UKC

Hi there, wondering if any of the web experts can help.
In between Christmas and New Year my domain name expired leaving my website down and no emails coming through. This is my company name so a pretty serious situation.
The company I pay for the name to don't seem to be answering the phone or emails and they didn't send a renewal reminder out.
Is there anything else I can do as I need to get things back online asap.
Cheers for any advice,
E

In reply to Enty:

Usually domain name registrars have a website that you login to and manage from there?

In reply to Enty:

Has your domain name really expired? I've never heard of such a thing once it's registered with Nominet in the usual way (not even sure if it then costs anything on a yearly basis - if so, I think it's something like £1.29 per year). You need to go back and get it re/registered immediately. Very unlikely that anyone else will have bought the same name, if it's remotely individualistic. All the domain names I've registered over the last 15 years - for other people as well as myself - seem to have permanence.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Thats what i want to do. But how do i re-register. The page to do this doesn't work.
It's a company called cheap-net-names.

Cheers,

E

In reply to Enty:
A lot of places are still shut for Christmas, with a bit of luck you will be able to contact them on Monday.

In reply to Enty:

Usually you can log in to a panel and renew it. Get in touch with them if you don't know how.

I wouldn't worry too much about losing the domain though. Domains usually don't become available for others to register until a few weeks after expiry as far as I know so it's unlikely someone else will get it?

If you are really stuck drop me a line and I'll try and help you.

In reply to Enty:

Try these people:

cheap-net-names, support@cheap-net-hosting.com
+61.89454 3706

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Yes its perfectly normal. All domain names expire if you dont cough up, I would guess you are on a rolling contract or have a rather strange deal.

Enty:Is it just the domain name or the site hosting as well? Unfortunately its going to be best to go through the company who set it all up since registering the domain name yourself wont mean its pointing to the right place.

In reply to Simos:




That's them but there's no one answering.

E

In reply to dissonance:
Yes it's a rolling thing but was renewed for nothing last time.
Its just the domain name, no hosting.
Pretty serious this if i dont get emails back very soon.

E

In reply to Enty:

First thing you're going to have to do is wait until your web company are back in touch because they have access to all of your details and web site files.

Second thing is to ask them why they didn't renew for you. If they registered your domain name for you in the first place, they would have received a series of emails from at least a couple of months back informing them that the domain name was needing to be re-registered.

There is no black art to domain name registration, although many web companies like to pretend that there is. Basically you (the person who requires a domain name for their web site and email) needs to register the web domain and then tell the register where the files that make up your web site are hosted. The hosting company (the people who provide the web server space where your files are hosted) need to provide you with the nameserves which is the name of the server where your web site sits.

Many web design companies do this for their clients because it is easier and quicker. But it is worth it for you the client to understand the process.

But basically ask your lot why they ignored the re-registration emails for your domain. 123reg who I use for my domain names tell me weeks in advance of domains expiring - and then keep on telling me as it gets nearer to the date.

In reply to Simos:

I expect that lot are are down at the beach, have just put another lobster on the barbie and opened another Foster's Gold.

In reply to Enty:

Presumably, you've been phoning during Aussie office hours? I expect the bloke's phone's been turned off with it being Christmas and all.

In reply to jacobfinn:

I wouldn't personally ask them anything apart from moving the domain to a reputable provider (there are SO many). They are just a s*** company.

All decent domain registrars allow you to log in and manage your domains, including set up auto-renew rules etc. They email you automatically when your credit card expires and so forth.

In reply to Enty:
Have you tried their sales email?

By the way I don't want to worry you but half the links on their own website are broken, are you sure they still exist?

In reply to Enty:

Go here: http://www.tucowsdomains.com/contact-the-compliance-department-domain-in-re...

Fill in the form, tell them you've been trying to contact them and they are not responding, your website is down, your email is down, your business is really suffering etc. Make it sound as urgent as possible.

Hope this helps.

In reply to Enty:

You could also try to transfer the domain to another provider if you are really stuck, hopefully it won't be locked. Not sure you can do it with an expired domain but worth a try. If it's locked Tucows should be able to help you.

See here: http://www.tucowsdomains.com/topic/disputes-and-complaints/
(under 'What if I cannot contact my Domain Provider).

In reply to Enty:
If it has expired be quick because usually they are automatically bought by robots and then you need to pay a shitload of money to get it back.

It's supposed to be locked for you for 30 days (renewal grace period) and only you can renew it during that time. There might be a "redemption fee" for you to be able to renew it during that time (about £50).

During these 30 days you registrar puts your domain on auction, and if you don't renew it yourself during these 30 days, it will go to the highest bidder.

Passed the 30 days, if there was no bidder and you didn't renew it, it becomes available again and can be bought by anyone for the usual fee. At that point most likely a robot will buy it automatically before you can do anything (happened to me).

So basically you need to act fast.

In reply to Enty:

Good luck trying to get it back. I used to have my name (pretty rare) as a domain and when it expired it was snapped up by a cyber squatter within seconds which is where it remains. Obviously, I wasn't that miffed, but they would no doubt want hundreds for a domain that cost me pounds. If you have a viable business, you will be more rights to reclaim any domain that has been squatted on but all I can advise is that next time, you pro actively ensure it is re-registered well in advance of expiry rather than rely on a third party to remind you.

In reply to Enty:

According to WHOIS (the organisation that oversees domain names), your veloventoux domain name was renewed yesterday. Maybe just need to wait 24 hours for the new registration to kick in.

Updated Date: 02-jan-2014
Creation Date: 29-dec-2002
Expiration Date: 29-dec-2014

In reply to jacobfinn:

That sounds better. Maybe they did get my emails.

Still nothing working though.

E

In reply to Enty:

They'll need to change the DNS back to what it was. Currently set to:

ns1.renewyourname.net. 84071 IN A 64.99.97.38
ns2.renewyourname.net. 84071 IN A 64.98.148.18

Probably should be something different.

BTW, the WHOIS database is simply a database of domain information. It's not an organisation that oversees domain names. It's a bit like a phonebook. I think you probably meant ICANN.

In reply to Enty:

certainly the registration appears to be expired (by going to www.veloventoux.com)

The provider information for www.veloventoux.com:

cheap-net-names, support@cheap-net-hosting.com
+61.89454 3706
This company may be contacted for domain login/passwords,
DNS/Nameserver changes, and general domain support questions.

The website currently points to
www.veloventoux.com. 86400 IN A 208.73.210.155

and these are the name servers that know who you are
veloventoux.com. 172800 IN NS ns2.renewyourname.net.
veloventoux.com. 172800 IN NS ns1.renewyourname.net.

The IP address belongs to a company oversee.net in LA

NetRange: 208.73.208.0 - 208.73.215.255

Does any of this look right? It looks a bit as if your domain name might have been hijacked
Who does your provencerock services? The ip address appears to belong to a company in germany, but I'm guessing that you have someone else do the site design, domain registration and hosting?

As simos says - cheap net names website looks like something cobbled together by a teenager 10 years ago and not maintained since

In reply to pneame:

How do you mean hijacked?

E

In reply to Enty:

as describe by byeek - it expired and was snapped up by a bot. The name servers "renew yourname" are not a good sign. I'd follow the suggestions on tucows website - they have a reasonably good reputation in the somewhat shady world of domain name registration.
We use register.com - they are pretty bare bones. I've also used godaddy, who have a pretty responsive help desk.

In reply to pneame:

My web man is on it tomorrow

E

In reply to Enty:

Very cool - he'll certainly know more than you or I. I like your provencerock site, BTW. Very nice

In reply to pneame:


You do know that from Enty's previous comments it seems like he's using cheap-net-names?

Also 'renewyourname.net' is a domain owned by Tucows. It's a nameserver that they automatically push domains that need to be renewed to

http://who.is/whois/renewyourname.net/

So not hijacked. It does seem from the information that cheap-net-names has renewed the domain.

http://who.is/whois/veloventoux.com

In reply to mattrm:

Cheers, this seems more encouraging. See what my man says tomorrow. He's said not to worry.

E

In reply to mattrm:

Yes got that



I did not know that - should have dug a bit deeper.
Regardless, it would seem to be a good plan to ditch cheap-net-names

It seems that cheap-net-names is actually the host while they use Tucows as the registrar?

In reply to pneame:

Web man seems to think i'll be ok. If cheap-net-names have gone tits up
and by phone calls it sounds like they have, how do i get the domain to another host?

Cheers,

E

In reply to Enty:

I've posted some instructions earlier, have a look at the tucows link, you will probably have to go through them in this case.

You can try signing up with a reputable domain registrar and request the domain to be transferred to them.

In reply to Simos:

Cheers. Hopefully this can be sorted asap.

E

In reply to pneame:



Exactly. That's basically how a lot of folks buy domains, Tucows / OpenSRS charge you a fee (it was £90 a few years back when I last looked at it) and you can register domains through them.

I would agree 100% with you about dumping cheap-net-names, like a sack of ***t.

My personal recommendation is for:

http://www.gandi.net < who I use both personally and professionally

or alternatively

https://www.portfast.co.uk/

Also you can buy domains for about 10 years. Cost about £100, worth it for a bit of peace of mind.

In reply to mattrm:

Hadn't heard of gandi.net - I like their mission statement and clear honesty on the technical side. Particularly their comment that some of the ethical practices out there are, on occasion, a little bit suspect.

It's a whole ecosystem, the world of networking and DNS.....