Very few companies these days do not have some form of internet presence - even if it is just a free email account. Companies like Freeserve have made it possible to get online at very little cost. This is definately a good thing.

However, as a business you have to ask yourself whether an email address like sales@example.freeserve.co.uk (or a web address like www.example.freeserve.co.uk) is the best way to promote yourself.

Note: We used to have a guide here to using Freeparking, but we have now removed following concerns expressed by site visitors about their quality of service. We no longer recommend Freeparking as a result of the negative feedback (although, as we haven't used them ourselves for some time, we have no direct experience of problems with them).

If you need assistance, please contact us.

There is a popular misconception that registering your own domain is either complicated or expensive. In fact, moving to sales@example.co.uk and www.example.co.uk should cost you only around £10 (payable every two years), and will take no more than 30 minutes of your time to set up. The biggest problem is usually that your preferred choice of domain name is already in use by someone else - a problem that will only get worse the longer you put it off.

More Solutions can, and do, offer website hosting and domain registration and transfer as part of a complete internet solutions package. However, for those who prefer the DIY approach, but are scared off by a fear of the unknown, we're providing short guides to domain registration to get you started:

• Using 123-reg.co.uk. We recommend 123-reg for a range of reasons including price, service and ease of use, and regularly use them ourselves. A guide to setting up a domain with them can be found below.

Domain registration with 123-reg.co.uk is a short, painless process. Just follow these simple steps.

1. Decide which domain(s) you want to register. Your choice will depend on which domains have already been used, so if your company name isn't particularly unique you should be ready to go for alternatives.
   As a guide:
   • Domains ending in .co.uk and .com are most familiar to people and are therefore to be recommended. The .co.uk domains are cheaper (under £10 for two years) than the .com domains (around £30 for two years).
   • Short domain names are usually already in use. You won't be able to get a four character .com domain, for example. Also, common (and obscure) words are generally taken. If you have an unusual company name you're probably not going to have a problem, but otherwise word combinations are a useful alternative.
   • Before you commit to a domain name, think about how you will tell people about it. For example, if you give someone your email or web address over the telephone, how easy is it to spell? If you were given the address, would you remember it? It is possible, for example, to buy .uk.co domains, but most people when they see one assume that it should be .co.uk and "correct" it.
   • Following from the last point, be careful about hyphens and numbers. If your address includes a number, will people be tempted to spell it or use the number directly? Is it easier to say tell someone that your address is "www.joe-bloggs-limited.com" or "www.joebloggslimited.com"? Is "limited" spelt in full or abbreviated to "ltd"?
   Before you get put off, remember that if there is a good domain name out there that suits you it may not be available later if you put it off, and almost any possibility is better than www.example.fsbusiness.co.uk.
2. Open the 123-reg website. You can do this by clicking here - the site will open in a new window. (It should open up leaving this one on top - you might need to resize some windows to be able to see it.)
3. Click on the Members Login button on the left, when confronted with the username and password window select cancel, you can then get an account set up. Fill out the details form noting your preferred username, you will need this later. Once signed up you will be given a password, this will be quite hard to remember, but you will also receive an email with it in, and you get the chance to change it from the members area.
4. Once you have a username and password login to the members area, this time you have the details needed to fill in the popup security window.
5. Once logged into your account you can Order New Domain Names. Enter the domain name you wish to purchase, if available you will find it in the list with a tick next to it, you can then search for further domains or proceed to checkout.
6. You will then need to select the web hosting required. We would recommend the default selection - no hosting, this is because you will probably already have a basic site set up, or you have some free webspace with your current dial up ISP, or you will need a specialised hosting company.
7. Enter the details that are going to be recorded against the domain - the legal owner of the domain, please note that some of this information will be available via the internet so please think about telephone number etc.
8. Once complete you are shown what you are purchasing, and its cost. Depending on the domain you may have a choice of selecting the period to register the domain for, we would recommend 2 years as this is the default, and you will be given the chance to extend this when the 2 years is almost up, if you no longer require the domain you can let it expire at no cost.
9. If you are happy proceed to the next screen and enter your credit card details. This site is secure, you can check this by looking for the closed padlock at the bottom right of the browser window (Internet Explorer).
10. Congratulations you have now purchased yourself a domain name! Domains can take a day or two to process from here. You will get information about this by email after registration. For example, for .co.uk and .org.uk domains you can tell that the domain has been registered by checking it at www.nic.uk.
11. Meanwhile we can set up your email and website forwarding details, (we can test these until the domain has bee processed by NIC).
12. Email address forwarding first. Go to the control panel and select the domain you wish to setup from the drop down, (you may only have the one domain in the list). Select Update Catch All Email Forwarding. This is where things may become slightly confusing. You need to decide how email sent to someone@example.co.uk gets handled, where should it be forwarded? If you have a single mailbox such as example@freeserve.co.uk then option 4 is the one for you. All email sent to whateveryoulike@example.co.uk will get sent to example@freeserve.co.uk without the sender knowing. If you have a number of email boxes such as sales@example.freeserve.co.uk, info@example.freeserve.co.uk etc you will need option 3. This will forward all the sales emails (sent to sales@yourdomain.co.uk) and all the info emails (sent to info@yourdomain.co.uk) to their respective mailboxes @example.freeserve.co.uk. Options 1 and 2 are really used at a more advanced level, you don't want to be bouncing email unless you are sure you know what you are doing. Don't forget to enter your freeserve email address in the box provided.
13. Website forwarding. This is slightly easier, you either have an existing website or you don't. If you do then select Framed web-forwarding and enter the existing address of your website, it will be something like http://www.freeserve.co.uk/freespace/yourname. If you do not have a website than for the time being you can leave the default selected - No web-forwarding. We you visit your new domain in 24-48 hours time you will see what is called a parking/holding page, 123-reg create a temporary page saying the domain has been purchased by one of there customers.

We hope this short guide proves useful.
Please tell us if you have any problems, or if you think it could be improved.