Guide to a free domain name

[knight17]

Free Domain Name Providers

Free Domain(s) Offered - .com .net .org
Website - www.officelive.com
Nameserver Control - No
Forced Ads - Yes, text ads on top
Requirements - Site must be English, and you must be a resident of the USA.
Time Registered - Unlimited
Free Domain Limit - Limited to 1 domain
Scam? - No
Other Info - Still in beta, and you have to submit an application to be approved. Also, to verify that you aren't getting multiple domains from them, a valid credit card is required.
The Catch - Since you can't change nameservers, you're going to be stuck with Microsoft hosting forever.

Free Domain(s) Offered - .com .net .org .name .us .biz .info
Website - www.ezyrewards.com (http://www.ezyrewards.com)
Nameserver Control - Yes
Forced Ads - No
Requirements - None
Time Registered - 1 year (or more)
Free Domain Limit - Unlimited
Scam? - No
Other Info - You need to get 1000 points (10 for each referal, 7-130 for online offers).
The Catch - Referals may take a while to get. Also, online offers and surveys can be a pain to complete.

Free Domain(s) Offered - .info
Website - http://www.1and1.com
Nameserver Control - Yes
Forced Ads - No
Requirements - None
Time Registered - Only 1 year
Free Domain Limit - Limited to 5 domains
Scam? - No
Other Info - To verify that you aren't getting more than 5 domains from them, a valid credit card is required.
The Catch - Domain is only registered for 1 year. You will have to pay next year if you want to keep your domain.

Free Domain(s) Offered - .com .net .org .name .us .biz .info .ws
Website - www.onesite.com (http://www.onesite.com)
Nameserver Control - No
Forced Ads - Yes, toolbar on top.
Requirements - Student in US/CA with .edu email address OR anyone with a promotion code. Also, you must be atleast 13 years old.
Time Registered - 1 year (or more)
Free Domain Limit - Unlimited (although you need a different promo code or .edu email address for each new domain)
Scam? - No
Other Info - There appears to be a set template. Host offers 50MB storage, 3GB bandwidth, email, blog, statistics, sitebuilder.You get $20 for each paid web hosting referral.
The Catch - As stated in the TOS, "All Free Domain(s) will be registered by ONESITE and any rights in and to Free Domains shall be retained by ONESITE". Basically, they could potentially "take" your site from you.

Free Domain(s) Offered - .com .net .org .info
Website - www.freedomainsname.com (http://www.freedomainsname.com)
Nameserver Control - Yes
Forced Ads - No
Requirements - None
Time Registered - Only 1 year
Free Domain Limit - Unlimited
Scam? - No
Other Info - You need to get 200 points from online offers or referals (up to 210 point per online offer, 10 points per referral).
The Catch - Online offers and getting referals can be a pain. Credit card may be required for some offers.

Free Domain(s) Offered - .tk (Tokelau)
Website - www.dot.tk (http://www.dot.tk)
Nameserver Control - No
Forced Ads - Yes, advertisement + popup is shown before you can view the page, forced www.dot.tk favicon.
Requirements - Must be atleast 18 years old. Also, you need an existing web address (anything, including geocities, myspace, etc)
Time Registered - 1 year (or more)
Free Domain Limit - Limited to 3 domains
Scam? - No
Other Info - You must have 25 visitors or more on your domain name once every 90 days, or else they will delete it.
The Catch - It only provides URL cloaking (using frames).

Free Domain(s) Offered - .com .net .org .name .us .biz .info .in .co.in
Website - www.freednr.com (http://www.freednr.com)
Nameserver Control - Yes
Forced Ads - No
Requirements - You must post to get a domain.
Time Registered - Unlimited
Free Domain Limit - Unlimited
Scam? - No
Other Info - Must get 950 points before requesting a domain.
The Catch - Posting may take a long time, and this offer may not last very long.

Free Domain(s) Offered - .com .net .org
Website - www.cybikohost.com (http://www.cybikohost.com)
Nameserver Control - Yes
Forced Ads - No
Requirements - You must post to get a domain.
Time Registered - 1 year (or more)
Free Domain Limit - Unlimited
Scam? - Unknown (maybe)
Other Info - You need to get 19000 points (5 for each post, 20 for each referal).
The Catch - You've got to be willing to spend a lot of time here in order to get a free domain.

Free Domain(s) Offered - .com .net .org .info .de
Website - www.domain-4free.com (http://www.domain-4free.com)
Nameserver Control - No
Forced Ads - Yes
Requirements - You must apply for a domain.
Time Registered - Unlimited
Free Domain Limit - Unknown
Scam? - Unknown (maybe)
Other Info - You have the choice to pay to become the legal owner of the domain.
The Catch - Forced advertising may be kind of annoying.

Free Domain(s) Offered - .com .net .org .info .biz
Website - www.free-domaine.net
Nameserver Control - No
Forced Ads - Yes, pop-up or pop-under.
Requirements - Must already have a site with an average of more than 3000 visitors a month (about 100 visitors a day).
Time Registered - 1 year (or more)
Free Domain Limit - Unlimited (the number of sites you have with 3000+ visitors a month)
Scam? - Unknown (maybe)
Other Info - You are given the option of paying for the domain to gain ownership. Uses URL cloaking.
The Catch - Pop-up or pop-under ads are annoying.

Free Domain(s) Offered - .com .net .org .info
Website - www.dnlister.com
Nameserver Control - Yes
Forced Ads - Yes
Requirements - You must post to get a domain.
Time Registered - 1 year (or more)
Free Domain Limit - Unknown
Scam? - Unknown (maybe)
Other Info - 4 points per thread, 2 points per post, and points for playing in the arcade. You need 420 points for a free domain.
The Catch - Posting may take a long time, and this offer may not last very long.

Free Domain(s) Offered - Depends...
Website - www.opendomain.org
Nameserver Control - Yes
Forced Ads - No
Requirements - You must apply for a domain.
Time Registered - Unlimited
Free Domain Limit - Unknown
Scam? - Unknown (maybe)
Other Info - There is a list of domain names to choose from. However, chances that you'll be approved for one are low.
The Catch - Even though you have nameserver control, they still own the domain(s).

Free Domain(s) Offered - .cg
Website - www.nic.cg (Republic of Congo)
Nameserver Control - Yes
Forced Ads - None
Requirements - Must be a citizen, company, or organization in the Republic of Congo.
Time Registered - 1 year (or more)
Free Domain Limit - Limited to 1 domain
Scam? - No
Other Info - They "generally require that the applicant faxes us the proof of his citizenship/right of residence".
The Catch - Must be a citizen, company, or organization in the Republic of Congo.


Here is a list of services that are no longer available:
http://www.s5network.info - free .com .net .org .info .biz offer
http://www.registerfly.com, www.nucleus.be - free .be offer
http://www.goodluckdomain.in/dotorg.html - free .org offer
http://www.domainsite.com - free .info offer
http://forums.inuration.net - free .com .net .org .info .biz offer

SOURCE : IGBFORUMS..<Dont have the link...>

[Pathik]

WHERES THE THX BUTTON......
and 1 more ... www.freedomain.co.nr
jus register and get.. no conditions, no ads...

[sanprince]

interesting and informative... looks like a lot of research has been done...

[aditya.shevade]

Well no thanks button, but I can add to your reputation.

Great!

Aditya

[tuxfan]

Good list. From where have you picked up this list? I have my doubts about its originality because some of the offers have already been discotinued since about 4 months!! So whichever list you referred itself is old!! :|

Its a rule of the forum that whenever you give something lifted straight off the net, you must give the source!! Are you sure its your original work? If you say "yes" and any of us finds the source, you will surely get a -ve rep (at least).

Secondly, don't beg for reputations and thanks! For that very reason, I feel like giving you a -ve rep!

[~Romil]

Hehe, quite right tuxfan, this article comes straight out of a forum where there is a "Thanks" button ;)

One word of advice: Freebies come with a price. If you're looking for some serious stuff dont go for these.

FYI, .info and .org cost just around 130 bucks till July 31st. So, why settle for less when you can have a dedicated TLD and full control over your domain.

[Pathik]

rs310 per domain..... indialinks.com ..tis safe and reliable 99.99% uptime

[~Romil]

rs310 per domain..... indialinks.com ..tis safe and reliable 99.99% uptime
Do you really require uptime/downtime figures for domains? Hardly, unelss you got a wrost registrar involved. ;)

99.9% Uptime SLA is their hosting specifications.

Still, I advice go for a Directi reseller, they got a easier interface, best price and full control over your domain.

[pop143]

rs310 per domain..... indialinks.com ..tis safe and reliable 99.99% uptime

registration charges..310rs?? or annual fees??

i guess..its better free of ads with paid service.....than 2 wait and rely on free services...for buisness use....hmmm..4 personal also we cud opt..if the payment is little/..!

bye

[blueshift]

Good work.

[Pathik]

@pop its the annual charge....
check out the link for more info....
also they have a office in mumbai where u can make the payments..

[tuxfan]

Do you really require uptime/downtime figures for domains? Hardly, unelss you got a wrost registrar involved. ;)

99.9% Uptime SLA is their hosting specifications.

Still, I advice go for a Directi reseller, they got a easier interface, best price and full control over your domain.

:) Right. He has mistaken hosting features for domain registration features. Domains and hosting always needs to be renewed. Domains are minimum for a year, hosting is minimum for a month. But for convenience, people pay annual charges even for hosting ;)

And yes, here's a little SP :p I am a DirectI reseller.

BTW, this is what I think generally on domains and especially on free domains!

You should NEVER fall for a free domain, unless you have complete control over it. You should be able to change DNS or transfer to any other registrar at your will! And what is the cost of a .com/.net these days? Just about Re. 1 per day!! And .in about Rs. 2 per day!! Is that very expensive? The person who controls the domain, controls the site!! Why take free domains? Afterall your sites are known by the domain name and not the IP of your hosting server!

[pop143]

pathik , in rs 310..we have domain and have web redirection service.
so we can target to any ip address and website url.


but another web redirection for rs 400/750 also give in the same website..wot is diff?? its given 750-no banner.!!


is that 310..new service offered by them..do it have any banners ads in our site??



Which domain u recommend me..??

.com or .net

is there any technical diff? liek high bandwidth , traffic count..?? or any?? please reply..!

[Pathik]

@pop if the domain u want is popular then mostly its already registered...
but if u still get it then take a .com... as they r easy to remember
and in 310 pack u get url redirection + cloaking etc....
wen i had seen it earlier there were no ads but now it seems that they have changed the schemes....

[tuxfan]

310 is a nice price. But check the type of control you get over the domain name. Do you have a username and password to manage the domain name? Can you change DNS? Can you transfer it to some other registrar without indialink's interference? Please check all these and then register.

I recently had a client, who couldn't host with me simply because he couldn't change the DNS of his domains. When he wanted to trasnfer the domain name, it was blocked by his registrar/reseller. So see if you get these things and controll. You have to very careful in case of domains because people know your site by your domain name.

[sanju]

useful info

[knight17]

About all the brick bats..
Thanks for pointing it out... :)
I dont know the exact location but I have given the name of the site...
I will try to keep up with the rules of the forum...
Thanks everyone for guidig me

[spiceluvver]

great work

[Third Eye]

Thanks

[Oracle]

@tuxfan Thanks ,for the advice. I hope others also realise howimportant it is to have complete control over your domian name.:)

[tuxfan]

:) You are welcome.

[ketanbodas]

Gr8 Tut. Thanks man :-)

[GeeNeeYes]

can we get an update on this topic by Digit forum members.
It will surely be appreciated... Thank you

[kirtan]

gr8 wrk dude

[tuxfan]

can we get an update on this topic by Digit forum members.
It will surely be appreciated... Thank you

What update are you looking for? :confused:

[GeeNeeYes]

What update are you looking for? :confused:
well my friend i was hoping for some good current offer which gives top level domain for free :D without any requirements of posting or points or referrals

my brother availed of the .be domain free offer and i wanted something similar with complete nameserver control to use Google Apps for Domain with it

thank you and nice info posted..

[tuxfan]

well my friend i was hoping for some good current offer which gives top level domain for free :D

Hmm. Guess you have not read my earlier posts in this thread. Have a look at this post (http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showpost.php?p=275264&postcount=12)

BTW, have you ever wondered from where will the costs be recovered for the domain if there is no need for posting or there are no referrals or there are no ads??

[vipinkumarsolanki]

very interesting and informative

[navjotjsingh]

If you need real free domain ... head to www.namepros.com - 450NP$ to be earned to get free domain with whole lots of features...your own nameservers, mail forward, nameserver edit, Cname,MX records edit. And if you say you need to post a lot for getting domain...no ways...head to NP Incentives..complete offers and earn NP$ really fast!
They offer .info, .us, .org, .net and .biz domains too!

[ravi_9793]

gud work dude.

[JhonCena]

thank you very very very much


But one left

http://www.c-o.in/
__________
if anyone know Free .in Domain Name Providers plzzzz tell me

[jrkraj]

thanks for posting such a e-useful post

[QwertyManiac]

if anyone know Free .in Domain Name Providers plzzzz tell me
None.

[int86]

Is switching to another domain name is easy, hosting to remain as before.

[ahref]

Is switching to another domain name is easy, hosting to remain as before.
Contact your host for this he has to modify you account information for that. Also you may loose your traffic and search engine position.

[tuxfan]

Is switching to another domain name is easy, hosting to remain as before.

Switching to another domain name means a whole new site by itself :( All your visitors will have to be made aware of your new address. Switching hosting is simpler. You can have a look at the following posts on my blog on how to shift hosting. There are some more posts that will come on this topic as soon as I find some time ;)

Shift website hosting - part 1 (static site) (http://www.ashishmehta.com/blog/2006/09/26/shift-website-hosting-part-1-static-site/)
Shift website hosting - part 2 (leftover emails) (http://www.ashishmehta.com/blog/2006/09/28/shift-hosting-part-2-leftover-emails/)
Shift website hosting - part 3(1) (dynamic sites, CMS) (http://www.ashishmehta.com/blog/2006/11/07/shift-hosting-part-31-dynamic-sites-cms/)

[int86]

thanx @tuxfan u r always a helping hand.
Going to read your blog. (i.e. going to ask you more)
I dont know any type of php or html coding, just know Front Page. Will i be able to host and maintain a light website. U know my intensions. In due course I will try to gain knowledge.
__________
@tuxfan
Great work dude.

[mehulved]

Int you can use some CMS for maintaining your web site. It doesn't really require any knowledge of any type of coding unless you want to do all kinds of personalisation.
But, it would be good to atleast learn HTML and CSS. They are easy to learn and very useful. W3Schools (www.w3schools.com) is a nice place to learn.

[tuxfan]

@ int86, first and foremost, throw out Frontpage. It simply sucks! Instead try out NVu. Of course, the best thing is to not use any such WYSIWYG editors and write the code.

Learn XHTML, CSS and some basic PHP. XHTML is little different from HTML but is the future. tech_your_future has given the link. Have a look.

[titun]

Pop comes a question in my mind. I have a blog at blogger, which is redirected to a .tk domain name as u can see in my signature.
But I wanted to learn HTML and design pages for my own site. Now w3schools.com has very good tutorials, but where can I find a free host. If u visit my site, u can see I have not added any ADs, I don't like them.
So where can I find a totally AD free site host ?? My traffic/bandwidth requirements are not high though.

[knight17]

Sometimes CMS become complicated for the first timer.Drupal for example
Int you can use some CMS for maintaining your web site. It doesn't really require any knowledge of any type of coding unless you want to do all kinds of personalisation.
But, it would be good to atleast learn HTML and CSS. They are easy to learn and very useful. W3Schools is a nice place to learn.

[tuxfan]

Pop comes a question in my mind. I have a blog at blogger, which is redirected to a .tk domain name as u can see in my signature.
But I wanted to learn HTML and design pages for my own site. Now w3schools.com has very good tutorials, but where can I find a free host. If u visit my site, u can see I have not added any ADs, I don't like them.
So where can I find a totally AD free site host ?? My traffic/bandwidth requirements are not high though.

Free hosting without ads will require forum posting. After all even they have their costs to cover! If you google, you will find plenty of free hosting options without ads. Some will give you a sub-domain/folder on their main domain, some will let you have your own domain.

[titun]

Free hosting without ads will require forum posting. After all even they have their costs to cover!.

Hummm...u r right, I understand. Let me Google. Btw any suggestions tuxfan ??

[mehulved]

Sometimes CMS become complicated for the first timer.Drupal for example
Yeah no doubt there are some CMS's like drupal and civicspace can be a real mumbo jumbo for those who are relatively new to CMS's. And if there's a problem you'll never know what to do, if you don't know php.
But, does he have much options at this point of time when he doesn't even know HTML. So, even if he gets some templets from some good sites, he won't be able to customise it to his liking. So, will it be with the themes for CMS's.

[int86]

Thanx everybody.

[tuxfan]

I think you can try yurx.com. Although I haven't had a vert satisfying experience (its too slow most of the times), you can try :)

Google will show you many more links ;)

[Ron]

good list.......