Buying a Domain Name

[Cougar]

Mrs. Cougar is considering starting a small business and wants a website with her own domain name. I've looked into this a little, and there are lots of places that will sell you a domain name (after checking availability). My question is, once you purchase a domain name, how does that become yours exclusively?

Obviously we'll want some outfit to host the site using that domain name. Here, is it just a password that allows us (and nobody else) to upload the page content?

Obviously, I'm new to this, but I have constructed some rudimentary webpages using html, so I'm not completely clueless.

 

[chazmo]

It should be yours if you've purchased it from an internet naming authority.

But, I've never done it personally. I'll bet @GAD could clarify the process.

 

[schoolie]

I believe you can never buy a domain name outright. Once you stop paying the recurring registration fee, it's up for grabs. Registrars now usually include a web server account where you can upload the content for your website, and email service for the domain.

In the olden days, all they provided was control of the names server records for the domain that would get periodically updated in the TLD servers (The servers authoritative for COM, NET, ORG, etc). You had to set up the DNS, web, and email for the domain.

 

[GAD]

Correct that you only “rent” domain names. It used to be a lot more regimented and Network Solutions.org was the only legit source with all the other companies being scammy. Now Network Solutions.com is the same as .org and they’re what I would call the least scammy, but they’re probably the most expensive. Since I’ve been using them since the .org days they’re all I still use (I have a bunch of domains).

A domain doesn’t require much work. I believe you might be confusing it with the management of a website which can be a lot of work.

Renting a domain tells the registrar to update the Top Level Domain (TLD - .com, .net, etc.) servers to reflect that (for example) gad.net points to my server. Now any time someone goes to gad.net the DNS lookup will return the IP address of my server. What happens on my server is my business - the registrar doesn’t care. What’s important is that a regular person cannot change the TLD mappings - only registrars can. That’s why you pay them for the domain name.

Managing and maintaining a website is a completely different thing. Many registrars will happily offer you a website for a fee. They’re all scammy.

Stay away from Godaddy.

 

[Guildedagain]

Is GuildAnon still available? ;[]

 

[fronobulax]

Is GuildAnon still available? ;[]

Yes.

Several variations.

No endorsement of NameCheap implied.

Namecheap

www.namecheap.com

 

[Cougar]

Renting a domain tells the registrar to update the Top Level Domain (TLD - .com, .net, etc.) servers to reflect that (for example) gad.net points to my server. Now any time someone goes to gad.net the DNS lookup will return the IP address of my server.

Thanks, GAD. I think I'm confusing a server with a host. I figure the host is who houses the website? So when you rent a domain, they provide you with the address of your server, then that can point to your host?

Managing and maintaining a website is a completely different thing. Many registrars will happily offer you a website for a fee. They’re all scammy.

I've actually had a simple personal site for many years -- with just links to a variety of sub-pages with photos, etc. There's a link to LTG. But this simple site (apparently) just uses a section of an existing company's server (?), so my url is of the form https://user.existingcompany.com/~cougar/ So renting my own domain is just an additional step in the process?

 

[jp]

Hey there, cougar --

I think a lot the decision depends on how your wife plans to build her site and what her business will be. Nowadays, there are a lot of options for WYSIWIG sites that provide templates, tools, and plug-ins that will make it easier to do a lot of things, such as

-- quickly and easily design a website using their tools, i.e., templates, typefaces, stock photos, image libraries for your photos,
-- provide e-commerce tools, like the ability to create an e-store and purchase directly on the site,
-- insert widgets with links to social media, email, links, paysites like PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, Apple Pay, Google pay, etc.
-- simultaneously build a graphic user interface (GUI) site for optimized viewing on mobile phones,
-- provide web hosting for the actual site built as well as email services and analytics.

Some of the more popular ones are Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Wordpress, and Shopify. I've built a few sites on Wix, and I like it a lot. Plus, you don't have to learn HTML, Java, Droopal, Ruby on Rails, or any other language.

This makes things much easier to do in one place and will allow your wife to get up and running more quickly. You would first purchase a domain, and then you would register it with your webhost who will host it on their servers. Costs for hosting your own domain roughly costs anywhere from maybe $16-18/month and up, depending on what extras are needed, such as hosting space for the site, bandwidth, email addresses and such.

If she's gonna make things to sell, there's also an option to build an Etsy site, which is much easier as well, with all the necessary e-commerce and product listing stuff built in.

Hope that helps!

 

[Cougar]

Hey there, cougar --

I think a lot the decision depends on how your wife plans to build her site and what her business will be. Nowadays, there are a lot of options for WYSIWIG sites that provide templates, tools, and plug-ins that will make it easier to do a lot of things, such as

-- quickly and easily design a website using their tools, i.e., templates, typefaces, stock photos, image libraries for your photos,
-- provide e-commerce tools, like the ability to create an e-store and purchase directly on the site,
-- insert widgets with links to social media, email, links, paysites like PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, Apple Pay, Google pay, etc.
-- simultaneously build a graphic user interface (GUI) site for optimized viewing on mobile phones,
-- provide web hosting for the actual site built as well as email services and analytics.

Some of the more popular ones are Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Wordpress, and Shopify. I've built a few sites on Wix, and I like it a lot. Plus, you don't have to learn HTML, Java, Droopal, Ruby on Rails, or any other language.

This makes things much easier to do in one place and will allow your wife to get up and running more quickly. You would first purchase a domain, and then you would register it with your webhost who will host it on their servers. Costs for hosting your own domain roughly costs anywhere from maybe $16-18/month and up, depending on what extras are needed, such as hosting space for the site, bandwidth, email addresses and such.

If she's gonna make things to sell, there's also an option to build an Etsy site, which is much easier as well, with all the necessary e-commerce and product listing stuff built in.

Hope that helps!

Yes, thanks, jp! There won't be any selling -- she's a structural engineer and basically it's a site that says "You need this service? Here's how you contact." Looks like we'll be using the company that we've been using for years for email and, as I mentioned, who hosts my personal website (using their domain name). A Wordpress toolkit comes with their $15 hosting, so should be pretty easy. Apparently, that makes the site "compatible" or "viewable" for the (increasing number of) mobile phone users, which my knowledge of html wouldn't know how to do. The bolded above pretty well answers my question about how the domain --> webhost works. Thanks!

 

[AcornHouse]

I got mine (acornhouseworkshop.com) through WordPress, where I started my site and who hosts it. Less than $20 a year to keep it registered to me.

 

[GAD]

Thanks, GAD. I think I'm confusing a server with a host. I figure the host is who houses the website? So when you rent a domain, they provide you with the address of your server, then that can point to your host?

I've actually had a simple personal site for many years -- with just links to a variety of sub-pages with photos, etc. There's a link to LTG. But this simple site (apparently) just uses a section of an existing company's server (?), so my url is of the form https://user.existingcompany.com/~cougar/ So renting my own domain is just an additional step in the process?

The domain is existingcompany.com

user.existingcompany.com is a server in existingcompany.com's domain.

existingcompany.com/~cougar is a username on the system user. Specifically, it is a directory on the server that is within your pervue and (by default) is referenced as your username. The webserver knows to look at a certain directory in your home directory when website requests for your user are made.

FWIW this is a very old-school way of doing things that's a holdover from the days of mom-and-pop ISPs where they would have one user server and each user would have a URL like yours because no one had the faintest clue about domain names.

Honestly, if you just need a simple website I'd recommend Wix or Wordpress. My Guild reviews are all on a Wordpress site. To make things even more interesting:

gad.net and letstalkguild.com are both webservers on the same server.
gadsguilds.com is a domain that points to the same server as the other two, but I have special rules in place that redirect any requests to gadsguilds.com to a static page on gad.net.

With computers, all things are possible.

 

[GAD]

I should also add that there are technical differences between many of the registrars. Since most people don't know or care about any of the technical aspects of how it works some of the registrars will keep themselves as the "technical contact" for the domain which means they can change, steal, or sell your domain at any time even though they probably won't. I've read some horror stories of domain shenanigans over the years. Usually the less you pay the more likely it is they're playing games like this, but the simple truth is that most people buying domains wouldn't know the first thing about how to act as a technical contact for a domain so it doesn't really matter unless you're a deep-in-the-weeds super-nerd like me.