Staying sane with your own domain

For those unfamiliar with the term, an internet domain name is that part of your email address which follows the ’@’.

For example, a domain names of mydomain.com would be used for email addresses (anything@mydomain.com) and for the web site address (www.mydomain.com).

Many people opening an internet account for the first time will use an email address based on the domain name of the Internet Service Provider (ISP)—for example, longsuffering@aol.com.

The main problem here is that the address is lost if the ISP is changed.

Having worked though a dozen ISPs and web space hosting companies over the last 10 years, I can thoroughly recommend the idea of having your own internet ‘identity’ which stays with you no matter what. 

The advantages of having your own domain name include:

1. It is easier to remember (rather like a personalised car number plate)
    
2. You can change your web space hosting or internet service provider without changing your web site or email address—the domain name itself can also be hosted wherever you wish
    
3. You can have any number of domain-based email addresses
   
   For example, you could have email addresses for every member of the family (bill@mydomain.com, sue@mydomain.com, etc)—mail could be forwarded to each person's personal email account and a 'catch-all' address would be used to capture anything else
   
   The mail for these addresses can also be picked-up directly from POP-3 mailboxes, if provided by the domain name host
   
   I tend to favour the ‘forwarding’ method as mail distribution can be changed (from the domain host web site) at any time without altering the recipient’s email settings—you can also send copies to multiple email addresses

Domain name hosting is cheap though this is another area where there are wide variations in the packages offered by different suppliers.

For example, hosting a .co.uk domain with www.123-reg.co.uk costs just £2.79 (plus VAT) per year which includes unlimited email and web forwarding.

A .com domain with the same provider costs £8.99 (plus VAT) per year.

Comments

[Father Brian]

This is excellent advice.

I started using personalised domain names about 5 years ago and would never now use one linked to an internet service provider.

It used to be very expensive but it's now remarkably cheap for all the advantages.

[Serendipity]

Well written article.