Lost my web site

[Ricesnaps]

Bit concerned as my web site and my email seem to have vanished. I did have a letter a few weeks ago from someone who was not my domain provider suggesting my domain ownership was coming to an end, which is probably not too far off, but as yet nothing from ET Global solutions who I have my domain and hosting with.

I have searched for my domain on other sellers and it's not available, so any ideas guy?

my site it www.revelationroadshow.co.uk

No obviously I will call ET tomorrow (not open now), but I am not only worried about the business I might loose, but that it might be difficult to get my site back up and running?

I also apreciate that it might be my fault in the first place!

[Corabar Entertainment]

Was the letter from Nominet by any chance? (they are the central registry for domain names)

If so, it looks like it's your responsibility to renew, and I'd contact them tomorrow (nevermind anyone else - go straight to the horses mouth!)

[SonRise]

Just did a full "Whois" search on your domain name. Relevant date below. Would appear you need to contact your hosting company and arrange the renewal.

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 21-Sep-2004
Renewal date: 21-Sep-2006
Last updated: 28-Feb-2005

At present, you are still the registered owner of the domain.

Regards.

Paul.

[Ricesnaps]

Thanks for that, think I'll go to my host first and take it from there. I take it my site should still be on there server and it's just a case of renewing the domain and all will go back to normal?

[SonRise]

That would depend on the terms and conditions of your hosting agreement, and how efficient they are at clearing data from their servers. It is always a good idea to keep a backup copy of your full website.

Regards.

Paul.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I will call ET tomorrow

Ouch.....

Sorry, couldn't resist...:D

[Thames Valley Discos]

have you changed credit cards recently, maybe your details are out of date, as mine get renewed automatically

[Ricesnaps]

Just as an update - thanks to SonRise - I am waiting for a call back from my hosting company to resolve the issue. It does look as though I have just not renewed, however I am somewhat bemused why my hosting company didn't tell me!

Fingers crossed!

[LeapCreative]

The likelyhood is, that your hosting company register domains as a reseller. You order your domain from them, they then go to their provider and order it on your behalf. Therefore, any domain updates, notifications etc may not get sent to your host.

It's standard industry practice for hosting companies to use a third party registrar such as enom, so i wouldn't pin the blame on them just yet.

As far as your website goes, as long as your payments to your hosting company are up to date, your site should still be on their servers. As soon as your domain is renewed, it will resolve back to your host and all will be as it was.

As a general word of advice, if you're using cPanel, i would suggest the first thing you do is use the backup facility and create a current archive. This way, if you ever were to loose your hosting fully, you can just upload it straight on to another suppliers web space.

Hope this helps :)

[Ricesnaps]

OK, now I am starting to get a little cross....

Bear in mind that I have never had any problems with my host and they are cheap and provide a lot for the money - namely I pay about £14.99 a year and get a full hosting package, cpanel stats email addresses etc....

However, I called yesterday having found out my domain had expired to renew and sort out. Lady answered the phone and told me the right person needed to call me back. No call back. Called again today determined to insist I spoke to someone - lady on the phone kept going on about "did I buy it on ebay" and eventually made it clear that she was the only person in that office and she would need to forward my details. I pushed for a phone number so i could call the person myself, pushed for at the very least an email so I could email, but she didn't seem to have any idea what I meant.

So I went to the website - there's a support ticket section. I try to log on with what I believe to be my passwords and no luck. So eventually set up a new log in, email to work, verified and so obviously when I went to log in it had no idea who I was.

So, then decided to email the domain, something like "support@etglobal...." and so on. long email giving all my contact details and what has happened. Urging the company to get in touch in some way and so on. Automated response saying that they will get back to me in 48 hours.

Emailed again at about 5pm, same response.

Will try a fax on the way out of the office.

So currently I have no web site, but worse still, no email, so no way for customer who want to get in touch to do so.

Have a feeling if there is a solution to this which means I go to a new host and do the domain there I will, however as the other hosting companies correctly state that my .co.uk domain is not available (because it is still registered to me), I have no idea how to do that (if indeed I need to!).

Help!

[CRAZY K]

OK, now I am starting to get a little cross....

Bear in mind that I have never had any problems with my host and they are cheap and provide a lot for the money - namely I pay about £14.99 a year and get a full hosting package, cpanel stats email addresses etc....

However, I called yesterday having found out my domain had expired to renew and sort out. Lady answered the phone and told me the right person needed to call me back. No call back. Called again today determined to insist I spoke to someone - lady on the phone kept going on about "did I buy it on ebay" and eventually made it clear that she was the only person in that office and she would need to forward my details. I pushed for a phone number so i could call the person myself, pushed for at the very least an email so I could email, but she didn't seem to have any idea what I meant.

So I went to the website - there's a support ticket section. I try to log on with what I believe to be my passwords and no luck. So eventually set up a new log in, email to work, verified and so obviously when I went to log in it had no idea who I was.

So, then decided to email the domain, something like "support@etglobal...." and so on. long email giving all my contact details and what has happened. Urging the company to get in touch in some way and so on. Automated response saying that they will get back to me in 48 hours.

Emailed again at about 5pm, same response.

Will try a fax on the way out of the office.

So currently I have no web site, but worse still, no email, so no way for customer who want to get in touch to do so.

Have a feeling if there is a solution to this which means I go to a new host and do the domain there I will, however as the other hosting companies correctly state that my .co.uk domain is not available (because it is still registered to me), I have no idea how to do that (if indeed I need to!).

Help!

RICE TRY RINGING CLARA.NET
Big Company. I have a basic hosting for £30 a year per site and its been 100 per cent reliable--- now have all my sites with them.

Admittedly that doesnt cover things like auto email responder but in fairness their help line have been very helpful and obtainable to speak to on my new site.

I think you can transfer your domain to them--might take time--short term use a similar name and register it--get up and running in around 24hours--- at least it gets your site back on the web even if you lose Google placing temporarily.

CRAZY K

[TonyB]

Hello Mr Ricesnaps,

Looking at your nominet whois record, your domain is registrar is Fibranet Services Limited who own Freeparking (clickee here for registration details (http://list.eurid.eu/registrars/ViewRegistrar.htm?id=916)). It may of been them that you received the renewal details from.

You may have more luck contacting Freeparking about the domain renewal at http://www.freeparking.co.uk/.

A good budget host is www.34sp.com (http://www.34sp.com) if you are thinking of moving (they are nothing to do with me, just used them in the past).

Will get back to the "new intro bit" later - busy working at the moment :(

Tony

[Ricesnaps]

OK, just an update - not wanting to give my host a bad name unnecessarily...

Just had a long call with them and the hosting package is fine and still up and running. But the domain is held with another company and as such the host cannot do anything with it as it's not in there name....

So to backpeddle a bit, no problems with ET Globalsolution, just the domain.

Thanks for the advice

[Corabar Entertainment]

Try going direct to nominet - ie the central registry of ALL domain names. You may very well be able to renew direct with them.

The only draw back is that as your registration fee is presumably included free with your hosting, you will have to in effect pay the registration twice if you pay it direct to nominet.

On second thoughts - your registration fee can't be included with your hosting, else they would have renewed it for you???????????

[Ricesnaps]

OK, more on this one.

My domain was indeed purchased from Free Parking as suggested. I have managed to log on and get to the renewal section and they want £50 for two years just to renew the domain.

However I did something a year and a half ago which allowed my current host to use the domain. However, it seems that the "ownership" is still through Free Parking and not my current host.

I am somewhat confused. How can I get my current host to get authorisation to renew for me and not Free Parking. I am assuming that if I can do that, it will cost me less than £50 (as the last two domains I bought with hosting from current host cost about £20 for domain and hosting).

Can anyone explain all this to me in english?

[TonyB]

OK, more on this one.

My domain was indeed purchased from Free Parking as suggested. I have managed to log on and get to the renewal section and they want £50 for two years just to renew the domain.

However I did something a year and a half ago which allowed my current host to use the domain. However, it seems that the "ownership" is still through Free Parking and not my current host.

I am somewhat confused. How can I get my current host to get authorisation to renew for me and not Free Parking. I am assuming that if I can do that, it will cost me less than £50 (as the last two domains I bought with hosting from current host cost about £20 for domain and hosting).

Can anyone explain all this to me in english?

I think you are pretty stuffed. You can't move a domain that has expired. You must renew through the holding registrar which is Freeparking. Probably why they think they can charge so much.

Choices are to either pay up and renew or lose it and start again with a new domain.

[Corabar Entertainment]

Hello?????????????????????????????????????????

Can anyone see me???????????????????????????????????????????

Matt - I have mentioned it TWICE before and been totally ignored (the first time being the first reply on this thread) - I'll try one last time, but I won't bother again. Try Nominet direct

In fact, I have just been on their website and taken the following from it:-


Renew

It is important to be aware that when you register a .uk domain name you do not ‘own’ that domain name. Instead, the domain name is registered to you for a period of two years, after which the registrant (the current holder of the domain name) has the first chance to renew it for a further two years.

Domain names are subject to renewal every two years to ensure that those that are no longer wanted are removed from Nominet's register database and become available for others to use.

Your registration agent should contact you in advance of the renewal date to check whether you wish to renew your domain name. Under our renewal system domain names can be renewed up to six months before the expiry date.

If your registration agent does not send a renewal request for your domain name before expiry Nominet will send you a renewal reminder email to notify you that the domain name is due for renewal and provide you with contact details for your registration agent. An example of the registration reminder can be found here.

If a renewal fee has still not been received seven days after the expiry date then we will send you a pro forma invoice for the renewal fee by email and post using the contact details held on the register. An example of the email invoice can be found here.

If the renewal fee is not received within the specified credit terms (30 days from the date of the invoice) the domain will be suspended for 60 days. This means that the domain name and all associated services will stop working. After the 60 day suspension period the domain name will be cancelled and will then be available for re-registration by someone else. At any point during the suspension of the domain name you or your registration agent can renew the domain name.

Nominet charges its members the same fee for the registration and renewal of a domain name. Each two-year period is charged at the current fee level.

What can you do to ensure your domain name is renewed?

* Contact your registration agent in advance of expiry to arrange the renewal of your domain name

* It is vital that you keep your contact details up-to-date with your registration agent and Nominet to enable us to contact you.

* It is a good idea to know the renewal date of your domain name, which you can check by using the WHOIS search on the home page of this site.

* Keep an eye on the registration status of your domain name. This will tell you the stage your domain name is at in the renewal process. For more information click here.

* If you receive a renewal demand for your registration that has not come from Nominet or your registration agent, speak to your registration agent to find out if it is genuine before you pay.

[TonyB]

Hello?????????????????????????????????????????

Can anyone see me???????????????????????????????????????????



Hello, I can see you! problem with renewing direct with Nominet is that they charge a renewal fee of £80 plus VAT so it would be cheaper to renew with Freeparking at £50.

[TonyB]

ooops, bad form replying to my own post!

To quote from Freeparking website:

"Q: I have paid Nominet direct for my .uk Renewal

A: If you pay the renewal fee directly to Nominet (the direct charge is approx £90 instead of £14.99), you will only renew the domain name itself, you will not have any services attached to the domain name.
If you have not renewed the domain through us and the domain passes it's renewal date, Nominet will send you a Pro-Forma invoice. Paying that invoice to Nominet will renew the domain name for a further 2 years... paying Nominet direct will not renew the extra services you enjoy through Freeparking. In this case you must raise a support request, requesting that we take the normal renewal fee (£14.99) and reinstate your services."

So it appears that the renewal fee should be £14.99. Ricesnaps, are you sure the price quoted is just for the domain renewal and doesn't include anything else such as hosting or email (assuming your host can provide you with POP email?)

[Ricesnaps]

ooops, bad form replying to my own post!

To quote from Freeparking website:

"Q: I have paid Nominet direct for my .uk Renewal

A: If you pay the renewal fee directly to Nominet (the direct charge is approx £90 instead of £14.99), you will only renew the domain name itself, you will not have any services attached to the domain name.
If you have not renewed the domain through us and the domain passes it's renewal date, Nominet will send you a Pro-Forma invoice. Paying that invoice to Nominet will renew the domain name for a further 2 years... paying Nominet direct will not renew the extra services you enjoy through Freeparking. In this case you must raise a support request, requesting that we take the normal renewal fee (£14.99) and reinstate your services."

So it appears that the renewal fee should be £14.99. Ricesnaps, are you sure the price quoted is just for the domain renewal and doesn't include anything else such as hosting or email (assuming your host can provide you with POP email?)
Right then - first point, I hadn't ignored the Nominet comments, but had not realised where things were owned and held - so now I am at the Free Parking point.

I did get an invoice from Nominet, which I have lost (or misslaid!).

I can't remember exactly what they said, but I got the impression that I needed to pay £50 because the domain had expired and I hadn't renewed at the right time - now do I pay the £50 or dig a little more. My email address was out of date with Free Parking, so if they had emailed and reminded me to renew I wouldn't have got it, but my listed address was still valid so they could have got in touch by post.

Finally, I have a new option. I also own www.suffolkdj.co.uk and have uploaded my revelationroadshow.co.uk site to that domain and set up the email from suffolkdj.co.uk.

Advice.... do I pay the £50 and get my original domain back and carry on doing "something different" with the suffolkdj.co.uk (as all my current advertising has the revelationroadshow.co.uk address on ie - business cards mainly, but all my web links are based on it too) OR, should I abandon the £50 and stick with suffolkdj.co.uk and start changing my links?

Then there are exiting bookings, who all know me as revelationroadshow.co.uk (and of course I could just contact them all and explain). Will I loose out by loosing the original domain? Or thirdly, I could buy something like www.revelation-roadshow.co.uk from my current host and register that against original site???

apreciate your thoughts:Watusi:

[TonyB]

I see the domain is being renewed. What did you decide to do in the end?

[Ricesnaps]

I see the domain is being renewed. What did you decide to do in the end?
Blimey, that was quick!

I bit the bullet and paid the £50 in the end - have had the domain for two years and it's used on all my advertising, so the work involved changing everything is probably worth more than £50.

I also seem to get No1 place in Google with it for "disco suffolk", but without google having a cashed page to reference (and it's been like that for two months, so can't see it changing) - a little odd, but no comments on why I don't have a cashed page on google please (I already know!).

It also does get me quite a lot of work and I get a lot of direct entry hits according to my stats, so probably best to hang on to it.

I think I will take the time to do something with the suffolkdj.co.uk domain though - it was always the intention to create a specific focus with that domain - maybe make it apeal to corporate or just weddings or just pubs or something....any ideas?