Bollocks!! Do not buy a domain from Yahoo.
I just want to make sure that shows up in the description of search results, if there are any. Now a parable…
Many years ago it occured to me that if I didn’t go and buy JohnnyGrubb.com, then I was stupid. I had no idea how to make websites and no need for one whatsoever, but I did know enough to know that if I didn’t buy my own friggin name then someday I might regret it. So, in March 2006, I bought my own name for 5 years. Doesn’t that sound weird? Yahoo gave me a great deal, or so I thought then.
I soon started getting lots of emails exhorting me to host a website with them. Come on, it’s only $15 a month and we’ll help you make the website. It seemed like a good deal (it wasn’t), so I did it- for about 6 months or so. At some point I got a new Wachovia check card and didn’t update my info with Yahoo and they shut me off. Apparently when they shut me off, they also shut off access to my domain. I didn’t find this out until yesterday. I’d kept an eye on it over the years to make sure that some Chinese company hadn’t stolen it from me, and according to the records, I still owned it. Registered with Yahoo. Cool.
So, yesterday, as I was switching this website over to the new host (didn’t even notice, did ya?), I got it into my head to try and point JohnnyGrubb.com over this way also. I’m thinking that perhaps JG will be the more personal website - the one that deals more with music - and that this (ibD) will be the business (that’s presuming there’s business, I know).
This is when I discover that even though I own JG, Yahoo won’t let me in so I can transfer it, or even point it where I want it to go. So now it’s time for a lesson that I learned the hard way over the last few days…
We’ll skip the possibly fraudulent fiasco that is Yahoo Domains for now, and talk about what happens when you buy and host a domain/website. If you’re a musician and you only buy a domain so that nobody else can buy it out from underneath you, it stays parked wherever you bought it. You can then go forward and decide to host a website with the company where it’s registered, or you can wait and maybe host a website somewhere else. If you decide to host somewhere else, then you have to do some configuring. That domain that you bought is parked on a computer somewhere, and what you have to do is tell that computer to resolve any incoming requests made for johnnyGrubb.com, for example, into the proper numerical IP address for the website. That computer is called a “nameserver”, since its job on this earth is to take the english web address and translate it into a numerical IP address. If you want to host the website somewhere else you have to login to your Domain Control Panel, they all have ‘em, and tell that domain to point to your webhosts’ nameserver. This website, for example, is hosted at Media Temple, with a nameserver address of something like ns1.mediatemple.net. I had to login over at GoDaddy and tell them that, since that’s where the domain name is registered. When you come here MediaTemple’s nameserver gets the request and turns it into a number that the rest of their system can understand. It’s kinda complicated at first. That’s why it’s good idea to buy the domain from the same place you’re gonna host it, if you like things to be tidy.
I just found this all out. The hard way.
Since Yahoo wouldn’t let me in to JohnnyGrubb.com’s domain control panel, I couldn’t point my name to my new web host. Bummer. So I had to shell out another 10 is probably better than me spending until 2012 trying to get someone at Yahoo on the line. They don’t even have a customer service email. What kinda shit is that? I even dug up the email welcoming me to Yahoo domains and clicked on the link to my domain control panel, which promptly told me “oh you must have decided to let your overpriced, crappy webhosting service lapse because we can’t let you in there. Sorry chump.”
Long story short. If you’re a casual user buy your domain at GoDaddy. They’re at least reputable enough and I had good experiences with their customer service during my period of hosting over there. DO NOT buy a domain from Yahoo.
Better yet, ask me. I’m getting the hang of this stuff.