I swear, some days I run into problems that make me wish I had a blog
just so I could rant about them. One day it's people I meet, another day it's software or hardware issues, and another day it's politics. Today it's
123-reg.co.uk.
My local church wants a website, and we've just about built one. We've decided on a domain name, so we just need to hand over some money to register it, and get a host. I expect it'll use no more than 20MB of space, I doubt it'll ever hit even the most draconian download cap, POP3 would be nice, FTP access is essential, and I'd like to use .htaccess files to make a secure area. Fine.
So we come to 123-reg. They list the domain as available, and will charge £9 to register it. They offer small hosting packages for £1.59 a month, which allow .htaccess files, give 150MB of space, 1.5GB bandwidth, and 15 POP3 mailboxes. Fine.
But god DAMN does their website suck! The "I've forgotten my password" form fails silently, the registration process changes your username without telling you, they use HTTP authentication to secure their site, the FAQ tells you nothing about account management, neither the website or the registration email give any indication on how to delete your account, they require information like home phone numbers and postcodes, the logout button doesn't, and if you have any queries beyond what the website provides they'll happily charge you a pound a minute for a phone call to resolve things.
And these are people I'm supposed to be entrusting my credit card details to?So I'm a little distressed, I've just about decided not to bother with these people, and am scanning through their FAQ looking for anything that might convince me otherwise. And then I come across this little gem:
Q. Is there a restriction on upload and download speed?
Upload speed is unrestricted, but download speed is restricted to 1.3kb.
Er, no. Anyone getting my CC details WILL be using a proper login/logout system, they WILL have a website that works, they WON'T charge me extortionate amounts of money for simple support requests, they WON'T hide important and crippling account details several links deep on their site, and they WON'T be 123-reg.co.uk.
So, anyone know a simple, cheap and cheerful domain name registrar and website host?