OT? I Need A New E-mail and Web Site Provider

[Mcgyver]

I got some time to look at this seriously today.

You seem to be saying that I should use separate companies for "domain and web hosting". I think I know that web hosting is the actual creation, storage, and running of a web site. But I may be a bit unsure about "domain". Is that simply the registration and upkeep (pay the yearly fees) for a web domain name? Or are you including other things in that? And then you talk about separating the email service.

So what are you advising should be kept separate? Domain name registration and web hosting or both of those from the email? And if domain name registration should be kept separate from web hosting, could you elaborate a bit more on why.

sure. Three firms, separate domain, web and email service providers. I got there by experience, someone with more IT knowledgeable might have a better idea, but this is rock solid and cheap.

By domain, I mean the domain name register. Who you give a few bucks to register www.myniftydomainname.com. I like it separate from web hosting just for flexibility. Makes it easy to move one or the other. For example, I originally had everything with godday (several business sites and emails as well as domains) but they increased their hosting & email about 2.5 x over a year and bit. Stuff that. So I moved the hosting to hosgator. But let the domains stay at godaddy (you "set" then in godaddy to point at the hostgater server). So now at Godaddy, I'm paying them only as a domain name register, but not for hosting....cancelled all email and website services. This way, if Hostgator gets stupid with their pricing, its fairly easy fire them, get another host, and just change where godaddy points to. Many of these hosting sites give a great deal initially then zing you on renewal....I can zig and zag quickly and avoid the zing

Any hosting service you or I use is going to be on "shared" servers. A dedicated server is say $150/month, don't want that. Here's the problem with email and shared servers. Some spammer signs up for some super cheap deal on say hostgator, and happens to end up on the same server as you. They start spamming. Hostgator will for sure shut them down, but before they managed to, this spamming gets the server blacklisted with some antispam service your customer uses. Of course you don't know this until a customer calls " I sent an RFQ in but your didn't respond?" We can't have that.

So the final part to my internet trilogy is to move the email off the hostager hosting service to an email service. You can't get (or I couldn't figure out how to) rock solid email, like you need for business, on a shared hosting service....but I'm not moving off shared hosting service for web sites because a dedicated server is too expensive. So now, I point, in my hostgator account, the email function at Zoho. There are others that do the same, they just were cheapest for # emails we have. I think gmail lets you do the same (the email addy is still @myniftydomain.com) So far its been bulletproof. Cheap, solid, not too hard to set up and the patient folks at Zoho always completely answer my inane and beginner questions with a cheery smile.

[Paul Alciatore]

There are other nefarious people out there. And they have a variety of motives.

Commies? We're back in the '50s now?

[Jon Heron]

Commies? We're back in the '50s now?

Maybe you are, not me 😂
Jon

[Jim Stewart]

RE: commies at google reading your email, they do.

https://www.hackread.com/google-admits-reading-your-emails/

Jon

Commies? We're back in the '50s now?

[J Tiers]

So use encryption. Let them figure out what you are writing about.

There is public key encryption that allows secure communication to you.

[Jon Heron]

RE: commies at google reading your email, they do.

https://www.hackread.com/google-admits-reading-your-emails/

Jon

[JRouche]

You certainly need to register the domain first but you can move that domain between registration authorities fairly easily. If you are using another party for your hosting you may need to transfer the DNS to your host. Then purchase a hosting package (also create the site or buy one) and then enable mail. Mail will also requires DNS changes. This is why for a beginner I would recommend going with someone like NameCheap that can do all of these functions and has a solution for managing all this from a single web interface. If you don't understand things like Start of Authority (SOA) and MX records you can easily get lost trying to piecemeal a package together. At any point if you want to migrate any portion or all of these services someplace else that can be done.

Over all, I like this setup. (NameCheap).

I did some looking and this company seems to offer the best goods for the cost. And all products are available. Good advice Mike, Thanks. JR

[Paul Alciatore]

Yea, I may also lose my land line number in this changeover. I am switching to AT&T for my ISP and "cable" provider and somehow AT&T, the PHONE folks, may not be able to retain my present phone number when the changeover takes effect. Go figure that one.

[J Tiers]

.....................

So what are you advising should be kept separate? Domain name registration and web hosting or both of those from the email? And if domain name registration should be kept separate from web hosting, could you elaborate a bit more on why.

They are saying do not get the domain name from the same folks that host. They tend to "bundle" that stuff, so that if you want to switch, they may not want to let you do that, and they attach the domain to the site hosting so that you need a separate contract if you want to take the site elsewhere.... but, somehow, "company policy" does not allow separating the site and domain, so you'd have to get a new domain name for that separate contract...... All BS, but that's how they hold folks. Friends have had it done to them.

It's like the cell contracts, where your number is supposed to be portable, but somehow, YOUR specific one is not portable, "so sorry, but that's the way it is".........

[RancherBill]

Have you considered the big companies like Amazon, Google or Microsoft?

I know you have done a website for a while but others can do it better. I looked at amazon pricing and was surprised how low it is. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should be doing it.

What is your highest and best use for your time?

[Jim Stewart]

So what are you advising should be kept separate? Domain name registration and web hosting or both of those from the email? And if domain name registration should be kept separate from web hosting, could you elaborate a bit more on why.

Don't know if they "should" be separate, but it's very common.

My domain registry is with Network Solutions. My web hosting is on my son's server, as is my email. My internet connection is through Sonic. (I also have a second email at gmail. Don't use it much.)

Sonic offers me email (included) but I don't use it. Don't know if they also offer web hosting, haven't checked.

-js

[Paul Alciatore]

I got some time to look at this seriously today.

You seem to be saying that I should use separate companies for "domain and web hosting". I think I know that web hosting is the actual creation, storage, and running of a web site. But I may be a bit unsure about "domain". Is that simply the registration and upkeep (pay the yearly fees) for a web domain name? Or are you including other things in that? And then you talk about separating the email service.

So what are you advising should be kept separate? Domain name registration and web hosting or both of those from the email? And if domain name registration should be kept separate from web hosting, could you elaborate a bit more on why.

Most of us are going to opt for a shared server, based on dollars. The bargain basement ones like godaddy & hostgater work well for domain and web hosting (don't use the same one for each) but shared server email hosting sucks (some spam wanker gets the server blacklisted before the provider can take him down). I've left the domain names and hosting with those sorts and ended up using Zoho for email, their basic package is cheap and there is really great support. A bit futzing about on the forwarding and getting everything pointed correctly, but for me it delivers world class email and pretty good hosting, all for small dollars.

[Ohio Mike]

I'm not totally sure how it all works but I'd buy your website name first to get the site registered. Then find a site hosting outfit to hold onto the pages. That way if you need to migrate the site to some new site hosting outfit you keep the same name. Just need to update the domain address to point to the new hosting outfit's IP numbers.

You certainly need to register the domain first but you can move that domain between registration authorities fairly easily. If you are using another party for your hosting you may need to transfer the DNS to your host. Then purchase a hosting package (also create the site or buy one) and then enable mail. Mail will also requires DNS changes. This is why for a beginner I would recommend going with someone like NameCheap that can do all of these functions and has a solution for managing all this from a single web interface. If you don't understand things like Start of Authority (SOA) and MX records you can easily get lost trying to piecemeal a package together. At any point if you want to migrate any portion or all of these services someplace else that can be done.

[J Tiers]

A simple choice for email is gmail.com...

-js

gmail is a known item, that seems to just work.

The downside is that google probably sells everything you type. As is usual with free services, YOU are the product they sell. I've noticed getting ads for things that have been mentioned in gmail messages. That's not "proof", but it is indicative. And it is not just gmail.

As far as I can see, anything you have ever typed into a mail message, forum response, or search engine, seems to go into a huge dossier on you that is sold to anyone who pays.

[Astronowanabe]

I have been lucky not to need a new email address ever (yet) but have kept the possibility in mind as eventually the sys admins who maintain mine will retire, then who knows ... the one commercial email provider I would switch to without hesitation is https://www.fastmail.com/ I doubt they host websites, I expect most web businesses are pressed to do even one thing well.