How do I know who my Domain Name Registrar is?

If you are our web client we keep a record of who your domain name provider is. If you do not have this information, give us a call and we can help you with that.

If you are not already with us as a web client we can do a Whois lookup to work out who your domain is registered with. If you cannot log in to manage your domain setup, and need that information, we can also help you get that access restored. It just requires a bit of detective work on our part.

Beware of Domain Name scams

Unfortunately, as is the case with many things to do with the Internet, there are some scams out there that you need to beware of with domain names.

Firstly, if you leave renewal of your domain name to the last minute, or until after it is expired, someone else can claim that domain name, and then charge you a high fee to get it back.

Secondly, anyone can search on your domain name, and cheaply purchase a similar one. Then when the real domain name you are using for your site comes due for renewal, the scammers send you a letter regarding the domain name that is very close to yours, saying that it is up for renewal. The fee is often high, such as $200 for 2 years.

And thirdly, some scammers will even offer to renew your real domain, and will actually do it, but again they'll charge an exhorbitant price for doing something you can do yourself for about $30 for two years registration.

Should you get any emails or letters requesting hundreds of dollars to renew your domain name, or one very similar to it, do not pay it without consulting an experienced IT person. You can also run it past us.

What is a website domain?

Simply put, a domain name (URL), is an address that allows the internet to find your website. Domain names can be registered at any of a number of domain registrars. Once registered, a domain name belongs exclusively to the one who regsitered it (the registrant) until the registration expires. The registrant is generally sent an email prior to the next expiry date with an invitation to renew the registration online, usually for a period of two years. The failure to renew a domain in time will result in the associated website going down as the domain name will cease to point to it. This is a common cause of websites going offline and is often due to the registrant not receiving or ignoring the renewal notice.

The web's registry of domain names directs service requests for that domain name to the server on which the associated website is hosted. Note that the website host and domain registrar are ususally different companies, so your website hosting will generally be billed separately to your domain registration