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Expired Domains
Don't Risk Losing Your Business Domain Name!
Mike Banks Valentine
Expert Author
Published: 2006-09-01
I Can't Remember Where I Purchased My Domain Name!
Thousands of small business webmasters briefly lose their domain
names at expiration, due to a simple lack of understanding about the
roles of three key players in the drama: domain name registrars, web
hosts and internet service providers. Fortunately for most, they
learn quickly how to save their web site from oblivion by using the
30 day redemption period for expired domain names enforced by ICANN.
One simple solution is to extend domain registration for the maximum
ten years. The other solution is to treat domain registrar data as
the critical business element it is.
It wasn't until my third client had called asking how to regain
control of her domain name that I realized that it was a common
problem for small business webmasters to forget where they had
registered their domains. WHOIS my registrar? Why didn't I get an
email about renewal? Why did my site stop working today?
People rarely realize how important it is to keep their domain
registrar notified of changes to their email address and and other
contact information. The registrar will send renewal notifications
to the email address last on file. For most domain owners, the only
time they think about contacting a registrar is the day they reserve
their domain name. If they move to a new city and get a new internet
service provider, it doesn't occur to them that the old email
address will change and that meeans that the registrar can no longer
contact them through the previous address, or phone or fax as each
of them change and we rarely notify the controller of our domain of
those changes.
Sometimes the first indication a business owner will have that there
is a problem is the day their web site stops working. If they failed
to notify their domain registrar of changed email address, they may
never have received their domain renewal notice. Since many
registrars honor a 30 day "redemption period" allowing expired
domains to be redeemed, it may be possible to save the registration
within 30 days following expiration by contacting registrars during
30 day domain redemption periods.
The following URL leads to the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (AKA ICANN) discussing the grace period and
redemption period rules it enforces.
http://www.icann.org/bucharest/redemption-topic.htm
So how does a domain owner find out who their registrar is if
they've forgotten? Simple WHOIS inquiries will tell you everything
the registrar knows about your domain. Public WHOIS records show the
owner's contact email, street address, phone and fax numbers. But
that's not all, it also shows the current registrar, DNS servers,
the creation and expiration dates of the domain name. Here is how to
check your WHOIS data. Type the following into your browser address
bar:
http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/whois.ch?ip=google.com
Replace google.com
with your domain name and click go. If you don't, you'll see the
following contact information:
Administrative Contact:
DNS Admin (NIC-14290820) Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View CA 94043
US
*********@google.com
+1.6506234000
Fax- +1.6506188571
You'll also see the domain servers, which usually includes the host
name like so:
Domain servers in listed order:
NS3.GOOGLE.COM
NS4.GOOGLE.COM
NS1.GOOGLE.COM
NS2.GOOGLE.COM
This normally shows only two servers (Google is bigger than you.)
So now that you are armed with WHOIS data, you can see:
Who the registrar is. (Hence WHOIS)
Who the Domain Administrative, technical contacts are.
Owner names, addresses, emails, phone and fax numbers.
Domain creation, expiration and "last updated" dates.
Domain servers and backup servers.
What do you do if your domain name shows expired and it has stopped
working? Do that WHOIS search and contact the listed registrar at
their customer support number. They'll ask you to prove who you are
by verifying some registration details. If you can't remember access
passwords to log in to domain management consoles, they'll often
accept faxed copies of your photo ID or a some standard
identification proof and reset your username and password to give
you access again.
Forgetting to notify your registrar is not the only way to lose
control of your domain. There are hundreds of stories of unethical
hosting companies, webmasters and even spouses (since divorced)
holding domain names in the name of a small business because the
domain owner was not web savvy and didn't understand how important
that domain name signup day was. Keep your registrar name, your log
in username, password and domain management URL permanently recorded
somewhere with your most important business papers. Don't allow
anyone to register your domain name for you if they don't put YOUR
name, email address and phone numbers in "Administrative Contact"
position during registration.
Some business owners confuse their web host with their internet
service provider and further confuse both with the domain registrar.
Since many ISP's offer web space, or hosting, and also provide
domain registration through their initial signup package, it's not
easy to separate the three distinctly different entities. You
needn't host with your internet service provider and they're
(almost) never your domain registrar. Keep them separate and
completely apart in your mind.
Internet service provider. (AT&T, Verizon, SBC Global.)
Web hosting provider. (Pair Networks, Verio web hosts.)
Domain Registrar. (GoDaddy,
Register.com Yahoo Domains.)
When a client recently moved her hosting, she asked me how to make
that happen and had no idea how important the details were. We first
established a new hosting account, then determined new domain name
servers, uploaded her web files. we made sure that account was live
with the new web host, then contacted the domain REGISTRAR to change
to the new domain servers in a domain management console.
This same client had nearly told her old web host to close her
account before we found out that the registrar had her old, previous
email address as "Administrative contact" email for her domain name.
It took two days to straighten that out and make corrections. Her
site would have been down for two days if she had shut down her old
hosting account as she had planned before speaking with me. She had
a new hosting account set up, but failed to realize the importance
of the registrar change to DNS server records in the moving
scenario.
We then notified the previous host of the change, only AFTER the
domain was resolving to the new host so that when the site was
turned off at the old host, it was already working at the new host.
Don't be caught by surprise! You can protect your domain name by
registering it for the maximum time of ten years and extend it every
year to that final, tenth year, rather than waiting for it to near
expiration. This will prevent you losing control of the name, but
shouldn't mean you can forget your registrar login details or
renewal date. How likely is it that you will move, or at least
change internet service providers within that ten years? Be sure to
keep your registrar apprised of new email, street address, phone
numbers at all times! Especially that all important Administrative
contact email. "WHOIS" your domain registrar? Do you have domain
name management console login details? Have you extended your
registration to ten years? Your business is worth careful domain
name management.
Source: www.webpronews.com
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