Hi Charlotte,
A domain name such as earnmorecashnow.com is basically registered for your use via a domain name Registrar. It is generally registered on a yearly basis (or for two years, or three years, or four years...). In other words, you will have to pay a registration fee and keep it registered for your use in order to continue using it. If you let your domain name expire, then anyone else could register it once it becomes available and you would lose your domain name.
If your domain anme was registered via iPower during the course of signing up for your web hosting account and you got the previously recommended $7.95/month (paid annually) account, then your domain name registration was included free with your web hosting account and I believe they keep it registered for you in this manner for as long as you keep your hosting account.
A domain name Registrar is separate from a web hosting account, although many web hosting companies provide registration services as well. iPower actually goes through Tucows for their domain name registrations.
I previously had a couple of domain names that I'm not really using, but when I got my iPower account a year and a half ago I got another free domain name with them since it was included with my web hosting account and they registered it for me.
At that time, I also transferred my other domain names to iPower since they were so much cheaper than my previous registrar. When I did so, they had provided me with info to administer my domain names via this link:
manage.opensrs.net/In any case, if you wish to change web hosting companies, I would recommend that you switch to
BlueHost as recommended by Erich and Tom. Here is the link for BlueHost:
www.toponlineprofits.com/WebHosting2Your domain name registration is technically independent of your web hosting, so you can have your domain name registered with one company and your web site hosted with a different company.
However, if you kept your current domain name registration via iPower/Tucows but cancelled your iPower web hosting account then I'm sure you would have to pay an annual renewal fee for your domain name registration since you would no longer have the hosting account that it was previously included with.
I would recommend switching your registration to the new company as well, but it is not necessary to do so. If you do transfer your domain name to a new registrar then I would suggest starting the process at least 2-3 weeks prior to it coming due if possible, as I think I once read something about having to initiate a transfer at least 14 days prior to it expiring in the registration agreement or something along those lines.
You may find this older post to be of interest....it discusses switching from Host4Profit (an older host that some of us used prior to TOPS/3PP) to iPower, but the same general principles apply:
erichw33.proboards53.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=1160625223&page=1#1160739779Regarding your questions, it is essentially YOUR web site and domain name since you are the one that registered the domain name and paid for the hosting/registration, so you can answer yes to those questions if this is what iPower is asking. Basically they don't want to make any transfers or changes to a given account without the owner's permission, otherwise anyone could call in and request a change to your account without your consent.
I would also recommend that if you change hosting companies and/or registrars that you get your new account well in advance and have your files all set up on it. When it comes time to change over, you would tell your registrar to point your domain name to your new web host, and then it will take a couple of days for the change to propagate to the various DNS servers located throughout the Internet. If you do it correctly, you can essentially avoid having any downtime and no one would notice that you changed hosts.
You may wish to review the following thread about changing web hosts and registrars:
erichw33.proboards53.com/index.cgi?board=web&action=display&thread=1145387345&page=1#1145424582You may also wish to check out the following threads for more information on DNS servers, domain name registration, and web hosts, and how they work:
erichw33.proboards53.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1160625223&page=1#1160632090erichw33.proboards53.com/index.cgi?board=adsmark&action=display&thread=1139536136&page=3#1150473242erichw33.proboards53.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1182611387&page=1#1182642053Hope this helps.
Troy
I just need to know what I'm supposed to say, or do to keep the same web site name.
I just need to know what I'm supposed to say, or do to keep the same web site name.
