I always make my domains private and have never lost ownership. You can cancel WHOIS Privacy protection at any time. Some registrars will provide this as a free service, some charge little, and some charge a lot.

Why do I make them private? One word, SPAM. You think it's hard to get your email off of some spam list, wait until the they start phoning you or sending junk mail. This is especially true if you don't have a work address or PO Box address and use your home address.

And don't worry about going off topic, the moderators get all bunched up from time to time but that just makes it more fun.

Thanks, Tom, for the info. I have five domain names with 1&1. Two of them are for a nonprofit org. that I'm doing work for (their web site isn't up yet, but I expect it to be up in a few weeks), and the other three are reserved for the author of a book that hasn't been published yet. Currently, a WHOIS on these domains will display my name, address, phone no., etc., but I'm in the process of changing the nonprofit org's domains so they display the PO Box address and phone number of the nonprofit. However, my name is still on there as contact person. So, anyone who retrieves the WHOIS info can still find out my personal info using a search with my name. And even though I've read that it's best for companies to make their domain name info public, I don't feel comfortable following that advice in this particular case.

You always change the name of the contact to the name of the non-profit group, or administrator, etc. Many companies do this.

http://whois.domaintools.com/coffeecup.com

http://whois.domaintools.com/microsoft.com

Thanks, Tom. That helps a lot!

I agree with Spinny. I've been using TotalChoiceHosting.com since 2005 and they are stellar. Customer service is excellent when needed.

They changed the plans they offer at the beginning of February and expanded bandwidth and storage greatly. That came with a slight price increase - the first since I signed on - but existing customers were exempt from the new pricing for as long as we chose to stay on the grandfathered plan and we got the benefits of upgrades and improvements they have been adding at the old price which was greatly appreciated by me.

I know I've seen some problems concerning a certain host mentioned in the forums, and just came across this:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/218685/g … tml?tk=out

GoDaddy CEO elephant hunting in Africa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXVH4OsfapI

Another reason not to give that company any money

Hi

I use HostGator for hosting 19 small business sites and find their service, hosting costs and funtionality to be just excellent! Great (like unlimited) storage, limitless email accounts, easy set up and their live chat service is brilliant!

I use HostGator too, and I've never had any issues.