Keep your whois details current – Especially keep your admin email domain registered!

I was checking my domain deciding what domains to renew. I usually also check the other extensions in order to make a decision. When deciding to renew or not a .info domain I noticed that the .net had an registrant email address that used the .biz version. Te only problem was that the .biz was not registered at that time.

I tried to warn the domain name owner (by sending an email that went, surprise, unanswered) that not only he had let the .biz expire and he was risking losing the .net either by missing a renewal notice or if a thief used the .biz to create the .net registrant email address and steal the domain. A couple of days later I noticed that someone bought the .biz and is now parking it.

In fact ICANN’s GNSO is suggesting as a best practice in the Expired Registration Recovery Policy that registrars should advise registered name holders to provide a secondary email point of contact that is not associated with the domain name itself so that in case of expiration, reminders can be delivered to this secondary email point of contact.

So it is always a good idea to keep your whois details current and especially to keep your admin/owner email address domain name registered and renewed. I renew my admin email domains well in advance, usually for 5-10 years. It is good practice to also renew any nameserver domains you may have as well.

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About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

4 comments

  1. So the domain name was stolen ?

    • The .net? Not yet, but the .biz owner can steal it any time.

      • It’s quite scary to see how the new .biz owner would be able to do this. Always good to keep your email up to date.

        For me I once had a domain with the email addy that I rarely checked. I received a $1k offer on the name and missed it until 3 months later.

        I wasn’t able to complete the sale so expensive lesson learned.

  2. Good advice and keep on educating. And i think education is the key here. It is unreal that even big companies with a webshop manage to have their domain name expire. How is it possible that you let your bread and butter go offline ?
    Second email address or credit card on file is not the solution.. Being serious is the key here.

    Even with a working email address people still forget to renew no matter how many renewal emails you send.
    Not to mention the poor sobs who notice their domain name was picked up by someone else after it was in redemption for 30 days !!! Man if my site goes down for 30 minutes i am getting nervous and already send a support ticket..

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