domain name

[Beautyw]

Hi

See when you set up a website, is that name only available to you? I mean can anyone else choose that name for their business and do you need to buy/register that website name so no one else can? if so where?

thanks

 

[Ruth Mills]

Yes, once you buy a domain name, it becomes exclusive to you - provided that you keep paying to renew it every year or two.

I would recommend 123-reg.co.uk for buying domains, 123-reg | Domain names | Domain name registration - they currently charge £5.98 + VAT for a .co.uk domain name for 2 years, or £9.99 + VAT for a .com domain name for 2 years (as well as offering lots of other types of domain, e.g. org.uk, .me.uk, .org, .net, .info, .biz etc)...

It's not essential to buy any extras, e.g. email (you can forward email to an existing email address of your choice for free with them) or web hosting (unless you specifically want to use their web hosting); it's possible to update "DNS settings" and "nameservers" to point to any web host you like for no extra charge with them too...

 

[Ruth Mills]

Although - if you register mybusiness.co.uk then it doesn't stop someone else from registering my-business.co.uk or mybusiness.com or whatever.

But deliberately registering the name of someone else's business for financial gain is called "cybersquatting" and is severely frowned upon; there have been court cases in recent years where companies have sued people who have bought domains infringing their trademarks...

 

[Beautyw]

can you still do this if the website is already up and running? i have a website through vistaprint.

 

[Ruth Mills]

can you still do this if the website is already up and running? i have a website through vistaprint.

You should be able to... assuming you have a site with Vistaprint but want to point a domain name (e.g. bought via 123-reg) to it... what you would need to do is to check to see who offers the best deal on domain names (are 123-reg or Vistaprint cheaper for registering a .co.uk with?) and also if Vistaprint will allow you to point your own domain name to them (which will likely involve the nameserver or DNS changes that I mentioned previously); they will almost certainly need to do some configuration at their end to get your website to display for your domain though (as most web hosts use something called "virtual hosting" where you can run a multitude of websites from a single IP address)...

 

[kdmb212]

123-reg is probably the best deal around. Microsoft Live Small Business allows you to create a free website which you can then link (through the DNS) to your registered domain. £5.98 for 2 years you can't beat with a stick and a free website? Well, that's just the icing on the cake. Good luck hth xx

 

[persianista]

My web chappie bought a load of domain names that were similar to mine so that it was more difficult for someone else to cyber squat.