E-mail and your domain name
I got a call the other day from a friend of mine who works with one of my clients. She said she'd gotten some rather nasty mail warning her that her domain was about to expire. It scared her because that was her responsibility. I took at look at the domain registry and found out that, as expected, the fine folks that sent her the letter were scam artists.
However, upon checking further, I did find out that her "real" domain was about to expire in less than a week. Normally, folks are notified when that kind of thing happens. So I went to GoDaddy.com, scrolled all the way to the bottom of the page and clicked on "whois" and entered the domain name. I found out that the domain name was registered to the owner of the business' brother, who is no longer associated with the business! The email address the person used to register the domain name was no longer in use, which is why nobody ever received the expiration notices. Fortunately, the brother and the owner are still friends and we were able to resolve things nicely. But that isn't always the case.
So here are Rawlings Rules for domain ownership.
(1) Your domain is a part of the assets of a company. Protect it like you would your stock. Always know who registered it, where it is registered and who is listed as the administrative contact. It should always show you, the owner of the business, as the domain administrative contact.
(2) When registering a domain, use a permanent e-mail address. If you are going to switch IPs, before the old one is disconnected, go to the registrar and let them know. This because if you lose or forget your passcodes, you can just send them an email from the email address you used when you first registered the domain and all will be cool. If you register your domain and give them joe@bellsouth.net as your email address and then you change to joe@iglou.com, you better remember your passcodes or you will never be able to change things without a major hassle.
(3) Always use either Network Solutions (www.networksolutions.com) or GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com) to register a domain. Both these companies are reliable and based in the good old usa. Most of the others are registered in places like Romania or Hungary and you'll never be able to change anything if you've lost your passcodes or your "mailfrom" address.
(4) Keep your registration information. Keep your registration information. Keep your registration information. And don't forget your passcodes.
