Who Is Your Favorite Registrar? Recommendations?

[dlevens]

I recently started hosting my 3 domains at TCH and love it. I also moved my registrar from namesdirect over to TCH's secureserver.net partner? I believe this is the name and I believe they are a partner of TCH.

 

In any account I am not so happy with the registrar. After just a few days of moving to the new registrar I started getting spam to the email address I listed at the registrar. This was a brand new never used email account that I created just for the registrar.

 

I hosted my 3 domains at namesdirect for years and never once got a spam to the email I had listed there.

 

I am not sure if the spam came as a result of the registrar selling or sharing my email address (NOT VERY LIKELY) so I can only assume that the spam is coming from my email address and info being listed in the public WHOIS database.

 

Why I never got a spam when my registrar was namesdirect is a mystery but I do know that I don't feel I should have to pay $9 a year for every domain to be listed as private. That is something that really gets to me that I have to pay not to have my info listed. I have the same complaint with having to pay the damn phone company not to list my info as well.

 

Anyway, I realize I am not going to change the way this works but am hoping to find another solution than paying $9 a year per domain.

 

1. Possibly find another registrar that offers privacy for free?

 

2. List BS info in my public whois info? The problem with this option is that the registrar itself will not be able to contact me. Since it appears the registrar partner of TCH does not have a seperate area to define an email for them to reach me and a seperate email for the public whois.

 

3. ?

 

Any have some better suggestions?

 

Dennis

[MikeJ]

1. Possibly find another registrar that offers privacy for free?

 

2. List BS info in my public whois info? The problem with this option is that the registrar itself will not be able to contact me. Since it appears the registrar partner of TCH does not have a seperate area to define an email for them to reach me and a seperate email for the public whois.

 

3. ?

 

Any have some better suggestions?

 

Dennis

1. I don't believe such a thing exists, although you may find things cheaper than GoDaddy (TCH uses wildwestdomains which is a company of GoDaddy specifically for reselling).
    
   
2. Becareful with making a decision about listing false information in a whois record. That can be grounds for losing the domain as it breaks ICANN's policies about domain registrations.

   3.7.7.2 A Registered Name Holder's willful provision of inaccurate or unreliable information, its willful failure promptly to update information provided to Registrar, or its failure to respond for over fifteen calendar days to inquiries by Registrar concerning the accuracy of contact details associated with the Registered Name Holder's registration shall constitute a material breach of the Registered Name Holder-registrar contract and be a basis for cancellation of the Registered Name registration.

For the purpose of avoiding spam, the private registration is really the only way to go (just look around for who might do it cheaper, I'm not aware of any). It's unlikely the registrar choice is why you got spam, and more likely the fact that you changed your registration (it's been known that spammers monitor whois changes) which is unrelated to any particular registrar. I just deal with blocking the spam I get, then trying to avoid being listed at this point.

[dlevens]

Mike,

 

Thanks for the info.

 

It's unlikely the registrar choice is why you got spam, and more likely the fact that you changed your registration (it's been known that spammers monitor whois changes) which is unrelated to any particular registrar.

 

I believe you are correct. This makes the most sense to why the spam started on the new account.

 

So this leaves me with two options.

 

1. Wait it out and fight the spam as it comes in hoping it will eventually taper off as the email account gets older.

 

2. Pay for the privacy feature either here at WWD or another company offering it a bit cheaper.

 

As far as option 2 I would be interested to know if anyone actually pays or uses this feature? It would cost me $27 a year since I have 3 domains. What sucks is I only use the one .com domain. The other .org and .net are just parked. But since I have to keep my info correct in the whois I have to protect all 3 to avoid my contant info from getting out. OR I could put seperate info on the .org and .net that were still legit but that just makes things more complicated and messy.

 

Maybe waiting it out and fighting the spam is the way to go.

 

Dennis

[TCH-Rob]

I am not sure if you can find it cheaper or not, most companies offering it are reselling it from Go Daddy. I am not sure if there are other versions but I know Domains by Proxy is owned by Go Daddy.

[bellringr]

I use it and I have yet to get spam at my domain address. I get enough at my ISP addy to make up for it though.

[DarqFlare]

I actually use Dotster...

[dlevens]

Bellringer, so you pay the $9 per domain for all your domains?

 

hmmmmmmmm, is it just me or have we not all been fooled into just excepting the fact that we have to pay to block our own info? How did this ever come to be, having someone tell us, "oh ummm, by the way all this private info you are giving me, umm your going to have to pay me not to list this in (phonebook, whois, etc). "

 

I don't like that my home address and phone number and email address are listed on my domain but I cannot justify paying $27 a year to have some monkey at the registrar click a button once to change it from my personal info to there personal info.

 

Maybe I would pay a one time fee for the change but a yearly fee per domain is just rediculous.

 

Dennis

[TCH-Rob]

Dennis,

 

It is an ICAN rule to have correct information. You will need to take it up with them.

[TCH-Bruce]

It's the same as paying income taxes, it isn't going to change. Sad but true.

[Deverill]

It doesn't help but remember the $9 is an administrative fee for keeping track of your info for you. If ICANN or other legit authority comes to them they will have to dig out your info and provide it. If it was *just* changing it when you register it then it would be even more aggravating. It still doesn't justify it being that much but as they said, it's not going to change - just like the phone company charging to make your phone unlisted.

[TCH-Rob]

So you are saying that nine dollars a year to prevent you from getting SPAM is steep?( Not directed at anyone ) It is a fact that spammers cruise the WhoIS info to get new names that pop up and use it to send spam. It is a fact that ICANN requires one to list valid information to assist in preventing fraud and helping law enforcement agencies amongst other things.

 

You are still saving over the thirty-five dollars you used to pay for your domain names. I think it is a bit sad how we have come to feel like we should have all of these things for free when we are spending pennies compared to what we once were, even hosting. Look at what you get here for four dollars a month. Think back a few years and how much it cost then. I have been at this for a long time and can tell you in many ways we have it better now than ever before.

 

I am about to step off my soapbox here and this rant isnt pointed at anyone in particular, lets just remember where we could be.

 

Hope I didnt offend anyone as it was not my point.

[bellringr]

Rob, that's a good way to put it in perspective.

 

Dennis - I only have one domain name, and the $9 is well worth it to me to not get inundated with crap. I believe a person's registration information should be available, but only to those who need it. Having it public is just asking for trouble IMO.

[TCH-Rob]

I dont use the private services because I know that someday I may need a date with a naturally enhanced diploma selling discount software that filters SPAM.

[MoonFaery]

I actually use Dotster...

Me too!! woooot

[Deverill]

Dennis - I only have one domain name, and the $9 is well worth it to me to not get inundated with crap.

Unfortunately some of us are innundated anyway. Mad!!!

 

My fishing charter guy's site is a prime example. In order for him to attract customers he has to be seen. Some of the fishing directories ("Find your captain" types) require email addresses and put them up for the prospective client to use. You can't use a fake address there or you'll lose business.

 

He's not that well listed, in fact a Google search only turns up one instance of his address, and I have the address on his site cloaked via javascript. Even at this, he gets on average about 100 spams per day. With their continued greed they develop ways to slip past Spam Assassin even at a setting of 3.5. It's very frustrating for both of us - him for reading the 20 that get thru and me for not being able to stop it.

[TCH-Rob]

Jim,

 

Unfortunately that is the price we pay for being "seen" on the internet. There is nothing stoping people from sending us junk via snail mail and if we are a business they can call us so the internet is no different save the speed at which they do it and the content they send. I get about 100 SPAM messages a day between my ISP and domain. SA and some rules catch most of it and it only takes me two minutes to clear the rest of it out. Sad thing is, I accept it as a part of my daily internet routine. It is like playing a game at nightmare level, you can get a few but there are just too many to get all of them. Unless the Internet can police itself we will not win this war.

[MoonFaery]

Unfortunately, as soon as a company can figure out how to actually weed the spam out of your email box, the spammers will figure out another way to get around it.

[Deverill]

Rob's right. As a business our only saving grace is that it costs the jerks to send us junk snail mail. It's free for them to fax us but there are laws against that and they can be traced. With spam it's a free for all - except those of us who wast our time sorting through it.

 

I'm still waiting for the next step past Bayesian filtering because it seems pretty good at working things out - the next would be awesome. We just need it to become refined and massively available in a usable format. The autolearn of Spam Assassin makes me scratch my head and wonder how it can be good enough without user input on what's spam and what's ham.

 

If only our brains were as stupid as the programs we wouldn't understand what V1Ag-r-A was and it wouldn't matter.

[Frylock]

registerfly.com charges I think $1 for whois privacy (per domain, per year), but the normal registration is a buck or two more than GoDaddy.

[dlevens]

Hey Rob, some good points and no offense taken. But figured I would respond to your post

 

So you are saying that nine dollars a year to prevent you from getting SPAM is steep?( Not directed at anyone )

sorta, not really saying $9 is too steep, but $9 x how many domains you own, can definately be too steep. Plus it is rare that ICANN requests information from the registrar about you so to charge me $9 per domain just in case they have to pay some employee to respond to a request for my valid info is too much in my opinion.

 

It is a fact that spammers cruise the WhoIS info to get new names that pop up and use it to send spam. It is a fact that ICANN requires one to list valid information to assist in preventing fraud and helping law enforcement agencies amongst other things.

I would assume that since these registrars are allowed to replace my whois with their private information so as to meet the ICANN requirement that valid info be in the whois, then should not the default setup be this way? Meaning why is the default to publicly display your info allowing the spammers the upper hands, instead of the whois pointing to your registrar's info, and still meeting the need to find out the owners info if you are law enforcement.

 

You are still saving over the thirty-five dollars you used to pay for your domain names. I think it is a bit sad how we have come to feel like we should have all of these things for free when we are spending pennies compared to what we once were, even hosting. Look at what you get here for four dollars a month. Think back a few years and how much it cost then. I have been at this for a long time and can tell you in many ways we have it better now than ever before.

No offense but I disagree. I think this is a good thing that we come to expect more for our money. It is the american way to create competition resulting in better ways to do things at a lower cost. $35 back in the day was ripping us off. Your mention of TCH is a perfect example. You guys rock. You are able to provide amazing service for our money, thus beating your competition and at the same time (hopefully) making your company and its investors good money. So yes I do expect to get the most return on my money and for some reason I have a hard time paying $27 in my case to protect my info. It feels like the we are bending over to the spammers when the end user is forced to pay the price of privacy instead of the spammers. In my fantasy world all registrars should be required to display their private info on all the domains they have registered. If spammers want access to this info they have to pay for it, or even better you have to authorize your info to be given out. If law enforcement needs the info then it MUST be given freely to them from the registrar. I don't see justification for even $9 per domain for what would take 30 seconds for the registrar to look up my info and hand it over to law enforcement or whoever requested it. Consider the amount of services TCH offers for $4 and compare the once in a blue moon request for my private info at the registrar costing nearly double that? We are being ripped off IMHO.

 

I am about to step off my soapbox here and this rant isnt pointed at anyone in particular, lets just remember where we could be.

 

Hope I didnt offend anyone as it was not my point.

Not at all, this is just a back and forth of opionions and I do respect yours.

 

Dennis

Edited July 30, 2004 by dlevens

[TCH-Rob]

Plus it is rare that ICANN requests information from the registrar about you

More often than you think. You really want to know about what is being done with WhoIs and what ICANN is doing to try and help then go here gnso.icann.org/issues/whois-privacy/index.shtml

 

You might find it interesting.

 

It is the american way to create competition resulting in better ways to do things at a lower cost. $35 back in the day was ripping us off.

 

Is that why my last job let me go and outsourced overseas? Was it ripping us off? How could you tell? At the time that cost and the cost of hosting didnt seem that way, it is only looking back that we can say it was steep.

 

I used to work for a registrar and I can say there is a little more to it than paying $9 to put a name in a database but we all have our opinions on the subject. Maybe my line of work makes me see things in a different light.

[dlevens]

Interesting website, thanks for the link.

 

Maybe we can both agree that it would be better for everyone if privacy was a default option with all registrars. Then those who would prefer their business address and info exposed can choose to, and those who like to keep things private do not need to worry about it. Spammers would of course get their emails from other sources but at least we start out fairly protected.

 

For me I would equate the way things are now to something like the following:

 

You decide you want to go buy something at the mall, so you walk in make your purchase and head home. The next time you go to the mall you notice a huge wall out front with the name, address, phone, email of everyone who made a purchase. You immediately see your info exposed for the world to see. You go to the front desk and ask to have your info taken down so they respond sure we can take it down but you need to pay us a yearly fee, and as soon as you stop paying the fee we are going to post your info backup.

 

Who knows, maybe I am just asking or expecting too much. It just is surprising that it became this way without everyone getting upset.

 

Dennis

[TCH-Bruce]

Well if there were no spammers this wouldn't even be an issue. So it's like everything else. They decided they can profit from it by charging to keep your information private.

 

The real problem as I see it is to stop the spammers.

[TCH-Rob]

Maybe we can both agree that it would be better for everyone if privacy was a default option with all registrars

I wish that were the case with everything.

 

You decide you want to go buy something at the mall, so you walk in make your purchase and head home. The next time you go to the mall you notice a huge wall out front with the name, address, phone, email of everyone who made a purchase. You immediately see your info exposed for the world to see. You go to the front desk and ask to have your info taken down so they respond sure we can take it down but you need to pay us a yearly fee, and as soon as you stop paying the fee we are going to post your info backup.

 

Or you can not shop there anymore either. The problem is that most people dont look into it before they get a domain name, read the fine print or ask detailed questions. I make a late payment on my credit card and my interest rate jumps 10%. I dont recall that part when I signed up but if I had looked into it I would have found it. No one reads the fine print until it is too late.

 

Should things be different? Sure they should, I should also be making more than I am now. It isnt and I am not. There are allot of ifs and we accept it because we dont look at the notices they make. All of these small changes we dont notice because they dont affect us yet. One cant complain about the products bought if one didnt read the box and just bought because the picture was pretty.

 

Let me pose this question to you. Would you have gotten a domain name if you knew your information was there for the entire world to see and spammers to harvest it?

[Deverill]

In the days of Usenet and the early Internet it was extremely beneficial for that information to be available. You have a down network or want to make contact with a network neighbor to work on some cool thing you could just look it up. Spammers ruined it and at this point it is thedefault so the Registrars go with it. Besides, it makes them a couple of extra bucks. I guess we could go back to Geocities for anonymity

[TCH-Dick]

There is a price for everything in this universe,

any fool can see,

but only a smart man can understand

nothing is free.

[D. J.]

Hey everybody,

 

well, miraculously I'm jumping into a thread while it's still active!

 

I was stunned yesterday to get this in my mail from, I'm assuming, ICANN

 

>Dear Domain Administrative Contact,

 

As required by ICANN, this message is an annual reminder to help you keep the contact data associated with your domain registration up-to-date.

 

It is vital that all data remain current. Important notifications are sent via this information and inaccurate data could result in cancellation of your valuable domain name registration.

 

Blah, blah.

 

Now, my first question was, if this is an "annual" mailing, why is this the first one I've ever gotten in the three years I've had a domain name?

 

Secondly, this irritates me because for those three years I've had no trouble using my current (soon to be old) host's address and phone number. This was done at the host's suggestion by the way.

 

See, way back when I first signed with that company, they had a buggie email client. One day, I sent a single message to an online store asking if they would be interested in stocking my book.

 

Next morning, I open my mail to find a tersely worded message back saying "stop sending this mail." Well, I thought they were mixing me up with someone else or just being nasty. But NO!

 

The minute I went offline, my phone rang. It was the owner of the store wanting to talk to whoever was in charge. Seems at that point, he'd gotten forty-five repeats of the same message and they were coming in every ten minutes. After I calmed him down and convinced him I wasn't a spammer, I went in search of why this was happening. That's when I learned about the "buggy" mail client.

 

I also wanted to know how this guy had gotten my phone number. Silly me, I had no idea the info I'd given when I registered the domain was going to become "public record." And, if I may say so, that it does is complete b.s. Talk about giving the telemarketers and junk mailers a handy tool!

 

Well, anyway, when I told the host I didn't appreciate having my private, unlisted, phone number where the whole world could see it, they suggested using their info instead. That way, if someone needed to contact me, they would just give them my email addy.

 

Now I get this from ominous sounding missive and I'm right back in the same boat.

 

So I gave them a P. O. Box and zip code - which the USPS assures me is sufficient to recieve mail there - and I'm told Nope! Not Good Enough! We need a city and state.

 

This really irked me. I thought possibly, because that host now knows I'm cancelling my account and moving my site here to TCH, they were trying to put the squeeze on me for more money somehow (my registration was through them and has a year left on it). So I came here to see what I could learn about this "annual" mailing and I learn it's legit (grumble).

 

Obviously my only option is going to be - pay to keep my info private. I have no idea how much they charge, but how much does TCH charge for a silent listing? If the difference is as marked as the price of hosting is, I'll swallow the year's registration I've already paid for and transfer the domain registration here too.

[hindixp]

Hi D.J ,

Reasons u are fedup with Were also one of my cause of Start a Domain resellers package,

cause getting few dozen domains managed at other registrar was costing me a lot of time.

now i have all under my full control.

 

Just to remind you if you transfer the domain most services include a Year's Extention. Try your Luck.

 

For hosting you won't be able to get back the pre- payment

[dlevens]

Let me pose this question to you. Would you have gotten a domain name if you knew your information was there for the entire world to see and spammers to harvest it?

 

Interesting question. Answering the question exactly as you posed it my answer would still be yes. I bought my domain about 5 years ago when this was not as big an issue as it is today.

 

D.J. the mail you got is most likely spam. Do a search on google for some of they main phrases.

 

Well this has been a great thread. My opinion has not changed much but some good points were made. My feeling is still that if one registrar does not offer the privacy as default then another one will. I am sure there are registrars willing to take advantage of this lack of privacy and use it as a means to beat their competition.

 

In the world we live in today having your home address and phone and email exposed is just not safe. So if $9 a year per domain is the best available then that is what I will pay. But there has to be something better out there, either free or like someone posted on this thread, closer to $1 a year.

 

Dennis

[D. J.]

Hey again,

 

dlevens, no it wasn't spam. It had links to different parts of the registrars site where you could find out more info, etc. I also checked with the host who registered me and they vouched for it.

 

I agree 100%. The first place to offer shielded registration info is going to get a lot of business! Actually, I'm surprised no one has done it already, but then I don't know what would be involved.

 

I just look on the way it's done now as a hand out to marketers and lord knows they don't need any help bugging people.

 

Oh, I missed this last time, but - Jim, you ARE kidding about going back to Geocities, right????

 

Later.