Ask HN: How to rescue trapped domain name? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to rescue trapped domain name?

8 pointstocomment10 comments

So when I first started hosting my site many years ago I used grokthis and I registered my domain name there too. Now the domain name is expiring and I need to renew.

But grokthis is out of business and I don't get any responses to my emails!

I'm panicking, I only have 10 days until the domain expires. Does anyone know what to do in this situation? The name is utilitymill.com.

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I noticed on whois that the registrar is listed as eNom, INC.

I found this one their help page: http://supportcenter.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/24...

Unfortunately I'm not listed on the contacts for the domain so I'm not sure if it will work. I went ahead and submitted a ticket anyway.

I was in a similar situation a couple years ago - I had to renew a domain whose registrar was eNom Canada and I wasn't listed as the site owner. I just explained the situation fully and offered to pay for the renewal myself and they eventually helped me out. They seemed pretty accommodating when renewals were involved, a transfer would probably require you to jump through more hoops. Good luck!

I have no idea I'm afraid but I just want to say - your site is fantastic. I hope you get to keep your domain as I can see a number of uses for your site.

Cool thanks! Let me know if you have any questions or feedback.

(Though you may have to access it by the IP address soon .... :-(

The whois shows this:

Eric Windisch (nospam@bwbohh.net) +1.2152691915

You can try giving him a ring directly

Good point. I didn't try calling yet. I'll give that a try.

Nope, phone number is dead.

Even after its expired, i'm sure its held for another 3 months before anyone else can buy it.

It's held for three months, but only the first month is your window to rebuy; After that, the two months are an opportunity for the registrar to squat and charge you exorbitant fees.

I hope mine is not the best answer, but if you can't manage to prevent the expiry you at least need to be prepared for an attempt to 're-register' your domain.

When your domain does expire it will end up on a 'just expired' list and there are a bunch of bots auto-registering every expired domain that looks remotely interesting.

If it gets that far, at least make sure you're prepared to try and snatch it before the other bots get it.

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