Transferring DomainsWritten by Richard Lowe
Are you getting service that you require from your domain registrar? Actually, thinking about it for a minute, it might be a better question to ask, do you even know what services are available? Are you aware that you can shop around and get better prices, more features and far better customer service?Guess what? All domain registrars are not same. Okay, let's back up a minute. Way back when internet was young (maybe 5 years ago) all domain names were handled by Network Solutions, Inc. In those dark, evil days you had no choice. It didn't matter what you thought of process, it was unimportant that you were not getting service and price, well, was a standard high fee. A few years ago government decided that Network Solutions would no longer be a monopoly. The government wanted to do this to deregulate industry and encourage competition, and also perhaps to spur a little bit of growth into this thing called internet. Okay, so now you do have a choice. In fact, there are well over a hundred different domain registrars at last count. They seem to be springing up all over place, and level of support and service, as well as price, seems to vary greatly. You may not know it, but you can change domain registrars at any time. It's actually not very complicated at all. Here are some of questions that you may have regarding domain transfers. How much does it cost? It depends upon domain registrar. I have found that many will transfer your domain for no cost to get your business. Others will charge a few dollars ($5 to $20 or more), but will drop fee if you extend your domain for a couple of years. Shop around and find a good deal. What are advantages of transferring? You may not like domain registrar you are currently using - perhaps they have poor support or cost too much. You can shop around and find best solution for your needs. Remember, though, that if you are like most people, domain registration is something you will not do very often, so perhaps customer support is not all that important.
| | Domain Name SlammingWritten by Richard Lowe
Today I received a notice in mail claiming that my domain name was about to expire. The letter was written in extremely alarming terms, as if my entire world would be destroyed forever if I was stupid enough to allow name to expire. The letter made it clear that I could renew immediately and should, because if domain expired I would, of course, lose it and thus life as I knew it would come to a close.Closer examination revealed that document was not from my domain registrar at all. In fact, it was from some company that I had never heard of before. The letter certainly looked official and important, but in reality it was just more junk mail. Okay, first question: how had these idiots gotten my home address? Simple. As it turns out, this is a common practice among some of less ethical domain registrars. Using WHOIS database, they get a list of all of domain names about to expire, then send a letter to each address explaining this fact and offering to renew domain. The WHOIS database is a list of each domain name that exists on internet, along with name and address (and some other information) of each owner. This information is public knowledge, freely available to anyone. What would have happened if I had sent a check to domain registrar to pay for a renewal? It would have been transferred to new registrar. If I had not read letter carefully, I probably would not have realized that I was not just renewing my domain, I was transferring my domain to a new registrar.
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