Martyn Drake wrote:
I would have to say, in all honestly, this may have been a bad move. For starters, from personal experience, if you move a domain to or have registered a domain with 1&1, you're going to have a fun fun time attempting to move the domain to another registry or if you move hosting elsewhere and want to update nameservers/DNS records. This was several years ago, so 1&1 *may* have improved - but I'm still not confident enough to trust them with a domain name.
They hadn't the last time I took a domain off them. I feel that few registrars are worse commercially (NetworkSolutions and Freeola come to mind - I find 123-reg/fasthosts/livedns annoying technically) and I'm sure there are still several ALUG members like me who can sell domains to you. Of course, the big monkeys may have a cheaper initial fee, but you might find yourself stuck in the cage with them...
I have just received a letter from "Domain Renewal Group, Domain Name Renewal Service", telling me:
This is because your home address details are available on WHOIS. If 1&1 allow you to use some method of privacy mode for your contact details on WHOIS, do it. Or move to a domain registrar that offers WHOIS privacy protection - if 1&1 allow you do so.
Mine does, but remember that you should only do that for non-trading domains. Firstly, distance selling regs require you to tell people where you are anyway; secondly, hiding from WHOIS is a big red flag for anyone who checks your website before buying from it, as in http://www.generatesuccess.co.uk/how-to-check-web-shops-for-basic-security/8...
Hope that informs,