If I register a domain name with Yahoo can I later take it to some other web hosting service?

Registering a domain through domain registrar independently should allow you to point DNS to any nameservers of your choice (i.e. switching web hosting provider)

Generally, you should be more careful when signing up with hosting provider that offer free domain names, you must read through the TOS of that web host to ensure the domain name registered through signing up with the hosting account :-

1. belongs to you (i.e. your particulars are seen in domain WHOIS record)

2. transferable (transfer to another domain registrar freely, i.e. from godaddy.com to register.com etc.)

3. any special fees associated with a domain registrar transfer

4. any special fees to terminate hosting account but keeping domain name active and pointing to other nameserver.

There are web hosting provider uses %26#039;free domain%26#039; as a promotional technique to attract new signups, but place restrictions (should be listed in TOS) on the domain transfer to tie the customer down to using it%26#039;s service.

There are web designers that will help companies to register domain namem and hosting space as part of a service in the web design package. However, gather from my clients experience, it is always advisable to register the domain name yourself, register the hosting yourself and then engage a web designer for doing the web work. This will prevent loosing domain name, content in hosting account being runaway should there be any disputes between the company and the designer, or in case the designer gone missing in action. This is because neither the domain registrar or the web hosting provider will release the sensitive login info to anyone other than the person who registered the service.

Hope that helps.

If I register a domain name with Yahoo can I later take it to some other web hosting service?

Absolutely. I particularly like registering domains on Yahoo because you can go into their control panel ( http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com ) and use them for your own personal DNS server. You can go into Advanced DNS and point the domain name to an IP#. ie I have mine pointing to the IP# of my road runner account. My IP# hasn%26#039;t changed in over a year, so I use my Win2000 as a web server as well.

http://sharpnetwork.net : This is my website and if you click it, the pages are fetched from my home computer, which is the same one I%26#039;m typing on now. It is registered with Yahoo. I simply told it sharpnetwork.net = my Road Runner IP#. So I am using Yahoo as my own personal DNS server too. Normally this service can cost 20.00+ per year just for that alone (at various companies that do offer this service).

Ok, but for the specifics of your question: When you sign up for webhosting at any company, in order for it to work correctly, you have to use their DNS servers (which is the way it has been as long as I can remember). You look at the company%26#039;s support page (or they will likely include the info when you signup via email) and find their dns server (ie Primary DNS: dns.webhost.com and Secondary DNS: dns2.webhost.com.

For this situation, you go to the Yahoo control panel (link above) and click on your domain name. Scroll to the bottom of the page and find where it says Primary: yns1.yahoo.com and Secondary: yns2.yahoo.com . Click the Change Nameservers button (DNS Server and Name Servers are same thing). It is greyed out, then click the Unlock Domain button next to it, and it will be ungreyed. Now simply overwrite the existing Primary and Secondary name server with the one provided by your web host company. Good luck