Web RedirectionIf you are into technology like I am, you probably like the idea of owning your own domain name. You would rather people go to http://www.YourCoolDomainName.com rather than http://www.yourISP.com/~LameSubdirectory that was given to you by your Internet Provider. Not to mention that you would probably want to have your own e-mail address as well.

In the past, this would have been cost prohibitive for someone set this up because domain name registration had been very costly and web hosting was also expensive. If you just have a small website that doesn’t get a lot of hits and you would like to have a cool domain name and a cool e-mail address to go along with it, you could never justify the cost.

Until now!

I have figured out how to use a couple of services on the Internet to allow you to use your present web space and e-mail address and redirect a domain of your choice to these websites for as little as $1.21 per year. While not free, $1.21 per year is pretty reasonable.

Here is how this is done.

Step 1: Register Your Domain

The first step is to register your domain. I use GoDaddy simply because they will sell me a .INFO domain name for 99¢ plus a 22¢ ICANN fee. It does not really matter who you sign up your domain name with as long as they are reputable.

This comes to a grand total of $1.21 and is all that you will have to pay for the entire year.

If you have a few more dollars to spare, you can also get other top level domains (TLD) such as .COM, .NET, .ORG, etc. but if you are just looking at a small personal website, this is probably more than you need.

It may take some time for everything to go through so while it is doing that, feel free to move on to Step 2.

Step 2: Set up A MyDomain Account

The next thing that you need to do is set up a MyDomain account. Once you have a MyDomain account set up, you will be able to manage domains that you have not registered with them and you can then redirect your domains to your other website.

The account creation process is very straight forward so I will not go into detail about this.

Once you have receive confirmation that your domain has been properly registered and that your MyDomain account is up and running, go on to Step 3.

Step 3: Configure DNS

Your domain registrar need to know who will be handling all of the DNS requests for your domain. We want to had MyDomain handle all of these requests. To do this, you need to log into your account for your domain registrar and then set your domain’s DNS settings to:

NS1.MYDOMAIN.COM
NS2.MYDOMAIN.COM
NS3.MYDOMAIN.COM
NS4.MYDOMAIN.COM

This way,MyDomain will handle all of the DNS requests for your domain name.

The DNS setting changes can take up to 48 hours to work so be patient at this point. But, just because you are waiting does not mean that you can’t go on to the next steps. It just means that all of the options that you set in the next steps will not be active until the DNS settings have propagated throughout the Internet. So, on to Step 4.

Step 4: Add Your Domain to MyDomain

Log back into your MyDomain account and go to the section that indicated you want to manage domains that are not registered with MyDomain. The exact wording is:

To manage domains not registered with us, click here

You will then need to click on the Add Domains button on the next page. Simply type your domain (or domains) one at a time into the field. Just put in the domain name and not the www or anything else in front of it. Also make sure that you add one domain per line. Click on the Add button to continue.

Once your domain has been verified and added to your account, you are ready to add the forwarding service to your account in Step 5.

Step 5: Add Forwarding to Your Account

This is the part that makes people nervous because the way MyDomain has set up their system, it looks like you are buying something but actually you are purchasing a service for $0.00.

Click on the Add Services link that appears at the end of Step 4. You will be taken to a page with a whole list of services that you can add to your domain. Ignore all of them and just look at the shopping cart at the right hand side of your screen. It should have listed in there your domain name and beneath it Domain Tools Bundle. This is the only service that you want on your domain and you will notice that it is $0.00.

Click on the Continue button to be taken to the next page. Check off that you have read and understand the Registration Agreement and click Complete Order. It will now process your order. This may take a few seconds. Once it is complete you can click on the Continue button to see your invoice. An invoice for $0.00 will be e-mailed to you at the supplied e-mail address as well.

Click on the Goto My Account button and then proceed to Step 6.

Step 6: Configuring Web Forwarding

You are now back at the main page for your account. Just like in Step 4, find:

To manage domains not registered with us, click here

and use this link to get to your domain. You should now see your domain name listed. (If you do not see your domain name listed, click on the Refresh Display link. This should solve that issue.) Click on the Forwarding/DNS Management link beside your domain name. This will allow you to set up all of your web and e-mail forwarding settings.

Find the section that says URL Forwarding. This is where you will put in your specific information to have your domain name forwarded to your website. For this example, we are going to assume that you have a website called The Best Stuff at http://www.yourISP.com/~LameSubdirectory. In this case, you would fill out the URL Forwarding section as follows:

  • Destination: http://www.yourISP.com/~LameSubdirectory
  • Title: The Best Stuff
  • Pass subdirectories: Checked
  • Forwarding Type: Stealth URL Forwarding

Click on the Update button and you are done. Now, once the DNS has propagated throughout the Internet, anyone who goes to your domain name will automatically end up at your website.

Now, you will also want to set up your e-mail to work the same way. We do this in Step 7.

Step 7: Configuring E-Mail Forwarding

For this step, we are going to assume that your e-mail address is me@myisp.com and you want all e-mails that go to thedude@yourcooldomainname.com to come to you. Simply find the Email Forwarding section for your domain (This will be below the URL Forwarding section.).

Next, you will see a blank followed by @yourcooldomainname.com (This will actually be your domain name, I am just using this as an example.) In that blank, put in thedude for an Alias name. Under the Forward To field, enter your e-mail address (in our example, it would be me@myisp.com).

Click on Update and you are done!

Step 8: Edit E-Mail Client (Optional)

Since you now have this cool new e-mail address set up, you probably want it to show up when you send people e-mail. Simply change the e-mail address in your mail client from your ISP e-mail address to your new e-mail address. Make sure that you leave everything else the same because you are still technically using your ISP e-mail address and you need to send and receive your e-mails through their servers.

Conclusion

It takes a little bit of effort but it is well worth it to have your own $1.21 domain name!

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Tim Fehlman