Sign me up! [5]
Turns out, BlueHost’s $6.95/mo price is for a two-year commitment. The monthly rates are higher with a shorter contract. Still, the domain name registration is free and you can cancel any time and get a pro-rated refund (you kick in $10 for the domain if you quit). Mmmmmokay. Here, have $166.80 of my money.
They give you the option of having private registration. That is, when someone does a whois search of your domain name, all the contact info points to BlueHost — not your own personal name, address and phone number. This is important if your online presence really, really irritates people. Don’t ask me how I know this.
However, it’s wiser decline this option if you’re registering your own name, or the coolest domain name ever. I suspect the name may technically belong to them, if they’re listed for all the contacts. I had a web host go bankrupt on me once. I had registered several clients through them and they used my contact details for everything except ownership. Ow. One domain name was my client’s actual first and last names, so they had me by the ouchy bits. It was fun getting that redeemed. Okay, no it wasn’t.
I don’t think I have to worry about anyone nicking sweasel.com. The domain name seemed to propagate instantly. At least, I was able to access the placeholder page pretty much as soon as I finished filling out the forms. Cool.
On login, I was greeted by this control panel: 
Click the thumbnail to see it actual size. Email me frantically if there’s anything listed that I shouldn’t reveal.
It’s much more complete than the one I’m used to. It’s all web-based, of course, so some of the applications are a little clunky, but it looks like you could do pretty much everything you need right from here. Which is handy, because they want you to send them a scan of a picture ID before they’ll give you telnet access.
Security conscious. That’s good.
They also called me twice to confirm that I was who I said I was and I was really willing to spend such a princely sum to buy two years worth of empty internet vanity. Once on my landline and once on my cellphone, and they left return contact numbers when I didn’t answer.
Yeah, yeah…I called them back this morning. Did I mention Sandy Claws brought me a great big bottle of Glenmorangie for being such a good weasel?
