If you have a great idea for a website, one thing you’ll probably want to do is to secure an appropriate domain name as soon as you can. This is a good idea. Domain names are quite inexpensive, so it doesn’t matter if you buy the name in advance of starting work on your site. All you need to ensure when you buy the domain is that you have the option to have full control over the DNS. Don’t worry if you don’t know what this means, just ensure you have that option. 123 Reg are a good company to use, as are LCN.

What I’d certainly advise though is that when you buy your domain name that you don’t buy any web hosting or email services with it, even if the deal on offer looks like a steal. Instead let this be something your web developer takes care of for you. They will be in a better position to work out what exactly you require and then they can edit the DNS of your domain to point to the service they provide.

Finally, if your web developer suggests you use a hosting package, which is their own, or on which they are a reseller, don’t equate this to a financial advisor trying to sell you the products they recommend just to get their hands on the commission. Most web developers make next to nothing on hosting. The margins are too small and to compete your web developer would need to be selling in volume. It just won’t be their core business. It’s more likely that, if they recommend a host, it’s because they are comfortable with and have evaluated their services and they know that to deploy your website on the host once it is built will save them time. Which should save you money.

Based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, contact miggle.co.uk for website development, content management and online media services in the UK and worldwide.

Did you know that if you have a computer at work connected to the Internet then it’s possible that you might need a TV licence? This would even apply if you were using your laptop or mobile phone in the office and it was plugged into the mains, because once it is, then it’s no longer covered by your home licence. If however you don’t use your computer or phone to stream live TV then you are exempt, but how the TV licence bods determine whether you do or don’t, I don’t know.

This law just strikes me as a nonsense. As an employer, unless I find some way of restricting my staff from accessing live TV streams then it would seem clear that I’d need to buy one just in case one of my team decides one day to catch the latest on a breaking news story, rather than focussing on their miggly endeavours!

The thing is, it was never ‘our’ decision, as business owners, for broadcasters to start streaming TV content online. It’s inevitable that they would and I’m really glad that they do, but then to decide that this now means businesses need a TV licence too places just another unnecessary cost on firms.

On Radio 5live this morning they had some chap on from the licensing gestapo and he said the process for catching unlicensed businesses involves sending out letters, and then if these are ignored, visiting the premises with a view to proving that computers are being used for this. I really wonder how they’re going to get this proof. Unless they actually catch someone in the act of watching a live TV stream, I don’t think they can have any actual rights to start looking at the histories of browsers on machines, or to demand business owners demonstrate how they restrict this content from being viewed.

Of course, they make out they will catch you, and, of course, they don’t disclose how. But I don’t think there is a how which is definitive enough to stand up against all arguments, although by maintaining this stance proprietors and directors will of course just get the licence anyway. Which of course we all should, if its the law – and let’s be clear here, I’m not advocating we break it either. That doesn’t change the fact though that its a stupid law, and the confusion over it is just another reason why convergence of media makes it harder to keep the licence system running. TV licenses will go the same way as Radio ones… In general, if a law is easy to understand, then it’s a law that makes sense. Murder is against the law. Easy. When laws are shrouded in confusion, it generally a sign that it’s a lousy law, which has, at best, a tenuous reason for existence. In this instance, as an additional tax on businesses.

If a licence fee is justified for being able to watch broadcast TV on a PC, then maybe the TV Licence authority should ask to get a law passed which makes all broadcasters have to run a pre-roll message before any TV stream which states the need for a licence. Or even to check your right to watch that sort of content via some kind of database and a sniffer that determines location, hardware type and if its connected to the mains or not. The point being, somehow, on an open web, it needs to be made crystal clear to users when they are just about to break the law.

Of course this won’t happen, but until then, I don’t think any business need fear a visit – but if you do get a knock, pull your power lead out of your phones and laptops, use Safari with Private Browsing turned on to stream your content on all other PCs – and if they demand to look at your PC’s settings to see what you’ve been up to just refuse.

Based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, contact miggle.co.uk for website development, content management and online media services in the UK and worldwide.