Domain name, NameServer, Hosting - Making your own website - the basics

Domain name

Did u finally buy that domain name you wanted ? The once with your name on it and is to be your personal online presence ? Well, if you have not bought it yet, its time to do that. Or atleast claim the free domains which are available like myname.co.nr , myname.co.tk and myname.co.cc

Of these three free domain services, .co.cc has the best deal - free and no linkback required, complete DNS management including Google Apps support.

.co.tk is full of ads and ridiculous terms or service which you should just throw in their faces - they wll close your account if they do not get 30 visitors over any 3 months period. That sucks. And they p;aster your site with ads and ut it in a frame - all of which is bad for all sites.

And .co.nr is a pretty decent service, with domain redirecting, but a linkback is required, which is not so bad as .tk, and the service is pretty good. Besides, it sounds better than .co.cc

Paid services are aplenty and GoDaddy seems to be one of the best. There are quite a lot more, like NetLynx in India. See the list in ICAAN.org for the list of approved registrars. Resellers are not too abd either if they are known to have reliable support staff.

Nameservers

Now, once you have a domain name, the next thing you need is nameservers.
Most probably you will have DNS management and nameservers which is free with most domain names. Ask your domain registrar or look in their control panel.

But some Domain registrars charge money separately for the nameservers and DNS management like mine did. And even ifyou pay, they keep a maximum limit on the number of subdomains and CNAME records you can add (especially for Google Apps)


It happened to me so I used services like
ZoneEdit or Afraid.org or everyDNS.net or EditDNS.net which are all free and allow (I have to check this) unlimited subdomains and CNAMEs, A names, mail records and so on.

Hosting

Finally you will need a hosting service. If you are looking for a free service, Google Sites is good enough for basic sites.

If you just need a blog, WordPress.com or Blogger.com are the ideal choices.

For a paid hosting service there are lots out there in the market.

My next post will be a review of a site which compares 10 web hosting sites. It is a sponsored review, but I will be posting my honest opinion, so don't woory about bias. It is a good site, except that it is buried in th 4th or 5th page of Google search for web hosting reviews.


So here goes ...