Domain Names

[DCrake]

This may seem a silly question but lets say you decide upon a domain name and you register it with whoever, and lets say they provide the ability to create your own website. You then make an amateurish attempt to create a website but find it does not do what you wanted it to do or does not actually provide the functionality you expected. So you decide Ok lets try another web design service or even get in a web designer. How do you go on about moving the domain name from one host to another. Is it simple or infact can it be done?

I used to (and I say used to) have my company website through Microsoft Office Live. Which was ok. Then I had to rebrand my company name due to trademark infringments - its a long story. Anyway MS said register your new domain with Melbourne IT and remove your existing primary doimain name, which I did. It then transpired that because I registed my new domain name whilst still logged in under my office live id which waslinked to my primary domain I now have to wait 90 days before they will release my new domain name which I can then use as my new primary doimain name. Confused How do you think I feel like not be a seasoned web designer. It took me ages to come up with a new company name that had a matching free domain name that did not conflict with IPR or trademarks.

My skills at web designing are in their infancy and may look to having it done professionally.

If anyone can shed light on what I have attempted to describe would be beneficial.

David

 

[Simon_MT]

1) Domain Names

Easyspace provide a good service to manage web sites and you can request an existing site to be managed by easyspace.

2) Reverse DNS

You will need Reverse DNS it you are spending emails from your own computer on the (Static IP) of your broadband service. This is becoming more important for any outbound email attached to your domain name via a POP service.

3) Web Design

You need to understand how stylesheets work as these are the key to web design. Compared to Access where you control layout on the Form, stylesheets set "global" typograhical formats externally to the page.

There are two main web format Transitional and Strict. The later is more
contemporaneous and uses divs rather than tables. There are some good books available on both ccs cascading stylesheets and html or ASP. The later supports VB scripts and allow for a dynamic environment but that may not be required.
Don't use Word to design pages, there are other products like Dreamweaver or Visual Web Developer Express.
Filezilla is a good ftp application free from mozilla.

There are many more issues these are just some of the basics.

Simon

 

[KenHigg]

This may seem a silly question but lets say you decide upon a domain name and you register it with whoever, and lets say they provide the ability to create your own website. You then make an amateurish attempt to create a website but find it does not do what you wanted it to do or does not actually provide the functionality you expected. So you decide Ok lets try another web design service or even get in a web designer. How do you go on about moving the domain name from one host to another. Is it simple or infact can it be done?David

The firm that registered your domain (The one that sends you the bill) should be able to point it to where ever you tell them to. Just email their tech support.

 

[Simon_MT]

That's fine, but with Easyspace you can make this changes yourself.

Simon

 

[KenHigg]

That's fine, but with Easyspace you can make this changes yourself.

Simon

True, some registars do have an online feature to allow that.

 

[wazz]

when i switched hosts/designers they did the paperwork for me. ~ one form. they filled it out, i signed. done. i think you should be able to move (virtually) anywhere, any time. there was a short transitional period but 90 days sounds extreme.

 

[dan-cat]

You can point your domain to whatever hoster you like.

Just alter the DNS nameserver records to whatever your new hosting service specifies.

 

[KenHigg]

Sometimes you don't have access to that level. You can however have it pointed to an intermediate redirect service where you can change it at will...

 

[dan-cat]

Sometimes you don't have access to that level. You can however have it pointed to an intermediate redirect service where you can change it at will...

Sounds like a terrible arrangement. If you own the domain you should have administrative access to it. Companies that don't offer that with their domain registration service are up to no good in my book.

 

[KenHigg]

I suppose they've had things mucked up by newbies & don't want to have to keep fixin things....

 

[Simon_MT]

I agree that empowering domain name owners with the ability to change record information is fraught with danger, I know I have had fun and games but this has been to get the Reverse Zone set-up. The rest was relatively straightfroward.

On the forward zone there are only essentially two records to change and in both cases this is the IP addresss provided by your web hosting service.

I pump my emails to my PC and simply allocated my email addrress and to resolve the Reverse DNS allocated another "A" record with the IP address of my broadband router so that this IP address resolves into my domain.

It bets having to fax or email.

Simon

 

[Atomic Shrimp]

If it's a .uk domain, it might be a bit different to everything else - there's something called an IPS tag that restricts who can update the domain registration details.

I registered a domain a few years ago through an ISP (Square Internet) that promptly went out of business - it was very difficult to get the IPS tag changed to refer to my new ISP, because the normal process involves it being 'released' by the existing agent (and they weren't there any more to do it).

This also made it possible for ISPs to lock in their clients - for example, I got a free .org.uk domain name that came with my dialup internet access (remember dialup?), through freeNetName - part of their business model at the time was to offer these free domain names, with limited hosting features, then charge people to upgrade their hosting package (nothing wrong with that), but also, charge them a significant amount to transfer their domain away.

Not sure if this IPS tag regime is still in place, however.

 

[dan-cat]

This also made it possible for ISPs to lock in their clients - for example, I got a free .org.uk domain name that came with my dialup internet access (remember dialup?), through freeNetName - part of their business model at the time was to offer these free domain names, with limited hosting features, then charge people to upgrade their hosting package (nothing wrong with that), but also, charge them a significant amount to transfer their domain away.

Not sure if this IPS tag regime is still in place, however.

Sounds like David might be subject to this kind of set-up.

All I can advise is to find out whether he does have administrative access. If so, all that's needed is to change the DNS settings as appropriate. If not, look into tranferring the domain to a registrar that does offer administrative access.

These all-in-one packages quickly become troublesome when you want to do something where they don't make any money from it.

 

[Atomic Shrimp]

Sounds like David might be subject to this kind of set-up.

All I can advise is to find out whether he does have administrative access. If so, all that's needed is to change the DNS settings as appropriate. If not, look into tranferring the domain to a registrar that does offer administrative access.

These all-in-one packages quickly become troublesome when you want to do something where they don't make any money from it.

Even with administrative access, the IPS tag on a .uk domain can usually only be changed by the agent - the process for .uk domains is different from all other TLDs.
You can apply to Nominet directly to get it done, but there's an administrative fee and it used to take a while to action it (looks like they've sorted that bit out now - according to this site).

 

[dan-cat]

Sounds like too much red-tape to me. Looks like David is better off listening to the British members on this one.

 

[KenHigg]

Sounds like too much red-tape to me. Looks like David is better off listening to the British members on this one.

Kind-a what I was thinking