My name is Stanley Lyndon and I own a small website, say domain_1.com [I am not allowed to post my real domain name or hosting provider's name in this forum, by the moderators].
I had registered it some 3 months before with HOST1 who had both registered my domain name and provided 10 MB of web space to host my site. But, since 200 MB per month of bandwidth they allow is not sufficient for me (I had reached 185 MB by today - 25th). So, I thought I would change my hosting provider. But, it seems I can't change my DNS servers. So, I thought of transfering my domain name to another host, (say) HOST2, and getting a better web hosting from them.
So, when I whois-sed my site domain_1.com at network-solutions.com, I found that all fields (registrant, administrative contact, technical contact, billing contact etc.) lists my name and my address. Big relief, I thought. Then, when I saw the registrar's name, I saw that it was not HOST-1 It was HOST-A, a different, international company.
At this point, I should tell about my usual domain name adminstration. I used to login with my e-mail ID and PW at domain.HOST-1.com and then modify everything from there. I found that my e-mail ID and PW did NOT work at domain.HOST-A.com. Well, that didn't matter.
Today morning, I e-mailed support@HOST-1.com that I am planning to switch hosts. Immediately, I got a phone call *threatening* me that if I ever attempt that action of switching providers, they would change the LEGAL REGISTRANT and the ADMINISTRATIVE CONTACT of my domain name to their company's and that I will then never be able to get back my domain.
Well, my question is, "Is that possible? Is it possible for them (or the actual registrar) to change the registrant and administrative contact without my consent? Or... I am also afraid if... well, I use my domain control panel from their site only. So, they could have my password logged in their database. Can they login in their systems itself AS ME and change the registrant and administrative contact's name?
I am very worried.
Kindly help, As Soon As Possible...
Shak
Also, will even that international company HOST-A.com (the actual registrar) be able to do that?
Kindly help.
Is it legal, not really, unless there are reasons such as non-payment, or a contract you agreed to.
Shak
Well, actually, I am in India and I think the HOST-1 I had purchased my domain from is actually a reseller of HOST-A (DirectI.com). So, will they (HOST-1) be able to modify my domain? Without the involvement of HOST-A?
agreeing to terms is the same as a contract as far as I am concerned, even though you never signed anything physically...
Shak
Quoting from my previous post: "Well, actually, I am in India and I think the HOST-1 I had purchased my domain from is actually a reseller of HOST-A (DirectI.com). So, will they (HOST-1) be able to modify my domain? Without the involvement of HOST-A?"
Can I just get an answer for this question?
That's important.
BTW, I use some hosting from a reseller company that's in India (not the domain name though) - no problem with that part.
[edited by: Marcia at 4:57 pm (utc) on Sep. 25, 2003]
Yes, it's mine.
As far as I know (which isn't a whole lot about domain names) at that point it's between the registrars. If you can get it with another registrar there is absolutely no connection left with these guys who are intimidating you.
Kindly help.
Please help...
what you need to do is to gather all the evidence of it belonging to you and save it... everything you can get to document it... then do as suggested above and start the transfer process...
hopefully they do not have access to your email account listed in the registration record... if they do, they might be able to hamper the transfer by preventing you from getting that email...
good luck and best wishes...
I would email to the compliance section of the big company they're a reseller for - after doing the documentation - and explain the situation and tell them that you want to change who the registration authority is. Get a confirmation from them about the domain ownership if possible.
See if they can help you.
After your advice, I have saved whois of my domain from WHOIS.net, REGISTER.com, and NETWORKSOLUTIONS.com and have saved it in my HDD. I have also printed all three pages, took them to my nearest post office and sent it to myself by REGISTERED POST.
And, the e-mail I use if not of the form of stanley@domain_1.com but a public e-mail address of the form mydomainname@publicdomain.com . I had also changed the password of it today morning.
I think I will wait for a few days now and if they do anything they had threatened (me) to do. If they don't, I will wait for a few more days, and silently transfer my domain name without them noticing. Otherwise, I will contact HOST-A (or DirectI.com) and complain about this will all my evidence (you had told me collect). If there is any problem further, I will definitely contact my lawyer.
Thanks again all very much for the help you had provided. Thanks.
*** I would still be visiting this thread everyday, and if you have got any more suggestions/comments/help, please do post it here... Thank you. ***
If they are legitimate the most they could do to you would be to charge a early-termination fee if you had signed a long term contract.
You got good advice on the whois and you say you were the administrative and registrant contact. Definitely take that to your resellers provider, and they should react very strongly to something that could hurt their reputation.
The technical contact on the whois exists not as a main contact, but so that domain owners can delegate the labor task to their provider or tech company, you are still the owner.
Good luck.
If you know someone with admin access to the account, they can do an invite to your email to add you to the account. Then you can change the nameserver info and route it anywhere you want. You might even be able to change the contact info or even remove the other admin and tech contacts.
Note that I am not dealing with the legal implications of doing this. If you don't have legal authority to change the info, and you do anyway, I have no idea what the reprocussions will be.
I will help you however I can. I have hundreds of domains and have done many transfers. I've been in the domain business since 1995. Here are the important points:
1. If they (the badguys) have your password and ID, then they COULD potentially make believe they are you and change the info.
2. Marcias note about getting copies of your whois data was excellent. Good backup should you have problems.
3. The best thing in your favor is that the whois DOES show YOU as all the contacts for the domain. When a transfer is initiated, the email will go to the ADMIN contact. The ADMIN contact is the person that says yes or no. And thats you. (Correct?)
4. I would not wait for days. This gives them more time to access your info and change it if they are unscrupulous. Whereas if you do it while you KNOW you are still listed as ADMIN, then you will get the email before they CAN change it.
5. Get away from Network Solutions. Find a good reputable registrar like 000domains or Enom. They allow YOU to control ALL aspects of your domain (and you'll save a ton of money). THEN, once you find a new host, YOU simply go into your domain account and change the nameservers to whatever your host says to change them to. That way your host NEVER has access to your actual domain name itself.
6. Good luck Stanley. Feel free to email me. And while you're at it, sticky a message to me telling me the name of these slime buckets you are dealing with. I want to investigate them. I wont write to them or anything so don't worry.
p.s. I hope you saved their threatening email. Additional backup along with your copies of whois.
One I wanted to make clear, right away. No, NetworkSolutions.com is not my host.
The HOST-1 is SiliconHouse.net - my current domain + webhosting "broker"
The HOST-A is DirectI.com - my current actual registrar
The HOST-B is Net4Domains.com - the hosting provider to whom I want to transfer my domain to.
(Also, my site is hosted at ns1,ns2.house4domains.com )
I am from India.
KWASHER:
~~~~~~~
No. They had not threatened me by e-mail. They were shrewd. Then only gave me a call.
Yes, I am the admin contact right now.
BRIEN:
~~~~~
No, I never signed any contract. I just phoned them up after seeing the advertisement on a local newspaper. Anyway, I have the details of my payment (Demand Draft No., etc.) and also the newspaper cutting of their advertisement. Wouldn't that be enough?
AMZNVIBE:
~~~~~~~~
Thanks, but my domain registrar has allowed only one ADMIN, TECHNICAL, BILLING contact and also, of course, the legal REGISTRANT.
Thanks again all very much for the help you had provided. Thanks.
*** I would still be visiting this thread everyday, and if you have got any more suggestions/comments/help, please do post it here... Thank you. ***
Anyway, could you sticky me YOUR domain name? I just want to do some double checking.
I checked out siliconscums website and terms of service. They make no mention of who owns the 'free' domain (just that the fee is not refundable... though I'd SWEAR it said it was a FREE domain, so there shouldnt be any actual 'registration fee'- sheesh... talk about doubletalk).
As long as you are the admin, go to your new registrar and do a transfer. They can't really stop you. And they also state they will refund your hosting fees on a pro rated basis, so you may be entitled to money back (but I wouldn't pursue it until your domain is safely at your new registrar.
Also, you mention 'tranfer to your new host' and we are probably just talking about different terminology here, but you never transfer a domain to your host as that would be like giving it to them. You simply go into your domain REGISTRAR account and change the nameservers to the ones your host says to.
Good luck! I think you will be fine (unless I am totally missing some vital information).
Yea, I understand that. I just wanted to transfer my domain name to a different registrar that's it. That is because, my current registrar (DirectI.com or SiliconHouse.net) doesn't allow me to use outside nameservers (net4domains.com). That was the reason why I wanted to transfer my domain to a different registrar.
Mine is a small website (about 200 kb (!) at the maximum ) but I use up more that 200 MB bandwidth in just 3 months of launching the site. SiliconHouse offers me 200MB bandwidth and 10MB space. But I think I would do better with 2MB space and more than 5GB transfer at Net4domains.com.
Thanks and still waiting for more suggestions/advice.
Many of these registrars have a challenge response method of making domains where the requested change gets sent to each contact and each must reply to confirm those changes. If they have control of your DNS, then they would theoretically have control of your MX records and could stop mail flow to all email addresses for your domain. However, they cannot do anything to say your "Yahoo!" account.
Therefore, If they have a challenge response method for modifying domain info and it is automated, the request for the change would go to your new Yahoo! or whatever account. It's not everything, but if you try to change it and your domain's contact info reflects an email address for your domain and they stop email flow, you're hosed. You would NEVER get the email asking you to confirm your changes.
It happened to me when my ISP helped me set up my first domain. They submitted the wrong email address for my contact info. When I tried to change it, I never got the challenge response email. It was like pulling teeth to get them to help, and they were actually nice people. Needless to say, I have always set up my domains for myself ever since.
Ha! Funny you mention "Davegerad". That just happened to be the email name that they messed up. DaveGerad instead of DaveGerard. I guess mistakes come easy for anyone. Me included.
