[ale] sponsoring registrar

Lightner, Jeff JLightner at dsservices.com
Tue Oct 21 09:31:53 EDT 2014


As I noted yesterday the issue is the hosting NOT the domain registration.    This doesn't mean you don't need to address the registration before it expires but it is NOT the immediate concern.   You should try to figure out who the hosting company is.   My guess is they'd turn it on if paid by someone even if the original credit card isn't valid any longer.    That is to say if you simply agree to pay for it without making changes they might re-activate it even if you can't prove you are the owner.

If you have a login to modify hosting setup (e.g. a Cpanel login) then that is wherever it is hosted (even if that account is currently "suspended").   If you've never logged in to make changes to the site then you might be able to figure it out by looking where it is parked now.   (i.e. Where does it go when you type in www.<domain>?)   You can do "dig www.<domain>" to determine what IP then try whois and or "dig -x" on that IP to see if you can figure out who owns it and maybe contact them.   You might also try "dig -t mx <domains>" to see where the mail record points to see if that is different than the other IPs.

It is important to keep the different terms clear as different companies can be involved in each (or one could be handling all of them).
Registrar = The company where the registration is - You indicated that is Enom.
Web Hosting = The company that creates or maintains the site where you put the web page (this is where Cpanel would be.)
Mail hosting = The company that hosts the email for the domain (if any).
Colocation = The company that actually owns the systems the web page sits on if not on the Web Hosting company's own servers in their own location.

Some of the companies you go to that will create web pages for you do the Registration (either because they are a Registrar or because they are a reseller for the Registrar).   They may also own their own servers so they're the only company you deal with.   Some companies don't own their own space for servers so they put them at a colocation site such as Rackspace.





-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Michael H. Warfield
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2014 12:35 AM
To: Todor Fassl
Cc: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] sponsoring registrar

On Mon, 2014-10-20 at 16:59 -0500, Todor Fassl wrote:
> On 10/20/14 15:53, Michael H. Warfield wrote:
> >> Registry Expiry Date: 2015-02-23T17:22:49Z
> > This says this expires in 02/23/2015.  Is this information accurate
> > or just more faked out bullshit?  This does not indicate a suspended
> > domain.  This IS consistent with a domain that was renewed for 1
> > year back in January of this year and expiring in February of next
> > year, so it may not be "suspended" per se afa the domain name itself
> > is concerned.  If your site dns or hosting is down, that may be
> > nameservers or hosting accounts with the provider.  If the domain is
> > active, we have a whole different game with months to play!
> >

>  >>>>

> Well, I did say our web site is suspended, not our domain name.

Your statements where "ambiguous".  I'll grant you that you did not say your "domain name" was suspended but then you said this...

"I'd like to get our domain named moved to another site."

Now, it's apparent you want your hosting to be moved to another site and possibly your nameservers.  But your domain name{d} probably isn't going anywhere.  (Was the "d" a typo?  I had missed that on the first pass.)

> It's going to take some time to get our web site unsuspended so I
> thought I'd try to get the domain name registrar to let me point the
> domain somewhere else.

The registrar can let you change your name servers if you have access to the account and that's about it.  The key is having access to the account.  Recurse back to my experiences with that...  Everything depends on how it was set up.

> I am asking how to figure out what to do about that. I am not entirely
> sure that this thing called the "sponsoring registrar"
> is the right entity to contact.

It is, if you want to renew a domain (though you don't need access to an account to renew a domain, just access to a credit card) or change any of the name servers, contact information, or organizational information.

> It may be a dumb question but the reason I am doubting my sanity is
> that the sponsoring registrar is denying that they know anything about
> the domain name. I think I'm being jerked around, right?

Insufficient information to go on.  I am unfamiliar with this registrar but they have to abide by the ICANN certification agreements.  I deal with and have accounts with Network Solutions, Ghandi, GoDaddy, DreamHost and several others.  This is not one of them.  They may not understand what it is you are asking of them if they are not the hosting provider and they show the domain as valid and active.

> I mean, if you do a whois for your domain, you need to contact the
> entity listed as the sponsoring registrar to regain control, right?

Depends.  In this case, yes.  Sort of.  The terminology is ambiguous.
It does sound like you need to contact the registrar, yes, and reestablish control over the domain name but that's not your immediate problem (your domain name remains in force until at least late Feb).
You're immediate problem is 1) the name servers and service and 2) the web site hosting.  If your web site provider is your registrar, then yes you are correct.  If they are not (and often they are not) then no, you have to contact your hosting provider.

If you have access to the name servers you do not need to contact the registrar.  If you don't then you do.  If the registrar is also your name service host and your web site host, I would almost argue that's an argument against such arrangements.  I just don't have sufficient information on the reality of the situation to judge.

> PS: Sorry about the "faked out bullshit" but I can't post the dead
> guy's name or even that of the non-profit. I'm sure you can understand that.

Sorry but you can.  If it was public information before, it's public information now.  If it was "private" before, then you should NOT publish ANYTHING that was not public before.  You can post the public domain name and we all have it (and some of what you did not redact could be used to pull the records).  By definition, a domain name itself is not private and obviously cannot be.  You can opt to have your contact information private but then it's not published under whois.  If you don't opt to make it private, then it's publicly published information.  Under that circumstance, nothing is private.  Publishing the name of the domain could subject you to potential scammers but any con artist worth his water could do a search with what's already been published.

Regards,
Mike
--
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 978-7061 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
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   NIC whois: MHW9          | An optimist believes we live in the best of all
 PGP Key: 0x674627FF        | possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!


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