Originally Posted by MontereyBayVA

Greetings, I use DixieSystems out of Atlanta, GA (aka 8-95.com) for my resellers hosting account, and *love* them: http://www.dixiesys.com/ . You will also see their mailing address as being Alabama, USA. They *used* to have a deal where you registered your domain with them, and then they did the hosting. It was $16.95 per year, I think. *I, personally, have never seen anything cheaper*. Then again, I did my 2-3 days of straight research, found 8-95.com, and was done. Or if I have found something cheaper? It was scary, had bad reviews -- and, well, JUST SAY NO to scary hosting companies. Those I know who took advantage of this deal were very happy with the results. Research the above "deal" at http://www.dixiesys.com/ yourself, please. I do not know if they still do that deal. I know they have had some changes in the company, but I have yet to have the company fail me. The only thing I do not like about that kind of deal they had -- you can't pay up years in advance. (make sure you do not miss that bill! you do not want to get snaked out of your domain name!!!!) And it combines domain registration and hosting. Granted, Dixie Systems has never steered me wrong, in fact I have gotten emails personally from the boss when I have messed something up! But, I liken mixing those two to having your firewall and anti-virus all controlled by one application. If things go wrong? They can go really wrong. My advice? Buy your domain totally separate from your hosting, and pay it up YEARS in advance. Then get hosting separately. If money is a show stopper -- only then compromise. The bottom line is.....you do not want to get yourself into a situation where you get hijacked by a hosting company that has a lot of down time, emails are inaccessible, or they straight up hold your domain name hostage if you try to move your domain to another company. I cannot stress enough that your web presence is insanely important. You do not want your customers to experience ill effects of a bad hosting company. ALWAYS pay your domain on time! Or better yet, pay your domain up 5-10-20 years in advance (just don't forget to pay the bill in 5-10-20 years!). Don't let someone "buy" it out from under you. Worse yet?? Don't let someone snag your domain out from under you and put OBJECTIONABLE material on the site! This happened to a friend of mine who turned around and the content was changed to some seriously bad stuff. Can you imagine your customers getting the kind of shock when they visit the website one day??! If you have to make yourself a deal where you do a once a year project just for cash so that this bill is paid without question? DO IT. I apologize that this reply did not meet the "less then" monetary requirement, but its important to share, and I think worth your time reading. Lesley Virtual Computer Consultant Portland, Oregon, USA

This is such great advice to "Buy your domain totally separate from your hosting, ... Then get hosting separately." I would never have thought of the problems that would come up if you had to stay with a web host to use your domain name despite their service. Thanks for sharing this - it was very helpful.