My old hosting and domain registration just expired a couple of weeks ago. I want to get a new host as the old one sucks. However, when I check my old domain name with the new hosting it says that the domain name is registered under the old host even though it actually ends a couple of weeks ago. So, I'm not sure what to do as the new host wouldn't let me register this domain name and when i log on to my old host it tells me that I have no domain name.

Thank you.

Your hosting and domain are two separate entities.

A hosting package, typically, is not on a contract or yearly basis, but instead a month-to-month kind of thing.

Domains are registered by the year. If the hosting company you were with registered that domain for you, you may or may not be able to move it to another company. If you can, then you would need to change what are called the nameservers. Nameservers are basically addresses that point to the webhost your website exists at. You would get these nameservers from your new host.

The trick is finding out how to change your nameservers on your old host. If they do not allow that, you can always transfer your domain to another domain registrar [again, this is seperate from hosting - don't get them confused]. I would recommend GoDaddy.com or even Domains.Yahoo.com would work just fine.

Hopefully this clears some information up.