Need advise on Domain registers and hosting

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azl

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Topic # 85095 13-Jun-2011 23:08

Hello everyone, I'm going to set up a website that's going to have youtube videos embedded.

I've got a few questions which I would like to ask.

1.  There are quite a few domain registers in NZ, some charge $20/year (1stdomain), some $70/year (Snap). When I asked Snap what seperates them from the other competitors, they replied.

"Snap excels over other ISP's in customer service and we offer a online portal so
you can modify your domain anytime 24/7. "

Now, I'm not really fussed about the extra $50 charged by Snap, what I'm concerning is that will they provide a more stable domain than other competitors such as 1stdomain? Or is that something to do with the company that's hosting the website?

I would like to set up a website that runs as fast & reliable as Trademe or Stuff for NZ viewers, having the website crashing at 9pm at night is the last thing I want to see.
Which brings me to the next question, web hosting. When I host an embedded youtube video that is 50mb size, when Joe Blogs clicks link and view the video, does that count as traffic towards the website?

For example, www.nzwebhost.co.nz offers 5gb hosting space & unlimited traffic. If I go with that particular company, will the 50mb embedded video count towards the 5gb hosting space?  Since I don't have to worry about traffic, how will I know what is the maximum number of visitors that the web hoster can handle at any given time?

What I'm really getting at in this post is, I'm going to set up a website with lots of embedded links to youtube, the traffic towards the website will hopefully get bigger as time passes by.   What should I look for as domain register and web hoster?

Thanks a lot for reading this post, as you can tell, I'm a newbie in this field, I've last set up a website with notepad and hosted it with my ISP 10 years ago, I know pretty much nothing in terms of web hosting now. So, hopefully you can answer few of the questions.

Thanks,

Andy

jbard

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Reply # 480805 13-Jun-2011 23:16

As far as domains go i have never had a problem using the $20-$20 a year companies, almost all of them have an online portal so you can change the details 24/7 just like snap.

As far as emedding youtube videos go, they don't actually count towards storage on your site or traffic from your site.

Basically the youtube embed player is a link between the user of your website and the youtube servers so none of the traffic comes through you nor do you need the hard disk space for that video on your server.

Edit: if you want it to be quick you need to look at a NZ host which will be more expensive that overseas hosting but will be quicker.

itxtme

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Reply # 480929 14-Jun-2011 10:45

azl:

1. There are quite a few domain registers in NZ, some charge $20/year (1stdomain), some $70/year (Snap). When I asked Snap what seperates them from the other competitors, they replied.

Very little difference, they are using their brand to sell you the product, ask them specifically what features they have over and above -> none, dont pay that much

azl: Now, I'm not really fussed about the extra $50 charged by Snap, what I'm concerning is that will they provide a more stable domain than other competitors such as 1stdomain? Or is that something to do with the company that's hosting the website?

You are correct in your second statement in that it is how stable your web provider is that will affect downtime not the domain registrar

azl: I would like to set up a website that runs as fast & reliable as Trademe or Stuff for NZ viewers, having the website crashing at 9pm at night is the last thing I want to see.

Which brings me to the next question, web hosting. When I host an embedded youtube video that is 50mb size, when Joe Blogs clicks link and view the video, does that count as traffic towards the website?

No, this is embedded, meaning you are providing an electronic billboard for the youtube video, but not the power to run it!

azl: For example, www.nzwebhost.co.nz offers 5gb hosting space & unlimited traffic. If I go with that particular company, will the 50mb embedded video count towards the 5gb hosting space? Since I don't have to worry about traffic, how will I know what is the maximum number of visitors that the web hoster can handle at any given time?

Again no, you are just providing a link back to youtubes server not your own, so it wont use your space or bandwidth - stay away from UNLIMITED hosts, they are chronic over sellers

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sleemanj

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Reply # 480960 14-Jun-2011 12:26

The registrar's influence essentially ends once they have pushed the domain to the NZ SRS (Shared Registry System).

Unless you are using the registrar's own DNS servers, they have nothing really to do with the actual "running" of your domain so paying your registrar $XX more does not get you a $XX better run or more reliable domain, it gets you exactly the same as paying $XX less.

I use domains4less.co.nz these days, and I have no complaints, in fact, I have praise in that they have in the past provided support far beyond the level at which more expensive players do.

---
James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

mattwnz

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Reply # 481028 14-Jun-2011 14:45

itxtme:
azl:

1. There are quite a few domain registers in NZ, some charge $20/year (1stdomain), some $70/year (Snap). When I asked Snap what seperates them from the other competitors, they replied.

Very little difference, they are using their brand to sell you the product, ask them specifically what features they have over and above -> none, dont pay that much

That isn't entirely correct. Registrars will usually built their own software interface to communciate with the registry. Therefore if they go down, so does you access to manage that domain name. You can however transfer it to another registrar to manage it, should that happen.

Also some registrars provide far more services than other, and some will charge you extra for some services. eg. DNS hosting, email and url forwarding, free parked webpages etc.

itxtme

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Reply # 481072 14-Jun-2011 16:11

mattwnz:
itxtme:
azl:

1. There are quite a few domain registers in NZ, some charge $20/year (1stdomain), some $70/year (Snap). When I asked Snap what seperates them from the other competitors, they replied.

Very little difference, they are using their brand to sell you the product, ask them specifically what features they have over and above -> none, dont pay that much

That isn't entirely correct. Registrars will usually built their own software interface to communciate with the registry. Therefore if they go down, so does you access to manage that domain name. You can however transfer it to another registrar to manage it, should that happen.

Also some registrars provide far more services than other, and some will charge you extra for some services. eg. DNS hosting, email and url forwarding, free parked webpages etc.

Very little

Enough said, would you pay $60 for a domain??

mattwnz

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Reply # 481082 14-Jun-2011 16:20

itxtme:
mattwnz:
itxtme:
azl:

1. There are quite a few domain registers in NZ, some charge $20/year (1stdomain), some $70/year (Snap). When I asked Snap what seperates them from the other competitors, they replied.

Very little difference, they are using their brand to sell you the product, ask them specifically what features they have over and above -> none, dont pay that much

That isn't entirely correct. Registrars will usually built their own software interface to communciate with the registry. Therefore if they go down, so does you access to manage that domain name. You can however transfer it to another registrar to manage it, should that happen.

Also some registrars provide far more services than other, and some will charge you extra for some services. eg. DNS hosting, email and url forwarding, free parked webpages etc.

Very little
Enough said, would you pay $60 for a domain??

As with anything you pay for, it would depend what services you get, how good their help is etc. Some of the low cost ones do also charge per minute for support if you need to phone them. Others charge fees if the domain expires. SO you have to look out for hidden fees and charges.

azl

11 posts

Geek

Reply # 481087 14-Jun-2011 16:39

Thanks for your replys. I've learned a lot more now

domains4less.co.nz looks good at $20/year. What about web hoster, I'm looking for a NZ server, the traffic will start small and gradually build up. I don't need a lot of disk space for the mean time.

Any ideas? Thanks, Andy.

codyc1515

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Reply # 481117 14-Jun-2011 17:59

sleemanj: I use domains4less.co.nz these days, and I have no complaints, in fact, I have praise in that they have in the past provided support far beyond the level at which more expensive players do.

Totally agree, I have all my NZ domains with them. They have a good price too.

azl: What about web hoster, I'm looking for a NZ server, the traffic will start small and gradually build up. I don't need a lot of disk space for the mean time.

I host some of my websites with NearlyFreeSpeech.net which has proven to be extremely reliable over the years.

mattwnz

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Reply # 481127 14-Jun-2011 18:17

azl: Thanks for your replys. I've learned a lot more now

domains4less.co.nz looks good at $20/year. What about web hoster, I'm looking for a NZ server, the traffic will start small and gradually build up. I don't need a lot of disk space for the mean time.

Any ideas? Thanks, Andy.

It would depend on what sort of reliability you are looking for, what software you are wanting to run and how much diskspace and traffic you are looking for. I would avoid anyone who says unlimited diskspace or unlimited traffic, as there is no such thing, they will alway have fine print.

uknzguy

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Reply # 483930 21-Jun-2011 20:40

azl: Hello everyone, I'm going to set up a website that's going to have youtube videos embedded.

Dumb question, have you looked at tumblr.com and posterous.com ?

If all you want is a way of publishing embedded Youtube (and possibly other) content, these two fit the bill. They also have a bunch of nice themes.

Did I mention they are free?

You can use a custom domain name with these services too, see http://iwantmyname.com/services

azl

11 posts

Geek

Reply # 487474 29-Jun-2011 16:07

All sorted now, I've used web intellects. According to my website designer, he said that they are very good with programs they use and speed is not too bad for a us server. I've decided to go for VPS hosting as that's more dedicate than web hosting.

Thanks for your help guys.

How can we lock this admin?

michaelmurfy

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Reply # 487505 29-Jun-2011 17:11

azl: All sorted now, I've used web intellects. According to my website designer, he said that they are very good with programs they use and speed is not too bad for a us server. I've decided to go for VPS hosting as that's more dedicate than web hosting.

Thanks for your help guys.

How can we lock this admin?

One last thing:

VPS Hosting, my own servers are VPS's hosted with http://linode.com - They are fast, have awesome support and I have never really had any downtime (Just once when the whole DC went down - but that was for a few hours during out night-time when the server was pretty idle)

And, since this Virtual Server Provider supports native IPv6 on their servers, you might want to go with a domain provider that has native IPv6 too - That's where http://metaname.co.nz works well, again - fast, great support and not to shabby on price.

If you go with Linode - make sure you use their Fremont DC, if you go for a DC on the other side of the US you will experience more latency back here to NZ.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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