I have my own website, with its own domain name. Paid for the domain name registration through my ISP. Now I get a letter from "Domain Name Registation of America". They are telling me that I need to pay them to register my domain when it runs out. Again, I take care of this through my ISP. Seems like a scam to me. My wife works in the IT department of a bank. One of the head IT guys told her to just throw those mailing from them away when they come to the bank, as it is not necessary.
Anyone else get these notices?

~Rob

 

I'll double check with our network administrator, but if I remember correctly Network Solutions has all but monopolized the domain registrations. Our current registration runs out in October of 2007 and we were informed by Microsoft (current host) that Network Solutions will be handling all domain registrations thereafter. It may just be that Microsoft sold their rights to Network Solutions, but like I said I'm not certain.

Someone around here should know for sure!

Oh, I forgot, no I have never received any notice from another domain host.

 

Thanks Nick,
Appreciate the info.

~Rob

 

It is simply a solicitation for you to change over to their service. I work for a small ISP that also does Web Hosting and Domain Name registration. In addition to many of our clients receiving them, we have received 3 or 4 of them as well. You still have the option to keep it with the same people you have set it up with. They are just trying to get more business, but their faxes seem like it is a requirement to keep your domain.

 

What is your domain? Do a WHOIS on it and that will tell you where it was registered. You can also find out when it expires. Try http://www.internic.net/whois.html or tell me and I will past Your ISP is most likely NOT an ICANN registrar and just registered it through a re-seller/wholesaler program.

Times have changed and NetSol doesn't have any monopoly anymore. GoDaddy probably has the most domains. They are cheap ($8.95/year) and pretty easily to deal with IMO. I would renew it through them.

 

I got the same thing for my domain and i agree..its just solicitation to take business away from your current Host. Funny thing is, they offered me a price that was higher than what im currently paying!

 

on the subject of web servers.....im setting up a small one in my house for a website my girlfriend is wanting to get started. for the moment, while im figuring out what the heck im doing, im using dynDNS since static IP DSL is substantially more than regular. Does anyone know of a good, but cheap redirect service or method of aliasing my site. for example, i can register www.mysite.com, and as soon as someone types it in it redirects to www.mysite.dyndns.com? I've been looking but the choices have been either free services (pop-ups) or like $25 a month. The site is too early in life to justify an extra ~40 bucks a month for a static IP......

 

Try www.ixwebhosting.com.
I use their hosting service for several domains. As little as $3.95 a month.

 

Double check your ToS with your provider. Most don't like folks running a server out of their home, and you could loose your service if they find the server running on a residential connection.

 

ZoneEdit is like dyndns but you would not havde the cheesy dyndns redirect, you would have your actual domain there. It is free for personal use.

 

I would 2nd the Godaddy recommendation. I use it to host sites for my customer. They start at under $4/month. They are easy to deal with and have good prices.

Nick

 

EasyDNS.com will allow you to control your own DNS records, and its not bad price-wise

As far as hosting...as fun as it would be to host your own site on your home network...there's a lot of risk involved...particularly properly setting up your network from a security standpoint. If you know what you're doing...then you're fine, otherwise, just pay a few bucks a month and get it hosted with service. I have used Godaddy.com and fatcow.com for several domains I like Fatcow better only because the interface is cleaner, not as cluttered and messy as GoDaddy's.

 

We keep getting called about our work domains from the same people. I know who we're registered with at work and it's NOT Domain blah lbah blah. They'll balk if you ask them any questions, like phone numbers or contact info. I tell them the call is being monitored and they hang up.

As a side note, I haven't gotten any contacts since switching to godaddy's privacy service. They show the public registration to a PO box and phone number they control and I hear nothing.

brandon.

 

thanks everyone. i went ahead and registered with ixwebhosting. ur right, they have some pretty awesome setuips for 5 bucks a month. way better than i could do form my house even if i DID know what i was doing

i appreciate the help