Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Domain Names : Locked Domain

[Frankomatic]

I am with an ISP that is not returning any calls or answering any trouble tickets. I think the company may be out of business. My log in control panel works but all the DB stuff doesn't work. And there is no tech support. FAX line is dead, and no one ever answers calls. I want to switch the DNS of my domain to another host. But the domain is locked by this ISP and since I can't get the ISP to reply how do I get my domain unlocked?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Patrick]

What is your domain?

[Winagain]

If your ISP is out of business you are in trouble.

Go grab a domain with another extension like .net and direct the homepage from your original domain there.

It may take months to get your domain back so you might as well start working with a new one.

[Sa1Nt]

give us your domain name so we can check who is the registrar and what is the domain name status.

other options:
1) you should double-check who is the registrar that registered your domain name;
2) who registered your domain (is it under your name, or under your ISP's name)
3) what is the process to unlock it (you can't transfer your domain name while it's locked, you don't have any control over it except to renew it).

[Stan Marsh]

If your ISP is out of business, HOW IT COMES YOU WERE WRITING THIS POST? I am perhaps kinda dumb, but I know for sure that in order to write a post at WHT, you need an internet connection.

Seriously, though, please give us your domain name.

Thank you.

[Frankomatic]

I was finally able to get my domain unlocked an repointed to a new ISP. My former ISP has probably gone out of business and wasn't returning any calls. They had the domain locked, too. But fortunately the registrar for my domain was Enom and I contacted them and they helped me out and now the Domain has been repointed. Thanks everyone for all your help. This has been making me crazy for weeks.

[ryan1918]

You don't mean your isp you mean your registrar btw, which one was it?

[Lubeca]

Originally Posted by ryan1918

You don't mean your isp you mean your registrar btw, which one was it?

No he doesn't. The registrar is Enom. The domain was registered through a reseller - either a hosting company, or a company that does nothing but resell domains, or an ISP in the conventional sense, i.e., a company that provides connectivity and email and hosting. Whatever it was, it wasn't a registrar.

[Frankomatic]

Yes, sorry I was wrong to say ISP. It was a domain hosting company that also provided domain registration through eNom. The name of the company was Hostebiz and I would not recommend anyone buying server space from them. Thanks for everyone's help on this.

BTW: What is the procedure to get a domain back from a company that goes bankrupt? There must be some system in place.

[ryan1918]

I beleive you can file a complaint with the icann.org I believe they would be the one that could help you there..

[Lubeca]

Originally Posted by ryan1918

I beleive you can file a complaint with the icann.org I believe they would be the one that could help you there..

ICANN has no influence whatsoever over resellers. In theory ICANN has the power to take action against registrars, but in practice they always seem to choose not to get involved.

To answer the original question... I'm not aware of any registrars that have gone bust (they tend to get taken over by other registrars before that happens). If a reseller goes bust (which does seem to happen a fair bit) you should normally be able to go to the registrar direct. It won't necessarily be totally straightforward, but you should normally be able to take control of your domains in the end.

The one time I helped someone retrieve their domains from a non-functioning reseller I found that the registrar (Register.com) had a standard procedure for this - we had to open an account, then wait a set number of ways while Register.com made their own attempts to contact the reseller. Once Register.com was satisfied that the reseller really wasn't trading any more the domains got transferred to our account within a matter of days.