Domain Name changes for Free
I have two domain names registered. One I have had for six years, the other for three. Both of these are registered via two different hosting companies. The only reason I registered the second one with a different Co. was because they were HALF the price of the first for the same services!
So now I have two companies to deal with, two sets of account login info and I really wanted to transfer to the cheaper host to have both names at one Co.
The first company wanted £40 to transfer the domain to the second company. This is equalivent to 8 years of hosting fees with the cheaper company!
Then I thought as the expiry was nearly up, I would wait until the expiry date and just re-register with the second company and skip paying the hefty fees.
When I came to do this, I discovered that the hosting company holds on to the name for a further 30 days, after which they delete it and it is available for sale again (to anyone-so beware)
I will soon re-register with the second company. No fees to pay. Doing it this way I will not have access to the name for about 2-3 hours, while servers are updated etc. but thats no problem for me.
- sfernandes's blog
- Login or register to post comments
User login
Navigation
Latest critique
Active forum topics
Great
Thanks for this all very interesting, I can honestly say that my life is now complete now that i know more about your hosting issues?
;)
----------------------
http://mijlee.com
----------------------
Talk to the cheaper company
Many times the hosting companies can just "pull the rug out from under" the other one and have your domain point to the new companies server.
Better yet, get control of your domain via Network Solutions so that you OWN and MANAGE your domains... then you can have them point to whatever hosting service you want, when you want it to.
------------
On principal...
...I stay away from Network Solutions. In the early part of this century they were infamous for attempting to corner the market for TLDs, mismanaging domains, even letting domains get stolen from their owners, without confirming identities (Remember Heather Champ?). While there may be a new guard in place, the company should just fade away in in my opinion...I have more trouble trying to wrestle domains away from them, than anyone.
I've used 000domains.com for several years without incident...and they're cheap-ish too.
A nut for a jar of tuna
domain names are never that simple
I would be surprised if they let it go exactly after 30 days.
One of my previous jobs was to write a domain name registration for a client.
A big ol' perl script that sits there and PGP signs email and send them every 100 seconds.
The problems and dangers of moving domain names around is enough to make a grown man weep.
Let me know if it goes smoothly.
Will
--
http://www.macscan.net/
Will let you know William
In the meantime they are still re-directing mail–and web links. They seem to be doing this for 'free' for the 30 days (I have ceased paying them). I didn't ask them to keep hold of it for 30 days!
The skinny
By sheer concidence, I am vulturing a domain name that is about to be released for a client (I'm simply checking its status every day). Apparently after the domain has expired, they will wait 30 days to give you a chance to re-register it (usually with a *small* fee involved). If you pony up the dough, you can have it back. After that it goes into a 5-day deletion period, during which nobody can touch it. When that is all said and done, you can buy it again, provided nobody has nabbed it from you.
The particular domain I am looking at went into the registrar hold on July 14th, and has been in "pending deletion" mode for about ten days, so who is to say how strictly they have to adhere to the rules. Good luck, though.
be careful!!
be very careful letting a domain lapse. there are companies (i.e. kenyatech -> http://www.blogdenovo.org/archives/000188.html) that troll for lapsed domains, re-register them dirt cheap, and then 'auction' them back to you.
i've been burned and it hurts. fyi.
- Hijacking -
Erm..
..Isn't that domain hijacking, and illegal ??
As for any company that makes it difficult to transfer domains, just stay away from them - there's no need for transferring to take more than a few days.
Just my tuppence worth,
Peter
Yes, be careful
Actually, there's a lot of companies out there that will register lapsed domains and use it as a search page. The thinking is that you've probably spent some time and money promoting your site, so there is going to be a traffic stream that comes with the ownership of the domain. The cost to them is extremely low (I don't know what the cheapest registrar is these days, but I'm guessing under $5); they will look at the amount of traffic going to the site, and estimate if they will have enough clickthroughs over the course of a year to at least cover the registration (which, again, ain't much). If they aren't satisfied with the traffic during the first two weeks, they'll return the domain for a refund, and they haven't lost anything. But if they keep it, like alex said, you'll have to pay a price that is many multiples over the transfer fee to get it back.
computer help
- carreful -
But if an individual registers a site, then tries to auction it off or sell it to its legitimate owner, that's illegal hijacking of a site.
By that logic, a company buying a domain cheap and then reselling it should be counted as doing the same thing - ie, domain hijacking.
There's a big hoo-haa about companies auto-directing traffic..
..Seems that automatically having all domains, bar the registered ones, automatically redirecting to a specific page really buggers up using the internet - as shown by icann [i think it was], who wanted every single page query that resulted in an unregistered page to default to a icann search page.
They didn't ask anyone about it, but had to change their plans.
I hear there's a TDL company planning to do the same thing, even though it's been accepted as a Bad Idea.
Just my thruppence worth