Domain Registration: Keep It Separate From Your Web Host Service

Some words of wisdom regarding domain name registration and web hosting.

Keep your domain registration company separate from your web hosting company.

Here's the deal: Let's say you (or "the son of a friend") got both your web host account and your domain registration through the same company (let's call it "XYZ Company"). Let's say you did this because XYZ Company offered you a "free domain for life" or some other tantalizing deal. Later, you decide to move your web site to a better web host service. So you close your web host account at XYZ Company. But you don't realize - when you close your web host account at XYZ, you also lose access to your domain, and you can't get domain control back unless you re-open your web host account. Gotcha! "Free" has suddenly ended up costing you a lot. So keep your domain registration company separate from your web hosting company and you'll always be in control.

To be fair, there are many decent web host companies out there that don't behave this way -- if you have a web host account + domain registration through a good company and you choose to close the web host account, you will still have access to your domain. However, the scenario I described above is real -- I've seen it first-hand, more than once -- and I've found it to be especially prevalent with Australian companies, including Hostway.com and HostOnce.com.