I'm about transition a few domains off dyndns.com. They want $25/year/domain to use their DNS configuration tool.

I hold about a dozen domains and I host a lot of these on linodes. It would be nice to have all this stuff in the same place.

And I'd prefer to contribute to a company like linode rather than godaddy. I got nothing against godaddy, but they're not doing anything that I find interesting.

Just a thought.

Matt

Maybe, if Linode were ICANN-accredited.

Otherwise it would depend a lot on who they were reselling.

Can't you just register at dyndns.com, and use Linode's (or anybody's, or your own) DNS service? Your complaint seems to be with dyndns.org's DNS, which you're not required to use.

It's certainly convenient to have your domain, dns, and website all in one place, but I'd much rather distribute them across at least two different providers. That way, if something happens to one of the companies I do business with, at least I retain some control over my website/services. Not that I think it's going to happen to Linode any time soon, but still... as a safety measure. It sucks when (1) your domain registrar suddenly goes out of business, or (2) your web host (or server provider) cancels your account for some reason. It sucks even more if both (1) and (2) happen together.

I heartily agree with this. I also have a lot of respect for companies that strive to excel in their core competencies, and not meddle in every little service that could possibly be offered. Linode does a *great* job with their VPS service. Not that they couldn't do a great job in a domain registrar role as well, but it would just take time/thought/etc away from the VPS service.

Go to OnlineNic, pay the fifty bucks, or whatever the minimum is these days and become your own reseller. Problem Solved.

I disagree with comments about not meddling in other afairs. Judging by what linode has managed to show us in 5 years, you would think by now that they know what they were doing. So if they chose to implement Domain Registration, i think that would be a fantastic addition.

They already have slightly strayed away from being solely VPS. They already provide us with a DNS service which is probably one of the main things you could look for from a Domain Register apart from the registering domains part, so surely Domain Registration couldn't be that much harder for them to implement if they were to chose to focus some of their efforts there.

Whilst there are many other companies out there that provide Domain registration, lets be honest, who really wants to leave their domains in the hands of places like GoDaddy, or DreamHost or any other slightly dodgy hosting provider.. If i had a choice, id rather have mine with linode.

_________________
ServerAdmin - www.our-lan.com
"Diplomacy is the art of saying nice doggy whilst looking for a really big stick"
"In my experiece, any attempt to make any system idiot proof will only challenge God to make a better idiot"

I don't think linode would want to do domain registrations. There is a lot more involved than just implementing it into their website and their volume would probably not be sufficient to make sense. There can be all kinds of headaches with different requirements for different TLDs.

DNS was easy enough for them to add and is something everyone needs.

I prefer linode spend their time doing VPS right rather than trying to do many things poorly.

I personally use enom now after using bulkregister for a long time. Bulkregsiter actually now was purchased by enom but their prices are still higher?! Enom isn't the best but at least they aren't GoDaddy. Enom's hosting services are quite lame also.

Also wouldn't it be easier to just run your own DNS? If you don't want to edit zone files by hand you can install webmin and do it via web interface.

FYI, if you are interested in an enom account and don't want to pay the 195 sign up fee you can get an account under me http://www.techdroid.com/enom.html for free.

-Stefan

Something Xan missed is that DNS is not Domain Registration. Linode already provides DNS management. Adding Domain Registration, for those who want it, is a logical extension of their services.

I can highly recommend Tucows/OpenSRS http://opensrs.com/ as a domain registrar reseller choice as they have several good options for integration, both simple HTML forms to brand and a full API.

Disclosure: I have no relation to Tucows or OpenSRS. I used their services when I worked at an ISP and was very impressed. I'm in the process of setting up an account with them again for my new employer. We don't do high volume and are not looking for the thin profit margin, it is simply a matter of control, billing, and a seamless experience for our clients.

While I agree that for a lot of people it makes sense to keep their Domain Registrations and their Web Hosting separate it makes just as much sense for a lot of other people to have it all together.

@sschueller: No, for most people it isn't easier to "just run their own DNS" even if that just means installing webmin. If you want to tear down your linode what happens to your DNS server? Offline. OpenSRS also makes navigating the "headaches of different TLDs" pretty easy, you post their standard forms to your site, they confirm you posted them, and you are good to go.

I don't recall missing that; in fact the point of my post was that they are separate, and you can register your name one place and get DNS elsewhere. That being the case, I really don't see any need for Linode to provide domain registration.

Yeah I say no, Linode does is job well and should continue to focus on that. I split my domain registar's across two myself. I also split it even further to where I have a service for DNS and yet others for email. I go with who does a particular job well and stick with them. I'm not a fan of everything under the sink provider who only does a number of things mediocre.

Focus on what you do and do it well is my motto

Sorry if I misrepresented you there Xan. I guess more to my point was that I thought the original poster was asking specifically about registrar services because they wanted to move all service from that registrar including the DNS management control panel.

Reading the first post by mw44118 again that may not be the case though I would guess it is. If the only reason for moving was the DNS control panel fee then your suggestion would make the most sense. In any case only the original poster is likely to clear that up!

As far as Linode doing one thing and one thing well, in the case of OpenSRS at least, they would just be using the OpenSRS API and the Tucows infrastructure. The domains would survive Linode provided Tucows stays around, which seems pretty likely at this point. The quality of the adds to the interface would be up to Linode.

I think it could be a great feature, worthy of a great control panel. Having used MediaTemple, cPanel, Helm, and Webmin over the course of the last year it has kept me very impressed. Of course it all really depends on if there is enough demand to make it worth their while. Ironically for all my support of the idea I probably wouldn't use it much.

I just think it would be a big win on the convenience side for some Linode customers and while not a bunch of revenue that can be an attraction and retention mechanism as well as a nickle machine none of which are a bad thing for business.

I personally register all my domains through an independent registrar who sells domains and only domains.

But I vote no for domain registration, if you ask me you'd be opening up a can of worms with domain registration. It would draw a lot of time and manpower away from focusing on what really matters.

On top of that, in order to stay competitive in the domain registration market you really need to set your prices < $10. This leaves an extremely marginal markup, so unless you've got thousands of customers the return is not (in my experience) worth the effort.

Mind you, a lot of companies just offer domain registration as a courtesy to their customers and don't actually have any objective to make money through it, and if this were the case and it weren't for the fact that I think it would consume a lot of man hours and slow the support, I'd be for it.

I don't think caker, tasaro, mikegrb or jadoba will be performing a curtsy - "making a gesture of respect or reverence made chiefly by women by bending the knees with one foot forward and lowering the body" - any time soon. They may, however, may elect to offer services as a courtesy to their customers.

_________________
/ Peter

Somewhere, a long long time ago, caker posted a link to the domain registration page TheShore.net had in the IRC channel. Discussion then ensued on this topic. If someone wants to find the channel logs...