Hosting combined with "free domain" registration: There's no free lunch!

Read the fine print when you sign up. Free domains come with strings attached

[Webwork]

When I read posts, here and elsewhere, that discuss domain control issues (renew, transfer, DNS, etc.) a common theme to the threads is that domain registration was part of a hosting package.

It often seems that the root of the problem is a failure to read the fine print, usually found at one of several webpages that are linked into the registration process.

Folks, there's no free lunch. Free domains usually come with other agreements imbedded in the sign-up process: Either you don't actually own the domain or you agree that it's free so long as you pay for a year's hosting or some other way of recapturing the value of the giveaway.

There's no free lunch. Most offers of free come with strings attached. Some of the worst deals are free. You only discover the true cost when you want to act like you're in control of the domain.

Anyone care to discuss the issues of the fine print that comes with "free" domains?

[davezan]

I hate it when people say "Nobody reads those things!". They're just being darn lazy and not responsible enough to take care of their online presence.

On the other hand, you can't really blame them if they can hardly understand the legalese behind the fine prints. Some are either too long or too small to read "properly".

Still, with the kind of world we live in, people need to be more vigilant.

[Leosghost]

I discovered an interesting one the other day whilst working on the translations of the site of someone ..they had wanted to get their own name as the domain name but all top level versions were taken so they went for a country suffix ( little tiny island in the pacific ) the island has farmed out all the handling of registrations to a company in Holland who give the domain for free ..but you don't actually own it ..they do ..

If you take one of their free domain names ..

Typing your domain name into any machine gets you their landing page which rotates a center page image for a dating service or "buy a bride" or whatever they are running which then redirects to wherever you are actually hosted ..

You are also informed on their site that if your page receives less than 25 visitors in a 90 day period ( presumably one is not allowed to vist ones own site and expect to be counted ..and yes thats laughable traffic ..but ..is a "catch" nevertheless ) that the service will be terminated and you lose the domain name.

They do run a paid for domain name service aswell and apparently this one runs as normal ie : you hold all rights to the domain name and no traffic mimimums or doorways ..

The service appears to be totally legit ..but the person that I was looking at this for had not realised that ..

1..there was a doorway page which showed ads before you reached their site .
2.. there were traffic requirements ..

They actually couldn't read English well enough to read any of the small print ..but most people only read "free" ..and then read no further anyway .

[emilyliuliu]

However,as the fee of domain,people seems would prefer searching for free hosting -- cuz this cost much more.

As hosting & domain are both not such expensive -- if wms couldn't offer them,maybe I would suggest them do not running programs.Cuz they will cost much more on promoting & running.Anyway,they are not serious with this either....