Internet domains, like polarisits.com, are vital company assets. It is against your company's interest to delegate the control and/or ownership of your domain to a consultant or hosting provider. Moreover, it is cheap and easy to register and control your domain at any of the major domain registrars.
Why you should handle your own domain registration:
Registering a domain is cheap and easy; you should do it yourself. Owning your domain provides direct control over your Web presence. Some consultants or Web development firms will offer to register your domain for you. While it may be more convenient to let someone else handle the process for you, we recommend that you decline their offer, unless they are going to list your company as the owner, registrant and administrative contact for the domain.
Your domain name is a vital asset, and in this turbulent economy, you should keep close watch on it. Consider the following scenario: your Web development consultants go out of business. Your domain name is registered through them. You now have to deal with the hassle of getting control of the domain and switching it to another provider. While this is a priority for you, it might not be for everyone.
The worst-case scenario would be that a consultant or hosting provider would hold your domain name ‘hostage’ – taking your Web site down entirely or linking the name to another location. While rare, these situations can occur, and the results can be extremely costly.
Another consideration, though remote, is that a third party might decide to challenge you for control of the domain at some point in the future (via an ICANN dispute). If this were to occur, you would rather defend yourself directly, rather than by the proxy of a hosting provider.
Internet domains are a fundamental company asset, like a trademark or a patent. The low price of domain registration belies its importance. The costs of a domain dispute can be overwhelming: consulting, legal and bureaucratic fees, not to mention the potential for loss of brand recognition and market confusion. Make no mistake: you need to own your domains.
The good news is that domains are simple to buy and transparent to manage. But even if you are not interested in the vagaries of MX records and TTLs, you can provide a consultant access to technical details without compromising your ownership or ultimate control of your domain and Web presence.
How do you know who currently owns your domain?
The simplest way to determine this information is to do a “whois lookup” at any of the major domain registrars. Type your domain name into the search box and then follow the instructions. For example, you could try any of the following links:
- http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/whois/
- http://www.register.com/whois_lookup.cgi
- http://www.bulkregister.com/whois.php
It is possible that the whois information will be private or ‘cloaked’, which is a legitimate technique to avoid spam; but this should not prevent you from seeing the owner of the domain. If you cannot retrieve your whois records from one of the providers above, then try the others, or use the Web site for the domain registrar that your hosting provider uses.
What to do if somebody else owns your domain:
There’s no need to panic, but you need to be proactive and take control. Before you call your consultant and run up labor charges, take a bit of time to review the process that will be necessary. Different registrars have different procedures, but regardless of registrar you should expect a little hassle. If it were too easy, unscrupulous vandals would run wild usurping corporate Web sites. Some registrars even require notarized signatures from the party signing over the domain. If this seems much ado about nothing, just ask yourself: how important is your name to you?
Once you or a trusted employee understands the procedures necessary, you should direct your consultant or hosting provider (the current owner) to complete the steps necessary to make the transfer of ownership. If you simply tell your consultant to “make it happen”, then you should expect a significant bill for support labor.
Which registrar does Polaris recommend?
We have experience with Network Solutions, Register.com, GoDaddy, BulkRegister.com, AllDomains.com and a host of budget providers. Be wary of the budget providers: it is foolish to quibble over $20 per year for something as critical as a domain name.
When choosing a registrar, it is important to review the tools that they have for manipulating the DNS records for your domain. It is not enough that they let you designate any DNS servers you wish to be authoritative for the domain (this is the essence of the registrar’s job); they should also provide native DNS servers that you can directly control independently of your hosting provider (or in-house bandwidth). If your hosting provider (or bandwidth provider) is somehow compromised, then your registrar’s DNS servers will still available for quick action to switch you to another host. Once again, it’s all about you having control over your domain and Internet presence.
If you are new to domain registration, we recommend that you go with Network Solutions as an excellent long-term provider. But if you are already registered with one of the other providers we’ve mentioned, and you are comfortable with their interface, then do not feel compelled to switch. If you are registered with a ‘bargain’ provider, then we recommend that you transfer registrar to Network Solutions. Their Web site makes it quite clear what you will need to do.
