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jester121
Premium Member
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL

jester121 to billycar

Premium Member

to billycar

Re: Domain Name Purchase

said by billycar:

Who is the direct source for such a thing? My ISP since I will be hosting my website through "their" web space? ... or is there someone else who sells the names and such?

Looks like everyone is willing to check on its availability and is offering to register it for me ... for a yearly fee.

Seems like I'm entering into some kind of racket trap ...

There is no "direct" sales for .COM domains, ICANN has authorized resellers that handle it. There are a zillion hosting companies that sell them, pick one with price and features you like. Since they only make a few pennies on the registration, of course they try to up-sell you with extras like hosting, e-mail, etc.
billycar
join:2006-09-29
Lynchburg, VA

billycar

Member

so what is www.name.com ? referred to by who.is?

jester121
Premium Member
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL

jester121

Premium Member

That question does not compute.
billycar
join:2006-09-29
Lynchburg, VA

billycar

Member

www.name.com seemed to be a direct seller, but I guess not.

who.is made the referral, and I thought they were somewhat not motivated by monetary income.

I'll continue to shop around.

jester121
Premium Member
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL

jester121

Premium Member

The registration fee is how it works, no matter whom you choose to do business with. You can probably find somewhere to pre-pay for 20 years so it won't feel like an annual fee, but it still is. Microsoft does it, IBM, and everyone else.
billycar
join:2006-09-29
Lynchburg, VA

billycar

Member

I guess what I am asking, perhaps again, who is the Registrar? Each Hosting Company (GoDaddy.com, Name.com, etc) goes to the Registrar, with my (or a) Fee, and Registers my domain name. I don't have access to the Registrar?

Just trying to understand the process a bit more.
billycar

billycar to jester121

Member

to jester121
Sentinel
Premium Member
join:2001-02-07
Florida

1 recommendation

Sentinel to billycar

Premium Member

to billycar
The terms are being thrown around here a little loosely so let me repeat what I said above and hopefully it will make more sense this time.

HOSTING companies do not register domain names. REGISTRARS do. If you want to buy (register) a domain name such as www.yourdomain.com then what you do is first go to a REGISTRAR that is authorized to do so by the internet authority; such as GoDaddy or similar.

After registering your domain with a registrar then you go to a hosting company and buy some hosting ... if you want to. You can theoretically host it yourself on your own PC but I have done that and it is a pain and far beyond the capabilities or hassle level of the average user.
The hosting is where that actual website files will reside and be served up to any visitors that visit your domain.

The reason that this can be confusing is that often times registrars also sell hosting and hosting companies can be authorized registrars too. But these are two separate things. You can have one company as your registrar and another as your hosting.

Think of it like a car. You have license plates and the car itself. The dealer can get your plates for you but that does not make him DMV. And you can buy a car from the state (like at an auction) but that does not preclude you from going to DMV and getting plates. And in order to drive your car on the street you need BOTH a car AND plates.

jester121
Premium Member
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL

jester121

Premium Member

All good info from Sentinel, and I like the analogy.