Thread: Host went out of business, took my domain name with it

I administer the website of a fiction writer and have done for over a decade. Her domain name is her name, and it recently came up for renewal.

Turns out a host we used years ago put themselves down as all the contacts in the registration, then went out of business. No answers to any emails in the whois information and hasn't been for months. Her domain has now gone dark, and Joker won't let me touch it because I'm not the contact.

I understand I'll probably have to wait the 60 days past the expiration, but I'm anxious that the name isn't poached when it opens up. Is there any way I can pre-order it or sit on it? I'm kind of a reluctant webmaster (I've done this as a favor) so I don't know a lot about the ins and outs of domain registration.

She's not top-tier famous, but she's a sufficiently established author that she has reason to worry about having the domain poached. Any help or suggestions or links would be greatly appreciated.

Best you can do is wait it out and then re-register it right away. You can also contact another registrar and ask about pre-ordering it. I know that is what I did with my host and they actually put in the order for me before hand so I got the domain I wanted a lot earlier.

Did the hosting company just shut down or did they officially go out of business/bankrupt? This is important, because technically whomever is listed as the registrant owns the domain name. If the listed registrant *officially* no longer exists you might have a chance of getting the domain into your client's name and not having to wait.

The first thing to check is who the host was reselling domains for. Usually you can find this from a whois lookup. (was it Joker, or did you just pick that company?). Contact the ICANN acredited registrar that your hosting company was reselling for and explain the situation to them. They will probably ask for some verification and they *might* be able to help you. These things sometimes happen, and most accredited registrars will have experienced this with their resellers at one time or another.

There are some services you can pay for that will register a domain name for you the moment it becomes available. I am not sure how efficient they are at doing that, if one is better than another. The pricing can be spendy for some of them. Of course there is no guarantee with them either though.

Well, the only thing you can do is to backorder it from Godaddy. Never, register your domain name at new registrars.

Originally Posted by eUKhost

Well, the only thing you can do is to backorder it from Godaddy. Never, register your domain name at new registrars.

Good advice. A domain is the heart of your web site. You should register with more reputable registrars next time to ensure you will have the domain until you say so otherwise.

Probably best to stick with The Big Names in domain registration - GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc. You know they won't be going away any time soon.