Change free domain?

Hello,

I'm wondering if it is possible to switch the free domain registration (that came with signing up for hosting) to another domain? I might let the domain name that I got with that expire, but of course I'd still like to take advantage of the offer if at all possible, and change it to my other domain :)

I think we've seen this question before in the forum. The answer I recall from earlier was that the plan included *one* free domain. You can register it for free, and keep it for free. If you decide not to have it anymore, you don't get a second free domain. You only get one. If you need another one, you have to get it the normal way, i.e. pay for it.

TorbenGB

Hmm, I did a search on domain + free and domain + change and it didn't come up with anything relevant - maybe I missed the posting, though.

That's too bad, it doesn't seem like it would make a difference for them financially, and it would save me a couple of dollars - ah well!

True, but I think it's grand that they give even one free domain registration. I haven't seen that elsewhere. So if they give us the first one, we should be okay with paying for the next one. Besides, even with the smallest hosting plan, you can host three full domains.

TorbenGB

Ah, I wasn't complaining, just inquiring :D The "domain included" is pretty common with German providers actually, but then they don't measure up in terms of features and service at all (that's why I'm here).

Sadly, the three hostable domains is one too few for me - that's why I need to get rid of one. But I suppose I can just stop hosting it and maybe use it again sometime later when I get more than my apprentice wage.

Right now I need to fit into the smallest plan so I can finance my new Everquest account from the $10 I save monthly :P

You could throw in a booster pack, for five bucks a month you'd get the ability to host 3 more domains, more subdomains, shell/ftp accounts, mailboxes, etc. -- your hosting would still be cheaper than the next plan up. 12, 13 dollars.

You can also switch any of your domains to "parked", "redirected", or "mirrored" status, which would free up a regular fully-hosted domain slot for another one. (You'd still have to pay for any new domain registrations, though, but you could do the registration with any registrar, not necessarily Dreamhost; others are cheaper). The redirected domains could send users to any page in your other sites (or anybody else's sites for that matter).

-- Dan

In reply to:

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but you could do the registration with any registrar, not necessarily Dreamhost; others are cheaper

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Personally, I would prefer to spend $3 more for having all my web services supplied by DreamHost, for the simple reason that I trust DH to do a reasonably good job while I don't trust the average other web company -- and then there's also the benefit of having one less contact point for your "stuff". Due respect to saving money, but sometimes, a dollar or two not saved can make a bigger difference.

TorbenGB

From the knowledge base, Is there a fee to transfer registration to you?:

"If you've got a full hosting plan with us that isn't already using its free domain registration, you can also choose to use that to pay for your transfer, and you won't have to pay anything extra!"

That's true, but I *am* currently using the free registration and I don't believe it goes "back into the pool" if the domain expires.

As for the other replies, thanks for the suggestions - my other domains are already registered elsewhere (never had any problems with that) and I've downgraded to the smallest plan + 1 booster pack. I'll set one of the domains to redirect after I've moved some stuff around, so I can get rid of the booster pack then too :)

Having everything with the same provider can be an advantage in convenience and simplicity, but it can also be a disadvantage of the "all eggs in same basket" type; if something goes wrong with the one provider (even Dreamhost has had its occasional glitches) you're stuck, while if (for instance) your domain registrations are with a different provider, you can log in there and change the DNS entries to point at a different provider if your hosting provider is nonfunctional (while if the registration is with the same provider, you're out of luck because the control panel is down).

-- Dan

Dan is right about that. However, this fail-safe thinking would only be needed if you have a backup of your website/mail/etc. ready to run on another hosting provider, in case DH should be down. If you have that, then you could "instantly" switch from DH to your backup provider -- plus the propagation time of the DNS change, of course.

For most of us, having DNS up without the hosting being up doesn't help us a lot, so it might as well be on the same provider.
The only problem I could imagine could be if DH suddenly closes up shop; then all of us one-basketers will be stuck. But I don't see that coming.

TorbenGB

I usually refrain from commenting when it comes to domain registration: since these folks at DreamHost (Jeff, Will, etc.) are soooo nice, so even I register ALL my domains elsewhere and never even take advantage of their free domain offer which is included, I rarely respond to threads related to the industry that I know best.

However, both TorbenGB and dtobias might have left out one thing: that DreamHost is not just another web hosting company which also registers domain names for you, they are an ICANN-accredited registrar themselves. And with that your domains are under better protection as there are guidelines to follow in the contract between ICANN and their registrars. So even when DreamHost goes down (which I too honestly don't think would happen in the foreseeable future), your domains should be fine.

If I signed up transferring my domain name, can I still get a free one? Because I really need to change.

bump. :( please, someone help.

Didn't Mark already answer your question in the post:
http://discussion.dreamhost.com/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=forum_troubleshooting&Number=14296&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1#Post14296
?

TorbenGB