Hello,

My domain was due to expire yesterday, so yesterday morning i emailed my current domain registrar and asked them that i wanted to renew (as i couldn't do it online as they changed their system and my account no longer works).

I left work at 12:30 to come home, and before leaving work i checked my emails, no reply..

I got home and did some house work, completly forgot about my domain, then come 6pm i remembered.

I checked my email and sure enough they asked me to ring them on a number to sort it out.

I tried ringing, but the office was closed (now 6pm, my fault) so i tried again today, but its saturday, and they seem to be closed now as well.

If i try to go to my domain, it says the hostname doesn't exist, but when i do a whois lookup, it still shows my domain is registered, but with an expire date of yesterday.

So what is my best option, as trying to re-register it with a different registrar just results in them saying its already owned, even though it has expired.

Is it just a case of the whois database being behind?

This isn't a really important domain, which is why i forgot to renew it, but it does have some email accounts i want to keep, and would be more hassle to loose it and than renew it.

domains stay in expired status for a while.

this gives people time to renew before losing the domain.

call the company as soon as they are back open for business, and get it renewed.

if the domain contact (ownership) information is still correct, there should not be a big problem.

Domain names have a grace period on expiry, during which the original owner can restore them (through the previous hosting company). Just call your host company and sort it out.

The procedures may vary depending on the type of domain involved (eg .com versus .co.uk)

Meanwhile, no-one else should be able to grab the domain because it hasn't yet been returned for reissue.

Always a good idea to keep an eye on this kind of thing or use auto-renewal if you think you might forget.

JJ

Don't worry, after the expiration of your domain you will have 45 days Grace period in which it means you can renew with your current registrar and can't be transferred to other registrar (if registrar lock is set and your registrar didn't approve this). After the grace period you will have 30 days of redemption grace period in which you can still renew it but it too dangerous as it is in the state of "Pending Delete - Restorable". After this period, your domain will enter into Pending Delete period. You can do nothing except by backorder @ place a bid. After all this, if your domain is not renewed all after your domain will be deleted and become available for new registration.

To summarize it, you have a total of 75 days to renew.

More info : www icann org/en/registrars/gtld-lifecycle.htm

Don't worry, after the expiration of your domain you will have 45 days Grace period in which it means you can renew with your current registrar and can't be transferred to other registrar (if registrar lock is set and your registrar didn't approve this).
You may want to read that carefully. There is no reqirement that the registrar give you 45 days to renew, it's just what ICANN allows. For example, there is one registrar that offers 0 days grace period, and another might offer 29 days. Depending on who the OP has for his registrar, he might want to read the TOS (assuming he hasn't) and see what his registrar offers for a grace period, if any.

You may want to read that carefully. There is no reqirement that the registrar give you 45 days to renew, it's just what ICANN allows. For example, there is one registrar that offers 0 days grace period, and another might offer 29 days. Depending on who the OP has for his registrar, he might want to read the TOS (assuming he hasn't) and see what his registrar offers for a grace period, if any.


erkkk... I forgot to mention that. Thanks for reminding!!

p/s : i was been thought about that too b4.. my mistake.. sorry

Just call your registrar in their normal working office hours. You should still be able to renew without any surcharges (unless it's 1And1)

some tlds don't have this grace period at all - what is the TLD for domain? is it a country code one? good news is that the most of registrars allow about 25-30 days of grace period to renew domain at regular price and about two months to renew it for a big fee ("get it out of redemption"). so don't worry about domain. you say you cant login to the account - this might delay the renewal as they might need to verify you first

Thanks everyone for the help.

It is in status "CLIENT HOLD" so im assuming that is the grace period.

They are open tomorrow and i will renew with them first thing.

Thanks

Let us know how you get on.

Thanks everyone for the help.

It is in status "CLIENT HOLD" so im assuming that is the grace period.

They are open tomorrow and i will renew with them first thing.

Thanks
You will have no problem with that. I recommend you renew domain name one month before expiration date.

Renewing domains in advance is always preferred. Can't really tell if the domain stays after the expire date.

You will have no problem with that. I recommend you renew domain name one month before expiration date.

This is the exact point I would like to emphasise. If you are serious about your domain you should not wait till the last date of renewal. You must renew it early to avoid problems like this. Hope you can get it renewed with out any problems. Update us on that.