Understanding Domain Registration
The Registrar can be a different company other than the hosting company.
ICANN - regulates domain registrations and sets prices. Visit www.internic.net to learn your rights as a consumer.
Smartlab Software Hosting can host any domain name as long as you can point the DNS to us, but we cannot register every domain. See the related articles.
Domain Name Renewals
Do this early, before the expiration date. Read the related article if you do not know how to renew your domain name.
Expiration
If you fail to renew, your registration is interrupted, and then your nameservers will be changed by the registrar. This means it will be a few days before you notice your site goes down, then when you pay the site will take a few more days to be back.
Redemption
After 29 days of being expired, you enter redemption period. Now Enom wants $250.00 plus the normal price to renew the domain name. Smartlab Software Hosting will require you to pay this cost or register a different domain. (We make no profit from domains in redemption. The entire payment goes to eNom.)
Transfers
You always initiate the transfer with the new company (takes 5 to 7 days). There are many obstacles that make a valid domain registration transfer fail.
- Domain name is expired. You must pay the current company before you may transfer.
- The time with your current registrar is less than 60 days, then you are not allowed to transfer yet. Note, if you just renewed your domain, you may still transfer because you were with the current registrar for more than a year.
- Your domain status is "locked". This is for your protection against false requests; just ask your current registrar to unlock your domain.
- Your whois information is incorrect or private. You must have your valid email listed as the Admin Contact Email so you can receive a confirmation letter from the current registrar; you must follow the instructions provided in the subsequent letter.
- An invalid EPP code ("Auth key") was provided. This is required for most domain names; you must get the EPP code from the current registrar and provide it to the new registrar.
- You waited too close to the expiration date. Some less reputable registrars might just wait for your domain to expire and then deny the transfer request based on that.
Please initiate your domain registration transfers at least 1 month before the domain expires. This will give you a chance to fix any mistakes and re-initiate the transfer in time.