Smooth operator, flawless registration (123-reg.co.uk)

Member Name: Talker

Product:	123-reg.co.uk
Date:	06/11/02 (601 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap, lots of email address

Disadvantages: web hosting charge seems high

If you're thinking about using 123-reg to register your domain and are concerned by the earlier comments here, don't worry. They're out of date. If my experience is anything to go by, they've cleaned up their act. Follow the more recent comments.

They're certainly one of the cheaper registrars, though there are just pennies in at. And I think that their rivals don't necessarily charge for website hosting, whereas 123 does. But I don't do web sites (not yet at least), and in any case, you can use web forwarding for free or change your DNS to another hoster. As for email forwarding, you get 100 email addresses and catch-all forwarding for anything that's not specifically listed. That compares with 50 addresses at one other registrar I checked out.

The domain registered with Nominet within the hour, if I remember correctly, and email forwarding kicked in within 24 hours.

My domain was registered in my own name, so I've no complaints on that score. The form also included a button giving you the opportunity to supress display of your address and phone no. through whois, which is allowed if you're a private individual.

Most importantly, I wanted to change my DNS to another hosting service, which offered a more sophisticated level of control. I went through the various steps required, basically registering with the new provider and getting the DNS addressess and then informing 123-reg that you want to move from their DNS. There's a button on the 123-reg control panel that allows this. That change also reflected shortly afterwards in whois, but took longer to propogate around the net, still less than 24 hours.

So, basically, within two days of handing over less than £7 I had my own domain registered in my name running off a DNS that I'd specified. No complaints from me on this score.

I guess the next hurdle is reregistering in two years time, and what happens if I want t
o change registrars. I'll deal with that when it arrives.

Summary: