domain name and web hosting

[waynedodd]

do i have to have web hosting from bt if i have purchased a domain name from them

[Sogo7]

No you don't have to.

[Sogo7]

Both X10Hosting and 000Web Hosting will allow you to open a free web hosting account and use a domain name that has been purchased seperately.

Naturally free means that these hosting accounts are missing some features normally found with other premium hosting services however if you are using a simple WYSIWYG website builder  to create a site then you're unlikey to even notice their abscence.

Hosting details for these free accounts are roughly the same..

Disk Space: 1500MB

Monthly Traffic: 100GB

Sub-Domains : 5

SQL databases: 2 (with unlimited storage)

[winton]

Nope, but be very very careful. You have to be extremely patient and courageous if you are going to use your own domain name with BT. There are a number of issues relating to e-mail.

1) If your domain registration is not up to date and absolutely correct they will not allow you to use their smtp servers without setting up mail relay permissions on their servers.  Fair enough, but it is all downhill from here.

2) Instead you have to send a fax to a mysterious fax number which takes about an hour to get out of them. The number is 01382 201594 .... you can eventually find this number by phoning 0845 6007020 and waiting about half an hour to get to talk to a human being.  Do not call 0800 400 400 - this leads to a voice recognition lady who recognises the request "Set up e-mail relay" but then refers you to 0330 1230804 which has a menu that has no relevance to mail relay in any way. It does however allow you to suggest that you might cancel your account with them and boy does that get an answer quickly - and with luck that person will give you the 0845 number.

3) That does not do you much good as we have tried sending a fax to that over a number of days and it is ALWAYS engaged.

4) At that point you are stuck. However, if you can get your domain details right - and actually that means having your domain name in some way recognisable on the WHOIS database with details that match the details on your broadband telephone bill - then they will actually set you up over the phone on the 0845 number above.

If not, you are stuffed ... and there is literally nothing you can do as the channels within BT to inform them of what you want to do simply do not exist.

I am writing this out in the hope that some moderator might actually read it. I have lost two clients because of this, and in addition I know of some others who have simply given up and changed their ISP AND their phone provider because of it.

I think that mysterious fax machine and number must be costing BT an absolute fortune in lost business, one of their operators told me that they have hundreds of requests coming through all the time and they simply cannot get another process set up to sort this out.  Ho hum ....

[JohnE]

Winton, I am extremely sorry that you have had such difficulty with this.  Mail relay is really rather a simple process and can be easily handled if you Contact Us

However, since we do not own or host the domains in question, we require that domain ownership be clearly demonstrated.  This means simply, that we compare the registration information for the domain (a WhoIs lookup is performed) and this is compared with the account information of the customer who is requesting it.  We are fairly liberal, as long as there is one match, address, organisation name, for example, the domain will be listed on the account for mail relay there and then.  There can be a propagation delay of up to 24 hours but more often than not, it's active more or less instantly.

The difficulty occurs when we can't relate the WhoIs information to the account information.  Frequently, this is due to the domain either being registered by 3rd parties on behalf of the domain owner or the domain owner concealing their details from a WhoIs search.  In these circumstances, we require some proof of ownership.  We understand that ownership certificates are not always provided by hosts, so we will accept other proof, for example, an invoice for the domain(s).

Domains which are not owned by the account holder can also be accomodated if a letter providing permission to use the domain name for mail relay is provided, on the letterhead of the domain owner.

If you have difficulty with the FAX number, we will accept a submission via e-mail, to: admin@btnames.com Obviously, scans of the supporting documentation would need to be attached.