Posts Tagged ‘domain name’
Question Asked: How Do I Redirect All My Webpages To My New Domain Name?
Changing your domain name can be a pain in the butt, especially if you have a lot of webpages with links in them.
The easiest thing to do is to use a “Redirect” rule, that is unless you prefer opening all of your pages and updating links by hand. And of course, you can’t redirect traffic coming from search engines that way. So we’ll proceed with a redirect.
If you already have an .htaccess file in your website’s top directory (ie; not in a folder), open it. If you don’t, open NotePad or an equivilent text editor. Do not use WordPad.
Type the following in the document:
RedirectMatch 301 (.*) http://www.your-domain.com/$1
Replace “your-domain.com”, with what your new domain name is. Leave the $1 on the end.
Now save the document, and re-upload it to your server for your old domain name. (If you didn’t have an .htaccess file. Save the file as htaccess.txt. Upload it, then rename it to .htaccess once on your server.)
Now any request for any page on your old domain will redirect to the domain name you’ve specified. So mysite.com/this-webpage.html will redirect to mynewsite.com/this-webpage.html
Question Asked: Where Should I Buy My Domain Name?
Buying a domain name is all about comfort. Use a company that you know, and trust. Keep in mind, it shouldn’t always be about price.
I believe GoDaddy still has the cheapest domain names online, at $2.99. However, personally, I hate their checkout process. GoDaddy is very much a company that tries to sell you everything under the sun, when all you want to buy is a domain name. This makes the checkout process much much longer than it need be. Which annoys me.
Personally, I use DomainSite (domainsite.com) for my domains. They’re still fairly cheap, at $7.99, and their checkout process is just one simple step.
Things to remember when buying a domain name? Features. Do you get control over your own DNS? Do you get e-mail addresses? Do you have an auto-renew feature (so your domain won’t expire)? These things may seem small, but can make a big difference.
I’ll also offer the advice of where not to buy a domain. Any company that’s charging more than $15 for a domain name. Companies like NetworkSolutions still think it’s okay to charge people $35 for a domain name, not to mention the cost of “adding on” things that come standard with other services.
The tops you should pay is $15, and that’s at the expensive end.
Question Asked: How Do I Register A Domain Name?
Nowadays, registering a domain name is super easy, and pretty inexpensive. Whereas, years ago, it was a complicated process, and could cost as much as $100 direct from a registrar.
There’s a number of companies that sell domain names (they also sell web hosting, too, but that’s not what your question was about. If you need to know about web-hosting, check here.)
I’ve been a fan of DomainSite.com for a number of years, namely because their prices are good, and they don’t try to oversell you with services that you don’t need (like some other companies.)
The domain name will cost you $7.88 for one year. There’s a cheaper option, but it doesn’t come with a lot of features that you need, to utilize your domain name correctly.
Keep in mind, there’s literally tens of thousands of companies out there that sell domains. And there’s no difference between a company that sells the domain for $5, versus $50. Domain names are the same, don’t be duped into paying $34.95 to Network Solutions, just because they come up highly in search engine rankings. Their domains are no different than anyone else’s.
Question Asked: What Was The First Domain Name Ever?
Great question. I’ve often wondered that myself, and just never went and tried to figure it out. The general consensus is that it was think.com, which according to some stats I’ve found, was the third domain name.
The first dot com (.com is what people think of, when they say domain name) was registered on March 15th, 1985; symbolics.com.
The website is still up, but doesn’t appear to be much these days. I guess after being around for 23+ years on the internet, your presence speaks for itself.
Some other really early on (and interesting) domains:
- bbn.com – 04.24.85
- think.com – 05.24.85
- xerox.com – 01.09.86
- hp.com – 03.03.86
- ibm.com – 03.19.86
- intel.com – 03.25.86
- boeing.com – 09.02.86
- adobe.com – 11.17.86
- apple.com – 02.19.87
- philips.com – 04.04.87
- lockheed.com – 07.27.87
- marble.com – 11.09.87
- cayman.com – 11.16.87