So, is whois guard recommended? What are the advantages?
Don't register domains with godaddy. They're about the worst domain registrar in existence, also they don't accept bitcoins, and they autocharge you for renewals without asking you about it, and they also overcharge a lot for their services, and they oversell their shared hosting. In addition the owner is know for going on expensive hunting trips to africa, killing elephants:
http://www.thecollaredsheep.com/godaddy-ceo-bob-parsons-shoots-elephant-in-zimbabwe/They're also more concerned about making commercials to reel in new customers than to actually provide good customer service. It was a sign of relief once I finally was finished with my customer relationship with them, and I don't understand how I was reeled in in the first place.
Basically they feed off customers that don't know too much about domains and hosting. The more experienced users will not use godaddy.
In addition it's also a US company, which means that all customer details will be readily available to NSA/FBI/CIA/IRS etc.
For bitcoin services, going offshore with anonymous domains and hosting is the preferred method imo.
If you have questions about these issues, don't be afraid to fire me a pm. In addition, depending on what you're going to use the domains for, it's not very advisable to have other people buy them for you, that can lead to a hostload of issues, it's best to buy them yourself.
For instance, if you send btc to somebody, and they use as stolen cc to purchase the domain, and then transfer it to you, you might end up in legal trouble when the charge is reversed.
There are numerous serious companies offering domain registrations for bitcoins. Prices are variable, so you could check it out. This is a good starting point:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#Domain_Name_and_DNS_HostingAs for whois guard, that is basically a company putting their info in the whois information of your domain. If you google "find whois info about a site", you will find many sites letting you check the whois of a domain. If the domain is whois protected, then the info popping up will lead you to some company that's providing the whois.
If you run company A and have whois protection on a domain, the whois will basically read anon company X.
For example this forum has whois protection and it reads:
...
Registrant Name:WhoisGuard Protected
Registrant Organization:WhoisGuard, Inc.
Registrant Street: P.O. Box 0823-03411
Registrant City:Panama
Registrant State/Province:Panama
...
In legal terms I think it's allowed to have whois protection, but it's not allowed to input fake data, but in reality the end result is much the same, and I see very many people inputting fake data. I'm not sure what the consequences of inputting fake data would be, but I never heard of anyone losing their domain over it. In addition it might be cheaper than whois protection. The whois protection is usually done for a few dollars a year pr. domain. And some hosts claims to give it to you for free, but the cost is mot often included in the cost of the domain registration anyway!
Good luck, and don't hesitate to send me a pm if you need further help!
