Thanks all for replies. I went with DigitalOcean. In figuring out what to do, I realized I had to square up with ionos and then set the nameservers differently. It will take another 24 hours at least for my payment to be processed.

$ whois merrillpjensen.com >1.txt
$ cat 1.txt
   Domain Name: MERRILLPJENSEN.COM
   Registry Domain ID: 1628124514_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
   Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.ionos.com
   Registrar URL: http://www.ionos.com
   Updated Date: 2020-08-02T00:22:44Z
   Creation Date: 2010-12-01T02:08:14Z
   Registry Expiry Date: 2020-12-01T02:08:14Z
   Registrar: 1&1 IONOS SE
   Registrar IANA ID: 83
   Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@ionos.com
   Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.6105601459
   Domain Status: ok https://icann.org/epp#ok
   Name Server: NS1035.UI-DNS.BIZ
   Name Server: NS1035.UI-DNS.COM
   Name Server: NS1035.UI-DNS.DE
   Name Server: NS1035.UI-DNS.ORG
   DNSSEC: unsigned
   URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://www.icann
+.org/wicf/
>>> Last update of whois database: 2020-09-16T00:18:23Z <<<
[download]

I didn't know that domain names were case insensitive. Tja. I used this personal site for personal business. I wonder what domain names are out there now, and for how much.

Do the companies who issue domain names compete?

Yep, domain names are case-insensitive, but in most cases shown in lower-case.

It leads to the odd situation where in an email address, the part after the @ is case-insensitive, but the part before the @ is theoretically case-sensitive. (Depends on how the server treats it. Most treat it case-insensitively.)

toby döt ink

Do the companies who issue domain names compete?

Does the pope wear a funny hat?

---

🦛

Alright, well it's costing me $4/month for ionos to register the domain. I just don't think they have to do a whole lot for it. Do I shop my business elsewhere and try to talk them down to three bucks a month?

I was able to move forward and update the DNS nameserevrs to digitalocean.

It can take up to 48 hours for the changes to take effect with the other provider or your own name server. Your IONOS DNS zone settings will then be deactivated.

What are DNS zone settings?