Need new Registrar and Host

[plasma2002]

So Im going to move all my domains away from GoDaddy and put them somewhere else

Anybody got any recommendations on a good registrar? It doesnt need to have hosting, just a domain registrar.

But on the other hand, Im open to suggestions of combo registrar/webhosts if theyre good.


So far, from what Ive seen Dreamhost may be where Im heading. Still looking for suggestions tho.

[PhaseDMA]

Don't follow the crowd leaving GoDaddy? After weighing it, find it silly, reweighing it and wanting to leave I came to the conclusion it was always silly, and typically expensive, and potentially idiotic to switch from GoDaddy because of SOPA.

Here is the thing. You use GoDaddy for a reason. "Everyone else" uses GoDaddy for a reason. That reason hasn't changed.

Beyond that even if you are on the side of the fence that says GoDaddy sucked before SOPA... I'm yet to be told of a better register.

After my experience with Register.com I will never switch because I don't want to deal with a crappy register.

IMO what ever is going to happen in regards to SOPA is going to happen. The battle lines have been drawn. SOPA might win, but it isn't going to be because GoDaddy did or didn't change sides. Not even Microsoft can sway it at this point. Neither can Google - The swaying has been done. Companies (like GoDaddy and Google) may have had a impact, but not any more. The facts have been established. The anger largely has been established.

Bottom line - Don't change registers because of SOPA.

If you want to change registers and this SOPA thing just happens to have been a issue at the same time as you wanting to switch then that's fine. I still would find it strange, but other then to call it strange I would try to pressure you from staying with GoDaddy.

[plasma2002]

The only reason I havent switched from Godaddy is because its going to be an incredible hassle. Sure, the SOPA thing kinda made me sneer at Godaddy a little, but I totally agree that nothing will change anything.

But still... i wanna get my names off the crappy spamtastic godaddy accounts.



That said, how does Bluehost handle multiple domain names? Obviously the one they give you will work with their hosting solutions, but how easy is it to buy more domains, change nameservers, transfer domains, etc, etc?

Bluehost is standing out to me specifically because of cPanel, which is a luxury that seems to be missing of most other hosts anymore. (Which makes me feel old, since it used to be the standard)

[Thermite Man]

1and1 is who i use and I love it there.

[Matt]

I used dreamhost for two or three years. I moved to bluehost because it was cheaper. My conditions in a host were 1) It needed SSH access and 2) I wanted it cheap.

I liked dreamhost because they treated each individual domain as it's own entity. This was a benefit of not using cpanel. For example, if I was hosting my 0x20.org domain as my "main" one and a friend came along and said "hey can you host xyz.com for me?", when I set up their user accounts, everything would be based off the xyz.com in terms of usernames and logins for FTP and such. I was not particularly fond of their control panel at first, but after figuring it out it actually became intuitive. Also their $97 referral program was what brought me and essentially kept me there until I realized paying ~$10/month for what was essentially SSH access (in my opinion at the time) was not worth it when bluehost was half the price.

Now that I'm on bluehost, whenever I want to host a friends domain, everything goes through my main domain (useraccounts are <username>@0x20.org, etc.). But cpanel is "old school" as you said - so there won't be any learning curves. And they offer SSH, so I can just pull up a terminal window, log into the server, and go to a page and edit it real quick. So much easier than first opening filezilla, downloading the file, opening a text editor on my computer, editing it, and reuploading.

In terms of registrars, I actually moved away from godaddy a long time ago. I didn't like their interface for whatever reason. My domains span multiple registrars -- usually I just find one that's giving me a great deal for transferring it and go with it. However, I think I'm migrating toward one (I'm sick of the transferring). My main condition is that it has to include privacy with it, or at least a privacy option. Bluehost does handle domains, with privacy I think I just renewed one for $20 ($10 for the year, $10 for privacy). A bit more than I'd like to pay, but I've now got it more or less centralized. I honestly don't see what the big hoopla is between them. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I consider all domain name registrars about equal and the only thing different is the price of the services.

[PhaseDMA]

User interface is the only difference.

Also this is probably pretty silly, but I want a well known register for my domain.

[plasma2002]

As for a registrar: I had a few people recommend www.Namecheap.com so i checked it out... On their front page, its claimed as lifehacker's reader's choice for registrars. That right there was enough to get me to sign up, haha.

Also, it looks really cheap... like on the level of I dont understand how they make any money on domains at all, lol

I started a domain transfer yesterday, and its almost done now.... so far Im liking their site a lot. Its not crapped up with ads and other unneccesary stuff like godaddy always is.

Its a little too soon for me to recommend it, but like i said, a few people recommended it to me, and so far its pretty nice. Its at least worth checking out if your thinking of moving and stuff.



Now about a host: I didnt end up switching hosts, but just registrars. I dont know how much longer Im going to put this off, lol... but yes, if i had to pick one right now, I think im sold on Bluehost... they have cpanel, ssh access, and the ability to add/install Perl modules, which I need for a certain service on one of my sites.

[Quirk]

My two cents: skip shared hosting entirely. I highly recommend picking up a 512MB VPS from ChunkHost.

Their support is the shit and I haven't had a single issue in the year I've had my server. I would like to think that everyone on this board has enough technical knowledge to set up their own server, it isn't hard at all.

it's common knowledge that I work for a web host, but I won't even use the VPS that we offer. You can take that how you want.

[plasma2002]

I tried their free month a while back... it was pretty nice.
Only problem for me is price. It's double what Im gonna pay for any other service i get, and what it offers, I already have with my home server.... just makes it a little redundant for me.

I dont need a super awesome host... i just need something that works and doesnt cost a lot


If chunkhost lowers their price, I may check into it again, but yeah

[PhaseDMA]

How does namecheap look cheap? They are 1 penny less then GoDaddy for a renewal and 50 cents *more expensive* for a transfer.