Hey, my apologies up front if this is a same-old-tired-question, but I'm just trying to absorb as much info as I can. A lot of the stuff you guys are into zings over my head like a football in a game of keep away. I like to draw, I want to put up a web comic someday. I was trying to get my lazy backside in gear by going ahead and getting some domain names registered (about 6 or 7). So I go to Register.com, I thought I remembered seeing $9.99 somewhere (yeah, you know the punch line). After entering a bulk register and seeing 35 bones per .com, I started a search for “cheap registrations” and questions just started popping up, which is how I found this site.

Glad I ran into this forum, because a couple of the names on my list of possible registrar/hosts were 1and1 and aplus. So my lingering questions are:

1) Ownership: When registering, is there any way to be certain that I am the owner of the domain name? Or is that a non-issue these days. I found a place called “Domain Direct” and they state:

“This account is a great way for you to reserve your domain name for later use. All accounts allow you to have full control of your domain, giving you the ability to manage your DNS, edit your zone file, manage your WHOIS record and much more - all from one location. No other provider gives you this kind of access to your domain name at such a low price.”

($14.99/1yr, $24.99/2yr, $56.25/5yr)

Also they say…

“Domain Control Panel
You have full control of your website and domain name with Domain Direct's Domain Control Panel.”

That's what I want, yes?

2) Domain Parking: That's just a catch-phrase right? I'm not going to have to be concerned that when I want to use the domain, I won't be able to because it's “Parked”, right?

3) Affiliation: Should I be looking for them to have the “ICANN” affiliate logo on their site somewhere to know they're legit?

4) Private Domain Registration: How important is this? Is all this protecting me from is SPAM?

5) One location: If I got multiple names “mac-comic”, “macscomic”, “macthornscomic” could they all point to the same page? Is that a waste/stupid?

Any answers you can give are appreciated, I've already learned a lot from stumbling on to and reading through some of this forum. Feel much more savvy already.


thanks

Welcome

Personally I use www.godaddy.com and www.joker.com - they're something like $10-12 per year and they are all mine, I can move them at will to another registrar, make any changes to the dns, mx, a, etc. records, no questions asked. Service has been excellent. I am sure there is cheaper out there, but I have no need to experiment with my domain names to save $1-2 over the course of a whole year You'd do well with them with no regrets - I've used them for years.

I'm also using godaddy

I dispise GoDaddy, after completley screwing up 3 ssl certificates and not allowing me to configure them properly i moved all of my domains to an eNom based reseller account (you can find free $8.95 enom accounts just about anywhere, if you want one lemme know and i'll give you one under my account).

With enom i get free dns forwarding and a lot better features and i don't have to worry about a thing (other than ensuring money is in my account).