Don’t Let Your Domain
Name Expire!
It’s easy to lose your
domain name if you don’t pay attention to the renewal
notices that come in your inbox. Usually, web host companies
start sending these notices about 90 days from the date that
the domain name is to expire. It’s a bad feeling to
go to your site and all you see is a 404 page.
So how do we avoid this problem?
First of all, most people don’t keep their domain registrar
in the loop concerning emails and contact information that
changed during the course of the registration period. For
most domain name owners, they have the attitude that they
will get to it someday. The last time that the domain registrar
hears from the person that owns the domain is the first day
that they purchased the domain. How unfortunate!
When your web site stops working, that’s when reality
hits. You haven’t paid your hosting fees or haven’t
renewed your domain name. Renewing your domain name is the
hardest deal because there is nothing written in stone saying
that you might get that name back.
Some registrars honor a 30 day "redemption period"
allowing expired domains to be redeemed. It may be possible
to save the registration within 30 days following expiration
by contacting registrars during 30 day domain redemption periods
but you have to act quickly. If there is a problem, check
out this link at the ICANN organization on redeeming domain
names.
www.icann.org/bucharest/redemption-topic.htm
So how does a domain owner find out who their registrar is
if they've forgotten? Simple WHOIS inquiries will tell you
everything the registrar knows about your domain. Public WHOIS
records show the owner's contact email, street address, phone
and fax numbers. But that's not all; it also shows the current
registrar, DNS servers, and the creation and expiration dates
of the domain name.
Keep track of what’s going on with your domain name
so you won’t have headaches as far as trying to redeem
your URL name down the road.
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