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  1. #1

    What happens if a registrar goes out of business?

    Just curious...a current discussion here about domain prices hinted that some registrars sell below cost to increase their market share. This lead me to wonder what happens if their business plans don't work out and they go bankrupt.

    Has this happened before?

    Does everyone's registrar change to a company that buys the assets of the defunct registrar?
    raindog308
    LowEndTalk administrator, LowEndBox editor

  2. #2
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    If it really is a Registrar and not just a Reseller, then ICANN (if it's an ICANN Registry) will supervise the transfer of domains to another Registrar. If they are just Resellers, then you need to contact the Registrar they are reselling for, and normally they would transfer your domains to the next uplevel Reseller.
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  3. #3
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    Yes, registrars can go out of business.

    Registerfly was one of them.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RegisterFly

    Some people who had privacy protection enabled had difficulty recovering their domains.
    I could tell you a joke about UDP. But I'm not sure you would get it!

  4. #4
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    I am strongly agree with your views. I would suggest to every domian buyers please check whether registrar is ICANNRegistry or not before buying domain form any regstrars.

    Quote Originally Posted by stub View Post
    If it really is a Registrar and not just a Reseller, then ICANN (if it's an ICANN Registry) will supervise the transfer of domains to another Registrar. If they are just Resellers, then you need to contact the Registrar they are reselling for, and normally they would transfer your domains to the next uplevel Reseller.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Xylement View Post
    Wow... thanks for the info, then I've got to choose a good and financially stable registrar... hehe... what a risk! thanks for bringing this up!
    Registerfly was one of the best registrars around. That didn't stop them going bust. I was a customer at the time but I transferred all my domains as soon as things started going bad. It all happened over the course of about a year, but there were plenty of warning signs before it got real bad.

    Generally there is very little risk of losing a domain due to a registrar going bankrupt. Use reputable companies and keep contact information current and you'll be fine.
    I could tell you a joke about UDP. But I'm not sure you would get it!

  6. #6
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    When it comes to Registrars not paying their ICANN fees or other breaches of contract visit : http://www.icann.org/en/compliance/

    Here you can see wich Registrars are in violation and what the violation is.
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  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan541 View Post
    Some people who had privacy protection enabled had difficulty recovering their domains.
    ...because no one could confirm who they belonged to.

    Well pointed out. Since then ICANN has started the Registrar Data Escrow Program where it's mandatory for all registrars to escrow the WHOIS data on a weekly basis (daily past 100000 registration years/quarter).

    Now even if a registrar goes kaput, a smooth failsafe migration can take place.
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  8. #8
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    Hello every,

    My top level reseller stopped their business and I cannot access to my domain control panel now.

    sous244164.supersite.myorderbox.com

    How to login to my reseller account that I can move domains out?

    Many thanks...

  9. #9
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    Find out What is the domain name whpis saying as the registrar?

    http://www.who-is.ca

    contact their support;
    MBT
    SiberName.com is an ICANN/CIRA/Eurid Accredited Registrar. since 2000.

    Canadian Registrar for .CA Domain Names Registrations. Canadian Web Site Hosting Service Provider.

  10. #10
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    Thanks for your reply.
    This is my provider id 230979. It is logicboxes. Is it possible to figure out the temp login url?

  11. #11
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    myorderbox.com and logicboxes related to resellerclub.com


    Quote Originally Posted by chhit View Post
    Hello every,

    My top level reseller stopped their business and I cannot access to my domain control panel now.

    sous244164.supersite.myorderbox.com

    How to login to my reseller account that I can move domains out?

    Many thanks...
    http://www.indicserver.com
    Reliable Web Hosting India
    IndicServer Internet Services.
    Serving Websites Since 2008

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by humawebdesign View Post
    I am strongly agree with your views. I would suggest to every domian buyers please check whether registrar is ICANNRegistry or not before buying domain form any regstrars.
    I think this needs a bit of clarification.

    The RegistrY is the organisation that runs the TLD. There are two types of registries - GTLD registries (for generic top-level domains) and ccTLD registries (for country-code domains)

    RegistrARs sell domains on behalf of Registries. GTLD registrars are accredited by ICANN. ccTLD registrars are accredited by the respective ccTLD registries, not by ICANN (so whether or not a registrar is ICANN-accredited is largely irrelevant when it comes to registering ccTLD domains)

    Resellers sell domain names on behalf of registrars - i.e., they are one level below registrars.

    I've never heard the term "ICANNregistry", and "check whether registrar is ICANNRegistry" doesn't make sense because registrars and registries are not the same thing.

  13. #13
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    Just check out registerfly - godaddy purchased its portfolio after it lost its ICANN accreditation

  14. #14
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    There are regular rounds of de-accreditation which take place - generally about every 3 months - in _most_ cases it's all seamlessly switched to the new registrar.

    If you have whois obscuring, or the failed registrar didnt escrow the real details, or your information is deliberately/accidentally incorrect then in such instances you _could_ lose your domain.

    Registrars selling at below cost as they can "upsell" people on 32 pages of junk that they dont need is not a new marketing idea
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  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jeter View Post
    Just check out registerfly - godaddy purchased its portfolio after it lost its ICANN accreditation
    ... what you forgot to mention is that many Registrants never recovered their domains at GoDaddy. It was this incident which caused ICANN to require registrars archive their whois records, so this couldn't/shouldn't happen in the future.
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  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by raindog308 View Post
    Has this happened before?
    yes, the ones having the most impact being RegisterFly; EstDomains was deaccredited by ICANN for other reasons, but also had a big number of domains.

    Quote Originally Posted by raindog308 View Post
    Does everyone's registrar change to a company that buys the assets of the defunct registrar?
    as pointed out since the RegisterFly problems, ICANN has started the RDE requirement and recently amended it to required the escrowing also of the real data for domains published in the whois with privacy-/proxy-contacts.

    All recent de-accrediations from ICANN I have seen were dealt with the domain-portfolio being transferred to another ICANN Registrar by making a choice / private deal by the de-accredited Registrar after receiving the notice of termination by ICANN. De-accredited registrars can opt for an ICANN Registrar to transition all domains after receiving the termination notice. The current ICANN policy about this is described in more detail at

    http://www.icann.org/en/processes/re...re-01oct08.pdf

    This being said, at least with the bigger registrars offering domains sold below cost as a marketing method, you only risk not being able to make changes to your domains during the transfer/transition process coordinated by ICANN.

    You are relatively safe with the new transition procedures, the RDE requirements and also for commercial reasons - there will always be registrars interested to gain a sizeable portfolio of domains and marketshare and offering a relatively smooth transition for registrants.
    Last edited by ownidentity; 08-04-2011 at 03:01 AM.

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