Oftentimes customers will approach me after they have already chosen a domain name. What I investigate first is who actually owns that domain name. I no longer ask customer directly, because 99.9% of time response is always "I do!" when in fact many of them unwittingly do not. Determining this is an easy step; you simply go to an independent domain registrar such as Register.com, http://www.register.com, and type in domain name and choose whois when results pop up. Feel free to go and type in connecticutsecretary.com and choose whois. You will see that I, Kate Smalley, am listed as owner and administrative contact for Connecticut Secretary. The technical contact is simply hosting service I have chosen.

The problem we run into is when individuals have chosen to purchase their domain name through a hosting service at a discounted rate. The hosting service is company that purchases and owns your domain name, and in essence you sometimes just end up renting it along with your hosting service. This is a great way for hosting company to ensure continued business. Think about if, in future, you decide to change hosting services. Who do you think you will have to contact to have your domain redirected to another hosting provider? How anxious do you think they will be to provide service to you? How quickly do you feel they will redirect your url? What will happen if they forget to renew your domain name and someone else obtains control and ownership of it? What happens if that hosting company goes out of business? I have seen it happen. To take this conversation one step further, there are now hosting companies that will purchase domain in your name, so you are official owner, but they still retain control over your usage of account. An important point to remember is that ownership of an account as well as having ability to use account are important features when deciding how to purchase your domain name. "...in essence you sometimes just end up renting... "