What You Should Do if Someone Else Maintains Your Domain Registration
In the past year or so, several people have come to me saying that they needed to move their site to a new web-host because they were extremely upset with their current hosting provider. However, the web host also controlled the domain name. Therefore, the old webhost could lock out the client from any information.
These situations are not pretty.
As I mentioned in the last blog entry, it can make good sense to have someone handle your domain name registration. If this situation represents you, then do the next best thing. Make sure you are listed as the official the owner of all your domains.
Your first step is to do a “whois” lookup. One good way to do this is to go to http://whois.domaintools.com/.
As of 11/11/09 there was a single text box on the page for you to enter the domain name you are interested in. Enter a domain name in that box; then press the “Lookup” Button.
The page that comes up has several tabs. You are most interested in the “Whois Record” tab.
As you scroll down you will see a line that says “Registrant” followed by a name and an address. (Not to be confused with the “Registrant Search” line above.) This section shows the owner. The email address of the admin or technical contact receives important emails regarding changes to the account. For instance, transferring the domain name to a new registrar is a multi-step process that involves a series of emails to the email address of the administrative or technical contacts for purposes of approving or disapproving certain steps.
If you are not listed as the domain owner, then work with your webhost while you are still on good terms to ensure that you are listed as the owner of the domain name.