Blaine on Business

Domain Name Control Issues

Lately we have had many people asking us about domain names.  A potential client will typically contact us and tell us that they have a website and domain name currently, however they want to have their site redone or move their hosting and related email to another provider.  These callers usually assume that this is a very simple thing to do.

The problem though is that in the majority of these cases the domain name was registered for them by their last provider.  Depending on the previous provider and how they register the domain names, along with their willingness to work with the client and us determines how hard the transition may be.

 

The issues that you must look at include:

1. Do you have user name(s) and password(s) ?
2. WHOIS Information
3. Who is the registrant?
4. Can you access the administrative email address?
5. Is the domain name locked?
6. Where the domain name is registered at?

1) Username and Password

If you have a username and password for your domain name through a register such as GoDaddy or Network Solutions then you are in great shape.  You are able to easily use your credential to log into your domain name account and make any changes you would like.

If you don't have the username and password all is not lost though.  Read on...

2) WHOIS Information

Domain name information is stored in a system known as WHOIS (who is), which as its  name says tells you who is the domain name owner.  You can view this information by going to www.domaintools.com and entering the domain name you want to check there.

The WHOIS system will give you quite a bit of information on the domain name.  It will tell you when it was registered, when it is set to expire, contact information, as well as who the domain name is registered with and who is hosting the site for the domain.

This information will serve as a basis as you check the areas below.

 

3) Registrant

When you check the domain name you want to first of all check the section for the registrant. The registrant is going to be the legal owner of the domain itself. If the domain name is for a business or other official entity such as a non-profit, that name should be listed here.  This is important especially if you have a change of staff and the person listed may leave, your organization would still be listed there.

In the event that you do not have control of the domain name you must have the correct registrant information if you are going to need to fight to get control back.  The address isn't so critical as the actual name.

 

4) Administrative E-Mail Address

It is important that you have access to this email address as this is where all domain related transfer requests would go.  If you need to regain control of your domain a typical process would include you putting a transfer request in at a registrar and they will then send that request through and you will have to approve it by clicking on an email sent to your admin email address.

If you do not have access to this email address such as if your previous web designer registered it in their own email account then you have two options. You can contact them and explain that you want control of the domain name and that you want them to change the admin address to yours. Many times this works like a charm.  If my company were to receive such a request then we would gladly change it for you.  Sometimes though it doesn't work.  Perhaps you are not on the best terms with the previous person or that person is simply gone and unresponsive.

If you can not have it changed that way then you can contact the register (see below) and they usually have a process that requires you to fax in some forms and a letter of explanation on company letterhead and a copy of your drivers license.

 

5) Is the domain name locked?

For a domain name transfer to go through properly the domain name must be unlocked.  This is a problem because if you do not have access to the domain name account you will not be able to unlock the domain.  If this is the case you are going to need to get in contact with the current registrar and explain the situation.  Hopefully they will be able to unlock it for you.  This may take awhile though, so you want to make sure you leave plenty of time before your domain name is set to expire.

 

6) Where is the domain name registered?

This information is going to be found in the WHOIS information.  If you are going to need to contact the registrar in the even you need your email address changed or a domain name unlocked then you will need to look in the WHOIS to determine who to contact.

Conclusion

The bottom line though is if you have an issue with a domain name you need to look into it sooner rather then later.  As always we are here to help too.  We would be glad to help you out with your domain name issues, just give us a call at 877-525-2463.

POP3 or IMAP or Webmail for Email?

When you host your web site with us that also means we are going to handle your email accounts as well.  So when you have have an email address we need to make sure that you receive those emails properly.  As with everything else there with email you have many options.

The first option is called POP3.  POP3 standard for Post Office Protocol version three.  Using the POP3 method you would use a email client on your computer such as Microsoft Outlook or Eudora.  When you check your mail the client will contact the server and download all of the messages from the server to your client.  In most configurations the client will delete the email on the server once it is delivered to your computer.

Many people like this option because you have full control of your email.  You can easily change your service provider because all of your mail is stored on your own computer.  Additionally you have much less restrictions on your mail.  Many providers limit the size of the emails you can keep and/or the time you can keep them.  With POP3 though once the email has been retrieved down to your own computer system it doesn't take up any space on the server itself.

One of the concerns though is since the email is stored only on your computer you must make sure that it is being backed up properly.  If something were to happen to your computer then all of your email would be lost forever.

Since POP3 will remove the email from the server if you were to check your email using the webmail interface then you would not see the emails that have already been downloaded to the client.  This applies to other devices that access your email too such as all of the smart phones out there.

IMAP or Internet Message Access Protocol is another method that an email client can connect to the server and check your email.  IMAP though keeps the email stored on the server instead of downloading it to your computer.  IMAP is great for people who need to be able to check their email from multiple devices, or use multiple computers.  However you do need to have a consistent connection to the Internet so this is not a good solution if you have only a dial-up connection.

Since IMAP stores email on the server you will run into problems if you try to keep all of your emails online.  There are workarounds though depending on your situation.  For example if you have a desktop computer you can use client software that allows you to move emails off of the IMAP connection and into your folder structure on your own system.  This would enabled you to keep your incoming email on your smart phone, while allowing you to archive gigabytes of email at the same time, being the best of both worlds.

The last option is webmail.  Webmail is the option where you do not even use any type of client software.  There is nothing to install on your computer.  All you do is go to the correct web site location and enter your user name and password.  This is a great option if you use public computers such as at a library or school, where you can't really download and install software.  Webmail use to be very basic, but today they have many features and some people even prefer them over using the client based software.

Web Hosting Provider Selection

My company provides web site hosting services, so you may want to take what I have to say here with a grain or two of salt, but it also puts us in a position to better explain hosting terms.  So hear goes...

 

Free or Paid Hosting

Everyone loves free stuff.  Free hosting sounds great, you sign up with just an email address, no credit card required and you are given tools to make your own site and launch it live pretty much immediately.  That though is about the extant of the pros to free hosting.

 

Downsides include:

1. You do not have your own domain name, but a name that is part of your provider's domain name. Your name also is going to probably be long.  So instead of having www.yourcompany.com you might have www.freeprovider.com/users/~yourcompany/. This makes it hard to promote it on your other marketing material or advertising.

2. The majority of the free services are free because they are supported by advertisements.  These ads automatically appear on your pages, and may include popup ads.

3. No email.  You must use your email provided by your ISP, or a free service such as Hot Mail or other such provider.  This again makes corporate branding about impossible.

4. No E-Commerce.  Most free providers do not allow any form of e-commerce, and some do not allow any type of business web site.

 

The alternative to the free web hosting services of course are the paid services.  In this category there are more choices to consider.  The first is the level of hosting you need.  You can have at the most basic level shared or dedicated hosting.  Shared hosting means that you are going to share a server with other people.  Depending on the company and the server you may be sharing with ten other people, or you may be sharing with 1,000 others.

 

This may sound bad, but usually it isn't.  The key is to find a reputable hosting company that has been in business awhile.  Most companies do not need much in way of web hosting, just enough to provide a presence for them on the Internet and allow them to have a professional looking email address.  If the hosting company carefully monitors their systems and ensures that the proper security measures are in place then shared hosting allows you to have a low cost, but highly reliable hosting account.  Basic hosting usually costs between $2-$100 a month.

 

For web sites that have a great amount of traffic or has specialized requirements a dedicated hosting account may be required.  A dedicated account on the other hand means that you are renting a whole server yourself.  It is important if you are going to have a dedicated account to know if the price you are quoted includes management.  Typically you do not want to be responsible for server management unless you have a full time IT person (or department) as maintaining a server properly is an ongoing commitment that really doesn't offer you any business value, except for when you don't and your web site gets hacked because you forgot to install that patch from two years ago.

 

Having a dedicated server though typically will offer you lower prices when looking at large disk space and bandwidth requirements when looking at a megabyte by megabyte comparison, but you also need to be aware of other possible charges.  Some companies charge a flat rate, others may have a really low price, but you may soon find that there are lots of extras that you really need that drive that low price way up. Dedicated Server prices typically run from $200 to $500 a month.

Another varient of dedicated hosting is cluster hosting.  This level of hosting can become very complex quite fast though.  If you have a site that must be on-line and server pages to visitors up to 100% of the time a cluster setup is what you need to be looking at.  These you typically won't find unless you go through a company that can configure it for you.  Pricing for this level has so many variables, but is usually pretty steep.  However if you are a company that can put a price tag on being down for 20 minutes at 2 am once every other week, then this may be what you need.

Some other things to be aware of:

• Uptime Guarantee
• Long Term Contracts
• Domain Name Registration Ownership
• Server type – Linux or Microsoft?
• Database support
• Programming language support
• SSH Access
• Control Panel Functionality
• Statistical analysis capabilities
• Backup policies
• Overselling
• Email Accounts

I'll talk about these points in an upcoming posting.