We use 123 reg for our domains as we have so many and they are the cheapest UK based domain name registrar! However the saying “you get what you pay for” really comes into play as the control panel and general support you get from them is dogshit.
I wrote a very popular post back in 2008 about their domain name auto renewal shambles – now, its the web forwarding that is gonna take a beating.
I have a customer who has collected a few domains along their business life, and only one of them is active – so he wanted to (in a search engine friendly way) redirect all his spare domain names to his main site so they were not wasted. Initially, its quite confusing as the control panel will let you set the forwarder and appear like its all set up and working even if the nameservers of the domain are set externally – so the 123 reg forwarding isnt even being factored into the equasion at this point.
After finally reading some instructions (im a man, i dont do instructions) i realised you needed to reset the nameservers to 123-reg’s nameservers, so that the local settings would take effect. I did this, and left it a few days so DNS could properly do its thing – checked them all this morning, and they are resolve to a 123reg page – none of them forward.
Ok – now im starting to get pissed off.
I re-checked all domains, all nameservers were reset and all were set to forward to the main website – so what was the problem?
I figured the best thing to do would be to properly read the instructions (im a man, when forced to read instructions i skim read) and noticed a little line in it that had until now evaded my sight…
So wait…
I have to reset nameservers, create the redirect, THEN edit the DNS and add in some IP address?
Would you like to make things any more confusing? I mean im OK editing DNS I do it a lot, but if my mum wanted to forward a domain she would be up shit creek – not good, 123reg!
I’ve since gone in and edited this IP address – but if you are having problems like I did, then make sure you actually read everything as, despite it being totally retarded – there are guides to help you through the shambles.