Registering Domain Names With the Right Company is Crucial

Choosing the right company to entrust your domain name registrations is vital. There are literally hundreds of companies offering domain name registration services, but how do you know how reliable they are? How long have they been in business? Do they offer all the extra services?

Will they hold your domain to ransom when you come to transfer away? Can you be in full control of your domain at all times? Is the company just another reseller of a reseller of a reseller?!

With so many domain name registration businesses out there how can you ensure you choose one of the more reputable ones?
Here are a few pointers that should help steer you in the right direction:

1. Check to see how long the company has been operating
The World Wide Web has been around for about 14 years or so now and so web hosting and domain registration businesses only began life about 11 years ago. Nominet, the registry responsible for .uk domains was 12 years old in May 2008, so most Nominet members have only been members for 12 years or less. However, there are only a few of the bigger players who have been around for all that time. So check to see how long the domain name registration business you are considering has been around for.

2. Make sure you can control every aspect of your domain name
Many domain name registration companies don’t let you make changes to your domains yourself. domeinnaam koop You have to enter a request via their support systems and then wait days for assistance. Simple things like changing IPS Tags and changing Name Servers should be possible via your control panel. Make sure you get a control panel and check out what the control panel lets you do.

3. If you want to transfer your domain away will you be charged a fee?
Many domain name registration and hosting companies charge a release fee. This charge is completely unnecessary. You should never be held to ransom over your domain name. Also, every time you change hosts and transfer your domains, on gTLDs you will have to pay a transfer in fee. This can be avoided if you make sure you use a good domain name registration company in the first place. You’ll never need to transfer a domain again!

4. Check to see if you get any email accounts
Most domain name registration services do not include email. If you want email services with your domain name, most companies charge you for email. In most cases you only get email forwarding. Even for straight forward POP3 email accounts some companies only offer 1 or 2 email accounts. You should make sure you get at least 15-20 POP3 email accounts included free of charge with your domain name registration. Most web hosting companies do not offer free POP3 email accounts. The reason for this is they offer domain name registration as an extra service. It’s not the main stay of their business.

5. Are they an ICANN accredited domain name registrar?
You should choose a domain name registration company that is ICANN accredited. Firstly, they have had to go through all the ICANN accreditation checks which is quite an in depth process. Secondly, it’s not cheap! So you know the company is committed to Domain Name Registration as ICANN accreditation is a big investment and this should give you complete reassurance.

6. Can you use their SMTP servers for out going email?
Many hosting and domain name registration providers will not let you use their SMTP servers for sending emails. They assume you can send email via your ISP’s SMTP servers. However, a great many ISP’s and broadband providers will only let you use their SMTP servers on their branded email accounts. But if you use your own email address such as [email protected] you won’t be able to send email via their SMTP servers. There are workarounds but you shouldn’t have to go to the trouble. Choose the right Domain Name Registration provider who does allow sending mail via their SMTP servers. Also watch out, there are a number of the top hosting companies that will only let you use their SMTP servers on premium email accounts which incur an extra charge.

7. Are they a reseller of a reseller of a hosting company?
It makes no sense registering your domains through a reseller of a reseller! This simply adds extra layers in the ordering process that could go wrong. It is always better to register your domains with a Nominet member for .uk domains and an ICANN accredited domain name registrar for gTLDs. One way of finding out more about your domain name registration or web hosting provider is via Netcraft *See below.

By simply entering the URL into Netcraft you can then see lots of useful information such as the Nameserver Organisation, the Netblock owner(the company that is actually hosting your website) and lots of other information.