Website issue - Not too happy.

[DJ Frankie]

Hi Folks

I have a question, I don’t want to go into too much detail but I need some advice if possible.


The Scenario:

Let’s say you have an established website called (Example only) mywebsite.co.uk and your local competitor has JUST recently purchased an identical name to yours called mywebsite.net and has also done a masked redirect to there own website to gain more work from your established and successful company where do you stand with this?
Do you have a right to call there hosting company and complain about it or do you not have a leg to stand on?????

[discomobiledj]

Unless your site name is copyright/trademark to you then I'm not sure there is alot you can do.

[Ace DJ]

This has happened to me. I don't know about re-directing though. I have been trading for many years with ny name nationaly with .co.uk. and another company has started the begining of the year with .com
Very frustrating but not a lot you can do other than buy all of the website names
ACE

[Spirits High]

Very frustrating but not a lot you can do other than buy all of the website names
ACE

Indeed it is thats why i've got .co.uk .org.uk and .net

Just waiting to get .com!

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Email their ISP and see what they say.

[Marc J]

Nothing you can do I'm afraid, unless (as Steven said) you own copyright / trademark on the phrase used in the domain. If they are words from the dictionary then it's first come, first served I'm afraid.

If you don't, then you should secure as many variants of your chosen domain name that you can - at least that's what I always advise my clients. There's the usual variants with .co.uk, com, .net etc., but also get with and without hyphens if there's more than one word in the domain.

One client of mine has around 30 domains registered but only uses 1. The rest are to stop competitors registering them - AND the names are trademarked!

[Marc J]

Indeed it is thats why i've got .co.uk .org.uk and .net

Just waiting to get .com!

Paul, the .com is showing as in "redemption period" (see here (http://www.icann.org/registrars/gtld-lifecycle.htm) for an explanation and timescale).

My advice would be NOT to wait and see if it becomes available, as most expiring domains are snapped up the second they are released by companies who's intention is to hopefully sell them back to the original registrant (who may have changed their email or for some other reason didn't get the expiry notices).

If you really want it your best bet is to sign up to a domain backorder service and let them attempt to secure it for you. I've had a lot of success with www.pool.com in the past, and if you're the only one after the domain then it costs you $60 USD which includes 1 year's registration. If you really really want it, sign up with as many backorder companies as you can - www.namejet.com is another one which looks like only $29, but I've no experience of them.

Sorry for the slight thread hijack, btw :o

[DazzyD]

Paul, the .com is showing as in "redemption period" (see here (http://www.icann.org/registrars/gtld-lifecycle.htm) for an explanation and timescale).

My advice would be NOT to wait and see if it becomes available, as most expiring domains are snapped up the second they are released by companies who's intention is to hopefully sell them back to the original registrant (who may have changed their email or for some other reason didn't get the expiry notices).

If you really want it your best bet is to sign up to a domain backorder service and let them attempt to secure it for you. I've had a lot of success with www.pool.com in the past, and if you're the only one after the domain then it costs you $60 USD which includes 1 year's registration. If you really really want it, sign up with as many backorder companies as you can - www.namejet.com is another one which looks like only $29, but I've no experience of them.

Sorry for the slight thread hijack, btw :o


I don't think there's a thread highjack issue here - this is good advice, Marc, and can help to stop potential customers confusing a lesser-quality business with you own.

As I've said before, I'm not a web designer and can't claim to know anything about "masked redirection" but I've had the same problem with another company registering a domain name variation of my own. However, both my business and this other one cover different areas of the country so I'm not too worried. Plus, I added the "& Entertainment" to my business name as an easy option to help avoid confusion. It would seem that "Lightning" is a popular name across several business functions but I've been trading under this name since 1992 (although with a different business not connected to discos or entertainment).

[Spirits High]

Paul, the .com is showing as in "redemption period" (see here (http://www.icann.org/registrars/gtld-lifecycle.htm) for an explanation and timescale).

My advice would be NOT to wait and see if it becomes available, as most expiring domains are snapped up the second they are released by companies who's intention is to hopefully sell them back to the original registrant (who may have changed their email or for some other reason didn't get the expiry notices).

If you really want it your best bet is to sign up to a domain backorder service and let them attempt to secure it for you. I've had a lot of success with www.pool.com in the past, and if you're the only one after the domain then it costs you $60 USD which includes 1 year's registration. If you really really want it, sign up with as many backorder companies as you can - www.namejet.com is another one which looks like only $29, but I've no experience of them.

Sorry for the slight thread hijack, btw :o

Marc,

As ever I bow to the web Yoda :D

Signed up with Pool and got it on backorder

Cheers for the steer ;)

[Marc J]

Signed up with Pool and got it on backorder :)

Good luck with that ;)

[Tom]

If you don't, then you should secure as many variants of your chosen domain name that you can - at least that's what I always advise my clients. There's the usual variants with .co.uk, com, .net etc., but also get with and without hyphens if there's more than one word in the domain.



So what you are saying is if you have a .co.uk already like I do then it's a good idea to buy .com .org.uk and get them redirected to the original.co.uk site???

[Marc J]

So what you are saying is if you have a .co.uk already like I do then it's a good idea to buy .com .org.uk and get them redirected to the original.co.uk site???

I'd say definitely the .com, and then take it from there (depends how far you want to go). You can have .org.uk, .net, .eu etc. etc.....even .dj if you like. If you have more than one word in your domain it's also a good idea to have with and without dashes (yourdisco.co.uk and your-disco.co.uk for example).

Then you park them to your hosting account. Some hosts ask for extra to park domains to an account.

[Tom]

I'd say definitely the .com, and then take it from there (depends how far you want to go). You can have .org.uk, .net, .eu etc. etc.....even .dj if you like. If you have more than one word in your domain it's also a good idea to have with and without dashes (yourdisco.co.uk and your-disco.co.uk for example).

Then you park them to your hosting account. Some hosts ask for extra to park domains to an account.

Thanks for that. :). This could get quite pricy but I have had a look on Go Daddy and its only about £5 for a .com so i think i will start there and see what happens first.

[Spirits High]

Indeed it is thats why i've got .co.uk .org.uk and .net

Just waiting to get .com!


Paul, the .com is showing as in "redemption period" (see here (http://www.icann.org/registrars/gtld-lifecycle.htm) for an explanation and timescale).

My advice would be NOT to wait and see if it becomes available, as most expiring domains are snapped up the second they are released by companies who's intention is to hopefully sell them back to the original registrant (who may have changed their email or for some other reason didn't get the expiry notices).

If you really want it your best bet is to sign up to a domain backorder service and let them attempt to secure it for you. I've had a lot of success with www.pool.com in the past, and if you're the only one after the domain then it costs you $60 USD which includes 1 year's registration. If you really really want it, sign up with as many backorder companies as you can - www.namejet.com is another one which looks like only $29, but I've no experience of them.

Sorry for the slight thread hijack, btw :o


As an update, Marc is indeed the the Web Jedi :)

Took his advice and now own www.spiritshigh.com aswell

All hail to Marc ;)

[nigelwright7557]

Hi Folks

I have a question, I don’t want to go into too much detail but I need some advice if possible.


The Scenario:

Let’s say you have an established website called (Example only) mywebsite.co.uk and your local competitor has JUST recently purchased an identical name to yours called mywebsite.net and has also done a masked redirect to there own website to gain more work from your established and successful company where do you stand with this?
Do you have a right to call there hosting company and complain about it or do you not have a leg to stand on?????


If they are using your compnay name then you can do something about it.
They are misrepresenting themselves.

[Marc J]

As an update, Marc is indeed the the Web Jedi :)

Took his advice and now own www.spiritshigh.com aswell

All hail to Marc ;)

Just noticed you let this expire! Any reason (or was it by accident)?

P.S. Your website is popping up an IE6 warning for me, even though I'm not using IE6!

[Spirits High]

Just noticed you let this expire! Any reason (or was it by accident)?

It was a while back but I'm pretty sure it was because the company I bought it through via the pool thing wanted an extraordinary amount of cash for the 2nd year when it came to be renewed.




P.S. Your website is popping up an IE6 warning for me, even though I'm not using IE6!

Hmmm, not sure what's happening there (you know the length of my web knowledge). I've looked at it in ie but looks ok to me :confused:

[Marc J]

It was a while back but I'm pretty sure it was because the company I bought it through via the pool thing wanted an extraordinary amount of cash for the 2nd year when it came to be renewed.

Ah...you should always move from them as soon as possible after securing the domain. I always make a note to move the domain around 90 days after, although you should have been able to move it right up until the renewal date.


Hmmm, not sure what's happening there (you know the length of my web knowledge). I've looked at it in ie but looks ok to me :confused:

Hard to tell what's triggering it from viewing the source. Doesn't appear to be javascript, so may be a PHP user agent sniffer. Whatever it is, it's getting it wrong in my case (IE10 on Win7).

[Spirits High]

Ah...you should always move from them as soon as possible after securing the domain. I always make a note to move the domain around 90 days after, although you should have been able to move it right up until the renewal date.

Doh, on my part!




Hard to tell what's triggering it from viewing the source. Doesn't appear to be javascript, so may be a PHP user agent sniffer. Whatever it is, it's getting it wrong in my case (IE10 on Win7).

Thanks for the advice.

[DazzyD]

It was a while back but I'm pretty sure it was because the company I bought it through via the pool thing wanted an extraordinary amount of cash for the 2nd year when it came to be renewed.

...

This sounds like the hosting package with 1&1 Internet. To be fair, it's a really decent hosting deal, including domain name, with loads of stuff included, for the first year but I found when I came to renew for Year 2, the prices rose quite sharply. I just wasn't happy with that so left them.

[yourdj]

This is what Lee live did recently I think? Wonder what happened in that situation?

[Essex Disco]

OP: I've recently had this with one of my landing pages where a competitor has bought the .com version. Very frustrating but ultimately misrepresenting himself and making himself look quite the fool as the websites he throws up are terrible. Loads of word stuffing text just to rank well with nothing for the visitor. If you have a better site and better reputation with backup then I wouldn't worry too much.

[DazzyD]

OP: I've recently had this with one of my landing pages where a competitor has bought the .com version. Very frustrating but ultimately misrepresenting himself and making himself look quite the fool as the websites he throws up are terrible. Loads of word stuffing text just to rank well with nothing for the visitor. If you have a better site and better reputation with backup then I wouldn't worry too much.

Hi Sam! Welcome to the forum and it's good to see you're contributing already! :)

As a new member we're interested to know a bit more about you. That's why we like all of our new members to introduce themselves in the "Newbies" section. We find that knowing a bit more about who we are discussing topics with makes it easier to share thoughts, ideas and, most importantly of all, experience with! Have a look at this thread here:

http://www.forum.mobilediscodirectory.co.uk/showthread.php?11711-New-to-the-forum