Domain name gone

Friend forgot to renew her site domain

[fotografffic]

It's a very long time since I've designed websites and I'm out of the know for most everything related.

Years ago I created a WordPress website for a friend's business. She retired about three years ago, but kept the site.

Evidently, she inadvertently did not renew her domain name with name.com this year. Now when we try to visit the site, we get a generic landing page, which has ww3 in the url. A notice on the page says: "This web page was generated by the domain owner using Sedo Domain Parking." In doing a WHOIS search it says the registrant is "Domains By Proxy, LLC."

Strangely, we can still fully access the site's WordPress control panel and everything is in tact there.

To be honest, I'm totally in the dark about what steps may be available for me to help her get back her domain name.

Any suggestions would be sincerely appreciated!

Thanking you in advance for any advice.

[not2easy]

It appears that someone picked up the domain name on speculation and has it up for sale. Since it says "Sedo Domain Parking" You might find info at Sedo which is a domain selling site. Sometimes a name is worth more to someone else so your friend may want to consider that buying it back is likely to cost a lot more than a new domain, but if there is no offline backup of the database and theme it may be reasonable. Since she can access the site's backend, she may be able to run a backup while in there. Sad to hear.

Personal note - see if you can determine the expiration of the domain name's registration and try to get it then, if it isn't too long a wait. I have a friend who got his back that way.

[Webwork]

What is the DNS record showing? (Don't need the specifics. Just clarification.)

Is the concern for the site's contents, which can be migrated, Or the domain. I assume the latter. Just asking. (Curious to know what is possible via the control panel . . which IS strange . . but I haven't given this much thought. I trust the hosting account has been or soon will be terminated OR assigned a new domain.)

Likely the prior owner will need to reach out to Sedo to inquire about re-acquiring the domain.

[fotografffic]

I'm able to export the content, as well as the media library. I'm not sure if that is a true backup.

There are not many pages in the site though all expert content is original, including the many photos in the site.

I'll take a look and see what I can find at Sedo, as well as look into the other suggestions.

Forgive my ignorance, but I'm not sure where to get DNS record information.

I'll be working on this next week and hope to find some answers; possibly a solution. I'll let you know if I do.

I appreciate everyone's input. Sincere thanks!

[not2easy]

There are plugins that would let her download a copy of the entire .sql database - that is all you need to move to a different WP site. It helps to have a copy of the folders, if she has ftp capability, but if she has copies of the images and a copy of the database, it is all you need to copy to a new domain. I can understand that it would be prefereable to get back the domain though. Good luck.

[fotografffic]

I went to the Sedo site. The minimum offer for my friend's domain is $899. I doubt she will want to pay this.

I can still copy info from the WP control panel. I was able to export all the images (I took the photos so have them on my hard drive anyway). We also exported a .xml file with site information. It says, "This is a WordPress eXtended RSS file generated by WordPress as an export of your site." Though not a complete backup, the file "can be used to transfer that content to another site."

I think my friend has to let the domain go. I'll discuss options if she still wants a simple site...albeit with a similar but not the same domain.

Thank you again everyone.

[fotografffic]

Evidently, my friend paid for domain mapping through WordPress in Dec 2019. Domain mapping is not the same as purchasing the domain from the registrar.

The control panel says: "Your domain mapping has not been set up. You need to update your name servers at the company where you purchased the domain to..."

She somehow missed the renewal notice from name.com and erroneously felt she had renewed it when she got the receipt from WordPress.

I doubt there is much more that can be done to get the domain name back. Doubt she'll pay $899! What a shame.

Once again, thank you for those who offered help and suggestions!

[phranque]

She retired about three years ago, but kept the site.

the good news is that it seems she still has access to her web hosting and content.
she should be able to configure the DNS for her new domain so that it points to the current web host.