Ask HN: Which domain registrars have superb security and service? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Which domain registrars have superb security and service?

5 pointsjdlshore7 comments

Hearing about the recent BitInstant attack[0] has made me wonder about my own choice of DNS host. I've been happy with them for years, but I wonder who people recommend.

I have a dozen or so domains. I'm looking for a host with excellent security and great customer service. I also need:

* Basic value-added web services (specifically, redirecting all HTTP requests from one domain to another)

* User-friendly domain configuration (I'm not a network admin)

* SMTP hosting with a small buffer (50MB is enough; I move my email into local storage frequently)

* Basic value-added email services (automatic forwarding, out-of-office responses)

* Reasonable pricing

Any recommendations?

[0] http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2013/3/4/events-of-friday-bitinstant-back-online.html

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I've spent tens of thousands of dollars on domains (for businesses, not hording), and I use Name.com because they support two-factor authentication:

https://www.name.com/services/namesafe

I can't comment on their customer service because I've never needed it.

I don't use Name.com for email. I've never used a domain registrar for email. I use a family account at FastMail:

https://www.fastmail.fm/signup/family.html

Haven't spend tens of thousands, but I have a similar experience.

I use pairnic.com for registration and dns. I don't know if their customer service is good or bad because I've never needed it, but I suspect it's excellent.

I use fastmail.fm for both SMTP and IMAP. I've never needed their customer service, it just works.

I don't use my gmail account, but I keep it in part for a backup SMTP, although I've seen gmail SMTP go down and I've never seen fastmail go down. I suppose they must have and I just wasn't doing anything active at the time.

The best providers for all those services are different. Your domain registrar is not going to be an expert at managing relationships with e-mail providers on a daily basis, which is what guarantees high deliverability at the good e-mail hosts (does it matter how little space you need if some of your mails end up in spam folders instead of inboxes?). The best e-mail hosts are not domain registrars. The best registrars are not the best DNS hosts; it's a value-add to increase average ticket price during checkout, not their core competency. If you really want it all in one, then you have to be satisfied with mediocrity I think.

If you want excellent security and great service for each of those services, then go to a company where that service is their core competency. Host your DNS with your web host or a company like DNSMadeEasy. Host your mail with Rackspace Mail (formerly MailTrust), where you get a 100% uptime SLA, daily backups and 24/7/365 phone/chat/email support. What registrar you use doesn't matter as much since the service they provide is so fundamentally basic -- updating tiny text records in a database -- there's not much that can go wrong. I use Namecheap because of their history of doing right by customers in the face of legal threats where other registrars turn over information and even domain ownership without a court order.

Actually, I misspoke. I'm looking for IMAP hosting, not SMTP. (Although I obviously will need to send email as well.) Basically, just simple email for single-person use.

Rackspace is where you should look then, cheap and reliable.

I'm gonna chime in and say Marcaria is the worst.

1) The interface is complicated

2) They store the password in cleartext (I've told them how big of a deal that is 5 times now and I've been ignored every time).

3) My friend registered a domain there and didn't get a confirmation email. He was like why is it not working? I said I don't know let me try to register the domain. Next day, I get a confirmation email and he gets an email that the domain he requested is not available (even though he registered it a few hours before me).

Hi,

if you're going for just DNS+excellent service, go for EPAG (epag.net). They're dead cheap and have a fine customer support. Payment via PayPal and credit card, as well as european bank transfer.

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