Domain Name Front-Running: Preventing Your Domain from Being Held Hostage

Aug 4
08:16

2016

Van Sy

Van Sy

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Domains are very important for your business to be known online. But there's a catch in registering a domain which you will now know.

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There are several benefits to registering a domain in either a trusted registry or web hosting company.

For starters,Domain Name Front-Running: Preventing Your Domain from Being Held Hostage Articles you can be guaranteed a fixed price. Secondly, you can take advantage of other services (several examples include be email hosting and cloud servers – which Crazy Domains provides).

However, you should remember that when you pay, you do not actually own the domain – you are simply renting it. These domain packages usually have a lease period. And when yours is up, this leaves your domain name at risk of other takers. What is worse is that there are actually people who purchase used domain names to resell at a higher price, especially when the site has generated large volumes of traffic, or even just have a high potential for traffic. You could even say they are keeping the domain names hostage. This scheme is called domain name front-running.

Usually, these domain sharks lurk in WHOIS. If you are still coming up with a domain name, it helps to pick a web hosting company first and conduct your search in their registry. Those who are strapped for cash can purchase cheap domains from Crazy Domains. You can also take advantage of domain registration Singapore packages.

If you still prefer to rely on WHOIS because it has a broader database, then you will have to change the settings of your terminal access

  1. For Mac Users: Open Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app is the exact location).

          For Windows Users: Download the application Whois v1.01 from Microsoft.

  1. In the WHOIS search box, type in the domain you want to search following this formula:

          Whois query.ext

Substitute the word query with the designated domain name and .ext with its corresponding gTLD or ccTLD. (E.g. whois coca-cola.com). 

  1. Review the result of the search. If the domain is unregistered, the message “No match for QUERY.EXT” will be displayed.

Another option is to use query InterNIC, which is owned by ICANN. Through this method, you can also expand your search to several gTLDs and ccTLDs.

Now take note: Applying these tricks does not always guarantee that domain sharks will not track your preferred name. However, at least these steps minimize the possibility.

As for users whose lease period is almost up, better notify your web hosting company that you want to renew the domain name as soon as possible.