I'm ready to buy! All I need is a little help...

[toxostoma]

Hi, I love what I've found so far. Good reviews on other sites, good plan, good price.

In short, I'm ready to become a customer. I just had one major question... It looks like I need to buy my own domain? Right? (The plans don't come with one, do they?)

This leads me to my next question. Do I buy my plan from Dathorn first and then buy the domain? Or the other way around? (Or does the order matter at all?) I ask because if I remember correcting from the domains I'd purchased for others in the past, I had to supply DNS servers.

Finally, any recommendations on who to go with to buy a domain? GoDaddy.com has good prices, some people seem to recommend them...

Thanks for the info. Looking foward to being a customer.

[-Oz-]

Godaddy is excellent, and with them it doesn't matter the order because they will just park it until you're ready with the server.

[Eric]

namecheap.com is another good place for domain name registration. You can edit the nameservers anytime you wish.

Eric

[Frank Hagan]

You do need to buy a domain name first, I think. I seem to remember having to give that to Andrew to set up my account.

GoDaddy is a good registrar, and they are an accredited registrar rather than a reseller. They do try to sell you all sorts of things you don't need, but if you're saavy enough to get past all those options screens, you can't go wrong with them. I've been able to transfer my names out of their system to another registrar's when needed without any problem. Some registrars, especially resellers, throw up all sorts of roadblocks to hold your name captive. So I would recommend them without hesitation.

[Dan]

I didn't supply Andrew with a domain name and that's the way you want it. You don't want your account tied to one domain name as I have had other hosts do.

Go ahead and sign up for the account then register your domain once you've gotten your email and maybe even setup the domain in CPanel.

I use godaddy myself but be very sure not to let it expire because they get pretty harsh if you do.

[Grunfeld]

Easy DNS for bullet proof DNS service and backup e-mail etc... yes they are expensive but worth every penny....

https://www.easydns.com

[Skky]

Your never "tied" to a domain with Dathorn. All domain names on the server are equal... it is your reseller ID/password that give you control of the account, not a domain name (dathorn uses name-based hosting, so it doesn't make a difference what domain you use to enter cpanel, whm, ect.) It also doesn't make any difference whether you register first, or sign up for hosting. However, I would register first so you can provide a domain name for dathorn. I don't see why they would need it though. Perhaps as a last resort means of contacting you.