Dear WHT'ers,

As some of you know most European domain names never "expire". (example Dutch .nl domain names)

Therefor we as registrars have to make sure our customers allways tell us if they want to renew or not. We have to keep a tight administration, yet still some users do not react in time causing us to have extra costs for renewals.

We have decided to shift the responsability to our customers (like at .com domain names) by letting them agree prior to signing up that a domain will be held a maximum of 30 days after "expiration date". After this period we will automatically cancel the Dutch domain.

Currently we do implement this but we do not "cancel" any domain.

We want to implement some inhouse "redemption page" where the domain will point to when it passes the "expiration date"

What would you guys advise and what would be technically easier to implement?
- Automatically change DNS entries to an IP with a "redemption page"?
- Automatically add a "virtual host" to point to a specific page?
- Automaticalyy adding a .htaccess file to point to a different page?
Other options?

What are your thoughts or ideas for an "Inhouse Redemption System" ?

Thanks in advance.

I think changing DNS entries to a parked page with advertising directing visitors to your business would be reasonable. Include instructions on the page that says, "If you are the administrator of this domain please contact *** to renew."

It would give you additional visibility (which would be rightfully yours due to the additional costs of maintaining the domain name), and would get the "you need to renew" message across to your customers effectively.