Domain Registration with 123-Reg

Domain registration with 123-reg.co.uk is a short, painless process. Just follow these simple steps. Click on the 123-reg.co.uk link above in order to open a 123-reg window before working through the instructions. If you are running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 you may need to hold down the control (Ctrl) key whilst clicking.

1. Decide which domain(s) you want to register. Your choice will depend on which domains have already been used, so if your company name isn't particularly unique you should be ready to go for alternatives.
   As a guide:
   • Domains ending in .co.uk and .com are most familiar to people and are therefore to be recommended. The .co.uk domains are cheaper (under £10 for two years) than the .com domains (around £30 for two years).
   • Short domain names are usually already in use. You won't be able to get a four character .com domain, for example. Also, common (and obscure) words are generally taken. If you have an unusual company name you're probably not going to have a problem, but otherwise word combinations are a useful alternative.
   • Before you commit to a domain name, think about how you will tell people about it. For example, if you give someone your email or web address over the telephone, how easy is it to spell? If you were given the address, would you remember it? It is possible, for example, to buy .uk.co domains, but most people when they see one assume that it should be .co.uk and "correct" it.
   • Following from the last point, be careful about hyphens and numbers. If your address includes a number, will people be tempted to spell it or use the number directly? Is it easier to say tell someone that your address is "
     www.joe-bloggs-limited.com
     " or "
     www.joebloggslimited.com
     "? Is "limited" spelt in full or abbreviated to "ltd"?
   Before you get put off, remember that if there is a good domain name out there that suits you it may not be available later if you put it off, and almost any possibility is better than
   www.joebloggs.fsbusiness.co.uk
   .
2. Open the 123-reg website. You can do this by clicking here - the site will open in a new window.
3. Click on the Sign Up button on the top right hand side, now you can create an account. Fill out the details form noting your preferred username, you will need this later. Once signed up you will be given a password, this will be quite hard to remember, but you will also receive an email with it in, and you get the chance to change it from the members control panel.
4. Once you have a username and password login to the members control panel, this time you have the details needed to fill in the popup security window.
5. Once logged into your account you can Order New Domain Names. Enter the domain name you wish to purchase,under Register / Transfer your domain name, if available you will find it in the list with a tick next to it, you can then search for further domains or proceed to checkout.
6. You will then be asked to selectany optional extras. We reccomend that you leave these. If you do require any of these optional extras, they can be purchased at a later date. You will probably already have a basic site set up, or you have some free webspace with your current dial up ISP, or you will need a specialised hosting company.
7. Enter the details that are going to be recorded against the domain - the legal owner of the domain, please note that some of this information will be available via the internet so please think about telephone number etc.
8. Once complete you are shown what you are purchasing, and its cost. Depending on the domain you may have a choice of selecting the period to register the domain for.
9. If you are happy proceed to the next screen and enter your credit card details. This site is secure, you can check this by looking for the closed padlock at the bottom right of the browser window (Internet Explorer).
10. Congratulations you have now purchased yourself a domain name! Domains can take a day or two to process from here. You will get information about this by email after registration. For example, for .co.uk and .org.uk domains you can tell that the domain has been registered by checking it at on the 123-reg website.
11. Meanwhile we can set up your email and website forwarding details, click on configure domains button.
12. Email address forwarding first. Go to the control panel and select the domain you wish to setup from the drop down, (you may only have the one domain in the list). Select Update Catch All Email Forwarding. This is where things may become slightly confusing. You need to decide how email sent to someone@yourdomain.co.uk gets handled, where should it be forwarded? If you have a single mailbox such as you@freeserve.co.uk then option 4 is the one for you. All email sent to whateveryoulike@yourdomain.co.uk will get sent to you@freeserve.co.uk without the sender knowing. If you have a number of email boxes such as sales@mycompany.freeserve.co.uk, info@mycompany.freeserve.co.uk etc you will need option 3. This will forward all the sales emails to sales@yourdomain.co.uk and all the info emails to info@yourdomain.co.uk etc. Options 1 and 2 are really used at a more advanced level, you don't want to be bouncing email unless you are sure you know what you are doing. Don't forget to enter your freeserve email address in the box provided.
13. Website forwarding. This is slightly easier, you either have an existing website or you don't. If you do then select Framed web-forwarding and enter the existing address of your website, it will be something like http://www.freeserve.co.uk/freespace/yourname. If you do not have a website than for the time being you can leave the default selected - No web-forwarding. We you visit your new domain in 24-48 hours time you will see what is called a parking/holding page, 123-reg create a temporary page saying the domain has been purchased by one of there customers.

We hope this short guide proves useful.
Please tell us if you have any problems, or if you think it could be improved.