Im just about to purchase webhosting from www.34sp.com but dont want there free domain cus it will have there name on the end.
they say you can use your own domain for free so im going to purchase my domain from 123reg and they say

We don't charge a domain name release fee (unlike most of our competitors).

Will i have to ask them to release it or cant i just tell 34sp that i own it.

When you register a domain, the company you register it with controls it for you (i.e 123-reg). So you log into 123-reg and point the domain to where its hosted (this will be done for you if you buy hosting and domain name from the same company). If you want to change where the domain is hosted you do it through 123-reg.

Originally posted by jedd59
We don't charge a domain name release fee (unlike most of our competitors).


What this means is if you want to move the control of your domain to a different company (possilby a web host) they won't charge you to do. Many web hosts also offer this for free but 34sp charge you $15/£10.

The best thing to do is buy the domain through an independant domain company like 123-reg and get your hosting from a hosting company like 34sp. Then you edit the IPSTAG (.co.uk etc) or nameservers (.com/org/net etc) to point to the web hosts. So you just tell 34sp that you have your own domain. Read the page 34sp.com/domaintransfer.html for more info.

HTH

IT says on that page

You should be aware that you DO NOT need to transfer your domain to 34SP.com in order to use it with your web hosting account. You simply need to update your domain's DNS to point to our nameservers


Is it free and easy to do this if i purchase my domain from 123reg?

Its not free but its really cheap. Depending on the domain you want prices start at 39p per year + domain registration fee.

For a .com domain you pay 123-reg £2.29 per year which is their fee and £6.70 per year for the actual domain (which you have to pay everywhere unless they give you a free domain name). Thats a total of £8.99 per year.

I've never used 123-reg before but I'd imagine its easy to do as there's only so much you can do with a dns.

When domain transfers are spoken about there are two very different (and often confused) methods. There are the nameservers and for .uk domains there is an IPS TAG.

Changing the nameservers is simply a method of pointing the domain to a hosting account at a host. Changing these keeps the admin control of your domain in the same place - ie if you change the nameservers of a domain you have at 123-reg, they will continue to bill you and the domain will remain in your control panel. Nameservers can be changed as often as you want (usually for free) and is a commonly used when people change hosts.

The IPS TAG of the domain determines who is in admin control of it. If you book through 123-reg it will be set to their IPS TAG and any changes will have to go through them or their control panel. This is only changed if you wish to take the domain to a different registrar (or host) usually because they offer cheaper of better domain services.

For your case, just the nameservers need changing to those of 34sp. This will keep the domain in the control of 123-reg so you continue to benefit by their cheap prices and 'points' the domain at your hosting account (not to be confused with 'domain pointers' btw). If you should change hosts at any time, it is easier because 34sp don't have control of your domain so its simply a case of changing the nameservers again.

You *could* change the IPS TAG to 34sp's but there's no real point in this case. It would cost you money and I would think this feature is only there because some registrars won't let users change the nameservers without changing the IPS TAG. You're okay here because 123-reg do.

Hope this helps :)