Personal domain

Bob Wild · January 24, 2015, 11:51:50 AM

Thinking about getting a personal domain name. Then I can keep my email address when I change service provider. Anyone got any advice, experience, tips etc.? There seem to be many choices to be made and the experience of others would be most appreciated.

Bob

cjdodd · January 24, 2015, 11:55:37 AM

I have all my hosting on names.co.uk and never had one problem in many many years with them.

You can just get a domain name there and forward all website traffic (if there is any) and emails to where ever you want. Or they also offer email and web hosting too.

Personally I run my own web server and just point all web traffic to that but I pay a little bit extra and get names.co.uk to host my email, that way if I move internet provider my email is always with a 3rd party and not reliant on my ISP.

Malc · January 24, 2015, 12:57:00 PM

I do a similar thing with a local company http://www.lola.ltd.uk

They forward my mail to whichever Mail account I am using. It costs £20 for 2 years. They automatically renew the domain registration and send you an invoice. Very useful, otherwise I would forget to renew it.

Griffo · January 24, 2015, 01:48:06 PM

Likewise, although I've used Extendnet

http://www.extendnet.co.uk/portal/

and their predecessors for at least 15 years.

Steve

Jools · January 24, 2015, 03:05:33 PM

Having worked on a Broadband support desk in the past for a couple of telecom's companies- its surprising the number of people that get caught out by this - then get all shouty when they move their broadband services (to which the email service was attached) to another provider because it is cheaper and a few days/weeks later their email address stops working.

If its purely for personal email use, I'd advise to sign up for a hotmail/outlook.com or Gmail account, these are free for life and though its a sad way to think about it, we are more likely to see world peace than Microsoft or Google go bust.

These also have the benefit of being accessible by the majority of email clients as well as through a website should you find yourself having to use a public PC, with massive ammounts of storage backed up online and are also able to instantly synchronize between multiple devices.

If you work for yourself or are thinking you'd like your own domain for appearances sake - then in addition to the providers already mentioned I'd suggest fasthosts.co.uk as another reputable provider. I will say that in my opinion, "godaddy" should be avoided.

Bob Wild · January 24, 2015, 10:55:53 PM

Thanks cjdodd, Malc, Griffo and Jools. There are a few useful pointers to know start with. At first glance Extendnet seems quite user friendly and worthy of a second look. Bit reluctant to use gmail or Hotmail; those types always seem to bombard you with all sorts of c**p that you don't want. And a fascinating read about Godaddy on Wikipedia (I'm the sort of nerd that reads the Talk tab), and as you suggest Jools, I'll steer clear of them - not my sort of company.

Thanks again, Bob

Bob Wild · January 26, 2015, 10:42:31 PM

Quote from: Arrachogaidh on January 25, 2015, 03:55:26 PM
I have been using www.virtualnames.co.uk for several years.

Thanks Brian. It seems there a quite a few good sources. Just need to choose the one that appeals to me.

Bob

jstormes · February 24, 2015, 05:21:34 PM

The simple solution is a free email service, I have used gmail since it started with no problems.
Hotmail is very easy to hack, last year I had to clean up a hotmail account for one of my website customers which was being used to spam her entire address book.

If you want a particular domain name for your email, register it, and forward all email to a free service, most hosting services offer domain parking which will do this.
I use United hosting and ecoweb for my hosting and domain names, both seem ok.

The only thing to watch is that the hosting service you use will allow you to move your domain name without charging - most will do this, but if the host you choose go pear shaped, you will want to move your domain quickly.
Hope this helps, I used to be the technical manager for an internet service, and now manage and host sites for small businesses.
JStormes

MikeDunn · February 24, 2015, 05:40:49 PM

None of these 'free' services are really free, though.

Sure, you don't hand over cash - but they do scan your emails & build up a profile of you. Read the T&Cs. And it's as bad / worse for the 'free' Office apps they let you use.

Not saying don't use them - just be aware ...

FeelixTC · February 25, 2015, 02:54:37 PM

I have a personal domain and simply use Gmail to host it; easy and free