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Comment by ImprovedSilence | Hacker News Reader

Judging from the comments on his website, it sounds like everybody and their grandma hates GoDaddy. I've recently been looking into getting a domain name and starting a website, can anyone point me towards a more reputable site to acquire a domain and host a site? (Yeah, I know, I read HN daily, and I'm still clueless when it comes to actually putting up a website)

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I've used and trust http://nfshost.com/ and http://asmallorange.com/

Big ones like MediaTemple and RackSpace seem good too. I used 101domain for international TLDs, not pretty but everything is going fine.

I can second Nearlyfreespeech. They've been great as my registrar and DNS host for years. I host on http://prgmr.com VPS.

Plus one for Nearlyfreespeech. Their shared hosting is pretty nice as well, except for the fact that they don't have mod_wsgi.

NearlyFreeSpeech is wonderful. I drive people to them whenever I can.

Along with being trustworthy and protective of their customers, their web panel is simple and no BS. I don't know how people put up with other registrars with their upsell-threw-up-all-over-the-page web panels. Even "good" ones like NameCheap are eyesores.

I hope NFS never lets me down, because I talk them up like they walk on water.

I've used Dreamhost for years. They really work for their customers. Over time you accumulate points that you can use to vote for new features (which I just realized, I have never done... so I should have a decent amount by now!)

Dreamhost is definitely fantastic for customer support, but after a recent email exchange, I learned that they don't have a timeline for when they'll upgrade their password system, which does not use one-way hashes. Password reminder emails contain the password in plaintext. If you're reading this thread and are concerned about domain security, I'd suggest looking somewhere other than Dreamhost for the time being.

I just recently found out that dream host stores it's passwords in plaintext! I'll probably be looking to transfer away from this simply for that reason. If you haven't set your panel security to use email confirmation to let new IP addresses log in, I would strongly recommend it.

Wow, that's horrible. I wasn't aware of that. I use them for hosting but I use Google Apps for email. I'm sorry for making a bad recommendation.

namecheap.com is good if you're looking for something cheap (e.g. you've got 50 domains to register).

Gandi.net is great if you don't mind spending $15 per domain.

NameCheap is good.

second that, been using them for the better part of decade, never any problems.

Me too. No issues after many years of namecheap.

Just to throw in a slightly differing opinion: I've been with Namecheap more than five years, and overall I've been very satisfied with them. However, I have had a couple of minor issues. Most recently, when making a minor change their support messed up something with my domain. They were slow to respond to my request that they fix it, and seemed far too confused about what was going on. The domain in question wasn't important to me, but if it had been I'd have been pretty pissed.

Another vote for NameCheap. Have had ~50 domains with them for nearly 5 years now, never a problem.

+1 for NameCheap.

(Not to beat a dead horse, but back when we could see the karma numbers for comments, it was possible to visibly "second" an endorsement comment by upvoting it, instead of posting separate +1 comments like this one ...)

Another vote for NameCheap. And to make this comment more useful...

I especially love how easy it is to transfer domain names between NameCheap users. I had purchased a domain name once with my personal account. Then I created a company and wanted the domain to be officially owned by that entity and not me. So I created another NameCheap account for that company, then transferred it over very easily.

Of course, it's possible other registrars offer such a frictionless transfer process between account holders too. I've only used NameCheap for this and can say I was pleased with the results.

+1 for namecheap

Also loving namecheap thought it sucks that they don't support all extensions, for example I have sampl.es which I cannot transfer from GoDaddy

Same here, although I've only been a customer for two years. Never had any problems with their website either, always fast and responsive.

I recently switched over all of my domains from godaddy to hover.com, and I have been pretty happy with them.

This may not be suitable for everyone, but I've been recommending Blacknight ( http://www.blacknight.com/ , affiliate linkage: http://tracking.blacknight.com/aff_c?offer_id=5&aff_id=6... ) for quite some time.

They're an Irish hosting and domain name provider, and have a great name, a great support team and are a genuinely pleasant company to deal with.

(Disclaimer: I don't work for them, but do know 1 or 2 employees there. Also, I pasted my affilate link above)

edit grammar

I've used Blacknight.com for over 3 years and have found them very responive

Gandi.net

Seconding the recommendation for gandi. They have very strong policies in favor of the domain owner. They also provide nice services such as email hosting for your domain. I use their server hosting as well, which works quite well, though not fast.

Also, they support quite a few good causes (https://www.gandi.net/supports/); they fund Debian's DebConf every year.

One flaw with Gandi's mail feature is that new accounts do not get wildcard accounts (forward all @example.com mail to.one address): you need to register each email address you want individually. Apparently they couldn't handle spam filtering.

Easy enough to move to Google Apps and use their wildcard option.

I'm usually a tight arse but in the case of gandi.net, I have no problem paying a premium so I don't have to put up with all the bullshit that customers of other registrars have to put up with

I use dynadot as a registrar (couple of years). They have been good. Never used them for hosting actual sites though.

I used markmonitor at a previous gig (requirement of a parent company) and they were good, but a bit expensive.

When I researched what domain provider to use this summer I found many good words about EasyDNS. I’ve only used them a half year, but I am really happy so far.

I love EasyDNS for domain hosting. I can't quite bring myself to use the same company for DNS hosting and registration; I've used Dotster as a registrar since the 90's.

You couldn't pay me to use huge, inept outfits like GoDaddy or Dreamhost who compete primarily on price. I have a similar, though evidence-free aversion to companies which put words like "cheap" in their name.

Namecheap is a pretty terrible name, and their site doesn't look great either. Still, the service is solid. Add me (five years, a handful of domains) to the list of satisfied users here.

I have used Dotster for quite a few years also. I have zero complaints with them.

Is there a reason you avoid using the same company for hosting and registration?

One thing to note about EasyDNS is that last I checked, glue updates require human intervention, and IPv6 glue is a good way to confuse the humans on the other side of the support channel. If you don't use glueful delegations, then you probably don't care, but this is the sort of thing that's harder to tell upfront.

Thought I'd mention softsyshosting.com. I've used them for a small IIS website, dataintegrationagent.com. Site setup was easier, and quicker than godaddy.com. They were also quick to answer my questions. I found that it was pretty difficult to find a place to host IIS websites, and I really recommend softsyshosting if your planing on using anything IIS related.

1and1 might not be popular here, but they're pretty cheap ($8.99 for .com), they have sales regularly and they throw in private whois info for free, plus your domain is locked down by default so the sort of thing described in the OP shouldn't happen.

Never had a problem with them in almost 5 years.

I've used them and didn't have a problem until I wanted to transfer to another domain registar. After painfully trying to find the transfer auth code and transferring the domain name, 1and1 continued to bill me for a couple of months. To their credit, they reversed the charges after I called them - but that didn't leave me with a satisfactory experience.

I can understand why a company might want to make it painful to leave their service, but continuing to bill me points to either incompetence (some bugs in their billing system) or a malicious act (doubt it though).

But otherwise, yea, a nice & cheap service.

One problem with 1and1 is that when your domains are about to be autorenewed, you don't get an email notification till the day of. I prefer registrars that give a few weeks heads up on that so I can cancel the autorenew if I want to let the domain expire (even GoDaddy gives advance notice).

Likewise, I've had a good experience with 1and1 for something approaching a decade. My GF and I have a couple dozen domains. Whenever she has a new creative idea, she gets a new domain.

1and1 is a terrible. Please do not listen to individual accounts of 'no problems'. If you do have a problem, you will be in trouble. 1and1 is a giant company that makes money by quantity, not quality. In other words, the majority will have no problem, so let's have millions of customers and screw those that have problems. Again, there's too many other good companies to use such a crappy company.

I've tried a few, have to recommend internetbs.net The website might seem pretty crappy, but they have really good customer support, plus the best API I've found. If you're looking to register domain names programmatically, definitely check them out.

I use dyndns for both the registration and dns serving. They've always been good to me.

Namespro.ca have excellent service and "not bad" prices. Highly recommended.

P.S. And yes, I despise GoDaddy with every molecule of my being.

Hover.com is awesome and they have actual friendly, knowledgable humans that answer the phone.

I've been using Domain Discover and I haven't had any problems.

I have been using NixiHost.com for a few years without issue.

I've never had a problem with Name.com.

name.com has been pretty good for me for the past few months. Very easy to use.

Also: Don't get a .com/.net domain name. You don't want the US government declaring your domain to be evil and taking it off the 'net.

I used name.com for a website once. I used them for my DNS also (because I don't know how to set up a separate DNS) and they parked there own auto-generated crap at everything except the www subdomain. Apparently, if you are savvy enough to set up your own DNS this isn't a problem, but I wouldn't use them because of this.

I think if you set up a wildcard *.mydomain.com rule to forward to your domain, you won't see their stuff.

I'm not quite sure what you mean (though I'm not arguing). I set up my own DNS manually.

Create a rackspace cloud server, grab that IP and use it in an A record on name.com.

If you're using name.com's DNS, then they've basically got a wildcard subdomain that points to a spammy domain-parked page.

So, say you have valid records for .yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com. Those two hosts will resolve as you would expect them, but *.yourdomain.com will resolve to a spam page.

Wow, that's pretty evil. I definitely won't be using name.com (I've been happy with Dreamhost as a registrar for years anyway, but would be interested in trying someone else in the future). Thanks for the heads up.

So, if a user came and visited my site, which was www.zideck.com (It's not there any more), they would see my web page. If they were to visit http://zideck.com they would see auto generated spam garbage that said stuff like "What you need, when you need it." In fact, ANY subdomain would result in link spam trash.

Thanks for the tip on setting up DNS. If I create a rackspace cloud server, I imagine there is something special I have to do to make it a DNS server, right? Does it just work straight out of the box?

Wait, I thought .com/.net (among others) were generic TLDs governed by ICANN? I would assume .us might fall into this warning (as would other country code TLDs), but .com and .net?

What matters is whether or not the operator of the TLD is within US jurisdiction, not the purpose of the TLD.

So, in that case, the FBI could seize any domain as long as the operator is within US jurisdiction?

Yep, pretty much.

Not exactly fair, but that's the current 'system'..

Yes, and be aware the operation of a lot of ccTLD's are outsourced to companies outside the country in question.

I don't know that much about how many are or aren't operated out of the US, but most of the generic TLD's are, and several ccTLD's definitively are too - for example .tv and .cc are operated by Verisign, and .co is operated by Neustar.

Yes.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2451302

Thanks. I still have a question, though: if the FBI can seize these domain names, does that mean they can seize any domain names? I'm a little fuzzy on the control/management scheme here.

As anyone has said elsewhere in this thread, all they are doing is strongarming the administrators of the TLDs that operate primary offices inside the USA to alter the DNS entries for specified domains they feel are being used to break the law, because that is their jurisdiction, and prevent the owner from being able to change it back.

One of the more controversial parts of SOPA is the ability of ICE/Customs to be able to "un-resolve" domain names under other TLDs and country codes. Since the USA does not have jurisdiction over Russia (as an example), there is no current way to block a filesharing or spammer operating with a .ru address without having a partnership with Russia. This aspect of SOPA would allow the USA Government to block all domain name servers from resolving that address properly, by basically poisoning the legitimate DNS entry with one that resolves to some landing page operated by ICE. They won't be able to seize the domain, but they'll make it just as worthless to anyone inside the USA.

You're right. Anything governed by ICANN. And I'm not agreeing or disagreeing about the control issue just pointing out the for example .org .us .info etc. would be in the same boat.

I don't agree with what you are saying but more importantly the same is true for .org .info .us and any tld overseen by ICANN.

On that note, does anyone know what's the case with .eu? Can ICE do the same as they've done with .com/.net?

We use Network Solutions as our registrar for our "valued" domain names, and name.com or godaddy for everything else.

NetSol provides pretty good validation and security options for so-called "VIP" customers, but it's not perfect.

The next step up is paying exorbitant fees to a company like MarkMonitor for domain name management services. This is what the "big boys" tend to do.

Is NetSol still "reserving" any domain name that you search on their site (http://blog.domaintools.com/2008/01/network-solutions-steals...)? I swore I'd never go back there after that practice - and fortunately there are still enough better alternatives that I don't plan on it.

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