Apple : Domain name registrar suspends 600 suspicious coronavirus websites

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• Domain name registrar suspends 600 suspicious coronavirus websites
• The best Asus laptops of 2020
• Fitbit price cut: deals on the Fitbit Versa, Charge 3 and Ionic smartwatch
• Intel Core i9-10900F power requirements leaked – and you’ll need a beefy CPU cooler
• The best Asus gaming laptops 2020
• How small businesses can quickly and affordably pivot to productive remote working
• Join us and play The Tech Pub Quiz tonight on Facebook and YouTube - live now!
• Bitcoin Cash "halving event" could cause many miners to give up
• The best student laptops 2020: all the best options for school
• These awesome iPhone 11 deals offer 50% off takeaways, movies and more
• Intel Core i9-10900K benchmarks have leaked, and it's still slower than the Ryzen 9 3900X
• Best free and public DNS servers of 2020 : Alternative domain name servers for businesses and individuals
• Cloudflare chooses hCaptcha over Google's reCAPTCHA
• UFC 249 live stream: how to watch the Ferguson fight online from anywhere
• Best virtual pub quiz: a great live online quiz for every day of the week
• Virgin's broadband and TV deals are cut in price, boosted in speeds and loaded with channels
• Paid software and services available for free during the pandemic from Microsoft, Facebook and more (updated daily)
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus deals hit lowest price yet with £200 saving from Samsung
• Laptop sale at Best Buy: save up to $500 on Lenovo, HP, Microsoft, and more
• Best domain registrars in 2020

Domain name registrar suspends 600 suspicious coronavirus websites Posted: 09 Apr 2020 01:19 PM PDT The UK's domain name registrar Nominet, which manages the .uk TLD, is taking action to prevent scammers and hackers from registering coronavirus-related domains. Instead of taking down these domains after they've been reported as malicious, the organization is carefully scrutinizing any new website names that contain “coronavirus”, “covid” or any other terms related to the ongoing pandemic. Only after Nominet has established that a coronavirus-related website is legitimate will its domain name be able to be resolved. Managing director of registry services at Nominet, Eleanor Bradley explained to ZDNet that around 600 names have been suspended so far, saying: US government tightens vetting for .gov domain registration Zoom-related domain names grow significantly as malware threat rises Facebook sues Namecheap over deceptive domains "We don't want to prevent legitimate registration from getting through, but I think the current situation warrants further checks at the point of registration. What we're doing is catching everything that has a clear relationship to coronavirus at source, to effectively stop malicious domains from being used in the first place." Additional checks Nominet already employs the same methods it's using to detect coronavirus-related domains to search for other scams online. For instance, the organization flags domain registration linked to banking and tax filing to limit the activity of fraudulent websites before the public can even see them. Nominet's algorithms are able to pick out attempts to register domains that contain key words and risk-rate them. These domains are then reviewed by actual people who assess the website's profile and get in touch with the party who registered it to request for more information if necessary. According to Bradley, many coronavirus-related domains are created for legitimate purposes such as communication between community groups. However, the recent spike in scams as a result of the global pandemic has led the organization to suspend some domains at the point of registration in an effort to protect the general public online. Bradley also provided more details on how Nominet is handling the current situation, saying: "What we're trying to do in the current situation is act really quickly so those names don't go into use for purposes that could prove harmful to the general public. The domains that are perfectly acceptable should be registered really quickly, but we are just making sure that we are filtering out things that could cause harm." Also check out our complete list of the best web hosting services Via ZDNet This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

The best Asus laptops of 2020 Posted: 09 Apr 2020 12:43 PM PDT The best Asus laptops are some of the best-known and most beloved laptops on the market today. For years now, the Taiwanese manufacturer has been hard at work in crafting some of the best performing and beautiful laptops (on top of the best PCs and PC components). So, consumers are essentially blessed with a plethora of incredible Asus laptops to choose from. What’s more, the best Asus laptops cover a wide range of budgets and use cases, from quality Chromebooks and other budget laptops to Herculean gaming laptops and some of the best Ultrabooks you’ll find in 2020. Whatever it is you’re looking for – whether it’s for gaming, casual use or intensive content creation – Asus will have something for you.  To help you boil down your options, we’ve put our laptop expertise to the test and gathered the best Asus laptops 2020 has to offer. We’ve got one in every category as well, to make it even easier, although we did feel that the best Asus gaming laptops also deserve their own list. Go through the list to find the most ideal one for your computing needs. And, be sure to check our exclusive price comparison tool, so you can also score the best deal. The Asus Zephyrus G14 may be designed like a gaming laptop, but it’s proven itself a more than capable all-around laptop. Whether you are serious about your gaming or need a powerful laptop for productivity or content creation, this Asus laptop delivers incredible performance as well as an amazing battery life, a fast screen, and a thin and light chassis that makes it super portable. It’s not the cheapest option out there, but you have to pay a premium for quality. And, if you’re an AMD fan, you’ll certainly appreciate the processor under its hood. Read the full review: Asus Zephyrus G14 Image credit: TechRadar The best Asus laptops aren't just premium all-singing, all-dancing devices with huge price tags, as the excellent Asus Chromebook Flip C302 demonstrates. The Asus Chromebook Flip C302 brings a lot of what we love about Asus laptops to an affordable Chromebook that's ideal for day-to-day tasks and for students working on their homework. That means it's got excellent build quality, a fantastic design and packs some great hardware that makes it one of the best Chromebooks on sale in 2020, with an Intel Core processor, full 1080p display, touchscreen, backlit keyboard and USB-C port. Read the full review: Asus Chromebook Flip Image credit: Asus While there have been many Ultrabooks that hit the streets since the first time the Asus ZenBook UX305 was first released, very few could really contend with its competitive price tag. This incredibly thin and light laptop boasts some compelling innards and features, while managing its price well, keeping it at a very affordable range for its target market. The fact that it’s super thin and very compact feels like the icing on the cake. Read the full review: Asus ZenBook UX305 The Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is not only among the best Asus laptops in the world right now, but it's also the best gaming laptop of 2019, bar none. It’s all thanks to Asus packing in a 6-core Intel processor and the latest RTX 2080 graphics from Nvidia. Better yet, Asus has also managed to keep the Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701 impressively thin and light. While most gaming laptops are big chunky affairs due to their high power components, but Asus has pulled off some brilliant design engineering to make the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 not much thicker or heavier than many standard laptops. It's incredibly expensive, however, but for the price, you're getting an amazing machine and one of the best Asus laptops ever made. Read the full review: Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701 Maybe you’re not in the market for a full-on workstation, but would prefer a notebook that runs Windows 10 Pro which can cut through heavyweight computing tasks, yet is actually designed to be a very capable machine for gaming? Then look no further than this Asus Zephyrus laptop. The GX531GX comes packing an Intel Core i7-8750H six-core CPU backed with Nvidia RTX 2080 Max-Q graphics. It can also cram in up to 24GB of system RAM, yet this notebook is also nicely slim and portable – Nvidia’s Max-Q technology helps there, of course. With all this power at your fingertips, you can tackle heavyweight computing tasks such as video editing, and relax playing the latest and greatest shooter when all the work is done. However, as is always the case when high performance meets portability, you’re going to pay a considerable asking price. Read the full review: Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX531GX In a nutshell, the Asus VivoBook S15 is one of the best laptops we’ve tested in recent months. Short of handling heavy-duty gaming, this is an extremely capable laptop that’s just as impressive as the 16-inch MacBook Pro, but is smaller, lighter and considerably less expensive. If you’re looking for a powerful laptop without paying a premium, this is among the very few out there worth considering. And, you’re getting a vivid screen, an ErgoLift hinge for a better typing position and that legendary ASUS ScreenPad to improve your productivity with it. So you’re basically getting a feature-rich laptop for considerably less than its rivals.  Read the full review: Asus VivoBook S15 Image credit: TechRadar If you are looking for a great all-rounder that ticks a lot of boxes, then you’ll appreciate the Asus ZenBook Flip 15. This premium laptop delivers all the right basics and a few innovative extras on top of that. Among the best Asus laptops out there, this 2-in-1 top-notcher boasts powerful specs – including a discrete graphics card – as well as a stunning touchscreen display, a flawless design, plenty of ports, facial recognition login, and a portable chassis. As for its extras, if the unique 360-degree ErgoLift hinge, Asus ScreenPad, Harman Kardon speakers and Alexa integration don’t impress you, we don’t know what will. Read the full review: Asus ZenBook Flip 15 Image credit: TechRadar What Asus is touting as the “world’s smallest 13-inch laptop” is worth more than the hype that surrounds it, featuring not only a decent battery life, a svelte design and a stellar display, but also some powerful internal components that will take you a long way. The Asus ZenBook 13 deserves a spot among the best Asus laptops for reasons beyond being thin and light and small. Its performance will sweep you off your feet. Read the full review: Asus ZenBook 13 Image credit: Asus Of course, if you need something that will get you through some photo editing and light video rendering, as well as has its share of bells and whistles, it’s the Asus ZenBook Flip 14 that might be the best Asus laptop for you. This elegant 14-inch stunner is strong contender for 2-in-1 fans as well, offering form factor versatility backed by a great performance. It’s not for the budget minded, but for what it offers, it’s definitely worth its price tag. Read the full review: Asus ZenBook Flip 14 If you're looking for the very best all-round Asus laptop, then the Asus ZenBook 3 is the one to get. This is an exceptionally light Asus laptop, measuring less than half an inch thick, and weighing only two pounds. Asus's ZenBook range of ultra-thin laptops have shown the world how to do gorgeously-designed thin and light laptops right, all the while packing with powerful components. It's a pricey laptop, to be sure, but if you're after the very best of what Asus has to offer, the ZenBook 3 is a fantastic choice. Read the full review: Asus ZenBook 3 Michelle Rae Uy also contributed to this article. Not just looking for Asus laptops? Here's our pick of the best laptops of 2020 This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Fitbit price cut: deals on the Fitbit Versa, Charge 3 and Ionic smartwatch Posted: 09 Apr 2020 12:18 PM PDT If you're trying to keep active while being confined to your home, a fitness tracker can be the perfect companion, and lucky for you, Best Buy has price cuts on Fitbit's best-selling activity trackers.  For a limited time, you can get the Fitbit Charge 3 on sale for $119.95. That's a $30 discount and the best price we've found for the activity tracker. Best Buy also has the Fitbit Versa Lite on sale for $147 and a $50 price cut on the Ionic smartwatch. The ultra-slim Fitbit Charge 3 is packed full of health-focused features while also keeping you connected. The waterproof Charge 3 tracks calories burned, active steps and popular workouts and offers 24/7 heart rate monitoring. The activity tracker also offers personalized guided breathing based on your heart rate and tracks sleep so you can gain helpful insights to get a better night's rest. Shop Best Buy's top Fitbit deals below, and keep in mind, these offers are limited-time promotions, so you should take advantage now before it's too late. Shop more of Best Buy's smartwatch deals here Fitbit deals:  If you're interested in other Fitbit discounts check out the best cheap Fitbit sale prices and deals that are currently available. You can also learn more about the above activity trackers by checking out our Fitbit Versa Lite review, Fitbit Ionic review, and Fitbit Charge 3 review. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Intel Core i9-10900F power requirements leaked – and you’ll need a beefy CPU cooler Posted: 09 Apr 2020 12:10 PM PDT Intel’s Core i9-10900 is a power-hungry beast of a processor which will need a seriously powerful cooling solution, if the latest from the rumor mill turns out to be correct. For the uninitiated, this may be the 10-core flagship CPU of the Comet Lake range which the chip giant is supposedly ready to reveal at the end of April. Intel vs AMD - which is best? Here are the best processors of 2020 Check out how to overclock your CPU We’ve already heard speculation concerning Intel’s alleged struggles to get the power demands of this processor under control (which indeed may be part of the puzzle when it comes to the delay of Comet Lake), and a post on Twitter seemingly underlines the situation here. Assuming the details posted on Weibo are correct – pinches of condiments handy, as ever – what we see is the Core i9-10900F (F means there’s no integrated GPU) flooring it in a stress test scenario, with an all-core boost of 4.6GHz, drawing 224W in terms of PL2 (‘power level 2’, or power usage under Turbo). As PC Gamer points out, this is well in excess of the PL2 rating of the current-gen Core i9-9900KS, which hits 5GHz across 8-cores while pulling just over 170W. What’s perhaps even more of an eye-opener is that this 170W figure is the PL1 rating for the 10900, meaning that it’s the power consumption under normal usage (outside of short-term boosts, which can’t be sustained). Ryzen rules for efficiency If you bring AMD’s far more efficient Ryzen 3rd-gen CPUs in for comparison, matters look even worse, with the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X flagship toting 16-cores – over 50% more than Intel’s Comet Lake kingpin – and hitting around 145W when under full load. The power-efficiency gap is shaping up to be nothing less than startling at this point, but this is no big surprise given that Intel is having to continue to try and get the most out of its long-in-the-tooth 14nm process, an increasingly difficult endeavor. The suggestion is that the Core i9-10900 will need a seriously beefy cooler to ensure you’re getting anything like the best out of it, and PC Gamer mentions a 240mm liquid cooling solution. Arguably, anyone spending the money to purchase this Comet Lake 10-core flagship – it doubtless won’t come cheap – will likely to be looking to fork out for one of the best CPU coolers, anyway. But nonetheless, if these leaked details prove to be on the money, there’s no two ways about it: Intel is driving things worryingly high with its 10-core chip’s power demands. And what we’ve heard on the laptop CPU front about the powerful Core i9-10980HK, and what it might do to battery life, is no more comforting, either. Check out the best gaming PCs of 2020 This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

The best Asus gaming laptops 2020 Posted: 09 Apr 2020 12:00 PM PDT For playing games, you can count on the best Asus gaming laptops to handle your needs without costing you an arm and a leg. Whether it's the most demanding PC games you play or easier titles that are absolute classics, you’ll find that these gaming laptops will see you through your gaming needs. Asus laptops are almost universally packed with powerful hardware, beautiful displays and svelte builds, and it shows in its gaming laptops. That means that whichever one you choose will definitely be worth the investment. What’s more is that a number of the best Asus gaming laptops are compact enough to take on the road, so that you can squeeze in some gaming while traveling or commuting. We gathered the best Asus gaming laptops on the market and put them on this list, alongside our exclusive price comparison tool, so you can spend less time shopping and more time gaming. Now, there’s only one question to ask yourself: “which Asus gaming laptop is the right one for me?” The Asus Zephyrus G14 may be designed like a gaming laptop, but it’s proven itself a more than capable all-around laptop. Whether you are serious about your gaming or need a powerful laptop for productivity or content creation, this Asus laptop delivers incredible performance as well as an amazing battery life, a fast screen, and a thin and light chassis that makes it super portable. It’s not the cheapest option out there, but you have to pay a premium for quality. And, if you’re an AMD fan, you’ll certainly appreciate the processor under its hood. Read the full review: Asus Zephyrus G14 The Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is a dream come true. (Image Credit: Asus) If you travel a lot, but you don’t want to be separated from the best PC games when you do, finding a thin and light Asus gaming laptop like the Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is a dream come true. Rocking up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080, there isn’t a AAA game out there that will be out of reach. Plus, it’s so thin, light and stylish that you’ll want to take it everywhere you go. Read the full review: Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701  Maybe you’re not in the market for a full-on workstation, but would prefer a notebook that runs Windows 10 Pro which can cut through heavyweight computing tasks, yet is actually designed to be a very capable machine for gaming? Then look no further than this Asus Zephyrus laptop. The GX531GX comes packing an Intel Core i7-8750H six-core CPU backed with Nvidia RTX 2080 Max-Q graphics. It can also cram in up to 24GB of system RAM, yet this notebook is also nicely slim and portable – Nvidia’s Max-Q technology helps there, of course. With all this power at your fingertips, you can tackle heavyweight computing tasks such as video editing, and relax playing the latest and greatest shooter when all the work is done. However, as is always the case when high performance meets portability, you’re going to pay a considerable asking price. Read the full review: Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX531GX The Asus ROG Strix Scar Edition is the best of both worlds. (Image Credit: Asus) When you go out looking for an Asus gaming laptop, you’ll find plenty of budget options and a lot of extremely expensive devices. However, the Asus ROG Strix Scar Edition is the best of both worlds, bringing performance on par with the best gaming PCs without setting you back thousands of dollars. It’s not the slimmest laptop in the world – not even the slimmest laptop on this list, but in terms of hardware, you’re getting exactly what you’re paying for, and we can’t complain about that. Read the full review: Asus ROG Strix Scar Edition  While the Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is undoubtedly the best gaming laptop Asus has ever made, its high price means it just won't be for everyone. Luckily, there are a number of great Asus gaming laptops that are more affordable. Take the Asus ROG Strix GL502, for example, which offers excellent performance at 1080p. Read the full review: Asus ROG Strix GL502 If you need a thick desktop replacement, the Asus ROG G703 is going to be your best bet. (Image Credit: Asus) Sometimes a thin and light gaming laptop just isn’t going to cut it. Sure, they’re fun to carry around to play games on the subway or something, but when you need to pull out the big guns, a thick desktop replacement like the Asus ROG G703 is going to be your best bet. This beast only comes with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 and can be packed with up to 64GB of RAM so you’re going to cut through everything without a problem. As long as you have the cash, this is the most powerful Asus gaming laptop you’ll find anywhere. Read the full review: Asus ROG G703  The Asus ROG Strix Hero III takes the limitations of its predecessor and improves on them considerably, most notably the thermal performance thanks to its 3D Flow Zone. There’s a lot going for this Asus gaming laptop too, including its great speakers, number pad on the keyboard and the wraparound RGB light bar for a more immersive gaming experience. But perhaps the best features of this gaming laptop are the ROG Keystone, which unlocks customized effects and game-specific profiles when docked, and the 1080p display that rocks 144Hz to 240Hz refresh rate. Round those out with 9th-generation Intel Core processors and the best budget to mid-range Nvidia graphics cards for gaming, and you’ve got one incredible machine. Read the full review: Asus ROG Strix Hero III The Asus Zephyrus M manages to keep things reasonable. (Image Credit: Asus) We here at TechRadar love a thin and light gaming laptop, the ability to bring the best PC games on the road without having to compromise on performance is a win. And, while many super thin gaming laptops come with an extremely heavy price increase, the Asus Zephyrus M manages to keep things reasonable. We haven’t been able to get our hands on it for testing but, trust us, this isn’t a gaming laptop you’re going to want to pass on. It has yet to be refreshed with Nvidia RTX graphics, and while that’s a bummer, it does mean that you’ll likely find some sweet deals.  If you're looking for something else, check out the best gaming laptops This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

How small businesses can quickly and affordably pivot to productive remote working Posted: 09 Apr 2020 12:00 PM PDT The ongoing pandemic has turned our lives and many businesses upside down. Whilst the global economy is taking a battering not seen in decades, small and medium sized businesses are particularly impacted. There were around 5.8 million small businesses in the UK in 2019, and around 29 million businesses with fewer than 500 employees in the US in 2017 - representing 99.7% of all US businesses, and almost half of total private sector employment. Small businesses are the lifeblood of any economy, however many operate on thin margins and without the resources that larger organisations benefit from. In the UK, one in five small businesses fell into their overdrafts to manage cash flow in 2019, rising from 14% in March 2019 to 18% in January 2020. According to a recent study, 36% of small businesses flagged financial challenges as their top stumbling block in 2020, highlighting pricing and cash flow as their two primary concerns. And this was before a global pandemic hit. Currently, small businesses are not only grappling with their physical presences being shut down, but they also have to reassess how to enable secure and productive remote working for their employees. Governments across the world are unveiling measures to help business owners, with the UK’s Chancellor Rishi Sunak pledging to support businesses via a financial aid package worth £330 billion in the UK. Here's our list of the best video conferencing tools on the market Working from home: the mouse, monitor, keyboard and router you need Here's our choice of the best business webcams of 2020 Digital solutions can provide welcome relief for small businesses struggling to adapt to the new remote-work environment. In fact, there are increasing numbers of software packages and digital solutions available free of charge - and businesses can start using them today. Small businesses have the distinct advantage of not being encumbered by legacy technology systems prevalent in larger firms, allowing them to adopt digital solutions quickly, and enjoy their benefits immediately. However, taking advantage of new tools can be overwhelming, especially in times of a crisis. Business owners not only have to research and assess the best suited solutions for their companies, they also need to educate employees, while these are still adjusting to teleworking. The ‘Open for Business Hub’ is an initiative launched by a number of technology companies, offering resources for small businesses working to ensure business continuity over the months to come. The project is assisting small businesses by offering free and discounted services to enable remote work throughout this period. They include video conferencing, password management, cybersecurity, as well as team collaboration, creativity and productivity, and even parenting help. They are designed to enable companies to maintain business continuity — securely and productively. Most importantly, the tools represent enterprise-grade offerings, services that will withstand in times of need. For instance, many businesses underestimate the importance of secure file-sharing, which is mission critical not even just in times of crisis. Other offers include Single Sign-on (SSO) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) solutions, helping teams securely access critical resources, such as cloud applications or VPNs, from any device or location. Further, if a business is hosting self-managed applications, like running Atlassian’s Jira or Confluence behind a firewall, the company’s virtual private network (VPN) could be overwhelmed by the number of requests made by employees working from home. Fortunately there are tools enabling secure and efficient remote work accommodating the increase in such requests. This is just a selection of what’s available at a greatly reduced price or for free, and the list is growing every day to help meet demand. At a time when small businesses are struggling, the internet is going to be critical in enabling them to continue their operations. Amongst other initiatives, technology companies represent a phenomenal resource for them to access best-of-breed software and services for remote work - at a greatly reduced cost.  James Allworth is Head of Innovation at Cloudflare Here's our list of the best online collaboration tools available This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Join us and play The Tech Pub Quiz tonight on Facebook and YouTube - live now! Posted: 09 Apr 2020 11:31 AM PDT Is your tech knowledge so good that Tim Cook calls you for help with pub quiz questions? Or do you reckon you've got a photographic memory for app logos? If so, we've got a challenge for you tonight – The Tech Pub Quiz, and it's live now on TechRadar's Facebook and YouTube channels. That's right, we put together some fiendishly difficult tech-themed questions on everything from gadget history to the latest Netflix shows, then challenged the finest minds on TechRadar* to answer them. Reckon you can do better? Join us on Facebook and YouTube and play along with the team to see if you can beat them. Hosted by TechRadar's Global Editor in Chief Gareth Beavis, the quiz has four rounds – a general knowledge opener, a 'retro tech' round for nostalgists, followed by the mandatory picture round, and finally some tricky questions on TV, games and films to finish off. Think of it as an Easter Egg hunt for your brain, as you frantically search around for long-buried facts in the overgrown foliage of your mental garden. This quiz is purely for fun, so there'll be no prizes or marked answer sheets – just grab a notes app on your phone, or a pen-and-paper for an old-school pub quiz feel, and play along with your quarantined family and friends.  *may be debated by other members of TechRadar Things to do at home: 40 ideas while you're stuck in self-isolation Bored of Netflix? Try these alternative streaming services instead How and where to buy a treadmill: these retailers still have stock Rise of the virtual pub quiz We've amassed no fewer than 40 things to do while you're stuck inside in this weekend, but it's fair to say that a virtual pub quiz is one of the best to do with your fellow quarantined friends. And while there's no better technology quiz than our very own The Tech Pub Quiz, there are plenty of others out there covering virtually every subject. As you'll find in our Best virtual pub quiz round-up, there are quizzes on everything from Marvel to Pop Art, via Disney and soccer. Many of them are weekly and a lot also raise for money for charity via donations, so it's well worth taking part for that additional warm glow beyond feeling really clever. Let us know what you think of The Tech Quiz in the Facebook and YouTube comments too, as we may well return for another episode to lift your spirits (and tax your tech knowledge) during this seemingly interminable period of lockdown.  Best virtual pub quiz: a great live online quiz for every day of the week This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Bitcoin Cash "halving event" could cause many miners to give up Posted: 09 Apr 2020 11:23 AM PDT Bitcoin Cash, which forked off from Bitcoin back in 2017, has reduced its block rewards by half, leading many cryptocurrency miners to see their gross margins drop to nearly zero. The world's fifth-largest cryptocurrency network by market capitalization recently reached block height 630,000 and this led to the so-called “halving” event that reduced the network's mining reward from 12.5 Bitcoin Cash per block to just 6.25. As a result of the halving, miners competing for block rewards on the network will see their current mining revenue reduced by half which will result in slight returns or possibly none at all despite the investments they've made in costly mining equipment. China looks to ban Bitcoin mining Cryptocurrency deals dried up in 2019 Nearly $10bn worth of cryptocurrency was stolen in the past three years The mining difficulty and hash rate on Bitcoin Cash has been on a downward trend recently as those in the cryptocurrency mining business prepared for the halving. At the same time though, the cryptocurrency's price has also declined from $492 per coin in mid-February to as low as $165 in mid-March. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash is slightly up at $258, according to CoinDesk's price index. No longer profitable By using data from F2Pool, CoinDesk was able to determine that a wide range of cryptocurrency mining equipment from 2018 and early 2019 is now generating negative daily profits at Bitcoin Cash's current price and the network's latest hash rate. Even some of the more recent models that arrived at the end of last year and in early 2020 are now seeing gross margin drop to around 10 percent. More powerful models such as MicroBT's WhatsMiner M30S or Bitmain's AntMiner S19 or S17 Pro could be able to generate a margin above 30 percent but unfortunately, both manufacturers have been unable to deliver their newest models to market in large numbers. As miners who can no longer make a profit unplug from the Bitcoin Cash network, mining difficulty will further decrease which means that mining revenue will increase for those who can still afford to stay in the game. The Bitcoin Cash halving event is just a taste of things to come though as the Bitcoin network is scheduled to experience a similar event in around 35 days. Also check out the best laptops for mining Via CoinDesk This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

The best student laptops 2020: all the best options for school Posted: 09 Apr 2020 11:01 AM PDT The best student laptops don’t always have to be the cheapest on the market. While budget laptops tend to be great candidates for students who are trying to be economical, paying a few extra bucks for a couple of extra useful features could be more advantageous. Similarly, while students generally don’t need high-powered laptops, you can never go wrong with having a big more power. That said, the best laptops for college students do need to fit a few criteria. They, of course, have to be affordable, even though they don’t necessarily have to be cheap. They also need to deliver performance-wise, so they can handle a student’s particular workload as well as streaming and perhaps light gaming post-coursework. And, finally, they must have a great battery life, hopefully enough to last a whole school day on a single charge. We picked out the best laptops for students 2020 has to offer. Whether you want the best Chromebook that offers a great price without sacrificing performance, or a heartier device equipped with a powerful operating system like Windows 10 or macOS, we’ve got something for every need. The HP Chromebook 14 may not be as powerful as other Chromebooks, but this tiny laptop has a few aces up its sleeves, helping it secure a well-deserved top spot on our best student laptops list. Those aces include striking a good balance between ample screen space and portability, as well as a surprisingly excellent keyboard and a decent trackpad. That’s without mentioning how vivid the display and how low its price tag is. Read the full review: HP Chromebook 14 The Huawei Matebook 13 strike a balance between price and performance. We’re massive fans of laptops that can skillfully strike a balance between price and performance with hardly any compromises, and the Huawei MateBook 13 comes closer to than anything else in 2019 so far. It’s light and compact, perfect for carrying in your backpack while you hurry from class to class; but it’s fast and affordable as well. This stunning 13-inch Ultrabook will make sure you’ll get all your work done in style, without burning a hole in your pocket. Sure, you might need to keep that charger on hand if you want it to last you the whole day, as the battery life is underwhelming. However, there’s still no doubt that the Huawei Matebook 13 deserves its lofty spot on the best laptops for students list. Read the full review: Huawei MateBook 13  Apple’s thinnest and lightest MacBook is back in 2020 with a vengeance. Not only has it fixed a lot of the complaints with its predecessors – namely, that problematic keyboard is now gone, replaced by a drastically improved keyboard. But it also comes with new and more powerful internal components, even more storage space options, and a lower price of entry. There are a couple of things we’d do better, like the muted screen and the average battery life, but this model of the MacBook Air is better than anything we’ve seen from the line so far. And, it’s definitely among the best student laptops of 2020. Read the full review: MacBook Air (2020) The Google Pixelbook Go has earned our coveted "Editor's Choice" award in the Chromebook category. Have you been waiting for the day you can finally afford the premium price of Google Pixelbook? Well, with Google releasing Pixelbook Go, your wait is finally over. Granted, it isn’t quite the actual luxury device you’ve been dreaming of. However, rest assured, you will love this Chromebook, just as we have during our time with it. We love it so much, in fact, that it earned our coveted “Editor's Choice” award in the Chromebook category. It boasts incredible battery life, an even more impressive keyboard and a 1080p webcam, which you don’t see often in the more budget-friendly laptops even in 2019. And, that’s just to start. Read the full review: Google Pixelbook Go The Microsoft Surface Go is one of the most beautiful devices on the market. Even if you’re only in the market for a laptop for school that strikes a balance between cost and performance, it can’t hurt to factor in a splash of style. The Microsoft Surface Go isn’t just one of the best Windows tablets, but it’s also one of the most beautiful devices on the market. Better yet, it also gets our vote as among the best laptops for students, especially from a value perspective. Don’t be duped by the low-power components: Microsoft engineered this tablet to take on all your general schoolwork and more without breaking a sweat. Read the full review: Microsoft Surface Go  Budget consumers looking for an Ultrabook that delivers great performance at a great, affordable price, you can’t go wrong with the Acer Swift 3 (2019). This 13-inch laptop from Acer is powerful enough for productivity tasks, which makes it a great tool for traveling and working at the same time. However, it can also handle a bit of casual gaming as well as some photo editing, perfect for some post-work computing. It’s far from perfect – that battery could use a boost, the keyboard could be better, and don’t even get us started on the speakers. But, for how much it’s worth, you’re definitely getting a great deal. Read the full review: Acer Swift 3 (2019) The best student laptops aren't premium all-singing, all-dancing devices with huge price tags, as the excellent Asus Chromebook Flip C302 demonstrates. The Asus Chromebook Flip C302 brings a lot of what we love about Asus laptops to an affordable Chromebook that's ideal for day-to-day tasks and for students working on their homework. That means it's got excellent build quality, a fantastic design and packs some great hardware that makes it one of the best Chromebooks on sale in 2020, with an Intel Core processor, full 1080p display, touchscreen, backlit keyboard and USB-C port. Read the full review: Asus Chromebook Flip With the third version of the Surface Laptop 3, Microsoft has made its best laptop yet. While it's not a huge leap over its predecessor, the Surface Laptop 3 does improve on almost every aspect. Best of all, with the 15-inch version you now get a choice of either Intel or AMD hardware. Previously, only Intel tech was included. Elsewhere, the Surface Laptop 3 continues the Surface Laptop's reputation for being a stunningly designed laptop.  These are some of the most desirable laptops in the world that don't have a logo of an apple on them, with a new aluminum body that gives it a premium feel, while protecting it from knocks and drops. There are still a few niggles, like the continued lack of ports, but in general this is one of the best student laptops in the world right now. Read the full review: Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 The Dell Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 is a versatile 2-in-1 with a lot going for it under the hood.  This premium laptop is more than just about its premium design; it also has high-end internals to compete with the likes of the more powerful Dell XPS 13.  Rounding that out is a 4K display, and a clever stylus slot that makes us wonder whether they actually beat Microsoft to the idea. Granted, the display is a bit of a battery drain, and the speakers impressive, but this is still among the best student laptops out there. Read the full review: Dell Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 If you want more power than the MacBook Air, but don’t want to pay more for the bigger MacBook Pro 15-inch to lug around school, then the MacBook Pro 13-inch (2019) is the best MacBook for you. The MacBook Pro 13-inch (2019) boasts newer internal components, making it more powerful than ever. And, though it still has the controversial Butterfly keyboard, this model also improves on it so that it’s quieter and more reliable. It’s not hard to recommend the MacBook Pro 13-inch (2019) to students for its portability and power.  Read the full review: MacBook Pro 13-inch (2019) Bill Thomas, Michelle Rae Uy and Gabe Carey have also contributed to this article. Want more choices? Check out our list of the best laptop 2019 Shop the best cheap laptop deals around Got kids? Take a look at our guide to the best free parental control software This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

These awesome iPhone 11 deals offer 50% off takeaways, movies and more Posted: 09 Apr 2020 11:01 AM PDT With the UK's lockdown now in full effect, the desire for takeaways and online shopping has understandably escalated. But those sorts of activities don't cheap and a little helping hand would go a long way. Luckily, if your phone contract has recently come to an end or if the lure of a new iPhone has become just too much, there is an easy way to get a new handset and a massive range of discounts on takeaways, movies and more...exclusively with TechRadar. On any 64GB model of the iPhone 11 from Mobiles.co.uk, you can currently get a 12-month Tastecard. Normally costing £39.99 a month, by entering the code TECHTC at the checkout, you can grab one completely free. Tastecards land you discounts on film rentals from Rakuten, 50% off the likes of Pizza Hut, Domino's and Absurd Bird, cheap coffee beans from Pact Coffee, 50% off Beer52 and a whole load of other promos. And, considering it lasts for a year, you will be able to go out and use it in a whole host of restaurants when the lockdown finishes. We've picked out the best iPhone 11 deals that contain this offer and listed them below. Or if you would rather see absolutely all of the deals its available on, head over to Mobiles.co.uk's iPhone 11 section. Compare the competition...today's best Samsung phone deals iPhone 11 deals + free Tastecard: What makes the iPhone 11 so good? The iPhone 11 is the cheapest of Apple's latest trio and yet, really isn't much of a downgrade. You still get Apple's new incredibly fast CPU, a 6.1-inch screen, IP68 rating and even a 3046mAh battery, enough to keep you going all the way through the day on one charge. Read our full iPhone 11 review This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Intel Core i9-10900K benchmarks have leaked, and it's still slower than the Ryzen 9 3900X Posted: 09 Apr 2020 10:47 AM PDT For what feels like ages at this point, we've been waiting for Intel 10th-generation Comet Lake processors for desktop to make their appearance. And, while we have heard plenty of rumors about when we'll see them, we're starting to see info suggesting what they'll be capable of.  The latest of these is a Geekbench 5 benchmark result spotted by renowned hardware leaker TUM_APISAK, and the results are pretty interesting. Notably, it lists the maximum frequency as 5.08GHz, which is lower than the 5.3GHz that previous leaks have suggested. This leads to a multi-core score of 11,296 which isn't quite as powerful as AMD's current-generation flagship.  We'll show you how to build a PC Here are the best graphics cards Check out the best motherboards We actually just retested the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X the night before this leak appeared, where the 12-core processor managed a score of 12,060, which makes it still around 7% faster than the alleged Intel chip's result – keep in mind that the 3900X launched way back in July 2019, too.  However, the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X does fall behind this leaked benchmark in single-core performance, scoring 1,268 points in last night's testing compared to the 1,408 in this leak. That is a pretty substantial 10% lead that Intel is potentially claiming here, which would maintain its position as the manufacturer behind the best processors for gaming.  Obviously, we can't wait to get this little chunk of silicon in for our own in-house testing to see exactly how it stacks up against AMD, but we still have no idea when that will actually happen. Intel will launch its next-gen processors when it decides is the best time, and until then we're just going to have to wait and see.  A temporary fix? Intel's 10th-generation Comet Lake-S processors may narrow the massive gap that exists between AMD and Intel in the desktop world right now, but it may not last for long. Keep in mind that AMD CEO Lisa Su has said that Ryzen 4000 processors for desktop will be coming this year.  If the Intel Core i9-10900K only manages to come 7% short of beating the 3900X and only beating it in single-core by around 10%, that doesn't bode well for Intel whenever Team Red manages to launch its next desktop platform. Word on the street, according to an AdoredTV leak, is that the Zen 3-based Ryzen 4000 lineup is going to see a 15% boost in IPC performance. If that's paired with higher clockspeeds on AMD's next platform, Intel's single-core lead could vanish.  And now that we've seen AMD bring the Zen 2 improvements over to mobile, there's a lot of pressure on Intel to come up with something truly exciting. We said it in another piece touching on our brief testing of the AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS (more on that coming very soon), but we'd love to see Intel come up with its own Ryzen moment.  Intel Comet Lake-H has just arrived and Comet Lake-S is likely right around the corner, so we're incredibly interested to see whether or not it can shake up AMD's stranglehold on the processor world.  And if it does, you can bet we'll be diving into that when the time comes.  There's a whole world of PC components out there This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Best free and public DNS servers of 2020 : Alternative domain name servers for businesses and individuals Posted: 09 Apr 2020 10:40 AM PDT DNS (Domain Name System) is a system which translates the domain names you enter in a browser to the IP addresses required to access those sites. Your ISP will assign you DNS servers whenever you connect to the internet, but these may not always be the best choice. Slow DNS servers can cause a lag before websites start to load, and if your server sometimes goes down, you may not be able to access any sites at all. Switching to a free public DNS server can make a real difference, with more responsive browsing and lengthy 100% uptime records meaning there's much less chance of technical problems. Some services can also block access to phishing or infected sites, and a few offer content filtering to keep your kids away from the worst of the web. You need to choose your service with care - not all providers will necessarily be better than your ISP - but to help point you in the right direction, this article will highlight six of the best free DNS servers around. Why paid DNS is better than free As with every service, you get what you pay for and it’s no different here. Free DNS can be good but it’s nothing compared to a Premium paid version. Granted, not everyone wants to pay and depending on their needs they might not need to, but paid DNS is always a better choice. Apart from the increased website performance and security, you also get additional features. For instance, Dynamic DNS and Secondary DNS are a staple of the premium DNS service. The Dynamic DNS works with dynamic IP addresses and it allows users to access their home computer from anywhere in the world. The Secondary DNS works as a backup of sorts which is always a plus. This is just a small fraction of what a premium DNS can do and the exact number of features will depend on the service provider. We’ve rounded up the best website hosting services OpenDNS Founded in 2005 and now owned by Cisco, OpenDNS is one of the biggest names in public DNS. The free service offers plenty of benefits: high speeds, 100% uptime, phishing sites blocked by default, optional parental controls-type web filtering to block websites by content type, along with free email support if anything goes wrong. Commercial plans enable viewing a history of your internet activity for up to the last year, and can optionally lock down your system by allowing access to specific websites only. These aren't going to be must-have features for the average user, but if you're interested, they can be yours for around $20 (£14.30) a year. If you're an old hand at swapping DNS, you can get started immediately by reconfiguring your device to use the OpenDNS nameservers. If you're a newbie, that's okay too, as OpenDNS has setup instructions for PCs, Macs, mobile devices, routers and much, much more. Check out OpenDNS here Cloudflare Best known for its top-rated content delivery network, Cloudflare has extended its range to include a new public DNS service, the catchily-named 1.1.1.1. Cloudflare has focused much more on the fundamentals. These start with performance, and independent testing from sites like DNSPerf shows Cloudflare is the fastest public DNS service around. Privacy is another major highlight. Cloudflare doesn't just promise that it won't use your browsing data to serve ads; it commits that it will never write the querying IP address (yours) to disk. Any logs that do exist will be deleted within 24 hours. And these claims aren't just reassuring words on a website. Cloudflare has retained KPMG to audit its practices annually and produce a public report to confirm the company is delivering on its promises. The 1.1.1.1 website has some setup guidance, with simple tutorials covering Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux and routers. These are very generic - you get one set of instructions for all versions of Windows, for instance - but there are some pluses (IPv6 as well as IPv4 details) and you should be able to figure it out. Additionally, mobile users can use WARP which secures all of the phone’s internet traffic. The product doesn't offer ad-blocking or attempt to monitor what you can access, and what you can't. The one caveat is that Cloudflare has introduced content filtering for malware and adult content blocking, with their 1.1.1.2/1.0.0.2 and 1.1.1.3/1.0.0.3 services respectively, but this is an option a user can choose rather than have forced on them. If you have any problems, Cloudflare offers a community forum where you can ask questions or see what others are doing, a nice extra touch which we'd like to see followed by other providers. Check out Cloudflare here Google Public DNS Google has its fingers in most web-related pies, and DNS is no exception: it's free Public DNS is a simple and effective replacement for your own ISP's nameservers. Privacy can't quite match the 'we don't keep anything' promises of Cloudflare, but it's not bad. The service logs the full IP address information of the querying device for around 24 to 48 hours for troubleshooting and diagnostic purposes. 'Permanent' logs drop any personally identifiable information and reduce location details to the city level, and all but a small random sample of these are deleted after two weeks. There's a further benefit for experienced users in Google's detailed description of the service. If you'd like to be able to assess the significance of Google's privacy policy, for instance, you can read up on absolutely everything the service logs contain to find out for yourself. Google's support site offers only very basic guidance targeted at experienced users, warning that "only users who are proficient with configuring operating system settings [should] make these changes." If you're unsure what you're doing, check the tutorials from a provider such as OpenDNS, remembering to replace its nameservers with Google's: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. Check out Google Public DNS here Comodo Secure DNS Comodo Group is the power behind a host of excellent security products, so it's no surprise that the company also offers its own public DNS service. Just as you'd expect, Comodo Secure DNS has a strong focus on safety. It doesn't just block phishing sites, but also warns if you try to visit sites with malware, spyware, even parked domains which might overload you with advertising (pop-ups, pop-unders and more). Furthermore, you can try out the Comodo Dome Shield service, which adds additional features to Comodo Secure DNS. Comodo claims its service is smarter than average, too, detecting attempts to visit parked or 'not in use' domains and automatically forwarding you to where you really want to go. Performance is key, of course, and the company suggests its worldwide network of servers and smart routing technology give it an advantage. DNSPerf's Comodo stats are less impressive, unfortunately. As we write, DNSPerf reports its average query time as around 72ms. That said, Comodo may still be interesting if you're looking for an extra layer of web filtering, and the support website has some short but useful instructions on setting the service up on Windows PCs, Macs, routers and Chromebooks. Check out Comodo Secure DNS here Quad9 Quad9 is a young DNS outfit which has been providing a fast and free DNS service since August 2016. The company sells itself on its ability to block malicious domains by collecting intelligence from 'a variety of public and private sources.' It's not clear what these sources are, but the website says Quad9 used 18+ 'threat intelligence providers' as of December 2018. That's a little too vague for us, and we're not convinced that using a large number of threat intelligence providers will necessarily help – the quality of the intelligence is generally more important than the quantity. There's no arguing about Quad9's performance, though. DNSPerf currently rates it seven out of ten for average worldwide query times, lagging behind Cloudflare and OpenDNS, but effortlessly outpacing contenders like Comodo. Drilling down into the detail reveals some variations in speed - Quad9 is in eighth place for North American queries - but overall the service still delivers better performance than most. Setup guidance is a little limited, with tutorials for the latest versions of Windows and macOS only. They're well presented, though, and it's not difficult to figure out what you need to do. Check out Quad9 here Verisign Verisign was founded in 1995 and through the years offered various services, including several security services, like managed DNS. Verisign DNS service is free to use and the company highlights the three features they deem the most important and those are stability, security, and privacy. The service definitely delivers on that account, especially for security and stability. As for privacy, while you can never be 100% sure when it comes to the company claims, there weren't any issues and the company assures you that your public DNS data will not be sold to third parties. Performance, however, wasn't that great when compared to some other providers. Still, it's decent and depending on your needs, you might not be bothered by this. At the moment, DNSPerf.com ranks the service at ninth place, worldwide. On their website, you can find tutorials on how to set up their public DNS. Tutorials are available for Windows 7 and 10, Mac, Linux, and mobile devices. There is also a tutorial on how to configure DNS server settings on your router. All in all, Verisign offers a good alternative to some other DNS providers, plus it's free so it's worth checking out. Check out Verisign DNS here Got further questions about DNS? Here are some common queries along with our answers. What is DNS? The Domain Name System (DNS) is a phonebook for the internet, a framework which translates domain names, like facebook.com or twitter.com, into the IP addresses necessary for devices to load those internet resources. The mechanics of DNS can be quite complicated, as information isn't held in a single database, but rather distributed in a worldwide directory including a vast number of DNS servers. Fortunately, the average internet user doesn't normally have to get involved in any of the low-level technical details. Your ISP automatically provides you with access to a DNS server whenever you go online, and whenever you enter a URL into your browser, this will find the relevant IP address for you.  Your ISP DNS isn't performing? Verisign is one of many big-name companies offering a free alternative Why might DNS matter to me? DNS servers can vary hugely in speed, particularly in areas which don't always have the best internet coverage (Africa, South America, Oceania.) To take an example of a single day when we tested, DNSPerf.com reported Cloudflare achieved an average 4.43ms query time for Oceania, while Yandex was left trailing at 350.24ms. That's potentially more than a third of a second in extra waiting time before your browser is able to access any new website. This is an extreme example, to be fair. European or US lookups may see less than 30ms variation between most DNS services, and as your device or router will probably cache the address for reuse later, even this delay will only occur very occasionally. Still, a sluggish DNS server can noticeably slow down your browsing in some situations, and trying an alternative – especially as the best options are all free – is generally a good idea. There's a second possible benefit in terms of uptime. If your ISP DNS server fails, you might not be able to access some or all of your favorite sites. Big-name providers such as OpenDNS claim they've had 100% uptime going back years. How can I find the fastest DNS service? DNS speed depends on many factors, including your location, the distance to your nearest server, and that server having enough power and bandwidth to handle all the queries it receives. DNS Jumper is a portable freeware tool which tests multiple public DNS services to find out which delivers the best performance for you. The program has a lot of options, but isn't difficult to use. Launch it, click Fastest DNS > Start DNS Test, and within a few seconds you'll be looking at a list of DNS services sorted by speed. DNS Jumper can be useful, in particular because it's checking how servers perform from your location, but it doesn't run enough tests over a long enough period to give you a definitive answer. DNSPerf tests multiple DNS services every minute from 200+ locations around the world and makes the results freely available on its own website. This gives a very good general idea of performance, and also enables seeing how services compare on different continents, as well as assessing their uptime. How can I switch DNS servers? The steps involved in changing your DNS service vary according to your hardware and possibly your operating system version. Generally, you must start by finding the primary and secondary nameservers for the DNS service you'd like to use. These IP addresses are normally displayed very clearly on the service website, so, for example, Cloudflare DNS uses 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1. The simplest approach for home users is to update their router to use the new addresses. Most other devices will then pick up the new DNS settings automatically, with no further work required. To make this happen you must log in to your router (the default password may be printed on its base) and look for the current DNS primary and secondary nameservers. Make a note of the current values in case of problems, then replace them with the nameservers you'd like to use. If you run into problems, check out your DNS service website for any setup guidance. Keep in mind that you can also use the tutorials of other DNS providers, as long as you remember to replace their nameserver IPs with your preferred options. OpenDNS, for instance, has specific guidance for many different router types on its support site. If router tweaks aren't right for your situation, you may have to change the DNS configuration of each individual device. Cloudflare has short and simple guidance here, while the OpenDNS website goes into more depth. How can I find my current DNS servers? If you're troubleshooting your internet connection, or maybe thinking of switching DNS servers, it might be useful to check which DNS servers you're using at the moment. The simplest way to do this is to visit DNSLeakTest.com and tap the Standard Test button. Within a few seconds the website will usually display your DNS server IP addresses, host names, and sometimes (if appropriate) the name of your ISP. After that, life gets more complicated as there are several potential options. Your device could be set up to use specific DNS servers; it might ask your router to give it the best DNS servers every time it boots; or it might not know anything about DNS servers, and leave your router to handle everything. On Windows, you could get started by entering IPCONFIG /ALL in a command line window. Look for your network adapter and you should see its DNS servers specified in the list. If there's a single DNS IP address which points at your router – 192.168.x.x – that suggests the router is handling all DNS queries. Enter that IP address into your browser, log in to the router if necessary and your DNS servers should be listed amongst the settings. How can I test a DNS service? If your browser is telling you a website's 'server IP address could not be found', even though you're sure it's up and available, then this could be due to a problem with your DNS. But you might not want to go to the trouble of changing your DNS service to find out. Windows users can use the command line tool nslookup.exe to look at the results of any DNS server without touching their system settings. Run cmd.exe to open a command line window, then type: nslookup website.com Then press Enter (replace website.com with the address of whatever website you're trying to reach). Nslookup uses your default DNS server to look for the IP address of website.com. If it tells you it 'can't find website.com', this means your DNS server doesn't have a record for that domain. Next, tell the tool to use another DNS service by entering a command like: nslookup website.com 8.8.8.8 The 8.8.8.8 address uses Google DNS – replace that with any DNS service you like, such as 1.1.1.1 for Cloudflare. If nslookup returns errors using multiple servers, this doesn't look like a DNS issue. If one server returns an IP address and another doesn't, you might want to try setting up your system to use the working DNS and see if it makes any difference. You might also want to look over our many web hosting guides: Best WordPress hosting providers  Best cloud hosting providers Best Linux web hosting services Best e-commerce hosting Best dedicated server hosting Best small business web hosting Best Windows hosting services Best managed web hosting Best business web hosting Best colocation hosting Best email hosting providers Best web hosting resellers Best VPS hosting providers Best shared web hosting Best cheap web hosting Check out the best website hosting services This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Cloudflare chooses hCaptcha over Google's reCAPTCHA Posted: 09 Apr 2020 10:00 AM PDT Internet web infrastructure company Cloudflare has announced plans to stop using Google's reCAPTCHA service in favor of a new bot detection provider called hCaptcha. The company's reason for the change is apparently due to the fact that Google plans to charge for the use of its reCAPTCHA service going forward. CEO and co-founder of Cloudflare, Matthew Prince explained in a blog post how continuing to use reCAPTCHA would result in millions of dollars of additional cost for the company. Google is making CAPTCHA less annoying Captcha if you can: how you’ve been training AI for years without realising it Google Chrome, Firefox and Cloudflare add HTTP/3 protection “Earlier this year, Google informed us that they were going to begin charging for reCAPTCHA," Prince said in a statement. "That is entirely within their right. Cloudflare, given our volume, no doubt imposed significant costs on the reCAPTCHA service, even for Google. Again, this is entirely rational for Google. If the value of the image classification training did not exceed those costs, it makes perfect sense for Google to ask for payment for the service they provide. In our case, that would have added millions of dollars in annual costs just to continue to use reCAPTCHA for our free users. That was finally enough of an impetus for us to look for a better alternative.” hCaptcha According to Prince, Cloudflare plans to begin integrating a new anti-bot CAPTCHA system into its products called hCaptcha which is provided by the California-based company Intuition Machines. Intuition Machines rents access to hCaptcha to companies running image classification experiments and then it pays website owners to implement its system. However, Cloudflare will now be paying Intuition Machines as opposed to being paid by hCaptcha. Prince explained that doing things this way will ensure that the company has the resources it needs to scale its infrastructure to meet Cloudflare's demands. Using hCaptcha does generate some additional costs for the internet web infrastructure company but these costs are much lower than they would be if Cloudflare continued to use Google's reCAPTCHA instead. By using hCaptcha instead of reCaptcha, Cloudflare is also able to address some of the issues it had with Google's system. The first of which is that reCAPTCHA is sometimes blocked in China so the company can't use it with Chinese-based websites and users while the second issue deals with Google's privacy-intrusive data collection policy. Thankfully, hCaptcha collects much less data about users than reCAPTCHA does. We've also highlighted the best web hosting services Via ZDNet This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

UFC 249 live stream: how to watch the Ferguson fight online from anywhere Posted: 09 Apr 2020 09:44 AM PDT Feel like forever since you watched live sport? There may be a glimmer of hope ahead, as despite the coronavirus pandemic, UFC 249 looks to push on behind closed doors on Saturday, April 18. There are still some major logistics to sort out for boss-in-chief Dana White - will it really be held on a private island? - but at least now we know what to expect on the card come the night itself. Read on as we explain how to watch UFC 249 and live stream the Ferguson vs Gaethje fight online no matter where you are in the world. Tony Ferguson enters as a hot favorite, with the 36-year-old American already regarded as one of the best lightweight fighters of all-time. He was hoping to secure his legacy in the original UFC 249 headline match, which had him set to go up against Russia's Khabib Nurmagomedov - the Eagle being perhaps best known for his clinical neck crank defeat of Conor McGregor back in October 2018. Since then, Khabib has successfully defended his title against Dustin Poirier. But now he's stranded in Russia due to the country's Covid-19 travel restrictions, so UFC fans will once again have to wait to see the long-anticipated Ferguson vs Khabib fight - a seemingly cursed octagon encounter that has now been put off a ridiculous FIVE times. In his place steps Justin Gaethje, a 31-year-old American who currently sits at fourth in the UFC lightweight rankings. While not necessarily the blockbuster opponent Khabib represent, he's well-respected in MMA circles and poses a significant threat to Ferguson in a fight that will be shown exclusively via ESPN+ in the US. The winner of the new UFC 249 headline fight will be crowned the interim UFC lightweight champion - and no doubt fight Khabib at a later date. Tempted? Our guide explains how to watch a Ferguson vs Gaethje live stream no matter where you are in the world - and also reveals the latest UFC 249 full card. Here's how to watch a UFC live stream of every Fight Night and PPV Watch UFC 249: live stream Ferguson vs Gaethje online exclusively on ESPN+ in the US Free UFC 249 live stream: watch Ferguson vs Gaethje online in the UK Watch UFC 249: live stream details for Australia UFC 249 live stream: how to watch Ferguson vs Gaethje in New Zealand UFC 249 full card: latest fight news  As previously mentioned, the coronavirus pandemic has already seriously impacted the UFC 249 fight card. All information was correct at time of publication but is subject to change. Main card Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje – Lightweight Interim Title Jessica Andrade vs. Rose Namajunas  - Women’s Strawweight Greg Hardy vs. Yorgan de Castro – Heavyweight Vicente Luque vs. Niko Price – Welterweight Jeremy Stephens vs. Calvin Kattar – Featherweight Prelims Francis Ngannou vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik – Heavyweight Ronaldo Souza vs. Uriah Hall – Middleweight Alexander Hernandez vs. Omar Morales – Lightweight Marlon Vera vs. Ray Borg – Bantamweight Early prelims Michael Johnson vs. Khama Worthy – Lightweight Sijara Eubanks vs. Sarah Moras Women’s – Bantamweight Ryan Spann vs. Sam Alvey Light – Heavyweight What does a UFC fan get with their ESPN+ subscription? Quite a lot, as it happens - a subscription to ESPN+ opens up access to over 20 exclusive live UFC Fight Nights, alongside original content including Dana White’s Contender Series, UFC Destined, and Ariel & The Bad Guy, plus classic fights, replays, and there’s also the perk of fewer commercials. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Best virtual pub quiz: a great live online quiz for every day of the week Posted: 09 Apr 2020 09:33 AM PDT Updated 9/4/20: we've updated this page will the best of the latest virtual pub quizzes. We're not exactly short of things to do at home right now, but one thing that Doom Eternal can't provide is the human touch of a good old pub quiz. The solution? Our pick of the best virtual quizzes. Whether your preferred digital home is Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or Twitch, we've rounded up the best live online quizzes for those who want to show off their obscure knowledge to friends who are either quarantined in the same room, or just a Zoom or Houseparty call away. Even better, we've picked out quizzes that, together, cover every single day of the week. So whether you fancy a nightly quiz or are just struggling to agree on a date that suits everyone in Les Quizerables, we've got the best virtual pub quiz for you. Just like the real thing, each one has its own approach to the format – some are online versions of professional quiz outfits that ask you to submit answers, while others are simply one-person Facebook Live communities that are designed for relaxed family viewing.  All are free to enter, though many ask for a small charity donation, which means you can get a bonus warm glow in addition to the one created by your accompanying quiz tipple. Ready to get going? First question...  The TechRadar Tech Pub Quiz When? From Thursday April 9 at 7.30pm GMT Where? Facebook and YouTube Fancy a tech-themed pub quiz? We couldn't help but first give a mention to TechRadar's very own virtual pub quiz, which will be debuting on Facebook and YouTube on April 9.  The four-round quiz, which you'll be able to play along with whenever you like once it's launched on TechRadar's Facebook and YouTube channels, will see some of our team's finest minds pelted with questions on everything from gadget history to the latest Netflix shows.  Can you beat them? Head to the links below, grab a pen-and-paper and find out (the answer is almost certainly 'yes'). Go to the TechRadar Facebook page Go to the TechRadar YouTube channel Lockdown Quiz (The Alexandra pub)  When? Mondays at 8pm GMT Where? Facebook Live, Instagram Live and Twitter For a genuine pub quiz feel it's hard to beat this virtual one from The Alexandra pub in London's Wimbledon. Hosted by the pub's regular quizmaster Mick Dore from inside the pub itself (at least for now), it's broadcast across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, so you can take part whichever platform you prefer. There are no prizes and it's a self-marking quiz, but you still get a picture round as well as Mick's infamous pub singer round, where you have to guess the song he's singing. Plus a nice bit of community spirit in the comments.  Go to The Alexandra's Facebook page Go to Mick Dore's Instagram page Goose Quizzes When? Every night at 7pm BST Where? Twitch This Edinburgh-based quiz company was already offering private virtual quizzes on Zoom before we were all incarcerated by the coronavirus – so now it’s extended that by streaming free ones every night on Twitch. The 40-question quizzes go live every night at 7pm BST and you simply submit your answers on its Google Form at some point before 5pm the following day. The answers are read out on the following night’s livestream, and to help recreate the pub quiz spirit you can also engage in banter using the Twitch chat function. Go to the Goose Quizzes site Spectacular Quarantine Quizzes When? Every day (except Tuesdays and Thursdays) Where? Private webpage If you fancy yourself as a global mastermind on a particular TV or film series, then the Spectacular Quarantine Quizzes could be for you. Running most nights of the week, their online quizzes are very much based on pop culture – recent themes include Star Wars, Disney, Marvel, Harry Potter and Friends. There's also a family-friendly, Easter-themed interactive quiz planned for 12 April at 4pm BST. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll be emailed a link to the live quiz, where you’ll be able to chat to the quizmaster and share team names. There’s a suggested donation of £5 (around $6 or AU$10) and this goes to the charity Child.org. The quizzes run twice a day on the weekend, so you’ll be sure to find a time that works you and your fellow lockdown companions. Go to the Spectacular Quarantine Quizzes site Art Pub Quiz When? Thursday 9 April 8.30pm BST Where? Zoom As this free quiz is a one-off we can't yet vouch for its quality, but if you're itching to show off your art knowledge, it's one of the most promising virtual pub quizzes so far. Hosted by the Artrepublic gallery the UK's Brighton, it promises to cover everything from Pop Art to Street Art, and has prizes that include £50 in gift vouchers and a bottle of champagne. It starts just after the UK's weekly 'Clap for Carers' tribute for the NHS and will take place over a private Zoom link. Register for the Art Pub Quiz Camden Town Brewery When? Every Thursday / Sunday Where? Instagram Live Another brewery that’s opening a virtual bar for its fans, Camden Town Brewery is holding an Instagram-based pub quiz on Thursday 9 April that’ll be hosted by comedian Josh Weller.  There’s no steer on what kind of questions to expect, just a chance to “flaunt your general knowledge” to be in with a chance of winning beer, although Weller’s musical background (he’s played with Mumford & Sons, The Maccabees and more) could lead it down that path. The quiz will take place on Instagram Live, where Josh Weller also hosts a regular Sunday Night Music Quiz, if you want to try and repeat your success in the Camden Town quiz (or erase your memory of it). Go to Camden Town Brewery's online bar Go to Josh Weller's Instagram page The Virtual Pub Quiz When? Every Thursday at 7.50pm BST Where? YouTube The first virtual pub quiz to go truly viral when the UK’s lockdown started, this one-man show attracted over 300,000 viewers when it went live on 26 March. This somewhat shattered pub quizmaster and car salesman Jay Flynn’s expectations of a few dozen viewers, so he’s promising new installments every Thursday night. The Virtual Pub Quiz is a classic general knowledge test, with the answers revealed the following day on its Facebook page. But to satisfy those calling for more specialist rounds, he’ll also be posting pre-recorded quizzes on the YouTube channel every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Go to The Virtual Pub Quiz Facebook page or YouTube channel Indy-House Pub Quiz Live When? 10 April, 7.45pm BST Where? Zoom This paid-for quiz (entry costs $6/£5/AU$10) will be hosted by former Stranglers frontman Paul Roberts and will be a general knowledge affair that promises "good vibes and some healthy competition". Organised by London events company The Indytute, it'll take place over Zoom and will have prizes from Charles Merser Rum and The Indytute itself. The rules are one ticket per household, but you can apparently join up with one other household by using Zoom's private chat function to discuss your answers.  Go to the Indy-House Pub Quiz Live entry page BrewDog When? Every Friday Where? BrewDog's online bar  It’s early days for BrewDog’s online bar, with only a couple of sessions under its belt so far. But those attracted over 1,000 people and every Friday it’ll open for virtual pub quizzes, along with live beer tastings with BrewDog’s co-founders, homebrewing tips and live comedy. You need to register to take part, so keep an eye on BrewDog’s Twitter and Instagram accounts for details of when that opens. We can’t vouch for the quality of the quiz yet and it may well be mostly beer-themed, but if you’re partial to a bit of Clockwork Tangerine or Jack Hammer you should feel right at home.  Go to BrewDog's online bar Eventures When? Every Friday at 7.30pm BST Where? Facebook / YouTube If you’re looking for a simple live quiz that you can do with family or flatmates, then the midlands-based Eventures has popular weekly installments that run on Facebook Live. There are no overall winners or prizes, so you’ll be marking your own answer sheets, but what you do get is the warm glow of raising a considerable sum for the UK’s NHS. With a suggested £2 donation to a JustGiving page, Eventures raised almost £100,000 with its Friends quiz. Next up, there’s Disney, Gavin & Stacey and Harry Potter. Go to the Eventures Facebook page Speedquizzing Live – Soccer Sundays When? Every Sunday at 8pm GMT Where? Zoom Speedquizzing is a new type of pub quiz that lets you enter your answers on an app rather than a pen-and-paper and rewards speed (as its name suggests). It normally takes place in pubs and bars, but it's recently released a version that works remotely with live hosts, albeit only in Android devices for now. There are a few themes (for example, Music Mondays), but we're looking forward to the Soccer Sundays installment that will be hosted by veteran quizmaster Stoo Pittaway on a weekly basis. To find out how it works check out the Speedquizzing Live page  or to sign up with a donation head to the link below. Go to the Speedquizzing Live – Soccer Sundays entry page Inquizisition When? Every Sunday at 7.55pm BST Where? Facebook Another relaxed pub quiz designed for those who just want to play with friends over group chats in FaceTime, Zoom or Houseparty, the Inquizisition will run every Sunday night until 14 June. This free, 90-minute quiz naturally doesn’t have any prizes, but the background music is a playlist of songs from independent artists, so you might discover your next favorite band while showing off your photographic memory for company logos. Go to Inquizisition's Facebook page   This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Virgin's broadband and TV deals are cut in price, boosted in speeds and loaded with channels Posted: 09 Apr 2020 09:17 AM PDT When it comes to broadband and TV deals, Virgin Media has massively stepped up its game recently, discounting a wide range of offers - from the absolute cheapest to its most decked-out offer. But it's not the big packages like the 'Ultimate Oomph Bundle' (yep...real name) that we're interested in this Easter weekend. Where the best value seems to lie right now is in Virgin's Big Bundles. The Big Bundle is Virgin's cheapest TV and broadband plan and one that they recently cut even further. While Virgin does claim its down from £38 a month, we remember it nearer to £32. Either way, it now costs just £29.99 a month. That secures you speeds averaging 108Mb and over 110 channels, making it an extremely impressive offer at that price. And for those who like a fix of drama, Virgin has a further discount for you. Knocking its Big Bundle + Drama pack down from £38 to £35 a month, you can get the best of Fox, Sky One, Alibi and more, while still holding on to those impressive 108Mb speeds above. Many broadband providers have had to stop installing broadband and TV deals recently due to the UK's lockdown and although Virgin is the one last provider holding out, it is worth checking its coronavirus advice page before ordering to make sure this is still the case. Not the offer for you? Consult our fibre broadband deals for more Is Virgin fibre broadband available in my area? Approximately 60% of UK households can get superfast Virgin broadband. It's quite simply to find out of you're part of this percentage - head over to our dedicated Virgin broadband deals page, enter your postcode where indicated (at the top of the page) and if deals show as available then . If no results are returned, then head to our best broadband deals page instead and do exactly the same thing to see whether you can get superfast fibre broadband with another provider, such as BT Superfast. Existing Virgin Media broadband customers Sorry, the Virgin website states that these limited time offers are for new customers only. However, there's no harm in trying to get a slice of the pie, so if you're already a Virgin broadband customer we suggest you get in touch with customer services before trying to place an order.  Today's best Virgin broadband deals This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Paid software and services available for free during the pandemic from Microsoft, Facebook and more (updated daily) Posted: 09 Apr 2020 09:10 AM PDT Companies all over the world have ordered employees to work from home in response to the introduction of widespread quarantine and social distancing measures. Top of the list of concerns for many businesses is whether employees are properly equipped to go virtual-only. The lack of appropriate software could prove a significant stumbling block for workers asked to suddenly abandon their office workstations. Thankfully, technology vendors of all shapes and sizes have come to the rescue, with many offering free access to premium services for a limited time. Here’s a rundown of the best free products and services to help your business navigate the ongoing pandemic: *We update this guide daily with all the latest offers, so be sure to check back regularly. Check out our list of the best collaboration tools for 2020 Working from home: the mouse, monitor, keyboard and router you need Here's our choice of the best webcams for working from home right now This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus deals hit lowest price yet with £200 saving from Samsung Posted: 09 Apr 2020 08:55 AM PDT Alongside its closest competitor in Apple, Samsung is one of the most expensive phone brands on the market, especially when it comes to its S20 range. However, with those large prices come some of the world's best smartphones. And if you've been considering getting one of Samsung's newer devices, the phone giant has an offer to help out. Including both the brand new Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus deals and last year's S10 and S10 Plus, you can currently score a 20% discount. In the case of the S20 Plus, that's the lowest SIM-free price we've seen on the device...by a long way. Now coming in at just £799, this is the same price as the 4G S20...or a £200 saving on a brand new release! As for the Galaxy S10, costs drop down to £535.20 and the S10 Plus hits £615.20. In the case of all three devices, these are the lowest prices available right now. All you have to do is purchase them directly from Samsung and enter the code SAMSUNG20 at the checkout. The one catch is that you'll have to act fast, with the offer ending on April 14. Find a cheap SIM only deal to pair with this handset These Samsung phone deals in full: What's so good about these Samsung devices? Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus: The S20 Plus is the middle choice of Samsung's latest trio, landing you an excellent camera set-up with 30x zoom features, depth vision and more. The battery is increased to a size of 4500mAh and the screen climbs to 6.7-inches while rocking a stunning display. This is all-round one of Samsung's best-made phones yet. Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus: The S10 Plus is now one of Samsung's older devices but is still astonishingly good. It has a beautiful infinity-O display, an in-screen fingerprint scanner, strong battery life, and a powerful processor. But obviously with all of these features comes a big price, which is where these affordable offers come into play.  Samsung Galaxy S10: Fitting perfectly between Samsung's affordable S10e and its mammoth S10 Plus and Note 10 devices, this phone is the ideal middle ground. You're getting a high-quality screen, an in-screen fingerprint scanner, and a powerful battery/processor combo. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Laptop sale at Best Buy: save up to $500 on Lenovo, HP, Microsoft, and more Posted: 09 Apr 2020 08:54 AM PDT Working from home and need a new machine? Best Buy's laptop sale includes incredible deals on best-selling laptops with prices starting at just $299.99. You can save up to $500 on top brands like Lenovo, HP, Microsoft, and more. Best Buy's top laptop bargains include the affordable Asus ImagineBook on sale for $299.99 and the Samsung Notebook 7 Spin on sale for $649.99. If you're interested in 2-in-1 laptops, you can snag a $200 discount on the Microsoft Surface Book 2 and get the powerful Lenovo Yoga laptop on sale for $1,399.99. Shop more of Best Buy's top laptop deals below and keep in mind, while Best Buy has closed its stores due to the coronavirus pandemic, the retailer is now offering curbside pickup. This means, depending on your location, you can select the 'Use Curbside Pickup' option when ordering online, and when you drive up, Best Buy will bring your items to your car. Shop more of Best Buy's laptop deals here Best Buy laptop deals: See more laptop sales with the best cheap laptop deals: prices start at just $129 today. You can also see our list of the best 2-in-1 laptop 2020: find the best convertible laptop for your needs. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Best domain registrars in 2020 Posted: 09 Apr 2020 08:50 AM PDT Every great website needs a snappy, memorable domain name. Coming up with something new is a serious challenge, but once inspiration strikes, you'll need to register that name with a domain name registrar before you can use it online. Registration isn't difficult, but first you must choose from the hundreds of companies competing for your business, and there are several things for you to consider before signing the virtual dotted line. We’ve also rounded up the best web hosting services How to choose the perfect domain registrar Pricing structures can be complicated. A low headline figure could become expensive on renewal, for instance. Prices vary between domain extensions, too, so a registrar that offers great value for a .com domain might give you a poor deal on when it comes to .org. There may be extra costs for tasks like transferring your domain to another registrar, too. Read the small print before you sign up. Look for any bundled or optional extras. A Whois privacy service prevents your address, phone number and email address appearing as public contact details for the domain, something which could otherwise get you a significant amount of spam email and phone calls. We've seen this cost as much as $11.20 a year, but several registrars provide it for free. Many domain registrars offer hosting as an extra, but keep in mind that web hosting companies can also register domains. If you have an idea of which web host you'd like to use, check the details of its plans: you may be able to register a domain for free when you buy hosting, and that's often the cheapest option. Finally, take a look at the support a registrar offers. You may never need any help at all, but if anything critical crops up – maybe an issue which might cause a problem with renewal – it's important that your provider is on hand to ably assist.  Balancing all these priorities can be tricky, so that's why we've created this list of top domain registrars to help point you in the right direction.  With a name like Domain.com, the EIG-owned brand, means business, focusing primarily on small and medium businesses. It offers most popular top level domains and over 25 country code top level domains and also sells premium domains as a broker. With nearly two decades of online presence, the company - which is one of the world’s biggest domain name registrars - expanded in web hosting and now ranges a number of products including a website builder, a full design service and web hosting. Domain.com prices tend to be average but we have managed to blag a 25% discount off almost everything in your cart*. Non-premium TLD (.Club, .Men, .Win etc) start from $2.99 for the first year ($2.24 with our code). In line with the rest of the industry, they rise significantly after the second year). You need to pay for privacy protection, a reasonable $6.99, plus you can add email, web hosting, SSL certificates and malware protection, none of which is compulsory. You can stick with its basic website builder which is free with every domain: you get a drag and drop website builder, tons of mobile-friendly templates, up to six pages, SEO tools, Paypal integration and even access to stock image library. Support is more than adequate with 24/7 chat, email and phone support. Domain.com may not have the cheapest prices but it provides with a very balanced offering. *All renewals after the initial discounted period will be charged at the then current standard list price for the selected period. Coupon is not valid with sunrise registrations, landrush registrations, EAP registrations, pre-registrations, premium registrations, renewals, transfers, custom website design, other coupons, or special pricing. Web giant GoDaddy is the world's biggest domain registrar, currently managing more than 75 million domains for 17 million customers around the globe. The company is well-known for its low headline prices, and it's the same story here, for instance,  .mobi domain is available for $7.17 in year one. On the other hand .com and .org are less impressive (though still apparently cheap) starting at $12.17 and $9.17 respectively. Beware, though: these aren't the bargains they initially seem. The first catch is that GoDaddy's starting prices only apply if you pay for two years upfront, and the second year is significantly more expensive (.com rises to $17.99, .uk and .co.uk domains are $12, .co, .org and .mobi are ridiculously high, $34.99 for .co, $20.99 for .org and $28.99 for .mobi.  The second problem is that there are no bundled extras, so adding something like Whois privacy – a valuable service often included for free with other providers – costs $8 a month for year one, and $10 on renewal. There's clearly much better value to be had elsewhere, but GoDaddy may still appeal to web beginners looking for a bundled hosting and domain registration deal. The company has an array of products covering every possible requirement, with telephone support if you need it, and buying your domain and hosting from the same provider will make life a little easier. Just keep in mind that other providers can also combine hosting and domain registration, and GoDaddy may not provide the best package for you. Check out our various hosting guides for possible alternatives. You can sign up for GoDaddy domain registration here Hover is a popular domain name registrar owned by Tucows, which also operates eNom and the domain reselling platform OpenSRS. Hover's website is clear and straightforward. A domain pricing page allows for checking registration costs before you start, or you can use the search box to immediately locate your preferred TLD (top-level domain). By default the results page displays every domain you can register and their prices, giving you a lot to scroll through and read. But a handy sidebar allows filtering domains by categories including Personal, Businesses, Audio and Video, Food and Drink, and more. It's a neat touch which could help you spot an appealing domain that you otherwise might have missed. Prices are very reasonable, with .com domains costing $12.99 for year one, .co.uk priced at $10.99, .org costing $13.99 and .mobi reaching $19.99. Shop around and you'll find slightly lower prices elsewhere, but Hover generally provides good value. There's a welcome bonus in Whois Privacy, which comes free for as long as the domain is managed by Hover. The company keeps upselling to a minimum, even in the final shopping cart stage. You're simply offered three email-related extras: email forwarding at $5 a year, a 10GB email account for $20, or you can opt for a 1TB inbox, file sharing, a calendar and more, for an annual $29. If you have any questions, support is available via email and chat, although it's not 24/7. Working hours are 8am to 8pm (Eastern Time) Monday to Friday, and 12pm to 5pm at the weekend. You can sign up for Hover domain registration here Most domain name registrars offer a simple identikit service with little to separate them from the competition, but Dynadot is an interesting exception which has some unusual advantages. This starts right at the beginning, with your initial search. You can use the website much like any other – type your preferred domain, press Enter, read the results – but you also get Bulk and IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) search tools, and advanced options allow defining which domain extensions to include in your searches, as well as setting those as defaults for all future searches. These searches can optionally return results from domain auctions, Dynadot's Marketplace (where other customers sell domains they no longer need) and other sources. There's also a Backorder option to try and grab a domain that isn't currently available, if it's not renewed. Prices are on the low side, with Dynadot offering both special deals on some extensions and good value at renewal. .com sites are $7.99 initially, $8.99 on renewal. If you’re after a .co.uk domain, that’ll set you back $6.95, .org is $7.99 initially, $10.99 on renewal, and .mobi domains are $5.99 initially, $17.99 on renewal. That's just the start: Dynadot also piles on the free extras. A Website Builder allows you to build and host a simple one-page responsive website. There's free domain forwarding if you'd like to redirect visitors somewhere else. DNS support allows creating 50 subdomain records, 10 email addresses, and 5 each of MX and TXT records. There's even a Grace Deletion list which allows returning a domain if you change your mind. This requires a small fee and won't always be allowed (the details on how it works are here), but it's still a welcome extra you'll rarely find with other registrars. Dynadot's support wasn't always as impressive, with live chat being offline when we checked. But the website does have a publicly available forum, allowing anyone to browse common questions and see how happy (or otherwise) Dynadot's customers might be. You can sign up for Dynadot domain registration here Founded in 2000, Namecheap is a popular domain name registrar and web host which now manages more than five million domains. Namecheap's excellent website allows searching for individual domains, or in batches of up to 50. If the domain is taken, you can view the Whois record or offer to buy the domain (via DomainAgents) from the current user. If the domain is available, results are displayed across four tabs: Popular, New, Discounted and International. This is a neat approach which makes it easier to browse the list and find what you need. Prices are generally very good at $8.88 (£6.8) for .com domains - $12.98 on renewal, $7.58(£5.8) for .co.uk - $9.58 on renewal, $12.98 (£9.3) for .org - $14.98 on renewal, and $16.88 (£13) for .mobi (at the moment, .mobi is not available). There are some special deals available, and Namecheap has an Agent 88 set of domains which are almost always available at $0.48 (£0.35) for the first year (these usually include the following: .site .website .space .pw .press .host .tech .online and .fun – but there may be others as well). That would be good value all on its own, but Namecheap doesn’t stop there: you get WhoisGuard domain privacy thrown in for free. Namecheap's billing is straightforward and honest, with current and renewal prices clearly described in your Namecheap shopping cart, and Auto-Renew turned off. But if there's something you don't understand, helpful FAQ pages and live chat are just a click or two away. You can sign up for Namecheap domain registration here Shopping around for a domain registrar can involve a lot of hassle as you research companies you've never heard of, try to separate genuine bargains from marketing tricks, and browse the small print looking for hidden catches. With potential savings only amounting to a few pounds or dollars a year, at best, you might prefer to simply sign up with a big-name provider that you know will give you a reasonable service, even if it does cost a fraction more. Enter Google Domains, Google's lightweight domain registration arm, a straightforward provider that puts speed and simplicity at the top of its priority list. Google Domains doesn't confuse you with endless sales, or 'special' deals that turn out to be not so special after all. Upselling is kept to a minimum. Instead, it's all about making the purchase process as easy as any other online shopping site: search, click, and check out. The difference is obvious from the moment you reach the site. There are no animated ads at the top of the page, no 'Sale!' banners, no low headline prices: just a search box where you enter a single domain. The results page is equally straightforward, with prices listed for nine common top-level domains, and an All Endings tab listing every option in alphabetical order (domain.academy, domain.bargains, domain.camera). One potential problem is that Google Domains doesn't support all the domain extensions you'll get elsewhere, and this includes some quite common examples (.mobi, .tv). If you think you might ever want to buy something beyond the most popular extensions, it’s a good idea to check that your likely choices are available before you buy. Prices are standardized to whole numbers, so for example .com, .co.uk and .org domains are all priced at $12. That's a little above average overall, but better than some, especially as Google Domains throws in free Whois privacy for as long as you're registered. That's a valuable extra which could cost $2.80 to $11.20 a year elsewhere. If you do have any questions, a Help link displays articles on common problems. If that's not enough, the Contact Us page enables talking to a support agent by email, live chat or telephone (Google calls you), the highest level of domain registrar support we've seen anywhere. You can sign up for Google Domains domain registration here Check out the best website hosting services This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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