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A Domain Name for your Self-Build? Try .uk

Ferdinand

Entry posted by Ferdinand

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I came across this conversation about having a domain name for a self-built house between @ProDave and @vivienz, and thought that the new .uk domain names are potentially of interest and would be worth a brief comment.

 

These are domain names which link straight into the uk's top-level domain - so you have dunroamin.uk rather than dunroamin.org.uk or dunroamin.co.uk. That seems to me to be more suitable for a house which is inherently neither a non-profit 'organisation', nor a commercial company. That can be used for a project website or self-build blog, or a business such as a B&B - or can be reserved in case such a use might be required in the future.

 

There is a limitation in that if an identical name exists in the co.uk, org.uk or me.uk domain hierarchies, then the owner of that domain has a pre-emptive "grandfathered"right to buy the .uk version until mid-2019.

 

However, where the domain name is not registered in one of the other hierarchies mentioned, it can be purchased now.

 

There is a fairly good explanation of this process on the 123-reg website.

 

As an example, I have recently helped set up a website for my handyman under the domain little-john.uk, for "Little John Property Services" (this is near Sherwood Forest) which is available now, but littlejohn.uk is not available now as littlejohn.co.uk  is used by a Bathroom Company already.

 

This is slightly ironic for me, as I have been trying to get rid of the name of my house for the last 4 years.

 

It is called something horribly 1950s, and the name seems attached to the Council database like a stand of Knotweed. Every time the nice person on the phone says "I have taken it off and it has gone", it comes back about 6 months later as if by magic.

 

Personally, I think the answer is that the master database is probably owned by the Post Office, and it is very difficult to correct. Until very recently we were receiving Pizza Deliveries for next door every couple of months, and it turns out that my detached house, and "1a" next door which was built in 198x on a slice of the garden of this one, were listed by the Post Office as a pair of flats in a single unit. Go figure! (*)

 

(*) In the end it took a pitched battle by the new owner of next-door over a period of months to get the database updated, including multiple mis-assumptions by admin staff when they had emails stating the simple facts sitting in front of them. But that persistence of inaccurate information is to me an example as to why we should keep information about us get in database-state information banks to an absolute minimum.

 

People believe bollocks when the bollocks emerges from a computer, and that causes practical problems for real people. So keep computers in the dark.

 

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newhome

I saw those the other day and thought they looked interesting. I also saw that my old website domain was available again. Hubby ‘forgot’ ? to renew it (there was a reason why I did all admin ;)) and some barsteward company bought it and wanted mega bucks to buy it back. It wasn’t a commercial site so it wasn’t worth the sort of money they wanted. Damn annoying though! I can see most of the content on Wayback so I could ressurect it one day. 

 

Note to everyone. 

 

DO NOT MISS YOUR DOMAIN EXPIRY DATE! 

 

As you rightly say I can have .uk and .co.uk as .co.uk etc. aren’t taken. 

 

Postcode lookup software is marketed through several different companies so although the LA agrees the address (name, number) and Royal Mail allocates postcodes and areas, the companies that market postcode software will update to a set schedule I imagine and even then it depends whether the company that purchased from that company takes regular updates. If they don’t it will be wrong forever. Ironically Royal Mail knows my address via its postcode lookup but then fails the next step as their own system doesn’t allow a house with no road name and mine doesn’t have one so I have to enter something in that field so that I can continue ?. 

 

So if the companies in question don’t take updates for their postcode lookup software your old house name is there forever! Sorry. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by newhome
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PeterW
6 minutes ago, newhome said:

So if the companies in question don’t take updates for their postcode lookup software your old house name is there forever! Sorry. 

 

 

 

Most councils have a street naming function within either planning or some GIS related department. I’ve just spent 12 months getting a house name sorted, plot had an old name but no postcode.... new name and postcode needed but that requires you to get the UPRN (Unique Property Reference Number) updated with the correct details. 

 

Some charge a fee, others don’t, and it usually requires them to consult with Royal Mail, fire service and a couple of other statutory bodies. Names can’t be offensive or duplicated within a reasonable postcode distance. Once they had actually agreed what street the house was on (11 months...) it took 2 weeks to get the name approved. 

 

So if I do a lookup today on BT it doesn’t exist but it does with EE... it was on the Royal Mail 48 hours after approval, and a few others are starting to trickle through ... 

 

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vivienz

I've already registered a domain name for the new build, it's a .com, but will look at the others today. If I've done one, I may as well do the others as they don't cost much to do. It was useful to be able to associate the email address with the new property, but I always like to have a couple so that I can keep one for personal stuff, as far as possible.

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ProDave

We had to settle for .net for our new house name. It was all that was available for our chosen name, and the choice of name was partly influenced by the fact a domain name was available.

 

ALL our domain names are on auto renewal with the domain host.

 

The .UK version is still unused, the owner of the .co.uk version has not bought it yet.

 

I have given up with the postcode database. I flatly refuse to pay a fee to the council to get added to that.  All the utilities have it on their own databases, and the council lady even admitted it was on the councils own address database, so I flatly refuse to pay £100 just to get the house name added to Royal Mails database.  Post gets delivered here without issue.

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newhome
38 minutes ago, PeterW said:

So if I do a lookup today on BT it doesn’t exist but it does with EE... it was on the Royal Mail 48 hours after approval, and a few others are starting to trickle through

 

It possibly depends on whether the companies use a web service for the lookup. Those that don’t require an implementation slot to take the database. I ‘may’ know of a system that hadn’t been updated for a few years :ph34r:. Not a customer facing one but even so .... 

 

 

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SteamyTea

@newhome

There was such fun when deciding on the domain name for this site.

Much of it was down to @Construction Channel suggesting the 'hub' part and knocking up a quick logo.

I thought that it looked a bit like the Halfords logo, but others saw it for what it was.

A complete rip off of the better known 'hub' site.

Oh happy days they were.

 

Edited by SteamyTea
  • Haha 1
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