Webservations - the Canvas Dreams blog

The first step in setting up a web site involves registering a domain name. A domain name is a natural language title used to represent a computer or web site on the Internet. For most businesses a domain name is used for both a web site and email service, all hosted on the same space, which together serves as the online brand or storefront for the company.

Regardless of their size or resources, all businesses are however faced with the same challenge of finding a reputable registrar through which a new domain name can be purchased.

With little information to go on, many companies choose a domain registrar recommended to them by another company. Other businesses may simply shop by price and browse online to find a discount registrar. While saving a few dollars can be important for your businesses, what is frequently overlooked during the selection process is whether the registrar is reputable and will truly act in the best interest of your company, or whether their business practices could put your domain at risk for expiring or being stolen by another company.

In this article, we will discuss what makes a registrar "good" and why it is so important to choose a reputable registrar. We will also discuss several examples of "poor" registrars and what has happened to domain names purchased through their services. Finally, we will offer several suggestions on how you can get started and safely, effectively, and affordably register a new domain name for your business. First, let us begin with a primer on domain names.

What does a domain registrar do?

The provisioning of domain names is handled by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), a private, non-profit organization created in 1998 tasked with coordinating the assignment and usage of domain names. ICANN has independently authorized hundreds of "registrars" to give companies and individuals worldwide a means to register and take ownership of domain names. A link for ICANN's list of accredited registrars may be found at the bottom of this article.

Registrars are given the ability to register domain names on behalf of their customers. Registrars are also responsible for effectively managing and caring for the domains registered through their service.

While most registrars let you register domain names directly through their service, they may charge a premium price compared if you went through one of their licensed resellers.

That said, not all registrars are equal. Some provide a higher level and quality of service than others. In weighing these aspects, it rapidly becomes clear why a few dollars' difference between registrars' fees should not be used as a decisive measure in selecting a registrar for your domain purchasing needs.

What is important in selecting a registrar?

To help you better understand what is at stake, the following are a simple set of rules to go by in reviewing different registrars on the market.

1. The ability to register a domain without strings attached.

In browsing the registrar's web site, how easy is it to register a domain? Are the prices listed up front? Does the registrar enable you to search for, select, check out, and pay, in just a few steps?

Or, does the registrar lead you through a series of confusing pages, try and sign you up to a bunch of add-ons such as web hosting, advertising, or search engine optimization? In the end, will you be paying just the advertised price, or will there have been hundreds of dollars in additional services added on to your purchase?

Example: eNom enables you to purchase a domain in just a few steps. However, Network Solutions requires that you navigate through seven screens of add-ons, and on the checkout page automatically tries to get you to sign up for five years instead of just one.

2. The ability to have complete access to the management of the domain.

Once your domain is registered, you should be able to log in to a control panel on the registrar's web site and have complete access to administer your domain. This means you should have a clear login and password provided to you by the registrar. Under no circumstances should you have to call any customer support line to request changes.

Example: RegisterFly, a registrar with some 500,000 domains, recently lost its accreditation from ICANN due to breaking policies. Additionally, a lawsuit between two of the company's owners brought to light the severity of business operations. As a result, RegisterFly was stripped of its authority, leaving all of its customers suddenly in the lurch. Without any ability to access the domains, none of its customers could administer, transfer, or renew the domains. One of our hosting customers was directly affected by this problem. While eNom offered to take over the domain accounts and eventually did so, this still underscored for us why it is so crucial to do business with a reputable registrar in the first place.

3. The ability to update or change all of the administrative and contact information for the domain.

If a member of your company leaves, if your company moves to a new address, if your email address changes... any of these circumstances may require you to be able to log in and update your domain's administrative, technical, billing, and supplementary contact information. Through the registrar's control panel it should be a very simple task to make changes and have those changes propagate to the domain's official record (the WHOIS record), in less than 24 hours, if not just 5 minutes as some registrars are now doing.

4. The ability to control how and when the domain is renewed.

After registering a domain, it will be valid throughout the length of your registration period. This can be anywhere from one to ten years in length. Towards the end of the registration period you may receive a notification from your registrar that the domain will soon expire, and further ask if you wish to renew the domain or not.

Some registrars automatically turn on the domain renewal setting at the time you initially register the domain. You should at all times have the ability to turn that setting on or off, simply by logging into your control panel.

5. The ability to secure the domain to prevent it from being transferred away without your knowledge.

The registrar should give you the ability to turn on a setting known as "registrar lock", which prevents the domain from being transferred away to another registrar for any reason. Many email scams target web site owners and try to get them to click a series of links as part of a "domain account update", when in fact it could trigger a transfer to a third-party registrar, or worse, transfer full ownership of the domain to another company. To prevent this type of malicious activity, make sure that once your domains are registered, you have activated the registrar lock.

At the same time, you should have the ability to turn off the registrar lock, such as if you have decided to move your domain to another registrar. It should be just as simple to activate the lock, as it is to deactivate it. You should not have to call any customer support individual to have the domain's lock turned off.

Example: One of our long-time hosting customers had five domain names through Network Solutions, and wished to move them under our management for a variety of reasons. We were unable to transfer the domains away to our eNom account, because Network Solutions was applying a registrar lock. When we logged in to the customer's Network Solutions account to deactivate the lock, we did not receive confirmation that the lock had been turned off.

6. The ability to obtain the domain's Authorization Key.

ICANN recently set up new guidelines to further protect your domain name. If you decide to transfer the domain to a new registrar, you will need to obtain a special authorization code from your registrar. AuthCode, AuthInfo, AuthKey -- each registrar uses a slightly different term but it is all the same. The code is separate from your administrative password, is generated only at your request, and is required in order to authorize the transfer of your domain away from that registrar.

You should at all times be able to log into your administrative account and request the authorization code be released to you. You should not be forced to jump through hoops or have to speak with a customer support person for any reason, as ICANN has clear rules requiring all registrars to provide you this information without delay or hardship.

Example: The same hosting customer with five domains asked us to assist in the transfer away from Network Solutions. We again logged into the customer's account and located the "request authorization code" option for each domain. However, upon requesting it, we were not given any confirmation that it was sent to the customer. Instead, we were informed we should call their customer support line to ensure we were doing the right thing. So we called the support line, and after ten minutes on hold were asked why we wanted to transfer the domains away. We immediately informed them they had no rights to do this, that our desire to transfer away was reason enough, and by asking us they were now breaking ICANN policies. We were immediately instructed that the authorization codes had all been issued, and that was that.

7. The ability to switch your domain to expeditiously move your domain another registrar.

Once a transfer is authorized, the next step is for your new registrar to request that the transfer begin. This typically involves a 24-hour waiting period while the request is being processed. You should then receive an email from your current registrar asking you to confirm or deny the transfer. You should then receive an email from the new registrar asking you to again confirm or deny the transfer. The entire process should only take one or two days, but some registrars may make you wait upwards of a week to complete the transfer.

Example: In transferring a domain from MelbourneIT to eNom, the entire process can be completed in less than 24 hours. In transferring a domain from Network Solutions to another registrar, there is an additional five-day waiting period enforced by Network Solutions, during which time they will send an email stating, "we will do anything to keep your business!" While this may or may not break ICANN policies, it certainly does nothing to assist our customers, nor does it do anything to improve Network Solutions' overall image as a registrar. For our customer with five domains, this five-day delay in fact led to the expiration of one of the domains, thereby preventing the domain's transfer, as the customer absolutely does not wish to renew through Network Solutions.

8. The ability to access the registrars customer support team.

If all else fails, you should have complete access to customer support. Whether on the phone, by email, or through the registrar's web site, you should be able to easily access a support representative, have your problem heard, and a solution implemented.

Additionally, many registrars maintain a knowledge base loaded with "the top 99% of questions received" from active customers, which may or may not answer your basic inquiry without the need to speak with customer support. At no time, however, should you have to resort to the knowledge base because the "live" support was lacking.

Example: eNom offers daytime support by phone, with 24/7 support by email. We have received detailed, quality responses in the middle of the night from their support representatives. The responses were clearly hand-written, meaning someone actually read our message. They further advised us to review a list of preselected responses similar to our inquiry. On the other hand, Network Solutions' support was quite lacking. Their email responses were almost entirely canned and had little to do with the nature of our request. If we were unable to get hold of a live support representative, we could not have gotten the problem sorted out -- and that entailed a 15-20 minute average wait time on hold.

9. The registrar's image in the court of public opinion

While looking online for opinions about various registrars may give you an unfairly biased view, it can still help in the decision making process, as many online opinions were likely made by people just like you: well-intentioned domain owners who simply wanted to find a good registrar.

While we do not advocate digging up dirt on any registrar, you can easily do so by visiting Google.com and typing in the registrar's name followed by your choice of adjectives describing that registrar, whether good or bad! Example: "eNom is good" or "is RegisterFly okay to use". You may be surprised by the results you find, again good or bad, so take it into account that these opinions were made by individuals and do not necessarily reflect the true quality of the registrar you are investigating.

Sometimes, if a registrar breaks ICANN's policies, it may have its registration rights revoked. This happened to one such registrar known as RegisterFly. At present, the following message is display on the home page of their web site:

"NOTICE TO CONSUMERS.

THE INTERNET CORPORATION FOR ASSIGNED NAMES AND NUMBERS - THE NON FOR PROFIT ENTITY THAT ADMINISTERS THE INTERNET'S DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM, HAS ISSUED A NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF THIS COMPANY'S ACCREDITATION TO SERVE AS AN INTERNET DOMAIN NAME REGISTRAR.

PLEASE SEE WWW.ICANN.ORG FOR FURTHER INFORMATION. "

There is also a descriptive page on their web site explaining that they are still in business, but the damage has already been done. A link to the explanation is provided below.

Finally, you should consider the manner in which a registrar conducts itself. In all of its business operations, web site services, advertising and marketing campaigns -- all of these aspects can help you decide whether or not they are a reputable company, simply based on the manner in which they are visibly trying to promote their image to you. Trust your instincts.

 

If this ad strikes you as funny and humorous, then you may want to click and find out more about Network Solutions. At the same time, if you are a business owner (as are many readers of MSNBC.com), then you may find the ad unprofessional or offensive. Based on our long-standing run-ins with Network Solutions as a registrar, this ad certainly did nothing to reinforce any positive feelings about them. Instead, we downloaded the AdBlockPlus module for Firefox so we would never again have to see these bobblehead ads, or any banner ads for that matter. A link to AdBlockPlus is provided below.

Summary

Hundreds of registrars currently provide domain registration services. It is crucial that in registering a new domain for your business, you do so through a reputable service that meets as many of the above guidelines as possible. Choosing the right registrar can ensure the security and continued operation of your domain names, while choosing the wrong one can result in disaster.

Certain registrars prefer to deal direct with resellers, who can reduce overhead by providing the customer service layer for individual customers. As a result, resellers operating under these registrars can offer domain registration services and extremely affordable prices.

As a licensed eNom reseller, Canvas Dreams offers domain registration services at lower prices than if you were to go directly to eNom. While Canvas Dreams could charge a premium and make a small profit off each domain sold, we instead provide domain registration as a value-added service, and do not profit from any registration services. Whenever we register a domain on your behalf, we charge you the same amount we are charged by eNom. Our role as reseller is simply to facilitate you in obtaining and managing domain names for your company interests, quickly, easily, and affordably.

Canvas Dreams offers domains for only $8.99 per year for .com, .net, .org., .info., .biz, and .us domains, and can register any range of domains under other TLDs. We are more than happy to talk with you about your domain registration needs and answer any questions you have about the process, as well as what steps we actively take to ensure the security and operation of all your domains. Please contact us at 800.574.4299 any time of day, and we will be glad to assist you further.

Best regards,

Supplementary Links

Canvas Dreams domain registration services

ICANN Accredited Registrar List

RegisterFly's "We're still in Business" notice

AdBlockPlus Firefox Add-On