What to know about Renewing a Domain Name
From my column in the New Mexico Internet Professionals Association's Internet Informer Newsletter:
Q: It is time to renew my domain name. I have received several letters from different companies. How do I decide on who to work with on this? Does it matter?
A: Any accredited registrar can register domain names in your company or personal name. For a list of accredited registrars, see the website of The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICAAN at http://www.icaan.org/), and use the link in the left center of the page. There are a
number of wholesale domain name registration services such as 000domains.com, itsyourdomain.com or 4domains.com in addition to the more popular and more retail type registrar services. A very popular consumer level registrar with very good pricing is http://www.godaddy.com/
Like any other industry, the registrars are competing for your business, and some have
resorted to less-than-ethical methods of obtaining that business. Because domain name registration information has been publicly accessible, some competitors like Domain Registry of America will often email or snail mail you what appear to be renewal invoices but are actually (con) requests for you to authorize transfer of your domain registration over to that registrar –
be careful to read the fine print on anything that looks like an invoice for domain registration and
you’ll find that many may just be solicitations with no obligation to actually pay the dummy
“invoice.”
While you may want to switch registrars for financial reasons, aggregated billing or better
customer service, you are free to make that choice on your own – or even just stay with your
current registrar. If you're not sure who your current registrar is, you should become familiar
with a “whois” lookup. For .com, .net and .edu domains, I use http://TheNetCave.com/whois
You could also use any other whois lookup, such as Smart Whois at http://swhois.com/
Be careful, because some registrars, notably Network Solutions, have been caught temporarily registering all domains on their own behalf that YOU look up for a grace holding period of five days. This unethical practice seems to have been discontinued in early 2008, but it may just be the big boys keeping their heads down.
At the first URL, I entered (as an example) http://www.nmipa.net/, and see near the top of the retrieved whois information the line:
Server used for this query: [ whois.networksolutions.com ]
I may also have seen a line in the retrieved information which would look like:
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC.
These lines indicate the registrar with whom the domain is currently registered. In this case, you see Network Solutions, now owned by Verisign.
Again, read all of the registry information, because some large, reseller oriented outfits, like http://www.tucows.com/ are the Registrar of record, but TuCows no longer deals directly with consumers, so you'll need to keep reading and look for the "Registrar Reseller" or "Registrar Service Provider" to find where a domain was actually registered.
Near the bottom of the page, you see:
Record expires on 02-May-2014
Difficult to understand what that means, isn't it?
As the top level (.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, etc.) domain names get moved progressively to their
own master registries, we are seeing some implementation of anonymous records in the
more general whois queries. As this proliferates, you may need to take note of the sponsoring
registrar code rather than a plain English name showing in the Registrar line, and then decipher
that code through the top level domain’s main registry. As an example, the CORE- codes are
noted at http://corenic.org/comnetorg.htm
For .org domain names, the master registry is http://www.pir.org/
with a whois service at http://www.pir.org/whois/
At the PIR whois lookup URL, I entered nmipa.org, and see near the top of the retrieved
whois information the line:
Sponsoring Registrar: NSI (R63-LROR)
This code is linked to information on who the code represents, the registrar with whom the domain is currently registered. Clicking on the code link, we again see that the current registrar of this domain is Network Solutions. Back on the initial results page, we see:
Expiration Date: 07-Jun-2004
If you want to transfer to a different registrar, that you must complete the transfer request and approval process in advance of one month before your renewal date, otherwise the registrar and registry put a "lock" on your domain and it cannot be moved to any other registrar.
If you are on record as the registrant of a domain name over which you need to regain control, but the administrative and registrant contact email addresses are no longer correct, current requirements are that you fax a legible copy of your drivers license or passport along with an email-for-registrant change request form to the current registrar. You may also be required to provide a letter on the letterhead of the named registrant of the domain name.
Your website development company may be a registration partner with an ICANN accredited
registrar, and able to handle transfers and renewals associated with your domain. They're a
great resource for handling the technical aspects of moving a domain to another registrar.
NET MAN has handled a number of very tricky domain retention/return issues, sometimes involving hostile kidnapping of domains. In every case, we have been successful in returning domains to their rightful owners in these sticky situations.
Confused? Overwhelmed? In a tight spot? Contact us: http://www.thenetcave.com/contact.html
Q: It is time to renew my domain name. I have received several letters from different companies. How do I decide on who to work with on this? Does it matter?
A: Any accredited registrar can register domain names in your company or personal name. For a list of accredited registrars, see the website of The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICAAN at http://www.icaan.org/), and use the link in the left center of the page. There are a
number of wholesale domain name registration services such as 000domains.com, itsyourdomain.com or 4domains.com in addition to the more popular and more retail type registrar services. A very popular consumer level registrar with very good pricing is http://www.godaddy.com/
Like any other industry, the registrars are competing for your business, and some have
resorted to less-than-ethical methods of obtaining that business. Because domain name registration information has been publicly accessible, some competitors like Domain Registry of America will often email or snail mail you what appear to be renewal invoices but are actually (con) requests for you to authorize transfer of your domain registration over to that registrar –
be careful to read the fine print on anything that looks like an invoice for domain registration and
you’ll find that many may just be solicitations with no obligation to actually pay the dummy
“invoice.”
While you may want to switch registrars for financial reasons, aggregated billing or better
customer service, you are free to make that choice on your own – or even just stay with your
current registrar. If you're not sure who your current registrar is, you should become familiar
with a “whois” lookup. For .com, .net and .edu domains, I use http://TheNetCave.com/whois
You could also use any other whois lookup, such as Smart Whois at http://swhois.com/
Be careful, because some registrars, notably Network Solutions, have been caught temporarily registering all domains on their own behalf that YOU look up for a grace holding period of five days. This unethical practice seems to have been discontinued in early 2008, but it may just be the big boys keeping their heads down.
At the first URL, I entered (as an example) http://www.nmipa.net/, and see near the top of the retrieved whois information the line:
Server used for this query: [ whois.networksolutions.com ]
I may also have seen a line in the retrieved information which would look like:
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC.
These lines indicate the registrar with whom the domain is currently registered. In this case, you see Network Solutions, now owned by Verisign.
Again, read all of the registry information, because some large, reseller oriented outfits, like http://www.tucows.com/ are the Registrar of record, but TuCows no longer deals directly with consumers, so you'll need to keep reading and look for the "Registrar Reseller" or "Registrar Service Provider" to find where a domain was actually registered.
Near the bottom of the page, you see:
Record expires on 02-May-2014
Difficult to understand what that means, isn't it?
As the top level (.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, etc.) domain names get moved progressively to their
own master registries, we are seeing some implementation of anonymous records in the
more general whois queries. As this proliferates, you may need to take note of the sponsoring
registrar code rather than a plain English name showing in the Registrar line, and then decipher
that code through the top level domain’s main registry. As an example, the CORE- codes are
noted at http://corenic.org/comnetorg.htm
For .org domain names, the master registry is http://www.pir.org/
with a whois service at http://www.pir.org/whois/
At the PIR whois lookup URL, I entered nmipa.org, and see near the top of the retrieved
whois information the line:
Sponsoring Registrar: NSI (R63-LROR)
This code is linked to information on who the code represents, the registrar with whom the domain is currently registered. Clicking on the code link, we again see that the current registrar of this domain is Network Solutions. Back on the initial results page, we see:
Expiration Date: 07-Jun-2004
If you want to transfer to a different registrar, that you must complete the transfer request and approval process in advance of one month before your renewal date, otherwise the registrar and registry put a "lock" on your domain and it cannot be moved to any other registrar.
If you are on record as the registrant of a domain name over which you need to regain control, but the administrative and registrant contact email addresses are no longer correct, current requirements are that you fax a legible copy of your drivers license or passport along with an email-for-registrant change request form to the current registrar. You may also be required to provide a letter on the letterhead of the named registrant of the domain name.
Your website development company may be a registration partner with an ICANN accredited
registrar, and able to handle transfers and renewals associated with your domain. They're a
great resource for handling the technical aspects of moving a domain to another registrar.
NET MAN has handled a number of very tricky domain retention/return issues, sometimes involving hostile kidnapping of domains. In every case, we have been successful in returning domains to their rightful owners in these sticky situations.
Confused? Overwhelmed? In a tight spot? Contact us: http://www.thenetcave.com/contact.html
posted by NET MAN at 1:11 PM
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