Domain renewal question...

[Viper GTS]

I have two domains that will be expiring in June.

Both were registered (and are hosted) through Yahoo.

I got a notice in the mail today from "Interland, Inc." stating that they were expiring & a form to renew them...

1) Do I have to renew through them, or did they just send it to me because they did a search of domains that were expiring soon?
2) Can I renew through anyone?

I don't think Yahoo & Interland are the same company, so I'm a little confused as to why I got this.

Viper GTS

 

[pulse8]

I believe you can renew through any company. I was looking into transferring my domain to another, cheaper company and I didn't because Network Solutions won't give me a refund for the remaining time left on my domain.

 

[Soybomb]

pairNIC I highly recommend them.

 

[Viper GTS]

Cool, thanks for the info.

I was a little confused there for a minute, wasn't sure why I got it.

Viper GTS

 

[linuxboy]

Hey Gregg,

let me address your questions one by one.

1) Do I have to renew through them, or did they just send it to me because they did a search of domains that were expiring soon?

In order to renew a domain, you must do it through the original registrar since they have the sole ownership in the SRS. That is, they manage their entries and they renew.

2) Can I renew through anyone?

Technically no, your registrar only has the authority to renew a domain that is in ther system.

I don't think Yahoo & Interland are the same company, so I'm a little confused as to why I got this.

Well, I currently do not know the exact relationship between Yahoo Inc and Interland however I do suspect that this is some sort of JV of co-branding endeavor. That is, Yahoo gets a cut for driving in the business and Interland takes care of the actual backend functionality.

So here are your options now:

You can transfer a domain to a new registrar, that will automatically renew for 1 year or more if you pay for a longer period. Or you can submit the form to Interland and they will renew your domain.

hope that helps

Cheers !

 

[Russ]

Viper,

I quite frequently get "renewal" notices for my domains from registrars other then the one I use. In reality, they are solicitations made to look like invoices. I've received four so far this week from some outfit called Domain Registry of America. They look EXACTLY like a bill, but in eensy, teensy tiny print they say "This notice is not a bill, rather an easy means of payment should you decide to register or renew your domain name/s with us."

Interland may, or may not even be affiliated with Yahoo.

Russ, NCNE

 

[DaveSimmons]

<< I quite frequently get "renewal" notices for my domains from registrars other then the one I use. In reality, they are solicitations made to look like invoices. >>

I've also received spam pretending to be from VeriSign but saying to "call this number to renew, do not go to the website" I didn't bother to find out whether it's a scam to switch registrars or a scam to get my credit card number.

Unfortunately, some sleazy registrars are also scraping the contact phone number from the WHOIS database to use in telemarking -- I had a message on my answering system a couple of days ago saying "there is a problem with your domain and you need to call this number".

Maybe after the War on Terrorism we can move to the War on Spam -- send special forces teams in to blow up the mailservers and autodialers of the spamlords :| .