I registered 2 domain names on March 9, 2004 w/ Bravenet, then went w/ pro hosting package. No problems to date w/ the hosting service for photosbytrish.com or bartsaintjohn.com. On Feb 28, I went onsite to Bravenet to renew domain names, which expire on March 9, 2005. I completed the transaction, with my credit card, and thought that was that, I'm set for another year. Well, I get an email from Bravenet saying in summary " due to legal & tech issues w/ previous registrar, unable to renew my dn at this time but can transer to new registrar if not expires (it hasn't), no downtime they say, no addtl charges needed (since I'd just paid them I would think not). Then I got another email to go to a link to release domain. I did that for mine, after BRavenet assured me it was not a spoof email.

Now, when I go to Bravenet to check acct services, it says I have no domain names registered., can't manage nameservers, etc. Under acct transactions, they list my pymt for domain name. Never got or can get a straight answer from Bravenet as to what happened. Checking whois from various sites, I find I'm registered w/ directi.com now with expir. date of Mar 10 2006 wiith active status. Went to directi to look around, registered as a user there, can't find my dn there anywhere. So now I'm wondering: am I in jeopardy of losing my dn, how did Bravenet "lose" me, who the heck is directi, and Dodora also.

In addition, I have 2 more names to renew soon thru Bravenet or whoever, but the most urgent 2 are now floating around somewhere. I just want to get access to my names and re-register them w/ EV1, at least I know where the heck they are then. These names are on our business cards, my photos, and my boyfriend's band CDs so it is quite important to me that I keep our dn's.

Any insight would be most greatly appreciated !!! Thanks :)

Trish

do a search here on WHT for the dodora/directi. It was a pretty ugly issue that created problems for many customers. If you can move away to another registrar it is advised.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=346437

Brace yourself for numerous followups and less sleep. And don't
expect it to be resolved with a technical magic wand.

Be strong, hang in there, and good luck!

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it.
I did read the previous post about the same problem, but didn't see a followup as to how and if it was finally resolved, perhaps I should check further.

Things I've done so far:

1. Opened Bravenet support ticket. Got reply just that my "ok to transfer" email was legit and no spoof. Then a second email that they couldn't register me due to legal & technical, etc. Called Bravenet, spoke w/ the account person there, they said they would get my two domains through for me. No mention at that time of Directi or Dodora whatsoever.

2. Created a log in acct w/ Directi. Opened a support ticket when they did not show me as registered there or anywhere even. No reply to first support ticket. Wrote another one today. Tried to call both 415 area code #'s just answering machine on all attempts. Directi's site is hard to navigate at times too.

Yes, I do plan to lose a lot of sleep over it, oh well, I'm off work for 4 days so I have plenty of free time to send support tickets ! I really want to get my sites away from Bravenet now, even though I'm not too sure it's even their fault, I just don't like the fact that my registrar changed and no one bothered to tell me. Now I wonder how I'm going to move them without access to the proper info, I guess I'm stuck w/ Directi for 60 days ?? I'm worried that when the 9th rolls around, I'll have lost control over 2 of my dns. I'm thinking about buying the .net's and rebuilding at another host as a backup. And then what to do about the other one that's up in 3 weeks, and the one after that. :angry:

Originally posted by trishgill
I really want to get my sites away from Bravenet now, even though I'm not too sure it's even their fault, I just don't like the fact that my registrar changed and no one bothered to tell me.

That's actually one reason why registrars and their resellers add
a portion in their legal fine prints saying, something to the effect,
that they can change ownership or make whatever changes any
time without notifying anyone: things like that can happen at the
blink of an eye and no one would even notice.

Still, it's good for the company if they do notify whatever happens.

Originally posted by trishgill
Now I wonder how I'm going to move them without access to the proper info, I guess I'm stuck w/ Directi for 60 days ?? I'm worried that when the 9th rolls around, I'll have lost control over 2 of my dns. I'm thinking about buying the .net's and rebuilding at another host as a backup. And then what to do about the other one that's up in 3 weeks, and the one after that. :angry:

Getting the domains as .net can serve as backups, then notify as
many people as you can what your situations is, just so they'd
know.

As you may have just learned, that's why it's preferable to get
your domain name/s thru an actual registrar instead of a reseller
for one (Bravenet is or was a reseller for dodora, then the directi-
dodora "mess" occurred). If you get your domain thru a reseller
and problems occur, the reseller's partner registrar may or may
not have a mechanism to rectify the situation.

Since the domains are registered with directi, you should bug
directi aside from Bravenet. Although directi will continue referring
you to Bravenet (registrars always refer end-users to their
resellers first due to their legal agreements), just persist with
either, see who'll finally make it happen.

In any case, I wish you luck on getting your .coms back.

I went to Bravenet and read the fine print: under dn reg rules I did find:

Changes to Agreement:

We reserve the right to modify this agreement from time to time or changes the services provided at any time. Continued use of our services after such changes will constitute you acceptance of the new agreement.

So, I guess that means since I renewed my hosting each month, I was thereby giving approval to something I didn't know had changed, but since it had, and I was still signed up, that means I was to intuitively know all about this and it was all good. If a tree falls in the forest, etc...............

I sent EV1 an email to domain name support and told them all about it, I have the whole thing in notepad now so I can copy when needed, hopefully they'll try to help a long-term customer. I'll register my new choices w/ them Saturday.

I've pretty much decided on BlueWho, they just seem to be really good judging from reviews here and from reading alot on their site. Also, selling point is that I can put all my domains in one place at one price and save me alot of time and trouble. I know nothing is perfect and stuff goes wrong, but this Bravenet Directi Dodora morphing is just too much.:nuts:

good luck trishgill, let us know how this goes

Update: Directi has sent another reply to support ticket, saying they're were initiating steps to help me, so far, I don't show up anywhere but w/ whois w/ them. Went to EV1, initiated transfer on the two in question, will see what happens, whois status has them as "active" so I assume they're not locked. Registed the .net's to match the 3 .com's I'm having trouble with, one which is still under Bravenet and locked, but not expiring til Mar 25, I'll unlock it tomorrow and transfer from EV1 as a test, then I'll try with the last one. I noticed another poster on the Bravenet forum is having the exact same problem, I have a feeling it's going to be getting pretty busy over there in the support dept.

Thanks again, everyone,
Trish

Originally posted by trishgill
but not expiring til Mar 25, I'll unlock it tomorrow and transfer from EV1 as a test, then I'll try with the last one.

Wait for roughly 24 hours after unlocking the .com name to reflect
at the Registry, then start your transfer. But if their WHOIS says
it's unlocked before the 24-hour mark, go ahead.

Thanks, I will certainly follow that advice :)

Another update: just got 2 emails from EV1, to initiate transfer to Tucows/EV1 from Directi. Approved both (of course), hopefully Directi will release the names. This happened after 2 things: quite a few angry people on the Bravenet members helping members board, and a memo posting saying "support is aware of the problem" more or lesson the BN support ticket page. I had also just sent another ticket to Directi, worded quite strongly, but politely, saying that someone has my money, where are my dn's? I'll rest much easier when I can go on EV1 and manage our names, but I feel like I'm halfway there. I'm keeping updates going in case anyone else from Bravenet finds their way over here, I don't think anyone over there is quite as knowledgeable as y'all are ;)

LOL. Keep us posted, this is interesting, to say the least. :)

Update: This a.m. I got an email from Bravenet saying they have a request to transfer my name to EV1 and if this is OK to NOT hit the link in the email and if they had not gotten a refusal in 4 days they'd release it. Got 2 emails from Directi, both closing my support ticket, one saying in summary, we have you in our registry, per whois, if you have a problem contact Bravenet. That's fine, that's how I found out where it ended up, by "whois" duh, not them, not Bravenet nor anyone else. The other one we're working out because it's my boyfriend's site, and he forwards all emails to me to deal w/ them on it, I couldn't change admin name after renewal because we couldn't get to it, and it just goes on and on. I unlocked another domain pending transfer per your advice, maybe this will go smoother. It amazes me that a transaction valued at abt $20 is causing so much confusion and aggravation. :eek:

Still no resolution to my problem. Directi closed my tickets, gave me link to log into w/ them, it diverts to Bravenet ! I already have a BN acct, and it no longer has my domain management in there . So, I emailed EV1 to check transfer status. Recvd one email from Directi to approve transfer. I've followed all the instructions from both BN and Directi to get this resolved, nothing has worked so far. I have space now at BlueWho and can't even move my sites. And today I had to renew another one thru BN, same thing. It's not up til the 25th so I'm not going to worry too much right now. I will say that my support tickets have been answered each time, just not with a satisfactory resolution. On the positive side, I've learned tons about domain names, whereas two weeks ago I didn't know that much at all, plus I found Bluewho.

Nothing in this world takes the place of persistence, trishgill. ;)

I'm somewhat bothered by Bravenet's email telling you not to do
anything at all if you want the transfer to proceed. They should
have a mechanism to approve it quicker instead of waiting.

Then again, we're talking about a reseller.

Okay, it sounds like you've practically confirmed the transfers from
both the losing and gaining parties. It's simply a waiting game,
now.

If you saw a recent thread here, you'll learn that domain name
registration transfers don't take place instantly as some people
would like to believe, just because it's a technical thing. Domain
transfers take anywhere from 1-2 days to 7 on the average.

Well, I was going to update with good news that my two primary domain names that were the problem at Directi are now safely registered w/ ev1servers. Then I read one of the first posts in this category about registration problems w/ ev1servers.net. :eek:

Oh, well, at least I'm able to manage my nameservers now. I think I'm going to check into namecheap, who were recommended to me from the folks at BlueWho, (Bluewho under new ownership now, soon as got hooked up w/ them ) should have listened !!

I only have 7 domains to manage, I just want them in the same place so I don't have to jump thru hoops to make changes. Am going to check on the EV1 situation now to see what's up. I can say that I've been a customer of EV1's other services for over 5 years now, and never once had a problem with them.

Great to hear that, trishgill!