Saturday, March 16, 2024

Should I Register My Domain Privately

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What Is The Us Registry Doing About Domain Name Abuse Such As Phishing Malware And Spam

Should you use Private Domain Name Registration?

The Administrator for usTLD has implemented procedures to rapidly take down any website in cases where phishing, pharming, malware, or other significant security threats have been identified through a threat mitigation platform that protects the .US namespace with a centralized abuse detection, investigation and reporting system.

Through relentless monitoring the service not only detects malicious activity, it thoroughly investigates such activity and takes remedial action as required.

How Much Does A Domain Name Cost

The exact cost of your new domain name will vary based on the registrar, the specific top-level domain you’ve chosen, and the quality of the domain name. Domain.com is proud to offer more than 300 unique TLDs to help your new website stand out. Some domains may be pricier due to their intrinsic benefits, like being short and memorable, or the use of very competitive keywords such as cars.com. Browse our premium domains to jumpstart your website performance.

Privacy Protection Isnt Always An Option

Although Whois privacy service is available for almost all domains, some are unavailable due to registry restrictions.

Currently, this includes .ca, .ch, .cn, .co.in, .co.uk, .com.au, .com.es, .com.sg, .de, .es, .eu, .fr, .gg, .id, .in, .is, .law, .li, .me.uk, .net.au, .nl, .nom.es, .nu, .nyc, .org.es, .org.au, .org.uk, .paris, .sg, .to, .uk, .us, .vote, .voto, and .xn--3ds443g domains.

Privacy protection may already be in place for certain TLDs, or restrictions may be in place for specific geographic locations.

Take .us, for example. In 2005 the National Telecommunications and Information Administration requested that all registrants must make their contact information public. This was to help make sure that .us registrants followed the requirements, such as that they must be a US citizen or resident, when registering their domain.

Don’t Miss: How To Obtain A Org Domain

Cost Of Private Domain Registration

Because its considered as an additional service offered by domain registrars, private registration is not free. Some companies add this option into one of their packages making them free, depending on the deals they try to offer to customers. Below are some of the price range for private domain registration:

  • ResellerClub- $8 to $9
  • BlueHost- $11
  • SiteGround- $12

However, entering into a private domain registration agreement has its advantages and disadvantages. We will discuss the pros and cons of privately registering your domain. At the end of this article, we hope you can decide if this option is the right one for you.

Things You Absolutely Must Know Before You Register A Domain With Anyone

What is Domain Privacy and should I add it to my Domain ...

The following article was a piece we originally wrote for a marketing page we put up at DomainWarning.com but we found that a lot of our customers wanted us to keep a copy right here on the website because they were constantly referring their friends and colleagues to it.

Suffice it to say, easyDNS does not engage in any of the tactics described below, but they are widely used across the industry.

General Practice Tricks

1. “Transfer-out” fees

Buried in the fine print of a registrars Terms of Service will be a hidden fee authorizing them to charge your credit card a transfer-out fee if you move your domain to another registrar. Often times, this transfer-out fee is 2 or 3 times the cost of the original registration.

This practice violates the ICANN policy on domain transfers. In most cases if this happens to you a simple call to your credit card company will have the charge reversed, if you notice. Registrars who use this practice play the numbers game as many will not.

2. The fine print from hell

Most people actually reads the long, odious Terms of Service for anything they buy online. Some registrars bury truly chilling things in these terms like the aforementioned transfer-out fees and in one mind-boggling case a power-of-attorney.

At easyDNS, our Terms of Service are always in Plain English, and you don’t assign us the right to commit you to a mental institution by agreeing to them.

3. Pay-as-you-go

Whois Database Gotchas

5. Who owns your domain?

Recommended Reading: Where Can I Buy A Domain Name

What Does Luxsci Do For Clients Who Want Whois Privacy

Our partner for DNS and WHOIS services is EasyDNS they do not offer WHOIS masking services, and have educated us on some of the legal pitfalls that we have mentioned above that are involved.

That said, we do recognize the utility of the veneer of privacy that is offered by WHOIS masking. LuxSci will gladly substitute its own corporate information in the WHOIS for any domain owner who wishes their privacy to be respected. People can then contact LuxSci regarding the domain and we can vet those contacts and let the client respond to them if needed. In this way, we mask their information and act as a middle man for them and pass along requests so they can still be the ultimate authority for their domains.

Understanding Private Domain Registration

When you register a domain name, your ownership information becomes public record and is sent to a public database called WhoIs. Because ownership information is widely available, a lot of web hosts offer Private Domain Registration.Some web hosts, in fact, charge for this service and paint a very dismal picture of what will happen to your personal information should it fall into the wrong hands.

Private domain registration allows a registrant to hide the true identity of the domain owner and instead lists the name, address, email and phone number of the private domain registration or domain proxy service as the registrant. This can be a good thing for individuals or businesses concerned with privacy. Individuals who own personal websites or who own websites for businesses they run from their homes may want to hide their identities for some measure of privacy.

In some cases, major companies registering a domain name for a new product or service may also, at least initially, want to hide their ownership to avoid tipping off competitors. Apple, for example, was rumored to have privately registered iSlate.com in 2007, long before the debut of the iPad.

But if you use a domain proxy service to register your domain privately, you should know:

The Private Domain Registration Service Is The Legal Owner of Your Domain

Also Check: How To Find Email Domain And Server

Another Domain Control Problem You May Have

Sometimes the domain registration is created by a website vendor who uses a bulk domain name service to transfer a domain. In this case, even if the domain name is in your name, you cannot access it because you do not have the username and password to the bulk account. So in essence only the website developer has access to the name. If you want to use a different website developer to create a new website, you cannot put the new website on your domain because your previous developer holds the domain name in a bulk account. If this is the case, request that the developer transfer the domain to your name and domain registrar. Sometimes they will make the switch and sometimes they wont. Sometimes the website developer you are leaving will take down your current website since you are no longer using their services. This could happen before you are ready for your website to be taken down.

So it is important that:

  • Your name appears as the owner in the domain registration.
  • You have the username and password to access the domain registration account.
  • OR it is a privately registered site and you have access to the private registration account.

Benefits Of Keeping Domain Registration And Hosting Separate

Should I pay for private domain registration? – Web Hosting Tutorial

Still there are many website owners prefer to keep domain registration and hosting separated. Most of them hold the same opinion as Addisons separation-of-powers argument. They think the system of checks and balances can keep power restricted, otherwise any single government agency may be overly powerful and abuse the rights of the people.

I do believe most hosting companies, especially those notable ones, would never hold a domain hostage. Although the possibility is there. If you trust a web hosting, you should not be bothered by this issue. For example, I bought domain from my web hosting Webhost4Life who is a reseller of Tucows. Tucows offers OpenSRS as the wholesale unit along with many easy-to-use management tools. When you decide to transfer away domain from them, you can get EPP code for domain transfer within the hosting control panel without the approval of current registrar, you can unlock domain for transfer all by yourself. From my own experience, domain transfer from one registrar to another or from a web host to domain registrar is not as difficult as many people assume.

OpenSRS is the wholesale unit of Tucows, exclusively focused on the needs of resellers. Through a network of over 13,000 web hosts, Internet service providers and Web companies, OpenSRS manages domain names, email addresses, digital security products and web publishing tools for millions of end users worldwide.

Also Check: How To Figure Out Who Owns A Domain

Who Owns Your Domain

Many businesses hire a web designer or IT support company to set up their domains and websites. Because large hosting companies often offer private domain registration for free , your domain may well have been registered using a private proxy service. Why? Most businesses today are organized in some manner that makes their information public record and widely accessible. In fact, with few exceptions, what business doesnt already post all its contact information on its website? So why not officially list the business name and address as the domain registrant?

If a business has some concern about publishing an email address or even a phone number , unique emails and phone numbers can be set up for public databases. Google offers both for free: email accounts can be obtained through Gmail.com and phone numbers through Google Voice.

Domain registrants have to weigh the risks for themselves. For businesses, since the same information required to register a domain is often already publicly accessible, it seems clear that private domain registration which masks actual domain ownership would not only be the greater risk but kind of pointless.

Do You Really Own Your Domain Name

Just because you pay the domain name bill doesn’t mean you own it.

That’s right. You may not be the legal owner. Whoever is the legal owner of your domain name, that person has total control over it including – what Web site it points to, what domain name registrar maintains it, changing information about your domain name account, controlling who administers it, and being able to sell it.

In the many classes I’ve taught there’s always someone who unfortunately has to deal with this issue. Here are some tips on how to find out who owns your domain and what to do if it isn’t you.

First find out who owns it – Go to the WhoIs database and search for your domain. Whatever contact information is listed for both the “Registrant” fields and the “Administrator” fields, all of it, including any email addresses for these two fields, should be yours.

If you find this information is not yours, there are three possible reasons:

1. Private Listing – If you see something like “Domains by Proxy” listed as the registrant, more than likely the domain has a private listing which protects your privacy by not displaying your contact information. Contact your registrar to find out what contact information is behind the private registration. This is often stored in a separate account with a separate username and password.

Remedies – If a hijacking of your domain name has occurred here’s what you can do:

Here are some helpful links describing their policies:

Recommended Reading: What Is Web Hosting Vs Domain

Domains And Hosting A Few Basics

Owning a blog or website involves two separate pieces, your domain and your host. Its important to understand these elements for the most effective management of your site.

The domain is the address people use to get to your site. For example, this sites domain is andreawhitmer.com. You can register a domain with any number of registrars or providers basically you pay an annual fee to use that particular web address. If you stop paying, someone else can use the domain instead.

Website hosting is the service that actually stores your websites files. If you have a free blog through Blogger or WordPress.com, then your host is Google or WordPress, respectively. Self-hosted websites rent server space from a company that agrees to store your files.

Basically, you put your websites files on your hosts servers, then tell your domain to point to those files when someone puts in your URL. Its kind of like putting a SIM card in a cell phone the SIM card tells that phone, Hey, you work with this particular phone number now. Just like you can switch out a phones SIM card and make the phone work with a different phone number, your domain can be set to work with a different web hosting service.

What Is Domain Privacy Do You Really Need Private Registration

Should I Register My Domain Name With Shopify?

You are required to provide current contact info with your domain registration. But do you have to share it with the world?

No not if youre smart about it.

When you register a domain name, youre required to provide contact details including your name, physical address, e-mail address and telephone number. ICANN collects that information and displays it in a public directory.

Needless to say, one shouldnt leave all that info hanging out for public consumption.

Also Check: What Is My Google Apps Domain

Concerns Regarding Registering A Domain Name With A Home Address

If I purchase a domain, I’m usually required to enter an address. Usually, the address can be accessed publicly by any sort of WHOIS lookup. I’m uncomfortable publishing my real home address what do people usually do? Lie? Purchase a P.O box?

  • 2Related indeed. However that question and its answers are focused on whether it’s OK to provide “fake” information or not, while this one is concerned with “privacy”. danJun 18 ’13 at 18:26
  • This will depend on the Registry, but… if you are registering a UK domain as a private individual then it is free to opt-out of the public whois database.Jun 18 ’13 at 22:08
  • 1Today, with GDPR it will be private. As for specific domain registrar, check out the review: StasDec 22 ’18 at 23:32
  • The medium.com URL points to a post for an account that has been removed. web.archive.org does not have an entry for this URL.

Not disclosing your personal contact information is a common concern, since as you state, it’s otherwise publicly available at domain registrars, and any site that implements WHOIS lookups.

There are Domain Privacy options available at most domain registrars however, for example: Private Registration

These will prevent the public from seeing your home address and contact information , while staying within ICANN guidelines since the registrar will act as the administrative contact and forward important emails regarding the domain to you.

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