How do I buy a domain?

[FanillaFudge]

Been told we need one to set up an email like [[email protected]] for example.

I also want to link that email to my PC's outlook... is that possible?

TIA

www.virtualnames.co.uk

I've had one through UK2.net for about 10 years, haven't had any problems.

They have free email forwarding so you can link your domain name to your outlook.

It's great, I can change email addresses as often as I need (for eg a change of provider) but as far as everyone else is concerned, I've had the same email address for 10 years.

Whoever supplies your broadband will almost certainly be able to arrange this. I use plus.net.

Thank you!

How do I link to outlook? Is it obvious if I have a look at the settings?

You have your normal email account but you set the email address and reply email address as your domain name.

If you chose uk2 you can, from memory, have up to 4 (may be 6) fixed email addresses that you can use. You can have more but it will cost you more. I quite like it as it stops alot of spam coming through.

Snorbs - I also use Plusnet, but would put in a word of caution. They used to push the fact they offered free .co.uk domains and offer free hosting (with some constraints) but if you decide you need to transfer your domain away from them (eg changing ISP) it can cost up to 80 quid +VAT.

Last time I saw a discussion about domains and why they charge so much it was because theirs is a manual system, while they have bought-in other firms (such as Metronet ISP and Just-The-Name) and therefore suggest using Just-The-Name.co.uk as that's an automated service and cheaper as a result.

Lots of different firms, quite a variety of prices, varying degrees of facilities

for .co.uk, .org.uk, .ltd.uk or .me.uk I would recommend one of the big UK firms, such as ukreg.com or 123-reg.co.uk

Most pricing is from 5 to 10 pounds +VAT with a UK firm, for a .uk domain.

Re e-mail, assuming you have an existing mail account (either with ISP, or Hotmail / Live.co.uk / GMail / Yahoo / OperaMail or a paid-for service such as FastMail.net, Runbox.com, MailSnare.com) most offer free mail forwarding, but here are some findings:

uk2.net allows @ domain as a POP mailbox
plus 5 different addresses to be forwarded to that mailbox

virtualnames allows * @ domain up to * @ domain to be forwarded (to an existing mail account)

123-reg appears to offer a single mail address to be forwarded to an existing mail account

ukreg seems to offer forwarding of @ domain to be forwarded to your existing mail account.

I would avoid 1and1.co.uk (show monthly prices, seem to charge some services for full 12 months in advance, and when I used them, seemed to make cancellation a jump through hoops).

For a few pounds a year you could rent some web hosting (which would allow you options of POP mailboxes, mail forwarding, or both [some prefer to download mail using their e-mail software such as Thunderbird / Outlook / etc, others are happy to have e-mail sent into GMail / etc, some like to do both - so online there's a copy of many years of e-mail available anywhere they go via GMail, say, while their home system has a downloaded copy of mail for backup.

If you rent hosting, you can also have a plain (or promotional, or whatever) web page/ web site, where some of these 'buy a domain and get free e-mail, etc' services show a web page but it may be (a) a page saying the domain is reserved for a client, (b) a page promoting the domain firm, or (c) a 'search page' sometimes showing links to rival firms based on the name of the domain.

If you decide to go for a non .uk domain, you can find cheaper deals with firms outside the UK. Compare the prices on Hostway.co.uk (7.95 +VAT pounds for .com .org .net .info) with the US price of $9.95 (closer to 6.50 I think)

UK firms may charge 10 to 15 quid a year, US firms will charge up to $12 per year (and if you transfer to another firm, then you may only pay $9 or less - transfers often cheap to capture market share, and not difficult to transfer every year for regular savings).

.info is being promoted by some domain firms (check prices on mydomain.com name.com and godaddy.com to find prices such as $4 or $2 for the first year)

Wow - thank you for all the info...although I must admit it is like another language! I did say I'm clueless

Gone with virtualnames - had the order confirmed, now what?! Can I 'build' my own website?

Am actuallt lost now - have no idea what I'm doing! Is there some sort of helpline..?!

For free you can use Google hosting and use their e-mail with mail addresses which are using your own domain.

I don't remember the exact link address right now, but Google includes a free website builder tool so it is easy to make a web site of several pages in an hour or two (or less if you find the tools easy!)

FREE .co.uk domains are available for business users on the web site Get British Business Online www.gbbo.co.uk

GBBO provides a .co.uk domain registered by BT, and web hosting using the Google hosting mentioned in previous post. Therefore a small business can be online for free.

After 2 years the only charge would be to renew the domain name (.uk domains expire every 2 years), and it looks as if BT would charge a low fee in the sub-tenner level, but they might review their charges to recover the initial outlay.

Virtualnames recommend Wordpress for building web sites. I haven't used it myself, but there's plenty of info on their web site.

I recommend taking things one step at a time. You mentioned email first. Maybe you should start by setting up email for your new your new domain? Setting up an email address to forward to your existing email would be the simplest possible start.

www.virtualnames.co.uk/emailredirection.php

It's very straightforward, but I can't see a guide for it on the site. To setup forwarding log in to your UKServers Account Manager, click Domains and then Email Settings. Click the "add recipients" button, enter "test" in the "recipient" box and your email address in the "forward to" box. Click the "add recipients" button on this page and it's set up. Now an email to "test" at your domain, e.g. [email protected], should be forwarded to your existing email address. Note that there is a risk that it could end up quarantined in your spam folder.

Once you've done that, the next step could be setting up a mailbox at virtualnames independent of your existing email account or setting up more forwarding addresses, depending on what you think you'll need.

Online help for Virtualnames is here.

OK, so you have registered your domain.

The VirtualNames site explains features included for free

So they give a small amount of webspace which is fine for a few photos and a page or three perhaps.

Do you have a mail account with your ISP or some other service where you can download your e-mail using Outlook ?

If you already have Outlook downloading mail from that service, and sending out mail via your ISP, then you're half way there.

What you'd need to do is find the VirtualNames control panel options for e-mail and get it to forward whatever addresses to your existing e-mail service.

So you could have julie@yourdomain john@yourdomain etc sent on

Then you need to set up Outlook to send your new e-mail address on outgoing mail.

If you currently use an ISP for your incoming mail then I would definitely recommend using a paid-for service so you can switch ISP without any delay if some new deal comes along, and you don't have to mess with settings at VirtualNames to keep your e-mail working while you switch over.

NetworkGuy, I think Plusnet must've have dropped the transfer-out fees unless they've been hosting it for less than a year.

That being said, as much as I used to really like PlusNet I have noticed an increasing similarity between what they offer and what BT as their parent company offers - only the name is different. They've definitely lost their competitive edge. Shame.

Snorbs - with a limit of 250 MB of web traffic a day, ie well under 10 GB a month, PN don't cut it for any moderately busy site... and if you go over the limit for the day, your site gets archived / goes offline, which is disaster for a business...

Thank you so much everyone! (I know I keep saying it, but I would have given up if I were on my own!)

I have mananged to set up email and forward to my outlook email. How do I make my new email the default email on outlook? I got as far as adding a new one but need POP (or something) details....

Also is a domain the same as a website?

Instructions for setting up a mailbox are here.

There's a link at the bottom for how to set up Outlook.

re domain vs website

No, they're not the same - a domain is a bit like a trade mark - where the website might be a product.

The domain name can exist without the website, but the website is usually only visible if the domain exists.

You register the domain name and on a database your details will be recorded as the registrant. You are merely renting use of the name and in some cases a name may be disputed if it could lead to fraud or mislead people.

The domain name entry in the database can have entries called Name Servers and with these, it becomes possible to have settings for web site and e-mail.

Every connection on the internet has to have an internet address.

It is like a phone number and allows for messages to be sent to remote servers and for the replies to get back to your PC.

If you visit
www.123myip.co.uk it will show info from your current connection (when you visit any website, your browser and OS can be found out... confirms I am running Windows and Chrome, so do not be alarmed - browser and screen size often used to display web pages without errors)

You could have e-mail without website or vice versa but most hosting services / deals offer both.

A name server is how your web browser can translate www.mumsnet.com into a number to send a request for a page to MN, and the result comes back as messages to your IP.

www.yourdomain.co.uk and yourdomain.co.uk should both work if you have web hosting. Some different entries in the Name Server database will be used to indicate the IP addresses of the servers accepting e-mail at that domain.

I wrote usually about domain name and website only because it is possible for someone to visit a website just using the IP address.

www.network-tools.com can look up web addresses and a number of other things can be found from a domain name or IP address.

"Also is a domain the same as a website?"

No.

It's a bit like have a phone number forwarded. Someone dials a number (accesses the domain name) and behind the scenes is sent on to the actual phone (redirected to the actual computer) that is meant to deal with the call.

Some companies might offer both services, the forwarding phone number (the domain) and the actual phone (the web site) but the two can easily be dealt with by separate companies.

The advantage is that a web sites real "phone number" might be very complex and not easy to remember so having a nice easy to remember domain forwarding things on makes things simpler. It also means that you can change the web site behind the forwarded domain address without having to change your domain, that's similar to being able to change the phone that a number forwards to without having to change the number and reprint all your business cards.

Okay... I have set up the email following instructions her (thank you cruel)

It looks Okay but won't let me send without 'Windows Security' asking me to confirm username and password, which I do but it won't go further (the window just pops up again)

Thank you for the clarification re domain/website