Need recommendations on a Registrar

[kitchin]

It may be a very limited problem at Gandi, I'd hate to besmirch such a cool-seeming company. I had the problem (twice) with one of my cards, and at least two other people on their forums did too, and said they could not get through to customer service. But my other card worked fine. I just did a Gandi renewal that was fine and used the extra "verified by visa" step.

I soured on Dotster and I think a lot of other FutureQuest people did too, some years ago. It even seemed like they were front-running domain name searches (if you didn't buy a name you found right away, some wholesaler would pick it up mysteriously), but i guess that could have been somewhere else on the network between me and them. Now domain.com owns Dotster and I don't know if that's good or bad. So many other choices.

Network Solutions actually has good customer service these days. You can talk to real person on the phone without waiting. But it costs almost $40/year.

I'm pretty sure Namecheap has zone editing, but you can check.

[alphacomputers]

Hi, you can sign up to be a domain reseller at www.opensrs.com for free. I currently manage 18 domains from here and I've never had a problem. I agree some modules are outdated and incomplete for example WHMCS billing solution, if you ever have problems just google the problem or error code. They even provide you a choice from using their old control panel and new one also included is a online storefront. I'll admit I've never used it. been using api's and my website since I've started using it. Here's managing dns records.
http://www.opensrs.com/docs/domain_m...ne_records.htm

Enom can go piss off with their fee's!!

[artemis]

@alphacomputers - hey - thanks - I've bookmarked OpenSRS. I do see the mention of a-record editing in their bulk domain docs; definitely like that.

On the reselling, <shrugging shoulders> some of our other members might find that appealing but I don't need to be a reseller so I'm not using anyone's billing system. I don't mind being one if there is some extra advantage, like here, I normally recommend FQ and normally end up needing to do support, so it makes sense. Most of the extra domains I manage are my own for a side project that I keep getting on and off the fence on and there are enough of the domains that so I really don't want to be paying $15 or $30/yr if $10 is also an option Plus it's really surprising how much many of my customers appreciate just being tipped to a good registry even though the time we spend talking about it is probably worth more than the $ they save, assuming we both have other billable work to do of course.

Anyhow, do you know who the top level registry is for OpenSRS?

(I don't see them on the internic list and I poked around their site but didn't see that information.)

[artemis]

@kitchin, thanks ! - hmmm... I think I'll add domain.com to my do-not-use-EVER list (along with network solutions

Don't know if it helps anyone, but Network Solutions will price match, at least for nonprofits, if you ask them to. You do have to start off by (nicely) letting them know that you're planning on transferring the domain. At least they used to - I had to do this about a dozen times and each time I renewed the names for the max (9 or 10 years for them) so I haven't had to call them for a couple years.

I stay away from Network Solutions otherwise because, similar to the front-running you mention, it seemed like if you researched a name, you could only register it with them for about a month afterwards - that from other registrars it showed taken. I don't know what they were doing, but they weren't purchsing the domain, they were just "protecting" it for you.

So on Gandi -- I've spent a little more time on their site this am, incl. reading their blog -- I agree that they are kinda cool and I think I would like to help support them ... I orig. learned of them from a client who is a physicist and used to do his own site... we still have one of his names there - he's way smarter than I'll ever be - and maybe better with computers in some ways - plus he's an incredible person who is very cool in my opinion (tends to support businesses that are ethnical, green, people-oriented), so all that rubs off on Gandi and I read their pages with a built-in positive bias ... personally, their prices are too high for me to support them, but I don't try to move domains away from them, like I try to do with network solutions or godaddy and I'd like to offer then as an option for people when I no longer automatically register domains on their behalf with aplus.... so I'm curious - why do you think they are cool?

[Bob]

Originally Posted by artemis

Anyhow, do you know who the top level registry is for OpenSRS?

(I don't see them on the internic list and I poked around their site but didn't see that information.)

Tucows it appears...

http://www.tucowsinc.com/
http://www.tucows.com/

-Bob

[kitchin]

Wow OpenSRS does look good! Cost for .com, $11.02, and they break out how much is going directly to the registry, how much is for OpenSRS ($3) and how much is the small ICANN fee. Gandi is $15.50, so it's not super expensive like Network Solutions ($38) or Register.com ($35). Namecheap is about $11.

Other things to consider, besides annoying interfaces and coolness, greenness, etc.:
1. Reputation at WebHostingTalk or wherever.
2. Is domain record privacy free/cheap if you want that?
3. Zone editing, if you don't want to use your web host for that.
4. Make sure cost includes everything. Namecheap for some reason makes an $0.18 fee an asterisk. That is cheap!

[kitchin]

I like the Gandi no B.S. thing and they are trying some slightly unusual things. And they have an open forum. Make that #5.

5. Open forum.

I look for the open forum in service companies. Pretty much what sold me on FutureQuest, when I saw complaints and reasonable answers. I had just come off two very opaque hosting companies where you never knew if a problem was on your end or theirs.

Off-topic, I also don't like hosting companies that change server stuff without telling you. FQ has never done that.

[Terra]

Thanks Kitchin for the hat tip - we surely do give it our all to provide everyone a well earned level of service and support...

[manfred]

I'm using Joker.com as registrar for many years now without any problems. The pricing is ok.

.com Registration/Renewal [1 year] 13.70 USD
https://joker.com/index.joker?mode=page&page=pricing

When you register as a reseller you could save a lot of money

[Wassercrats]

Are there any foreign registrars that supported SOPA or any registrar in a foreign country that has a law like SOPA? I supported it and I don't like any American registrars because of their stance on SOPA, as opposed to before when I didn't like any registrars for other reasons.