At GoDaddy.com, they offer private domain name registration that is supposed to protect you from receiving a lot of spam.

Is it true that when you register a domain, your name, address, email address and phone number are immediately made available to anyone who wants to see them, 24 hours a day?

Is this type of domain registration recommended if someone wants to run an eCommerce site? Will it appear that they are hiding something, and not just trying to keep down the amount of spam they receive?

Does anyone here personally have this type of domain name registration/

Lucille

Well, I think it is really my personal opinion that if you are running a business, you should not be hiding your identity and to keep the Who Is details public, your business address should be something which is public.

However, if you are running a personal site, you may want to use the Whois Privacy to hide your details to prevent people from knocking at your door or sending you junks.

If you are running an ecommerce website, I would think that you should not hide your details or else you may be seen as being a fly-by-night company.

I did use Privacy before but there will still be an email address being listed, it is just anonymized, anyone who mails you there would still be redirected to you.

Alot of people seem to like the privacy whois info. My opinion is "to each his own"
I personally dont care for it though.

Dude, just use a junk free email address on your whois info.

Dude

I believe it's "dudette" in the OP's case, unless she's okay with "dude". :D

Lucillef, it's indeed true that every .com domain name requires its contact details
(e.g. name, address, phone, email) be publicly displayed. It's been this way since
day 1 of 1994.

Both Martie and eddy2099 gave good reasons why. Whether to use privacy or not
depends on what you desire.

Since I want to set up an eCommerce site soon, I think that I will just register the regular way, only I will take Festus2005's advice and put a junk email address there for now.

I don't want to bog down any domain's email address with junk mail.

Thanks for all of your honest opinions! You guys are the best!

Lucille (dudette) LOL!

Just a word of advice about that junk email address... whatever address you put in the Whois must be one at which you can be contacted, that's part of the terms and conditions and you could lose your domain if you don't comply.

So - while you should definitely not put your main address in the Whois, it must be an address which you monitor. I use Sneakemail addresses in most of my Whois entries - have a look at www.sneakemail.com

I've had domains since 97 or so... I use no_spam@ <domain name.com> and never get any spam. lol Really, it gets NO spam... never. I think spammers weed out "spam" names or something.

The other thing I recommend is to get a PO box.... I put my work address on my domain registrtions until a guy showed up at my job... problem was my "business" was from home and my "job" was just that... a job. It was very odd to say the least... my boss did not know I had a side "job" so he was confused.

A po box cost very little for a small box....

Just a word of advice about that junk email address... whatever address you put in the Whois must be one at which you can be contacted, that's part of the terms and conditions and you could lose your domain if you don't comply.

So - while you should definitely not put your main address in the Whois, it must be an address which you monitor. I use Sneakemail addresses in most of my Whois entries - have a look at www.sneakemail.com


Ya, I use sneakemail.com too and point everything to a gmail account. It works great and is always up and reliable.

when you register a domain, your name, address, email address and phone number are immediately made available to anyone who wants to see them, 24 hours a day

Until I get an office set up, I still want to at least get my domain name set up so that I can start working on a webpage before it is presented to the world.

I would like to use my cell phone number for my domain name registration. Am I allowed to do this? I don't want people who are cruising through the WhoIs site trying to sell things over the phone to be calling my home phone number all times of the day and night.

Lucille

No problem using a cellphone.

No problem using a cellphone.

Thanks for your help and the speedy response! I want to get my domain name (if it is available) as soon as possible, but I wanted to know what I was getting myself into by registering.

Lucille

For me, I use a fax number for my whois page, that way no one would be able to call.

As for the email address, I think it is fine if you use one of those throwaway free email account like from gmail or stuff. Check it once in a while.

It may not be a good idea to use the email address from the domain name because if for some reason, the domain name or the website is not up or active, you will not receive any form of communication. I've seen some people complaining that their domain name registrar did not inform them of the expiration of their domain name because their contact is linked to the domain name which got expired.

If you do use a free email address, just check it once in a while to clear the junks and maybe there is a few valid emails which may be relevant.

For me, I use a fax number for my whois page, that way no one would be able to call.
This sounds like a good idea, only I don't personally have a separate phone number for my fax machine.

I think I will use my cell phone number because I can control unwanted phone calls by just not turning it on when I am not willing to accept calls.

Thanks for the advice,
Lucille

gmail has excellent spam filters. I always use gmail accounts in my whois.

gmail has excellent spam filters. I always use gmail accounts in my whois.
Is it true that you must have an invite from a friend to get a gmail account? Or am I mistaken?

Lucille

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?ctx=mobile&answer=22245&hl=en

Yes, that's still true about gmail, I believe.

Is it true that you must have an invite from a friend to get a gmail account? Or am I mistaken?

Lucille

Check your PM, Sent you a invite

Is it true that you must have an invite from a friend to get a gmail account? Or am I mistaken?

Lucille
Heres an invite
mail.google.com/mail/a-d8e4db681d-b659125456-244f2d4cbd

Or if that dont work email me:
sikheadtom@googlemail.com

guys pls send me an invitation mail too.

Heres an invite
mail.google.com/mail/a-d8e4db681d-b659125456-244f2d4cbd

Or if that dont work email me:
sikheadtom@googlemail.com

Thank you so much for the invite! I really appreciate it!

Lucille

guys pls send me an invitation mail too.

How do we know your not some scammer or spammer that is going to use it for no good? :confused:

guys pls send me an invitation mail too.

Email me, sikheadtom@googlemail.com

Email me, sikheadtom@googlemail.com


sent.

thanks