Domain & web hosting with 2 different companies

Debthree

I have a domain name registered with a company for a while now. I haven't done anything with it or built a site yet. It's all very confusing to me I'm afraid! Well, I finally opened an a/c with a different company for web hosting (because it looked more user friendly and seems to have better support).

So am I right in thinking that I can't publish a website until I transfer my domain name for company 1 to company 2? If I build the site now can I later point the domain name to it?

I'm really confused (as you can probably tell!). I'm finding my way around the web hosting control panel and figured out how to download Wordpress (because having thought about it I definitely want to build my site using WP). So the download was successful but I cannot log in. The link I was sent to log into admin doesn't work. Presumably because my domain name is still registered elsewhere? Is that it?

I feel like giving up. I've worked in print design for over 20 years and am only now seriously coming into the area of web design (for my own site) and I'm already lost.

seamus

You don't need to transfer your domain from company 1 to company 2.

What you need to do is find out the nameservers which company 2 use.

Then in your control panel for your domain in company 1, change the nameservers to match company 2's nameservers.

If you've set the website up like I think you have then this should be enough, though it can take a day or more for your wordpress site to appear under your domain name.

If you get lost, give company 2 a ring and they can explain what you need to do.

Debthree

Thanks a million Seamus. I'll try that.

Trojan

I generally advise people to keep domain registration and hosting separate as I think it's better practice - it makes it easier to move hosts in future.

Some hosting companies who sell domains don't agree with me

mneylon

Trojan wrote: »

I generally advise people to keep domain registration and hosting separate as I think it's better practice - it makes it easier to move hosts in future.

Some hosting companies who sell domains don't agree with me

Of course we don't agree with you, as the advice isn't sound - it's bad advice

Splitting the domain and hosting billing causes more headaches than it solves

It might be sound advice if the companies selling domains were only resellers of resellers etc etc, but we're not and we are bound by ICANN contract and policy.

Trojan

Blacknight wrote: »

Of course we don't agree with you, as the advice isn't sound - it's bad advice

Splitting the domain and hosting billing causes more headaches than it solves

I completely and utterly disagree with you on both points.

mneylon

Trojan wrote: »

I completely and utterly disagree with you on both points.

Why?

On what basis?

Your advice is only valid if the companies you're dealing with are likely to cause issues.
If they're "good actors" then that's not going to happen

In fact we've seen more issues with the split billing that anything else, as a lot of people overlook the fact that they're paying two companies for what they see as essentially one thing

Trojan

I'll take the time to write up a decent reply

jmcc

This should be interesting. It might be easier for a user on shared hosting with less than seven domains to maintain registration and hosting with one hoster. As Blacknight pointed out, the ICANN provisions are fairly strong and they tend to work in the registrant's favour if there are problems. However most hosters are resellers of various larger hosters. However when dealing with some ISPs maintaining some level of separation can be good.

Where I've seen problems is when some student web developer registers a domain for a customer and then goes off on a gap year or disappears about a year later when it comes time to renew the domains (but that's probably drifting a bit off topic).

At the higher domain count level >= 100 domains, people may be dealing with dedicated hosting and all servers may not be on one hoster's networks so there will be some element of divergence.

Regards...jmcc