.org Domain Regtisrars

[Athan]

My domain is up for renewal in less than 2 months now, and it's currently with Easyspace, who want £28.20 (£24 for 2 years domain registration and
£4.20 in VAT).

I'd prefer to move to a new registrar. In the past, at least, Easyspace has charged me extra for the ability to specify my own DNS servers, and has been woefully lax in making sure address/contact detail updates have actually made it onto the .org whois servers.

So, any recommendations? A few things I absolutely must have from a new registrar:

1) Ease of locking/unlocking the domain 'instantly' via some web interface. Doesn't magically unlock domains for no reason.
2) Ability, at no extra charge, to specify my own DNS servers for the domain.
3) Actually gets the .org whois server to register changes in contact information in a timely manner.
4) Doesn't store your password in plain text and then send that in email to you! (Easyspace have done this with the renewal notice).

Cheaper than that £28.20 for 2 years would be nice too.

-Ath

 

[Jonty]

Hi Athan

I can strongly recommend UKReg. Your .org would cost around £8.89 per year with them (£17.78 for 2 years, but you can buy 'credits' which auto-renew for up to ten years in advance). Not sure about the locking and unlocking of fomains, but they allow you to specify your own name servers (including at registration of new domains), permit contact detail changing and are fairly good when it comes to security. Whilst DNS changes are usually out of the registrar's control to some extent, the changes I've made to my UK domains have happens within minutes to a few hours.

Personally, and whilst everyone is different, I've never had a spot of bother with them, and there's email support if needs be. You can also transfer your domains away at any time.

Kind Regards

 

[Athan]

Hmmm, one thing about UKReg, they seem to want to store my Switch card details even before I've bought anything from them. Even if I trust them not to make spurious charges this means I HAVE to trust their security both external and internal and that no-one will ever steal this data from them.

*chinny rub*

Any other suggestions ?

-Ath

 

[xane]

Another vote of UK Reg, I use them for all my domains now, never have any problems with them.

 

[Jonty]

Hi Athan

My registrars now store your card details as the costs involved are perpetual. It's a secure site and one which I trust, I can say nothing more than that. Good luck in finding a registrar which meets your needs, though.

Kind Regards

 

[Athan]

On looking again UKReg at least aren't asking for the CV2 number at this stage. I do wonder if they store it after first use though (but then I'd have little guarantee that another site wouldn't store it either).

In the transfer guide there's a bit:

The domain must be at least 40 days from it's renewal date.

I take it this means if there's less than 40 days to go before renewal I can't transfer it. Anyone know the reason for this (it's 47 days currently mind you, thankfully Easyspace reminded me this early).

-Ath

 

[Jonty]

Hi Athan

I believe your card details probably will be stored after the registration, but like you say this may occur with a variety of other sites. You could always contact the sales team prior to registering/transferring just to clarify.

As for the 40 day period, apparently you can renew under that, but I believe it's the fact that some registrars may drag their heals in transferring a domain and thus you could potentially pay renewal costs at your old registrar and then again at the new one. Seems a bit unlikely but I suppose they want to cover themselves.

Kind Regards

Jonty

P.S. If you're not happy with UKReg's setup by all means go elsewhere, I merely mentioned them as they're the only ones I've had experience with. I'm sure there are many other fine registrars out there

 

[xane]

I take it this means if there's less than 40 days to go before renewal I can't transfer it.

Actually I think that means it must be 40 days since it was last renewed, as transferring normally means you renew it again, i.e. you can't renew and then immediately transfer.

 

[phlash]

I'm using Gandi. Never had any problems with them changing the lock status of my domains, they don't keep any card details, just send me a reminder email when the domain is approaching expiry, and I can edit all DNS server details, or use theirs and edit all records. They are french (apparantly a breakaway team from France Telecom), and only offer email support (which I have never had cause to use). At the time I signed up they were by far the cheapest way to get a .com/.net/.org, now they are comparable to UK Reg at 12 euros/year.

 

[Athan]

Unfortunately Gandi only take VISA or Mastercard, or a French bank cheque, so no good for me with only Switch or direct bank transfer to use.

And I just noticed, after giving my card details to ukreg so I could actually login, they're not visiblyusing https for any part of the site. Oh, just fills me with confidence about their security, oh yes. It is used for the login, but in a hidden way (I had to read and *trust* what the top line of the user+password dialogue said, no indication in my browser about https).

-Ath, having another look at 123-reg.

 

[Jonty]

Hi Athan

Not that I'm trying to promote UKReg, but their account configuration pages once signed up are all secure. The domain configuration pages are not, but arguably there's no need for them to be.

I know people who are with 123-Reg, and they're happy enough.

Kind Regards

 

[Athan]

And now I've gone and signed up and done the transfer with 123-reg. Nice that they only ask for card details when actually paying, with visible https use. I guess I'll see after the transfer if they managed to correct the whois information quickly. Currently, thanks to the cuntfaces at Easyspace it's half my old coventry address and half my OLD London address, despite my having given them the full, correct previous London address AND the full correct one for here after the move 3 months ago *shakes head*.

-Ath

 

[MYstIC G]

UKReg = win

 

[Jonty]

Glad it's all sorted, Athan. Good luck in your endeavours

Kind Regards

 

[Athan]

EasySpace are Fuckwits

Adding a note about EasySpace.

My domain was successfully transferred away from them around a week ago now.

Yet today I get email from them reminding me about the renewal, and indeed the invoice is still on their website. The email says:

*Cancellations can also be done via your control panel. Please note,
should you wish to terminate these services with Easyspace, you MUST
cancel them via your control panel. Failure to do so will result in
invoices being generated automatically and payment reminders being sent
until such time as your cancellation has been actioned.

Which I think you'll agree shouldn't be necessary in any case, and certainly not when the domain concerned has already been transferred away successfully.

Avoid Easyspace at all costs.

-Ath

 

[Athan]

Furthermore, to add to the 'Avoid Easyspace'.

So, after all of the above I today get spammed by them, via a 3rd party (although the 'from' is marketing@easyspace.com)

[1]UFindUs - Stop Searching, Start FindingDear Customer,

We are delighted to announce that all UK business customers are now eligible
for a [2]FREE listing on our UfindUs directory.

[3]UFindUs takes the frustration out of searching on line, so even if you are
not a business, make sure you try the service the next time you are looking
for local businesses or services. Gone are the days of trawling through page
after page on the search engines to find what you are looking for, with the
[4]UfindUs directory, you can [5]stop searching, and start finding.
...

Yes, ok, I was once a customer, there's still no excuse for this. We'll see if my unsubscriving at their provided URL actually works.

-Ath