After reading some of the posts in this forum, I thought that some of you may appreciate a post I made on another site a couple of weeks ago.
Administrators, If I've posted it in the wrong forum, please move it accordingly.

For those of you new to the Domain Name Registration process, READ AND TAKE NOTES! This could be you.

A couple of weeks ago someone asked me how to transfer his domain registration to a less expensive registrar. His web hosting company charged him $35 per year and since the registration was going to expire in June, he wanted to transfer it now.

Well, I gave him the information about how to do it. End of conversation? Not quite. After I hung up the phone, I went to BetterWhoIs.com (http://betterwhois.com) and looked up his registration. I discovered that his web hosting company had set themselves up as the Registrant/Owner, Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, and Billing Contact for that domain. According to the registration database, he had no authority to make any changes to that domain record. I emailed him the updated info and he's still fighting with his hosting company about it.

The reason for relating this experience is to warn all webmasters and business owners that you need to always maintain control of your web site and domain name. Although most web hosting companies are honorable and have very good intentions for providing their customers the best service they can, situations change and you could end up being the loser.

One of our recent customers had a similar situation as the above, but their hosting company was bought by Earthlink. When the purchase occurred, all support and access to their web sites stopped without notice. Fortunately they were listed as the Owner for the domain and, since it was a small site and they had a backup of their pages, we were able to get their domain transferred and the web site back up quickly. However their situation could have been a total disaster.

The following are some steps you can take to ensure you can handle problems with your hosting company. I'm sure others will add to this list so continue reading all of the posts in this thread.

1) Be sure you are listed as the registrant/owner AND Administrative Contact for your domain. If you don't know how to do this, go to BetterWhoIs.com (http://betterwhois.com) and enter your domain name. The results should show you as the Registrant/Owner (first name on the list) and the Administrative Contact. Your web hosting company should be listed as the Technical Contact (unless you've arranged for someone else). The Billing Contact may vary depending on which registrar you use and your arrangements with your web hosting company.

2) Read AND UNDERSTAND all of your Web Hosting and Domain Registration Contracts in very fine detail. Just because we live on the Internet and things move much faster is no reason to ignore good business practices. If you don't understand something, get your hosting company to explain it in writing.

3) Maintain offsite backup copies of all your web site files. If you have a really big site, consider using one or more of the companies on the net that will store files for you. You may also consider using a DSL or other dedicated high-speed Internet connection to download the files and store them on CD (get a CDRW) or DVD (DVRW drives are now becoming available). Don't put all your faith in your host's backups. Many of them only backup the system software instead of the customer files. If they go under, you're the one who loses.

4) Always have an alternative way to get to the Internet. If your ISP is down, be sure you can still access your site, get your orders, etc. The free ISP services work well for this.

5) Consider purchasing your own SSL certificate for your web site. Prices are reasonable and you won't need to depend on your host company. If you do a lot of business consider what will happen if your web hosting company lets their certificate expire. How much business will you lose?

6) Establish a good relationship with your hosting company, preferably with one or two individuals. Exchange emails with them regularly. If you build up that relationship, you may hear about upcoming events that will affect you.

7) Check your host's web site periodically. They may have added new plans or other information without telling their existing customers.

Well, this has gotten too long. I'll let others add to this list. Just remember that your web business is REAL and it is YOUR BUSINESS - treat it as such.

We feel it it better for everyone around when the client handles their own domain registration and maintenance. With control panels offered by registrars such as OpenSRS, it's a great way for domain owners to retain control over their domain. It also prevents problems like the one above :)

I can't stress enough how important it is to make sure that you own and have control over your domain name.

Not a week goes by that we aren't trying to help a new customer get control of a domain name that their previous host registered for them.

This is a HUGE problem in this business!!!!!!!!

--Tina

I see this problem happening alot, especially with the cheap domain names, usually that is the first thing you look for when you register a domain which costs less than $35 per year.
Thats one of the reasons i have always gone with NSI, if i register with them i can guarantee *I* own the domain, many others are doing it too, but be very careful, find somebody else hosting with that company and do a whois on their domain, it should list them as the owner.
My fried made the same mistake, he registered his domain with www.freenetname.co.uk, after using the domain for 6 months, decided to move, it, low and behold there was an "admin charge" nothing small like £10, but a whopping £94 (over $100 USA money!)

It was actually cheaper to buy a new domain, luckily he had only been "parking the domain" and not using it for business, as he would have had to pay the money to move the domain!

Always be weary when buying cheap domains.

Good reminder, Chuck. Although we have discussed this topic before, invariably there are newcomers to the forum who won't make use of the search feature and will be oblivious to the importance of their registration information until it is too late. The best time to prevent a problem is before it becomes one.

I'll add that some companies that provide domain registrations at not cost or too cheap a price (there's a $1.95 per year deal mentioned elsewhere) usually register themselves as the owner (registrant). That's how they maintain control and keep you hosting with them if you want to retain that domain name.

That was proven by someone on the forum who registered the throw away name psychohamsters.com with one of those companies and found they were the owners of it.

Domain name registrations are simple enough through registrars like OpenSRS that anyone can do it for themselves and be assured of it being registered properly. They should only have someone else do it on their behalf if they trust that person, and should verify the registration afterwards in any case.

My clients are businesses and don't have the time for such matters, so I handle it for them. However, they already know and trust me. The registrations end up in their name, even if temporarily I might register them in my OpenSRS profile and then adjust the information accordingly, and move it to a new profile in their name.

Doing the same with a little known entity could be risky.

I have always use Network Solutions for my domain, i guess i have never had a problem with them and they have never done anything I didnt like, I phoned them up once form the UK and got a prompt reply, but other than that everything has been fine.



WARNING WARNING
COMPLETELY OFF TOPIC ALERT

Duster - where did you get your Shark picture? and are there more where you got it from?, lmao

Originally posted by xtstrike
I see this problem happening alot, especially with the cheap domain names, usually that is the first thing you look for when you register a domain which costs less than $35 per year.
Thats one of the reasons i have always gone with NSI, if i register with them i can guarantee *I* own the domain, many others are doing it too,
I think you're settling for an inferior system in the mistaken belief that it affords something it doesn't. The problem with the proper registrant not being used is not related to the choice of registrar. It can be a direct result of having someone other than the proper owner register the domain name. You could have the same problem if a third party used NSI as the registrar. With NSI, however, it costs $119 to change the registrant name, not to mention all the forms and proof sent back and forth.

Neither is it a function of price. There are other registrars charging $70 for 2 years, just as NSI does, even at least one OpenSRS RSP. Price is no indication of quality or service with registrars. With NSI, you pay too much and get too little.

---------------
addendum: I got it from iconsbazaar.com They have many other icons, though this is the only one they have of a shark

thanx Duster (on both counts)

I will look more seriously at the alternative registrars you have mentioned before i register any more domains, as i have quite a few to register now I have a dedicated server :)

It doesn't matter who your registrar is, you have to make sure your Host doesn't control your domain. It could happen with any registrar, so please don't use this as an excuse to have to use that evil NSI. We actually have a couple clients that we control their Domain name and if we wanted to, we could take it away from them, but we would never ever do that. The only reason we do this for them, is because they are absolutely NSI illiterate. I do agree though, alot of clients of ours have fought hard to get the domain transfered because their host registered their Domain name to the host and not the client.

Per Sesran :agree: ,

It doesn't matter who your registrar is, you have to make sure your Host doesn't control your domain. It could happen with any registrar, so please don't use this as an excuse to have to use that evil NSI. We actually have a couple clients that we control their Domain name and if we wanted to, we could take it away from them, but we would never ever do that. The only reason we do this for them, is because they are absolutely NSI illiterate. I do agree though, alot of clients of ours have fought hard to get the domain transfered because their host registered their Domain name to the host and not the client.

Exactly!

Several months ago we evaluated all of the major, approved registrars (those listed on the ICANN site) to determine if any offered us better reseller terms than our BulkRegister account. What we discovered is that the costs varied but the services were almost identical. One of the criteria was that our customers needed to be the owner and Admin. contact. All of the registrars provided that approach. Additionally, we discovered that the reseller discounts were so deep that the resellers were, in our opinion, gouging their customers.

Back in October when we started getting a number of customers who were having the same problems, we did some testing. We randomly selected some domains from a search engine and looked up their domain records. Surprisingly about 25% of the ones we looked at revealed that at least the Admin. contact was the same as the hosting company (based upon the DNS info). In about 10% of the cases, the web hosting company was listed as the Owner/Registrant. Now this was not a scientific study, but it revealed to us the need to warn our customers and other contacts of the problem.

Personally, I believe it is unethical and poor customer service to register a domain in the hosting company's name if the customer thinks it is theirs. Additionally, since many/most people who have web sites don't understand the situation, I feel that every web hosting company should bend over backward to help preserve their customers rights on the Internet. Unfortunately, :angry: some of the web hosts are the ones we need to protect our customers from. Also, unfortunately, a lot of vendors on the Internet did not grow up with the same customer service values I have.

Well, ___
>>>>>> |
>>>>>>>---- :D (I just stepped off my soapbox)

Originally posted by AffordableHost
I can't stress enough how important it is to make sure that you own and have control over your domain name.

Not a week goes by that we aren't trying to help a new customer get control of a domain name that their previous host registered for them.

This is a HUGE problem in this business!!!!!!!!

--Tina

Very true. Last year one customer signed an account with us and asked us to transfer the domain on our server for him. When I check the whois record found that domain name is in hosting company's name. I contacted the client and got the story that he paid $70 to this client to register this domain for 2 years. Since he is not happy with the down time he wants to mvoe somewhere else. Fare enough, I asked him to talk to his previous host and ask them to transfer the domain name in your name since you paid for that domain and they just acted on your behalf.

After 2 days I received an email with client saying that host is denying to release the domain name until they are paid in full for next 2 years, since they registered the domain name for him for 2 years, therefore hosting terms automatically bind him for next 2 years.

I suggest him to contact lawyer and file a suit against this company and let them know before taking this action. The very next day client came to me asking to make necessary changes to transfer the domain since that company is ready to confirm the changes.

Although this was happy ending but there are many people who either end up paying extra money to get the domain name or lossing it for ever. Very bad...:bawling:

After I hung up the phone, I went to BetterWhoIs.com (http://betterwhois.com) and looked up his registration. I discovered that his web hosting company had set themselves up as the Registrant/Owner, Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, and Billing Contact for that domain. According to the registration database, he had no authority to make any changes to that domain record. I emailed him the updated info and he's still fighting with his hosting company about it.

That just sent chills through my spine, as I am going through the same thing with one of my new clients... :eek:

His old host registered the domains with the hosting company as the contacts. He has asked for the information to be changed, with no response. :rolleyes:

What makes this even worse for this client is that he is a web designer, and these are domains that *his* clients requested for their web site. :mad:

Now the host isn't replying to his emails, I am not even sure if they exist anymore.:angry:

Any ideas? :uzi:

I suggested for him to contact Network Solution's compliance department and explain his situation. Is this a lost cause? :confused:

We randomly selected some domains from a search engine and looked up their domain records. Surprisingly about 25% of the ones we looked at revealed that at least the Admin. contact was the same as the hosting company (based upon the DNS info). In about 10% of the cases, the web hosting company was listed as the Owner/Registrant. Now this was not a scientific study, but it revealed to us the need to warn our customers and other contacts of the problem.
While I certainly wouldn't argue about the need to control one's domain names, I would advise caution in drawing any conclusions from such observations above. For instance, the only domains I host are businesses and organizations. Many of them are too busy to handle Internet matters and rely on me to do so on their behalf. (Ample evidence of that is that two had their domains expire, and I had to renew them to reinstate them promptly). Some have even asked me to be the admin contact.

They still have their login and password information so they can access their OpenSRS accounts, even if they won't need to as they will call me if they have any questions. I'll grant that this is probably more the exception rather than the rule. I've met several of my clients and handled other computer matters for them (building servers and personal computers for a few), and still others have learned to trust me over the course of our business relationship. It is a trust I have earned and would never abrogate.

Unless someone has a similar relationship with whoever is handling their domain name, I would advise they make sure they are listed as the admin contact as well as the registrant. Being the admin contact assures more rapid changes and control, even at registrars like NSI. A domain can be moved to another registrar by the admin contact on record. Once moved to one like OpenSRS, the registrant and any other information can be changed in a matter of moments.

Being listed only as the registrant means a time consuming process in proving ownership and gaining control if it should be necessary. For anything other than registered businesses or organizations, proof of ownership could be difficult. Given the petty behavior of many hosting companies, regardless of size, this is an area of grave concern and even the most technologically illiterate person should verify who is listed as the registrant, the admin contact (and the email address used for it), and make sure they have the login and password information to access the registry and their domain names.

Oh I rememebr one thing... we got a customer who register the domain by himself and gave our company name and address as Admin and Technical contact. When I noticed this (received an email) I gave him a call and asked why he registered domain in our name and not his name.

Him: Becasue I don't want my name to be listed so openly on the net
Me: do you know that it is your domain and you have paid for it. If we want in this case can take over the domain name.
him: But why will you do that?
me: Not now but may be your domain name become very popular and ... hope you get some idea
him: ok thanks, how can I change the domain name in my name
me: contact the registrar and fill their form, we will approve the transfer. It may cost you some bucks
him: So you will charge me to give my domain name back.
me: sorry for confusion. I don't mean that. Most of the registrar charge fee if admin contact is changed.
him: oh I thought something else, sorry......

You know the funny part, still the domain name is in our company name and whenvever I remind him he assures me that he will change it soon.

Originally posted by CoreyC
[His old host registered the domains with the hosting company as the contacts. He has asked for the information to be changed, with no response.

What makes this even worse for this client is that he is a web designer, and these are domains that his clients requested for their web site.

Now the host isn't replying to his emails, I am not even sure if they exist anymore.

Any ideas?

I suggested for him to contact Network Solution's compliance department and explain his situation. Is this a lost cause?
Contacting NSI (or any registrar) is probably a waste of time. It's not up to them to determine ownership of a domain name. I would suggest the time for e-mails is long past. An attorney letter is called for at this point before it does become a lost cause. Notifying the appropriate state attorney general's office and the BBB is appropriate also, though mostly to alert others.

Try contacing the old host over the phone (I am not sure if you did)
If you customer is having any email which proves that the domain was registered on behalf of him/her, that will be good evidence.
How long the domain name is registered, if it is too close to the expiration, try to re-register it. But this is the the last option and with 100% risk.