Advice please

Hi, prospective user. I've had a good look around, there's just one thing I'd like to ask. I'm OK with most tech areas, but the domain/subdomain thing eludes me although I've read the wiki!
What I would like to do is sign up, and use the free domain I'll get to get used to things. After a while I'll bring my current domain across to DH. Can these both be "main" domains in my account? Does one have to be a subdomain and how does this affect things? Any issues I should think about? All i really want is www.domainfromdh.com and www.existingdomain.co.uk to appear just like that for visitors to my site(s). I should add that I will want a fixed IP number for the .co.uk site, can fixed IPs be got for both? Or would this need another registration?

Thank you

You can host as many domains as you want - both www.domainfromdh.com and www.existingdomain.co.uk are fine. www.existingdomain.co.uk will have to continue to be registered at another domain registrar, as DreamHost can't serve as registrar for .co.uk domains (yet).

Do you want two completely separate websites or do you want both sites to have the same content?

Finally, what do you mean by a fixed IP? Do you want to run SSL (https)?

You can add unlimited domains to dreamhost.
Domain registration is free for 1 domain (but you can register elsewhere and host here).

You don't need a fixed IP number unless ou want to have ssl on your domain.
On level1 plan for instance you don't have any fixed IP address and you can host unlimted domains.

If you have 2 separate domains, they can stay as separate domains.

One example use of a subdomain is to create a "free" dreamhosters.com subdomain, like mytestarea.dreamhosters.com or http://blog.dreamhosters.com/, and use it for experimenting, in addition or in place of your "free" domain.

You can get IPs for each domain, at 3.95/month. http://www.dreamhost.com/hosting.html

You'll have to "register" each domain; I'm not sure if your "free" one can be .uk.

Thanks to all of you for the speedy reply. I get it now. And in fact I don't think I really need a fixed IP then, although I know they can be handy when dns issues happen.

With the .uk domain you just need to change the DNS settings with the other provider to point to dreamhost, then you can simply use it in the same way as if it had been registered with dreamhost. I think you can still use a static ip with that as well. Its just the registration isn't handled by dreamhost.

If you are wanting a fixed ip you would be best using a promo code that gives a free ip. They are probably only needed if you want to use security certificates or want to offer ftp downloads.

More codes

Just a further point then, if I do have a fixed IP and two websites, and a visitor comes in with the IP number, not the domain name, which site would be displayed?

The IP is directly tied to the domain you assign it to, so that's the one that would show up. Any other domains in your account would just be on random shared IPs.

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I should add that I will want a fixed IP number for the .co.uk site, can fixed IPs be got for both? Or would this need another registration?

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As I observe from the panel, I don't think it is possible. Unless if one of them are mirror to a 'fixed ip' domain.

T-T-L
$77 off plus 1 Additional Free Domain For Hosting Lifetime with 77PLUS1DOMAIN promo code . See Detail Here

In reply to:

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As I observe from the panel, I don't think it is possible. Unless if one of them are mirror to a 'fixed ip' domain.

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I think the original poster mentioned that they didn't need a unique IP after all.