123-reg.co.uk

We’ve previously mentioned the top questions our support team gets asked. And now we’ve introduced a new way for you to get to the bottom of any problems with your 123-reg services. Because, let’s face it, we all need a bit of help sometimes.

Three steps to problem solved

Our new online Self Diagnosis Tool takes you through key checks to get to the bottom of any problems you’re having with these 123-reg services:

• Web hosting
• InstantSite
• Web forwarding (from a domain name)
• Email

To try out the tool, just visit the 123-reg support website. Click Log In and enter your usual 123-reg username and password. Then just click Troubleshooting tab to start the process.

We’ll ask a few quick questions and do our best to get to the root of the problem in just three steps.

What do you think of our Self Diagnosis Tool?

In time, we’re planning to expand the tool to cover our entire range of services. To help us improve it, we’d love to know what you think. So if you’ve tried the tool, please give us your feedback by leaving a comment on this blog post.

Try out the Self Diagnosis Tool now >

Share and Enjoy

Comments

One online bookmaker yesterday showed just how important the mobile market can be to certain sectors, announcing that gambling on the go was rapidly increasing with the popularity of smartphones, and the uptake was helping increase overall profits.

On current trends the number of new smartphones being shipped is set to outstrip the sales of new PCs come 2012 and those already ahead of the game are reaping the benefits.

Channel Islands-based SportingBet said it witnessed a massive ten-fold increase in mobile gambling since it had launched its iPhone application six months ago and that it now boasts 10,000 active mobile-based customers. That is just over 7 per cent of it’s regular customers in its biggest markets but is set to continue to rise with smartphone uptake.

With iPad and Android tablet PCs topping many Christmas lists this year, it looks like 2011 will see the importance of mobile internet will overtake its traditional cousin.

Do you agree mobile is the way forward? Are there certain businesses where mobile simply won’t work?

Share and Enjoy

Comments

Our support team deals with a whole variety of questions from customers. We’ve probably covered every conceivable query at some point, from changing where a domain name points and managing web hosting to getting going with a dedicated server.

We track every customer query to make sure we’re providing a good service – and we also use the information to determine what we should provide on our support site. We’re always working to improve it, so it’s the best place to go when you have a question about your 123-reg services. Chances are, the answer’s in there.

We’ve trawled back through recent support queries to identify the top questions we get asked. And the result makes for interesting reading – these four items clearly stand out:

1. “How do I make my domain name point at my website?” We get loads of variations on this question. It usually boils down to some confusion over the domain name server (DNS) settings for a domain name. These determine where a domain name points to, so it’s important you set them up correctly. And frankly, when changing them involves entering confusing strings of numbers, it’s hardly surprising people get confused. We explained how DNS works a while back, and there’s also a handy downloadable DNS guide on the support site.
    
2. “How do I set my email up?” Again, we get lots of versions of this question. Once you’ve purchased email from 123-reg, there are several ways to set it up. You can use our webmail service to log in directly from your internet browser. You can set up your email software – like Microsoft Outlook – to check for new messages. You can even get them on your mobile phone! If you’re struggling with the options, check out the step-by-step email guide on our support site. It’ll set you on the right track. We also have email video guides about getting started and setting up your email software.
    
3. “I’ve forgotten my password.” This one happens to all of us at some point. But you can probably fix it yourself, without having to contact us. Just go to our lost login page and enter either your email address, 123-reg username, or a domain name that you have registered with us. We’ll send you an email containing a link to reset your password. If you need us to send the details to an alternative email address, we can do that too – just follow the instructions on the lost login page too.
    
4. “I used to own a domain name – how do I get it back?” Many customers have questions about domain name ownership. Perhaps they’ve allowed their domain name to expire and want to get it back, want to know how they can register a domain that’s owned by someone else, or want to get in touch with a domain name’s current owner. The answers to these ones are simple: if you already own a domain and want to keep it, use autorenewal to make sure it doesn’t expire. And if you want to buy a domain that’s owned by someone else, you need to contact them. Try using a WHOIS tool to find the owners. There’s more about ownership in our domain name support guides too.

Do you have a question about your 123-reg services? Search our support site now for the answer.

Share and Enjoy

Comments

In case you missed it, Prince William (second in line to the British throne) is to marry Kate Middleton, probably some time next year. If you did miss it, the chances are you also missed the opportunity to bag a domain name that ties in with the big day.

Domain speculators have gone Wills and Kate mad with literally hundreds of royal wedding related domains being registered through the 123-reg system within hours of the engagement announcement. There are the expected combinations of william, kate, wills, and katherine, lots of royal, lots of wedding and lots and lots of souvenir-related domains that have already been snapped up.

Estimates suggest a Royal Wedding next year could boost the British economy by over £600 million as well as giving a real boost to global morale. Wedding related trinkets, trivial ‘tat’ and t-towels are likely to play a big part in that. Back in the days of the marriage of William’s parents marriage in 1981, no home was complete without a china mug boasting the smiling Charles and Di. With the internet now in full-flow expect the availability and variety to be increased one thousand fold!

So having the perfect domain name to sell your Royal Wedding related wares or perhaps attract in some of the heavy traffic searching for “William and Kate”, etc could prove very profitable. If you missed out there are already plenty up for sale.

A quick trawl on ebay finds Williamswedding.com at a buy it now price of £5,000. While RoyalWeddinggift.com is being touted with a whopping US$ 1million buy it now price. Perhaps these 123-reg hosted domain alternatives royalweddinggift.co.uk and williamswedding2011.co.uk might also be for sale soon too?

Whether you are a fan of the monarchy or not, from a business point of view the royal wedding media machine is already in full flow, and for the savvy entrepreneur there is money to be made.

Have you registered a royal wedding related domain? What do you plan to use it for?

Share and Enjoy

Comments

The half a million registrations mark has been hit less than a week since general registration opened for the new internationalized domain name .рф (which stands for Российская Федерация, or Russian Federation in English). A figure that far exceeds expectations.

The figures come from  the Coordination Center for .ru/.рф who had hoped to reach a mere 100,000 by the end of the year for the country code top-level domain which launched on November 11. That level was reached within the first few hours.

In a blog post on the ICANN website earlier this week, the ICAAN representative for Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Eastern Europe, Veni Markovski, noted the instant success of the domain. He also revealed that a black list of 4,023 words existed – mostly vulgarities – that are not allowed for registration. Interestingly he also reported that users had been finding ways to bypass the black list by placing another word in front, or behind the contentious words.

The number of domains sold in the first week already rank the .рф into 17th place among all European domains and suggests the decision to move ahead with Cyrillic ISN ccTLDs was a good one.

Share and Enjoy

Comments

That’s the detail of the newly unveiled “modern messaging system” from Facebook. But what does it all mean?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggests it is based on the way high school students communicate. According to their recent feedback to him they don’t like email “It’s too formal” Zuckerberg noted. Yet, Zuckerberg was also at pains to state “this is not an email killer” it was the “messaging experience” email included that he was unveiling, to make communication simpler.

The key factors for communication of the future according to Zuckerberg:

* seamless
* informal
* immediate
* personal
* simple
* minimal
* short

So Facebook under this new project is to offer seamless messaging, conversation history, and a social inbox. The idea is it is cross-media: email, chat, SMS — all kept in a single social inbox. Plus all of your conversation history with people is kept in a central location.

To my own eye that seems a logical move, the kind of way your brain would link information. You don’t store all your SMS chats in one part of your memory away from all the email chats, you store them according to conversations and who they were with. Conversations no longer end when you put down the telephone receiver. You might very well follow up with an SMS, or chat using an online messenger. It’s those often fragmented ‘gems’ that Facebook aims to collate and store for you to readily refer back to.

It is all about encouraging 365/24/7 communication and as part of that Facebook is set to soon launch an updated iPhone app too. There will also be @facebook.com email addresses available too – although how and when these will be allocated are yet to be seen, the allocation procedure for Facebook pages has been complicated enough! You won’t need a Facebook email address to use the tool. you can use any address. The big issue with that and the whole concept however will be privacy. The word most often thrown at Facebook by its detractors, the impact on privacy of communication is unknown as yet but is sure to become a hot topic again as Facebook rolls out this new project over the next few months.

Meanwhile, hot on the heels of Facebook attempting to change the way we chat, Apple has posted a cryptic message on its Web site, teasing the world about an “exciting” iTunes announcement that’s coming in the next 24 hours. If you’ve not yet seen the rumours, suggestions range from The Beatles back catalogue finally becoming available to iTunes, to the potentially MP3 killing streaming music service. We’ll hold off our comments on this one until the final announcement (3pm London Time today) as we’ve given up second guessing the Apple marketeers, but as Christmas draws near, the competition for brand awareness is certainly hotting up in the internet arena.

What are your thoughts on Facebook’s messaging system?

Share and Enjoy

Comments

knowthenet – a new online advice site funded by Nominet -  has launched a Threat Test designed to assess an Internet user’s vulnerability to a variety of common online scams.

Security experts,  have developed the online quiz to assesses a person’s ability to identify different types of Internet scams and gives them an online safety score. Research, commissioned by knowthenet, recently identified professional women aged 25-34 as the most likely demographic, in Britain, to fall victim to Internet-based scams but are inviting people of all ages and from all walks of life to have a go at the 13 questions that make up the Threat Test.

Split into four sections; social networking, phishing, malware and counterfeit goods. The test presents individuals with examples of real-life scams, within a safe environment, and asks what their response would be to each. Throughout the test, relevant advice and guidance is given on how to stay safe online and once completed, the individual is provided with an overall threat level based on their score. It is also supported by a series of educational films on knowthenet’s YouTube channel so at the very least if you you get a low score you have a chance to find out why and make sure you educate yourself.

What was your score? Did you surprise yourself?

Share and Enjoy

Comments

So the Queen has her own Facebook page and it has rapidly picked up followers in its first couple of days – nearly 200,000 and rising. Yet many of the world’s leaders and monarchs have been using social media for much longer and have much more substantial followings – especially on Twitter.

There for example, US President Barack Obama has over 5.5 million followers! Over half of the heads of states and government that are set to meet this week in Seoul at the latest G20 meeting half have their own Twitter account – although it is highly unlikely many of these actually tweet personally, official aides most likely to be tasked with that.

One exception however, appears to be Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who it seems is rather shutter-happy with his camera phone and enjoys using TwitPic to keep followers up to date with where he’s been.

In Facebook terms, Australia’s first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard is one of the most active and it appears, controlling her own account. In Twitter terms she is also one of the few politicians who actually follows people back. She retweets her party account quite often, but also replies to individuals and tells reveals mundane snippets such as what she’s having for lunch.

Do you think world leaders should be embracing social media or is it too informal?

Share and Enjoy

Comments

A new report from business advisory firm Deloitte, predicts that despite the economic position of many, retail spending in the UK will increase by 1% year on year this Christmas. Retail sales are expected to top £37 billion this December but 2011 is set to be a more difficult time as disposable income takes a hit.

20,000 consumers were surveyed across Europe, 2,000 in the UK where 71% reported that they plan to spend the same or more on Christmas gifts this year. 76% have a similar approach to their festive food and drink spending this year while an even bigger percentage (79%) intend to spend similar or more on their entertainment and leisure spending this Christmas.

2011 however looks a bleaker picture. The rise of VAT to 20% is expected to have an impact as will the rise for some in National Insurance, leaving less disposable income. A third of those surveyed expected their financial position to get worse next year, including the impact of the Government’s spending review.
According to Retail Week, the figures come from a survey that found that 71 per cent of respondents intended to spend more on gifts, while 79 per cent intended to spend more on entertainment and leisure.

“Each year, consumers tell us they will do whatever they can to enjoy Christmas and this year will be no different,” said Deloitte’s UK head of retail, Ian Geddes.

However, the rosy forecast is not expected to continue in to 2011, where Deloitte expects that the industry will not see any growth over the course of the year. This is reflected in the survey, which sees 38 per cent of respondents forecasting the economy to deteriorate.

Interestingly, other recent reports have suggested that online purchases continue to rise – perhaps as consumers look to make the best savings possible. So now might be the perfect time to be getting your own online shop up and running. Check out our ecommerce offerings or consider the eshop function with InstantSite Pro.

Are you cutting your personal spending this Christmas?

Share and Enjoy

Comments

Remember, Remember it’s the 5th of November, so that means fireworks!

After being invented by the Ancient Chinese as a way of scaring off evil spirits during important events and festivities us Brits adopted them as a way of celebrating the uncovering of the Gunpowder Plot many year later. Now it seems fireworks are almost a regular addition to any event or gathering, but this weekend is likely to be the biggest of the year in terms of bangers, roman candles and firecrackers. UK laws are even relaxed a little. Fireworks cannot usually be let off between 11pm and 7am but Bonfire Night (today 5th November) is one exception with an extra hour of fireworks – up until midnight allowed.

So what about the web’s contribution to fireworks? there are a few sites out there, mainly advertisements for the various firework manufacturers or sellers but we picked these out for notable mention:

The Fireworks Museum
Event posters, advertising banners and photographs of fireworks themselves from across the years. This is basically online hub of links to fireworks related history and use. There are also plenty of images on the site itself. It won’t win any awards for design and layout but if you like your rockets and your catherine wheels it could be an interesting read.

Battle Fireworks, East Sussex
Probably the UK’s most famous annual firework event. The first gunpowder mill in was built in  Battle in 1676 when John Hammond was granted permission to build a mill on land owned by the Abbey. In 1722 writer Daniel Defoe also described the town as being “remarkable for little now, but for making the finest gun-powder, and the best perhaps in Europe”. The Battle bonfire celebration has been going on for over 400 years and involves processions, competitions and lots of community involvement. Due to the organisation required it is being held on 6 November this year – although Health & Safety precautions have kicked in this year banning ordinary members of the public from joining in the procession.

Phantom Fireworks Interactive Fireworks games
Fancy seeing what fireworks would look like in other cities of the world? This US based firework seller lets you do just that using some virtual fireworks shows using Flash technology. Twizzlers over Times Square or pops over the Pyramids of Egypt. It actually makes standing out in a cold, wet, UK garden rather unappealing when you can see this.

FINALE Fireworks
Fancy doing it for real next year yourself? These guys offer Firework choreography software (at a price – although there is a free simulation). It will help you design your very own big bang display syncronised to music. Drag and drop from a range of effects, change the angles, timings and positions and you can get the perfect look before investing in your real fireworks.

Can you recommend any other firework fun sites?

Share and Enjoy

Comments