Did you forget your own name?
Now before you go reaching for your identification to check who
you are, let me reassure you. I'm talking about your domain name.
Forgetting to renew a domain name can result in HUGE headaches,
including paying additional fees or even having a competitor or
domain name reseller grab your prized domain name.
Depending on their goals, they may use your old domain name for
their site, they may agree to sell it back to you at an
exorbitant price, or they may even completely refuse to sell the
name back to you, essentially holding it hostage.
Sure, there may be legal action you can take if you have
trademarks in place, but that takes time- and during all this
time, your site and your e-mail are down!
So, how do we avoid all of this in the first place? Roll up your
sleeves and let's get started, shall we?
=============================== #1. First, let's check!
=============================== Crank up your favorite web
browser and visit the web site of the registrar for your domain
name, or just choose one from the list below. These are just a
few of the registrars I could think of, not an inclusive list,
and are simply in alphabetical order.
Dotster: https://secure.registerapi.com/services/whois.php
GoDaddy: https://registrar.godaddy.com/whois.asp
Network Solutions:
http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/whois/index.jhtml
Register.com http://www.register.com/whois_lookup.cgi
Once there, follow the prompts to perform a whois search for
your domain name.
Verify the expiration date for your domain name, and put a
reminder on your calendar (RIGHT NOW) to renew it at least 30
days prior to the date given for the current expiration.
If you are already within that 30 day window, renew your domain
name while you are thinking of it. Go ahead, I'll wait.
=================================== #2. The expiration process
=================================== All is not lost if your
domain name has expired. There is a period of time after its
expiration that you can still reclaim your prized possession.
Here's how it works.
On the date that a domain expires, the registrar removes it from
the root servers (the list of domains currently registered
globally); therefore, any web sites or e-mail associated with
the domain name will begin to stop working.
At this point, the domain has entered a 30 day period called the
"Redemption Period". The redemption period is a grace period
that allows you to re-register your domain name in the event
that you simply overlooked the expiration date, didn't receive
the expiration notice, etc.
You may contact your registrar during this period to renew your
domain, but will nearly always have to pay an additional fee in
order to retrieve your domain name from redemption.
The amount of the redemption fee could be an additional $50 -
$90 (US), but each registrar sets their own fees for this
service, some higher, some lower. Whatever the amount, it is in
addition to your renewal fees.
After the 30 day redemption period, the domain enters a phase
called "Pending Deletion", which is approximately 5 days in
length. During this phase, the domain is essentially "frozen".
It can not be retrieved by the original registrant and it can
not be registered by another party.
At the end of this phase (which in practice may not be a full 5
days) the domain is once again available to the first applicant
that requests to register it.
============================== #3. Don't count on it
============================== If your domain name expires,
don't assume that you can simply re-register the name again once
it becomes available, thereby saving the redemption fees.
Even if it is a little known name, there are literally thousands
of companies and individuals that may grab your expired domain
the second it's available, preventing you from re-registering it.
Companies that offer to send targeted visitor traffic to your
web site often do so by purchasing other expired domain names.
Companies that resell domain names may snag your expired domain
in hopes of selling it back to you at a premium or selling it to
another party.
Someone else may have just really wanted the domain name you had
and placed a back-order for it (a request to purchase if the
name becomes available).
Most organizations and individuals that purchase expired domains
do so using automated software, and therefore have a much higher
likelihood of obtaining the name than an individual attempting
to monitor availability by hand.
================== #4. Summary ================== Each registrar
has their own policies regarding expired domains; therefore, the
time you have to rescue your domain from the hands of others may
differ from the schedule above. Check your domain name now, and
keep a reminder to renew it. That way, you can avoid the
potential issues and additional costs of an expired domain all
together.
Happy Site Building,
Gary King http://www.siteblueprint.com


kr-domains for anybody
The kr-domains belong to the popular domains in Asia. ICANN
accredited Registar Secura announces today, that the company can
register now kr-domains for anybody. Secura can register a
co.kr-domain or or.kr-domain at once, if the domain name is
available. It is not possible to register directly at .kr.
Korean domains can officially only be registered by Korean
inhabitants or companies. But we Secura has find a way, that
anybody can register Korean domains. Your datas are even
published officially in the WHOIS as owner. Hans-Peter Oswald
https://www.domainregistry.de/kr-domain.html


Liberalization of in-domains
Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran has -as Hindustan
Times reports-some advice for Indian patriots: use in-domains
for Websites and e-mail IDs to popularise Indian identity in the
world.
With India emerging as a global "labor" for IT, Indian companies
should change the domain names of their Websites and e-mail IDs
to in-domains, just like other countries.
"In every part of the world, the practice has been to use the
short form of the respective countries at the end of the domain
names by companies and individuals," the minister said during
his first speech as IT Minister.
"During my trips abroad, I have always noticed that people have
their e-mail IDs with the initials of their country in the end.
For instance, in Britain, the Websites or e-mail IDs have at the
end .co.uk, in Singapore it is .co.sg, in Japan it is .jp, in
Hong Kong it is .hk and even in Pakistan they have .co.pk. But
in India, we are still reluctant to use .co.in or .in. Why this
hesitation?", Dayanidhi Maran has asked in an interview.
Therefore the minister has been urging upon Indian captains of
industry, heads of organisations and individuals to switch over
to use in-domains in order to indicate that their website or
e-mail ID originates from India.
"I have made this appeal to representatives of the IT industry
here, which is considered the IT capital of India. Once the tech
industry migrates to this new identity, it will set a trend for
the rest to follow in letter and spirit. They need to change the
domain names of their companies or organisations by registering
their Websites or mail IDs only once for identifying themselves
with their motherland," Maran says.
"Though we are not making it mandatory, we are coming out with a
number of schemes for Indian companies or organisations to make
this transition soon. The ministry will shortly come out with an
action plan to enable a smooth migration to either .co.in or
.in," the IT minister explains.
The Indian IT-minister seems to be aware, that it is very
bureaucratic in the moment to register in-domains. Indian
companies need a lot of paperwork in order to get a domain at
co.in , .in itself is reserved for Indian providers, not open to
all Indian companies. "Foreign companies", explains Hans-Peter
Oswald, the CEO of ICANN Registrar Secura
(https://www.domainregistry.de/in-domain.html), ,,can only
register the own name at .gen.in."