Choosing a registrar
| The selection of a registrar is nearly as important as the selection of a host. As with a host, you can't shop by price and promises alone. You can pay a lot (up to $35 a year) and get poor service, and you can pay very little and get poor service. Network Solutions (NSI), was the only registrar for years and probably still has the bulk of the registrations, at least more than any single registrar. Many people have reported difficulties in changing to a new host when the e-mail address of the admin contact was no longer available. This is because the most common way of verification for requested changes is by verifying the e-mail address of the sender. This could have been avoided if the domain holder had selected one of the other 2 verification methods, password or PGP encryption. However, many did not and have difficulties effecting change. The faxing of documents as an alternative is fraught with delay and problems of its own. Some of the newer registrars are even worse, even if cheaper. Alldns.com, as an example, was totally unprepared for handling an important activity like domain registrations. Submissions were made to them and neither an error message nor acknowledgment was received. You could lose domain names waiting to find out what happened if someone registered them first. Furthermore, they have a departure fee of $20 (if you transfer to another registrar) that is not disclosed when you register with them. Their registration fee of $12.75 seems overpriced for the poor service they give. That is what makes registrars like Open SRS so attractive. They have many RSPs (essentially, sales agents) that all tie in to their online Domain Manager. When you register through any of their RSPs, you are really opening an account with Open SRS (owned by TUCOWS) and can access Domain Manager from any RSP's site, or directly at Open SRS, You can register a domain and not even have a host selected yet. They park the domain on their servers by default (provide the server technical information). You can log in at any time and change any information, from the registrant to the contacts and server host information. If you change the registrant (say you incorporate), many registrars will charge you to do so. With an Open SRS registration, you can change even that at no additional cost. Furthermore, any changes you make can be acknowledged instantly while you are online. There is no more waiting and wondering if it will go through. The Open SRS RSP we use and recommend is 000domains.com. The service is excellent (fast response to e-mails - under 30 minutes when we contacted them), and, at $13.50, the price is right. There are other registrars that charge less, and some have 1 year low prices to entice you to sign up for them. Just be sure you know what you are getting into (and what you're not getting) when you sign up with any registrar. | |
| Choosing a registrar can be found in the following categories: Domain Names |