I have a question about domain names.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

Specifically my own domain name. I have it registered right now and it has a website that I don't manage very well. I'd like to change web hosts, get a drag and drop website arrangement and keep my domain name. My current one expires next month. Do I let it expire and register it at a new webhost? Is it possible the current web host would buy it and make me rebuy it? Is registering the domain name the same as buying it?
Color me, confused!

[PoliticAverse]

1. First domain names and websites are separate things, and some people...

think you should have them managed by different companies. Having them at a single company
can complicate things like when you need to move your website. I use namecheap.com for domain names.

Who is your site/name with?

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

3. Currently my domain is registered, and site hosted by 100 Web Space

It's really the website managing that is a pain for me. I'd prefer the drag and drop style. Right now its set up using MS Front Page and i don't find it very intuitive. Of course I'm old and that may be why.....

[ohheckyeah]

2. I use GoDaddy

for my domain name...it was set up with private registration so I haven't bothered to move it. GoDaddy sucks as a host in my opinion, so my domain is hosted with HostGator.

If you let the domain name expire, someone else could buy it, so I wouldn't recommend it.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

4. Re-registering the domain name is important and I will do that.

But if it's currently registered with company A and I want to register it with company B, do I have to wait for it to expire?

[jtuck004]

5. No. Would probably be safer if you didn't. Just pay for it at the new company,

and enter your info. It will likely go under their control immediately, or within 48 hours.

In theory you could try and play it so that they pick it up on a certain date, but if there is a problem, you could find someone else with your domain name and a long and possibly fruitless fight. Like you were told above, the domain name and web site are separate, regardless of who they are registered with. The web site is easily replaced (relatively, anyway) if there is a problem - not so for the domain name.

Which means you will, or at the very least may, lose the part of the year that is expiring, but that is likely minor compared to losing your domain name.

Talk to the company you want to register it with and see what they say, and let us know, if you get a chance. I haven't swapped domain names around for anyone for a while, and I would like to know if that has changed.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

7. So even though the domain is currently registered

I can register it someplace else? That seems easy enough.....

[jtuck004]

8. I just picked a domain name registrar from the list about midway down this page,

http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/registerdomain.shtml, Namecheap.

On their site at https://www.namecheap.com/domains/transfer-a-domain.aspx is their answer to your question.

According to them you transfer the name, you get the rest of your time and they just add a year (or whatever you pay for) to it...

There is probably a similar page with their policies and how you go about it at every one of those.

[RC]

6. I had a friend with her store web site that wasn't being maintained very well.

The guy maintaining the web site wanted to get out of the business. Anyway he downloaded the site contents, burned it to a CD, and mailed it to her.
After doing the research, we settled on Startlogic. They did all the "legal" stuff. Told us what we needed to do and answered all our questions in reasonably non-teckie terms.
I used Filezilla to upload the files on the CD to the new site on Startlogic. Everything worked.
We have had very little problem with Startlogic.