A lot of people are confused with the concepts of buying only a domain. Does it come with email? I can publish a page? Why would I only buy a domain without hosting?
There are several questions, as such we will try to clarify some of the most common doubts in this article.
If you buy a domain in Netz0 without additional services, you are paying only and exclusively the reservation of the legal name for its exploitation on the Internet. Like reserving a phone number. The number is yours now, but without the phone device and the service of the communication company you will not be able to make calls.
In that sense, the registration of a domain works the same with all companies. While some provide additional services or may include the registration as part of a certain package or service, the concept is the same. You register the name, basically the combination of characters that result in a word or phrase and which are available for certain extension. Since anyone can register domains, the desired domain will not always be available. For example, if we want the name 0123-abc on the .com extension, our domain will result in 0123-abc.com
Domains can’t really be purchased. They can only be reserved for a certain time. Usually for a minimum of 1 year and a maximum of 10 years for most extensions. However, nothing prevents you from renewing a domain year after year to maintain ownership, we just say buying a domain since nothing stops someone from keeping it permanently.
Some companies, including Netz0 offer additional services included with the registration of a domain name. Those however are not really part of what you pay with the domain registration. For example, if you have registered 0123-abc.com, it will not work until it is configured with an end service. This means that it should be pointed to a server, which then provides the corresponding services to that domain.
In the case of Netz0, we host an initial welcome page for your domain after registration, so you can have it working right after payment. This is a free courtesy welcome page. After registration you are free to point it at any service or server in the world through a configuration change. This change is called DNS modification.
When you make a DNS modification what you basically do is inform us to where the Internet traffic will be send for your domain. By traffic we mean email messages, visitors, website, others.
This has no cost with a domain. Any company that offers domain registrations should allow you to point the domain to DNS nameservers of your choice, from any vendor and any service. This is how you can have a domain registered with one company, but the services associated with it on another one. At Netz0 we offer you full access to all domains as well modifying the settings. You can connect your domain with our services or any other company. This change is also called sometimes with other providers domain delegation or simply modification of DNS servers. The process is equivalent to routing the phone number you previously registered (name), to the phone provider.
Netz0 however also offers other additional services. For example, DNS hosting is included at no cost as some providers do not offer this service only with a domain registration, you can choose to use our DNS servers and point the traffic of your domains to another external service. For example, mail to one provider and the website to another by simply editing the DNS records in our services. This is still included at no cost, it is free in our company as only the domain registration cost was paid at this point. The final service to which a domain point is generally titled hosting services. This service is the one that provides the hosting of the files of your website or the service that transfer email messages.
Additionally, you can host the domain with us at no cost and redirect it to another website. For example, you can register a domain without purchasing a hosting service and redirect it to your Twitter account, Facebook or any other website on the Internet. This is again included at no cost with Netz0 only with the cost of the domain registration. The same is true for email. You can create a mail address in your new domain such as sales@0123-abc.com and have all messages forwarded to your Gmail address. Like with the web redirection, this is only a forwarding, you cannot send emails with that address since it doesn't really exist. It is simply a free service that we offer for users who want to register domains but don’t necessarily have a hosting service or server. This way you can forward emails to a current email address and the domain to an existing website for free.
Those are just some of the services we offer for free with domains managed in Netz0. But we also have additional services, some free and others with cost. For free we mean you don't have a separate cost and is included with the initial registration and renewals of domains with Netz0. If you keep the domain with us, you can continue to use those services for free.
The question then is when do you need a hosting?
The hosting service is basically like a mobile device and call services with a phone company. They are not included with the reservation of the phone number. They must be paid separately. Hosting is not included with the cost of a domain registration.
As previously indicated. You can get this service at Netz0 or with another company. You can connect/configure/delegate the domain to any web or email service anywhere in the world.
To be clearer. You will need to host the domain on a web server if you want to publish web pages and require a mail server if you want to use email accounts with a domain. Usually a hosting can provide one or more services together. These services are not included only with the cost of a domain registration and it’s always a separated service.
In the case of Netz0, we have different plans, some that provide only hosting for the website, others for mail and others that include several services combined.
Usually a hosting service which includes all the basic services is not expensive and with that service you can have email accounts of the type my-account@0123-abc.com on which you can send and receive messages, host a website like www.0123-abc.com to promote your business or web applications for your company. The hosting service is what connects the domain to all final services.
As such, if you set up the domain with a vendor other than us but it does not work, this is not related to our domain registration services. All domains work the same on all parts of the world. If you tell us to delegate the domain 0123-abc.com to the hosting server called X, we do exactly that and after a few hours all services of the domain are managed by hosting X and not Netz0. In this example, hosting X being any company or final server on the Internet of your choice.
It is common for people not to understand why a domain does not work and the reason is that a domain never works on the Internet unless there is a final server that provides services to it, either ours or from another company.
If you instead indicate that your domain must be delegated to a hosting purchased for example with Netz0, and the website, emails or other services do not work, in this case we are responsible because the final service for the domain is supplied by Netz0.
Is therefore comfortable to register your domain with a hosting plan, simply because all services are included without having to configure anything additionally. At Netz0, the cost of your domain is free with the purchase of an annual hosting and you can start creating email accounts or upload your website immediately once the service was activated. And a hosting service generally allows to host more than one domain, so if you are lucky enough to get a new great name for a new brand or product, there is no need to buy another hosting. You can set it up on the same service.
We hope this helped you understand a little better what you get and don't get with the payment of a domain registration. To summarize, nothing prevents you from registering a domain that is free now, even if you still don’t want to connect it to a final hosting server. You can use one or more domains on the Internet when you want and if you have questions or need help on any step of your web experience you can contact our support team 24 hours a day.
There are no risks, and nothing prevents you from getting an incredible name today among hundreds of extensions available around the world. With hosting, without hosting, your choice. In Netz0 you have total control and you should never pay or buy anything additional that is not required but if necessary we can advise on the requirements. Your questions do not bother us, and we love to answer anyone.
We will be happy to put you online today!