Your Domain Rights Are Being Ripped Off!
WARNING... This information affects your future on the Internet.
There is a secret war going on over the rights to your Domain
Name. Your Domain Name rights are currently being ripped off by
the major Domain Name registration giants. This rip-off is
affecting your Domain rights NOW!
Your Domain Name can become a casualty of the Domain Name
Registrar's Renewal War. Reading this article and understanding
your Domain Name rights can prevent you from losing your Domain
Name altogether, and can at least save you about 50% on your
Domain Name renewal.
This is real and it is scary. As to not mislead you, I am Tag
Powell, CEO of DomainNameVault.com, and I have been drafted into
this battle against my will. DomainNameVault.com and our service
Renew-Your-Domain-Name.com is on one side of this war. We do
have a vested interest in this battle's outcome.
First, let me give you the short background story to get you up
to speed.
Until a couple of years ago ALL Domain Names had been registered
and managed by one company, Network Solutions. Network Solutions
made billions of dollars on this market for years. All .COM,
.ORG, .NET Domains were held in one master database exclusively
under their control. They, as a monopoly, could charge anything
they desired. Originally they charged $50.00 per year (two year
minimum). Then after registering millions of Domains and
fielding massive complaints of over-charging, they graciously
reduced the fee to $35.00 per year (two year minimum).
For the first few years, Network Solutions did a good job, but
as the Internet mushroomed the database problems grew. Hackers
entered the database and caused problems. Domain ownership's
were illegally changed. Other Domain Names were rerouted to open
to other companies. Domain Name security became a joke. Trying
to get through to Network Solutions was a nightmare, getting
email answered took weeks and they were often ignored
completely, and getting through by phone took days. We speak
from experience as we have been assisting Domain registrations
since 1995. We helped Network Solutions register many hundreds
of thousands Domain Names.
By the way, it still could take hours today to get a phone
answer from Network Solutions.
A couple of years ago the government, after many public
complaints, broke up the monopoly to exclusively register and
renew Domain Names in to the master database. This gave the
public, for the first time, the right to chose who would manage
their Domain Name.
New rules allowed applications from other companies to manage
new Domain Name registration and renewals into the master
database. After a serious background check and a lot of money
some of these companies (over a hundred to date) are allowed to
become registrars, and are able to add and subtract Domain
information to the master database.
This new ruling allowed our company to put Domain info in and
take information out of that master database for our clients,
and we are also allowed to set our own prices for this service.
(Instead of the Network Solutions' charge of $35.00 (per year)
for .COM, .ORG, .NET Domains and $55.00 for .BIZ and .INFO
Domains, our fee is only $19.95 per year for all extensions.)
Shortly after the breakup Network Solutions was sold to VeriSign
Corp., a giant multi-conglomerate. At this point their policies
seem to have degraded to several quasi legal processes. I can
only suppose that suddenly VeriSign must have become aware that
millions of their clients (the same clients they had paid big
bucks to collect the yearly fees from) were transferring
(renewing) through other registrars. This will cost them
millions.
VeriSign filed a complaint with ICANN, the official ruling body
over Domain Names, that the competition (they named Register.com
and our partner Tucows) was "slamming" and stealing Domain Name
management against the will of the public. "Slamming" as you may
know is an expression of the illegal process of switching
telephone companies without the permission of the customer.
Please note, although I am sure that "slamming" is probably
taking place in this industry, I know of NO case where this is
true. Certainly "slamming" is NOT being done by our partner
Tucows and probably not by Register.com. Network Solutions' case
(complaint) was based on a survey they did of clients requesting
Domain Name transfers for renewal.
They sent an email message informing the Domain Name owners
(you) that your Domain Name was being (stolen) transferred away;
they could lose their rights to their Domain; and did they
request a transfer to an unknown party? Most of the public had
no idea who was Network Solutions or who held management of
their Domain Name. Out of fear and misunderstanding of the
message, most said they did not know that their Domain Name was
being transferred to another party.
To prevent this mass exodus Network Solutions seems to have
develop several quasi legal techniques: put off the renewal
process until the name is close to expiration, they can then
legally lock up the Domain and prevent you from transferring
away from their control.
They do this, by at least two ways we know. When Network
Solutions receives the notice of transfer, they...
1. Sent a notice that someone is trying to transfer your name.
You will get the feeling that someone is trying to steal your
Domain. This frightens most people who respond to not approve of
the transfer (or do they nothing). Network Solutions then sends
an email telling the renewing registration company that the
Domain owner refused to reply (timed out) and the transfer was
canceled.
2. Somehow don't send the required notices. They say they did
not receive an answer and lock up the name. The Domain Name
owner must now quickly renew with them or the Domain Name goes
up for resale.
This is borderline honest but... YES, the plot thickens.
When a Domain Name nears renewal time Network Solutions will
lock up the Domain Name and not transfer it. If a transfer has
been requested, using one of the above rip-off techniques,
Network Solutions denies the transfer. Then they will quickly
immediately after the expiration date, offer the Domain Name for
resale on one of their many sites. If they can not sell the name
(after an unknown time) the Domain Name will then be available
to the general public.
This problem swells when somehow the Domain owner requesting a
transfer does not receive notice. Without notification their
name can be resold to a third party. Bam... the total rights to
their Name belongs to the third party. Although this is legal,
it is not fair. We have seen this happen several times. They
seem to only cancel quickly if a transfer has been requested. We
have seen expired Domain Names sit for as much as four months
before cancellation.
There are several other nasty quasi legal tricks being performed
by Network Solutions. We will get into these at another time.
Our partners, Tucows, have filed an official complaint to the
governing body, ICANN, against Network Solutions for these and
other borderline practices but it will take months before this
is resolved.
The Bottom Line. You have the right to chose who manages your
Domain Name in the master database. You can reduce the yearly
cost of your Domain Names by 50%, but you should renew at least
a month before expiration date. In fact, you can renew at any
time with no loss and the renewal is added to your current
expiration date. You can renew a year or two years in advance
with no loss of time. A month before expiration date will give
you time to get by the tricks of Network Solutions. Do not wait,
if your Domain expires in a week, it is too late to transfer.
You can pay Network Solutions for one year only. They will try
to get you to renew for two years. You can then choose a new
registrar and get your Domain Name management moved.
Blatant Plug... Of course, there are benefits with going with a
smaller company. You can get a real email answer from us as to
your Domain problems within 24 hours. We do not use
autoresponders to reply. You can get us on the phone between 1
and 5 P.M. EST, most time on the first try. Please call us with
only Domain problems we have registered or renewed.
At DomainNameVault.com our security is unique, a human firewall,
all of our registrations and renewals are hand processed by a
live body. This prevents hackers from getting control of your
Domain through the automatic processing.
Really, it doesn't matter if you renew with us or one of our
competitors, like Register.com, but it is wise to do it now and
get it out of the control of Network Solutions. Who knows what
they will try next.