Can I transfer other domains

Looking at the sign up form and noticed that the free domain registration only covers .com .net and a couple of others.

I already have a .ca domain. If I create a DH account will I be able to transfer this domain okay or does DH only support the transfering of the domains that it can register...

Geeez if that made sense...

I guess another valid question why doed DH not cover .ca

It depends on what you mean by "transfer". You can *host* any domain on DreamHost as long as you can set the nameservers to DreamHost's nameservers at the registrar.

Note that is different than *registering* (or transferring *registration*) of a domain for which DreamHost does not offer registration services. This information, and more, is available on the DreamHost wiki:

http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Domain_Registration

Presently, DreamHost only *registers* the .com, .org, .net, and .info domains. wink

In reply to:
I guess another valid question why doed DH not cover .ca

I don't know\. There are *many* TLD's for which DreamHost does not provide registrations services; I suspect that they prefer to be in the hosting business rather than the registration business.

--rlparker

To expand on what Robert is saying, you'll be able to host your .ca domain here at Dreamhost. What you'll do is to set the nameservers of your .ca domain at your registrar to ns1.dreamhost.com, ns2.dreamhost.com, and ns3.dreamhost.com. You'll then "add hosting" for your domain here at Dreamhost through the Dreamhost Web Panel. At that point, you'll be all set and able to do what you want with the site - upload files, install web applications, create subdomains, etc. You will still need to either keep your existing registrar or find a registration-only registrar for your .ca domain.

Given that, you'll still have a free lifetime domain registration available through your Dreamhost web hosting account (free for the lifetime of your hosting account). You'll be able to register (and host!) any other .com, .org, .net, or .info domain using that free registration. And don't forget that you can host as many domains and subdomains as you want here.

(Apologies for seeming a bit like a salesperson, but I did want to eliminate as many possible areas of confusion for you as possible)

What are 50DISK50, 3DOM50, and 1IP1DOM50?
They're Dreamhost coupons!

Thanks very much for replying... that clears most of my questions up..

One followup. what exactly does
> "free for the lifetime of your hosting account"
mean. Who actually OWNS the domain name.

Meaning If after a term with DH I decided to leave and use another hosting company do I still own the domain name and would be able to transfer it to another registration company?

Thanks

You own it. They just give you the $9.95 credit to renew the domain with them each year. If you leave, then you can either start paying the $9.95 per year to keep it here, or transfer it to another registrar.

-Scott

In reply to:
If after a term with DH I decided to leave and use another hosting company do I still own the domain name and would be able to transfer it to another registration company?

You can transfer it whenever you like, it is your domain.

There is always authentication code that you can use to transfer your domain. You can see it under Domains=>Request Transfer section of your panel (https://panel.dreamhost.com/index.cgi?tree=domain.transfer&).

Supernova

Check out instructions on how to apply the code ! Other promo codes also available here !

If you just want this domain works, you do not need to transfer to dh.

You can just change the A record's IP point to your DH domain dns IP.

$50 off and 3 extra FREE lifetime domains PromoCode:3ComDomains
$50 off and 1 extra FREE lifetime unique IP and 1 FREE domain CouponCode:FreeIpFreeDomain

In reply to:
You can just change the A record's IP point to your DH domain dns IP.

I'm confused now. Will it work? I thought A record is supposed to point to the IP address of the domain name, but not DH dns IP.

And we always suggest users to change the DNS.

That's right

Patrick, you are correct that most of the time everyone recommends switching over the nameservers for domains registered somewhere else but hosted here. That way their DNS control is here and they can choose to host their site and email here. Or if they want, they can host only particular individual domains/subdomains here and others elsewhere. As has been pointed out in other threads and the wiki, you can choose to host your email elsewhere as well - many use Google Apps for their email as you know.

The option to point individual domains and subdomains here via A records at their non-Dreamhost nameservers does exist, but as you pointed out, this is generally viewed as the second-best solution because it is vulnerable to the IP address of our web servers here changing. Note that this rarely happens, but when it does for administrative reasons, one would have to change the IP address of the A record at the "other" nameserver if you were going with that (suboptimal) solution.

Now that said, I believe there to be a hybrid solution where for subdomain hosting only, one creates an NS record for one's subdomain that points to the nameservers here. I'm pretty sure that this means that the DNS servers here will be used to resolve addressing for that particular subdomain, but I have not verified this yet.

Use the 3DOM50 promo code for 3 extra lifetime domains and $50 off
More Dreamhost coupons here!

Thanks for the clear explanation. I'm clear now.

So if somebody wants to transfer the site to DH, we should suggest them to point DNS to DH first if possible. Changing A record will be the second choice.

In reply to:
So if somebody wants to transfer the site to DH, we should suggest them to point DNS to DH first if possible. Changing A record will be the second choice.

It really all depends on their exact situation. I happen to have my sites split between two hosting companies and also some stuff at home, so I'm pretty familiar with the conveniences and inconveniences of having one's nameservers either here at Dreamhost or at another host with just an A record pointed here.

Use the 3DOM50 promo code for 3 extra lifetime domains and $50 off
More Dreamhost coupons here!

clear.

both work and it depends on their situation.

Can I transfer other domains