point out with my 99% up-time guarantee. That means you're actually down 3.65 days every year. Preposterous, if you put it that way, but that's the harsh truth. If planes would be that safe, noone would dare to fly. You want a bit more than 99%. Preferably like 4 digits, all nines.

Oh, I'm sorry - I thought you meant 'conservative' that way, as in solid, established. Personally, I'd not touch them with a ten-foot stick, after reading that. I hate smarty-pant suppliers.

I was checking something else and idly typed it in to the search for available name... I check every now and then. I was surprised so registered it and just pointed it to an existing site that I have.

Yeah, amazing how many websites actually fit on one IP, with arcane ISP trickery - with a bit of luck you could indeed share one with a few nasties, and then mistakes are easily made...

Actually, domain squatting was legislated many years ago. It is illegal in many countries to do so. If a name was taken, and not used in a timely period, all you had to do was file a complaint with Network Solutions (who own most of the root servers) or your countries regulating body.

IP to name sharing is a necessary evil in the world of IPV4 (the old network protocol). There are not enough IPs in the old system to support a one IP to one Host paradigm. IPV6 has orders of magnitude more, but it is still not fully implemented.

well, consider this,

I charge $60 an hour to work on your website.

My wife gets $90 for her active server programming.

And we are small time cottage industry... so the prices are low... but we come with a 100% rep.

If I have to re-upload your website once... or have to muck around with it on one of those 3.65 days... you're gonna wish you just paid more up front for airtight service.

A couple times a year I rescue sites for desperate clients who have convinced me to work for them.

Obviously this is not the only way to do it... but it makes for good advice.

best regards,
mike

There are not enough IPs in the old system to support a one IP to one Host paradigm

True, but like, planes are slightly overbooked in the knowledge there are always a few no-shows. The internet is many, many times overbooked, and everybody showed up, too. Oh, and ofcourse they all paid.

It's not entirly as if it's all IP4's fault.

My wife does all the data base stuff... but she has a full time job doing it. I mainly do the media, graphix, and .htm stuff but prefer to play guitar :-)



spelling once again

As others have already stated, you can sign up for a host service and many of them will include the cost of domain name registration in with the annual cost of the host service. So basically, to you, it seems like one lump sum that you pay to them at periodic intervals (could be monthly, yearly or more). That's how I eventually chose to do it and I haven't looked back. I think you can check for the availability of a dot com name through whois.com (if I'm wrong about the URL someone please correct me). You just type the name you want and it will tell you if it's already taken. Find one that's not taken and you're golden. It's basically that simple.

Now, having said that, I'm in agreement that finding the perfect host service is worse than getting root canal. Or it can be. I could write a book of horror stories about this subject. I'm sure there are a lot of reputable and good-running services out there. You can try places like http://www.vistainter.com/ if you want to see what kind of feedback the general public is saying about the various services (don't pay much attention to their own "best of" listings - just read what people are saying). They put Midphase at the top and I tell you they were awful. Terrible uptime. Their service was constantly down.

For the record, I am using Pair Networks and they have been fanstastic. I've been using them for a couple of years now and have never ever seen the service down for any reason. To me, no matter how many features they have or how good the pricing is, it means nothing if they can't keep their servers up and running 24/7.

Good luck! Let us know what you end up with and how well it all turns out for you.

PS - btw, if you chose to go a different route than any of our suggestions, then let me suggest that before you make a buy decision, call their tech support number and see how long it takes for someone to answer the phone. Ask a couple of simple questions and see if they respond to your satisfaction. Maybe even test their email tech support and see how long it takes to get a response. The results of this little "test" might help you make a final decision.

PSS - one final comment which may or may not have a bearing on what you're doing. If this is a band situation, do some soul searching and make sure your band is intact for the time being. I have personally seen people go through the hassle of setting up a website dot com address only to have the band disintegrate a little while later. It can be a little troublesome to get a refund on an unused portion of a host service bill and the dot com registration fee might not be refundable at all. If you do anything, start small (maybe just sign up for a year at first) and see how things go before committing to a longer service agreement. MySpace, for all it's quirks and foibles, is not a bad way to go for starters. It's free and you can do a lot of customizing to the page to make it look pro. And I would venture to say that all the majors are watching MySpace closely. If you are doing a lot of business on MySpace, it gets noticed believe me. Cheers!

As rookies, we used Network Solutions for both registration and hosting as we were told by a Webmaster that they were "top shelf" - never had a single problem.

+1 for them.

Well, I typed in the domain name I wanted in IE (as if it was already an up and running site), and it says that the name is currently registered at wowname.com and it doesn't give me the option of buying it with the .com. Is there anyway I can find out how to buy it with the .com? Obviously someone is just holding it for no reason because it's a bizarre name. Makes me so mad!

ORIGINAL: Dave King

Is there anyway I can find out how to buy it with the .com?

You can find out if it is available and perhaps whant the status is on it at networksolutions.com

I think you can also research the owners of domain names by using whois (do a seach on it).

Best,

Thanks so much for the tip - I just went to networksolutions.com and made an offer on the name I want (the offer had to be at least $100, so that's what I offered). So wish me luck - I need it after the day I've had!

Well, I think there's some serious problems - the registrant of my domain name according to whois.com is a place called dynamo.com, and I did a google search on them, and it seems like a fishy place that has caused trouble for others as well. I used Network Solutions Certified Offer Service to try to contact them, and they have but they aren't responding at all (and they have 10 days to respond). I'm sure these are domain squatters. Who do I contact to complain? I had no idea how out of control this cybersquatting is.

ORIGINAL: Spaceduck

Hey Xfusion, I feel your pain man. I've been run thru the ringer once or twice myself.

So let me get this straight, the domain you want is (or was) available but some reseller snagged it and refuses to sell even though you made a legitimate high bid?

Here's one possibility... dynamo may have grabbed the name thru some automated system, and it's not officially in their possession yet. Lots of shady resellers do that trick--they grab domains in bulk without paying for them; then 1 or 2 weeks later when they have to pay, they simply release the name back into the pool. That would be good news for you.

It happened to me once... a company called Snapnames grabbed the domain I wanted. I sent them an email, but I never heard back. Then a week later the domain was available again & I snagged it for $7. Let's hope you get lucky too.

If not, the official "domain police" is a group called ICANN. Here's their contact form:
http://www.icann.org/cgi/contact/

They may not be able to solve the problem, but they can usually get in touch with the other party. Good luck, I hope it eventually works out!

This dynamo.com has to be some sort of domain squatting company because the domain that I want isn't even set up as a site. I have a VERY rare name, and I know that nobody would have a site with that name. In fact, when I type my name (*****.com) in the internet taskbar, it just goes straight to who a (this domain name is already taken) and took me to Network Solutions. I used Network Solutions (I'm not so sure I trust them either) and used their Certified Offer Service for $19 to contact the seller and give them my bid for $100 (because bids have to be at least that). They apparently contacted them, but this dynamo.com hasn't responded. So I don't know what I should do now. The government really should get more involved in this domain squatting nonsense.

Thanks for telling me about the ICANN site - is it free? Should I contact them and tell them what's going on and what all information should I include when I contact them? Thanks for your help!

Thanks for your help Spaceduck. I sent them a complaint letting them know what's going on. Let's hope they can help!