As I have told you I just sifted my blog to the new domain waveofweb.com. So I was looking for a way to map each url of my old domain to the new one. Obviously there is a way to do it in .htaccess file. And like most of the hosting companies my host DreamHost does support Apache mod-rewrite to use .htaccess. But I heard that Namecheap provides 301 redirect if you transfer DNS to them. And you can do it in UI with just a few clicks and without modifying any code by hand. So I used to it. But that 301 redirect will only redirect any url of the old domain to the new domain’s home page. So all my blog post urls or About page or any any other url of the old domain were getting redirected to the blog home page. I contacted their support in live chat. But they were unable to provide any solution.
So I transferred back my old domain to my hosting company NameServer. I modified the code in .htaccess file. And url to url mapping from old domain to the new one started working perfectly 
NameCheap has been giving away PositiveSSL from Comodo free of cost for a long time now with any new purchase. It would normally cost you $49.95. And moreover you will get a huge discount when you renew your SSL certificate for the second year. It will only cost you $9.95. But do you really need an SSL certificate?
As a new blogger or a webmaster, you will think why not get this free SSL certificate and present my site as more professional and secure. But if you are new, there is every chance that you are missing a most important point. You cannot install your SSL certificate on shared ip. You need a dedicated ip to do that. That means you either need a dedicated hosting or a shared hosting with a unique ip address. Dedicated hosting will cost lot more than normal shared hosting that you usually use. And if you buy unique ip address for your shared hosting, you have to pay $2 or more extra monthly depending on your hosting company.
I am not discouraging you to use SSL certificate. But frankly speaking, you can live without it if you just have a blog or normal website. SSL certificate is a must have for a site that does monetary transaction with the users. Otherwise you can’t get the customer trust. I won’t buy anything from an online seller if it is not verified by a trusted SSL certificate provider like Comodo or Verisign.
So, just don’t think that you will get a free PositiveSSL certificate and install it for your blog. And you will be a proud owner of a secure server for free. It’s not as simple as that.
But even if you can’t make use of Namecheap’s free SSL certificate offer, I would still recommend you to use NameCheap for buying domain. I am in love with their user interface. You just can’t find a better one 
Today I found out a coupon code for NetFirms. Using it you can buy .com, .org or .net domain name with just $1. And unlike GoDaddy coupon code for $1 domain name registration, you don’t have to pay by credit card. You can use Paypal to make your payment. So when you register any of the above tlds from NetFirms, just enter this coupon code “DOLLARDOMAIN”. Grab the opportunity as most of you know NetFirms is as trustworthy name as GoDaddy or NameCheap itself
Yeah! That’s true. You can now call .tk a real free top level domain as it has started giving away free dns service. The domain forwarding service that redirects .tk url to your current sub-domain is still there. But it’s bad for SEO. But recently they have added free dns service option to it. That means if you want you can use your existing Name Servers to point them to your domain or you can use free dns service from Dot TK to point your own ip address to your new .tk domain.
So you don’t have to use frames now and your content will be properly mapped with your domain urls. And will be shown properly in search engines for all of your different pages giving you normal SEO benefits.
In my previous post few days ago, I mentioned ICANN was going to held a meeting to decide the fate of sites still on .yu domain. And the latest news is that, ICANN has extened the deadline for switching off .yu domains to another 6 months, till 30 March 2010. But it will annnounce some conditions subsequently. And if that conditions are acceptable, then Register of the Serbian National Internet Domain (RNIDS) will make a decision on the switching off the remaining 4000 .yu domain sites.
Today I stumbled on to an interesting piece of news. Sites with Yugoslav domain .yu will no longer be available from tomorrow, 30th September. Actually ICANN removed .yu domain from the list of approved country domain names in 2006, but they still continued to support it to give extra time for sites to transfer to a different domain. Now they have decided that the time has come. They have a simple & fair reason, it should be appropriate to use .me or .rs domian (respectively for Montenegro & Serbia) as Republic of Yugoslavia has been broken into these two countries
But the interesting thing is that about 4,000 sites are still on .yu domain. That’s why Serbian National Register of Internet Domain Names has asked ICANN to consider to extend the time. ICANN is going to have a meeting about that.
By the way, if you are interested about history, .yu domain was first assigned to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1989. Then with the start of Balkan war, the domain was held by newly independent Slovenia before eventually getting passed to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1994. But as many of you know, Republic of Yugoslavia itself got renamed to Serbia and Montenegro in 2003, and Montenegro breaking out of the union in 2006, the history surely looks a bit clumsy
In April, I wrote a blog post about .co.cc asking for renewal payments. It was like cheating regular .co.cc users who started using it knowing it would remain free. Recently I noticed that .co.cc has updated & clarified their policy to some extent. If you are using the domain for personal, non-commercial purposes only then you don’t have to pay renewal fees. You can use it for free as long as you wish. That’s certainly a good news to the general user base of this domain. However if you use it for commercial purpose, you can register .co.cc for free but have to pay renewal fee each year. The current renewal fee is $3 per year. But I doubt how many users use it for commercial purpose & if it is really good idea to use such a free domain for commercial sites.
Forget about everything. If you were scratching your head for why you fell for free domains like .co.cc, you can have a sigh of relief for the moment.
Yeah! You can get a free .com domain name for one year & there are no strings attached. Register.com, one of the most trusted domain registrar is giving away this promotional offer. Actually the offer has been available for a long time. It is said to be for small business. But I contacted the support & they told me that anyone can register with valid info. And you can transfer your domain without having to pay them. Probably you will transfer at the end of the year, as the renewal fee is $35 for Register.com. So it’s better to transfer the domain to GoDaddy or NameCheap. But remember, it usually takes about 5 days to transfer a domain between domain registrars. So don’t leave it too late to avoid any complicacy. Start the process a week or two prior to the domain expiry date.
You have to verify your credit card or PayPal info. While registering you can turn off automatic renewal to prevent getting charged accidentally. Here is the screenshot where you can turn off “Automatic SafeRenew”:
You can register any domain name with .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz or .us extension. But remember you can register only one domain per account.
Did you notice the policy change? Look before you settle for a free .co.cc domain. It is not free for life anymore. You can still register it for free but only for a year. Then you have to pay for renewals. Here is what they have to say in the FAQ:
1. Can I use my free domain forever? 
No, the free domain is available for only first year.
If you want to keep the free domain after a year, you should pay for it. |
I was doing a bit of search about it. Currently you have to pay $3 for each year renewal. You can renew for more years at a cheaper rate though. Here is the rate:
- 1 year – $3
- 2 years – $5
- 3 years – $7
- 4 years – $9
- 5 years – $10
I can’t see any point of using them anymore. If you have to pay later, why not pay now & buy a genuine TLD. Do you know the worst thing? They are asking the existing account holders to pay for their old domains renewal. Poor users! They thought it is free for life & put their hard work building and promoting a site under .co.cc. But they have to pay from now. They would curse their luck why didn’t they start a site on a proper TLD. This is mean from .co.cc!
.mx ccTLD was launched in 1989 in Mexico. But it was only available for limited registrations to schools & universities. Others had to use sub-extensions like .com.mx or .net.mx etc. As .edu.mx sub-extension was introduced for school & colleges during 1996, .mx domain got disappeared from the seen in 1997. Now after 20 years of its initial launch it is going to be relaunched publicly.
Like others it has also a sunrise period & a landrush period. Here is the registration schedule:
- Pre-registration period (May 01 to July 31, 2009 ): If you own domain name with any of the five .mx sub-extensions (.com.mx, .net.mx, .org.mx, .edu.mx, .gob.mx), you can register the corresponding name under .mx extension. If the name is same for two or more applications, the name will be registered under the owner of the oldest sub-extension.
- Quiet period (August 01 to August 31, 2009): The applications received during pre-registration will be further processed.
- Initial registration period (September 01 to October 31, 2009): .mx domain will be open to every one for registration on a first come first served basis.