changing web host and keeping domain name

[revron]

i have a website through an annual plan by domaindirect. they are a subsidiary of and use tucows as the registrar. the annual plan was up for renewal on 1/30/07. the plan cost $79/year for 100mb of storage and has a somewhat simple control panel for a new web user to build/maintain a website.

i found that yahoo web hosting costs $9.56/month and starts with 5gb of storage and has a slightly better control panel for doing the web creation/maintenance.

i did my best to find out how/if i could have my domain name be newly reserved (registered) by yahoo prior to my account ending with domaindirect.

i have been on the telephone on hold for a total of about 7 hours with dd w/o ever talking with a ts or any other person. i have emailed them ?s and have only received a few responses and those did not answer the ?s i asked.

yes, i went into dd and pointed the servers to yahoo and that worked for the last day of my open account. now the account is not active and i get that notice when attempting to go to my website.

yes, i had gone into my account earlier and changed the *transfer lock* to *off* so that an outside source could be allowed to do a transfer. at that time an *authorization code* was generated and i was informed that i must save this code (and i have.)

dd emailed me and said that yahoo must initiate the transfer. yahoo (whom i can contact via phone and always be talking with a real person w/i 2-3 minutes!) said that dd and/or tucows must initiate the transfer. yahoo says they know nothing about any need for an authorization code. yahoo also said that they, like dd, are resellers and that yahoo uses melbourne (australia) as their registrar. yahoo said that if i want to keep the name i will have to contact melbourne to request a transfer and then it will cost me #35/year to keep the name.

note that if i did not yet have the name, that yahoo would include registering my name at no extra charge, that it would be part of the $9.56/month.

dd now sent me an email saying that if i let my subscription lapse, i'd have to pay $125 to get my name back. that if i did not reinstate my account, that i'd have 35 days to reinstate my account, then my account would go into another 35 day redemption status, then it would be dropped totally from their system and be up for grabs by anybody.

i really don't completely understand just what a *transfer* is and if that has a universal definition/use, whether there are any charges when using a transfer or not.

what i want is for dd and tucows to rrelinquish my name so that yahoo can grab it and then i'll have no extra charges (as i won't have to go through yahoo's registrar myself.) i just cannot get an answer from dd.

when i got really frustrated with this and was talking with yahoo, i asked if i could change my ws name and still be considered a new customer (thus getting a waive of a @5 setup fee and getting a 20% discount.) they said unfortunately no as i did have a day *up* with dd forwarding the pointers to the yahoo servers. so, if i change my ws name, i have to pay higher monthly charges and would lose the 20% monthly discount. groan.

helllllllllllllllllllp!

i guess i could wait the 70 days (35+35) and hope that my ws name is dropped and that then yahoo could pick it up. again, groan!

it turns out that a member of my church has put in 3 years of work into the website and, i, as the pastor surely don';t want to toast the currrent website. (i have double backed up the total ws via ftp and one other b/u tool.)

anybody searching for a pastor?

ron

[mairving]

Ouch, sorry to hear that you are with Domaindirect. They will hold your domain hostage if you don't pay. Yahoo isn't that much better. It is always advisable to have your hosting and domain registration at 2 different places. GoDaddy is the most popular and one of the cheapest for a registar. Plenty of good hosts listed in the sticky at the top of this forum.

If you actually own the domain then you have a little more leverage than if they own the domain. Do a whois lookup to see.

[glc]

Ron, what's your domain name?

[revron]

betheluccwat.org

and, i do have two (almost) separate companies (now it is approaching four!):

domaindirect.com is the reseller (where i have (had) my account) and they use tucows.com as their registrar.

yahoo web hosting would be the new reseller who uses inww.com (melbourne) as their registrar.

my main problem *was* that i was unable to get sufficient information on how this whole process works and what all my options were for making a cost-effective change. now, my account is in suspended status for the next 30 days or so.

it made no sense to stay with a company that has an initital plan at $79/year of giving you 100mb of storage wyhen for $114/year i could get 5gb of storage.

and, although our website gets a low volume of hits, partially due to its dullness of having stale info, we would have a problem changing our ws name becasue of all the red tape with the various levels of church associations that have our name (city level, area level, state, national, other denominations having our name and so forth.)

i now have 2 hours per week funded for my secretary to work on the ws. if she does good stuff but our name is lost then what good would the effort be? so, that's the scoop.

it may be that my only option is to renew my annual contract before it goes into the next status and do better planning in ten months from now. i just hate the thought of dealing with 100mb or stepping up to their next great level which has 200mb.

once more, your comments are welcomed.

ron

[glc]

I'm going to paste (edited) personal info in here, but here's what a whois says:

Domain ID:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Domain Name:BETHELUCCWAT.ORG
Created On:31-Jan-2004 01:35:15 UTC
Last Updated On:01-Feb-2007 01:27:58 UTC
Expiration Date:31-Jan-2008 01:35:15 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Tucows Inc. (R11-LROR)
Status:OK
Registrant ID:xxxxxxxxxxx
Registrant Name:Ronald xxxxxxxx
Registrant Organization:xxxxxxx United Church of Christ
Registrant Street1:xxxxxxxxxx
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:xxxxxxxx
Registrant State/Province:xx
Registrant Postal Code:xxxxx
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.xxxxxxxxxx
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:revronxxxxxxx@hotmail.com
Admin ID:xxxxxxxxx
Admin Name:Ronald xxxxxx
Admin Organization:xxxxxxx United Church of Christ
Admin Street1:xxxxxxxxxx
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:xxxxxxxxx
Admin State/Province:xx
Admin Postal Code:xxxxx
Admin Country:US
Admin Phone:+1.xxxxxxxxxx
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:revronxxxxxxx@hotmail.com
Tech ID:xxxxxxxxxxx
Tech Nameirect Domain
Tech Organization:Tucows International Corp.
Tech Street1:96 Mowat Avenue
Tech Street2:
Tech Street3:
Tech City:Toronto
Tech State/Province:ON
Tech Postal Code:M6K3M1
Tech Country:CA
Tech Phone:+1.4165350123
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:+1.4165312516
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:dnstech@domaindirect.com
Name Server:NS1.DOMAINDIRECT.COM
Name Server:NS2.DOMAINDIRECT.COM
Name Server:NS3.DOMAINDIRECT.COM
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:


This information was obtained from a different whois server, so we cannot verify its authenticity.


Registration Service Provider:
Domain Direct
1-866-337-8633
http://www.domaindirect.com/supportform.html
This company may be contacted for domain login/passwords,
DNS/Nameserver changes, and general domain support questions.


---------------------------------------

Mairving - looks like Ron "owns" the domain and the registration is current. Take it from here!

[revron]

i did not renew the domain name; they (either domaindirect or tucows did.)

also, on the whois that glc posted, they are the registrar and i'm the registrant. they seem to own it.

i am a bit paranoid as i am concerned that it was renewed. i wonder if this means that they will not drop it after 70 days as advertised.

i've still not been able to contact a live person and have had no other phone calls returned.

well, i still have almost a month to ironb this out before i enter the redemption phase.

ron

[glc]

No, YOU are the registrant and admin - that means that YOU control it. No matter who you use for registration, THEY are the registrar. Tech is the host. Registrant is the "owner".

You should not have any problems changing your registrar and/or host.

[revron]

ok, if *i'm* the owner, then *how* do i get domaindirect and/or tocows to drop dead regarding listing *my* website name? yahoo web host has already said they as a reseller could give me free website name but only if the name is not *taken.* if you go to betheluccwat.org you will see that the name is *taken.*

i have not been able to get this clarified with domaindirect either through a return email (answer to my ?) and i have not been able to get them to call me.

and, what does a *transfer* actually really mean? do i want a *transfer* or is there some other name for what i want?

thanks for trying to help!

ron

[mairving]

Allright let's separate some of this out.
-DomainDirect is your domain register.
-They are also your host since you signed up for their website builder package.

So you need to do several things.
1.) Signup with a host. Once you have done this, move your files over to your new host. I always make sure that I have the files moved first.
2.) Signup with a new registar. The registar is the one that deals with your domain name. Once that is done the new registar will initiate the transfer. The losing registar will sometimes fight the transfer but as long as you own the domain they will eventually release it.

It appears that what DR is trying to charge you for if you don't renew is the domain registration plus the webhosting plus the sitebuilder plus a late charge. One of the problems with that is that they probably won't release your domain while it is in dispute.

What I would still advise you to do is to...
-not use Yahoo. They aren't any better and are probably worse than DR.
-separate out the registration and the hosting. Signup with a register for 3-10 years so you don't have to worry about it.
-if you want some Christian hosts, then check over at Christian Web Masters forums.
-There are plenty of ways to build and have a website without using something like Website Builder. Among them are Dreamweaver, Frontpage, etc. My overall preference is to build a template then hook that template up to a CMS like Joomla, Drupal or Wordpress.

[revron]

thanks to both of you for your comments. i'll try to follow your suggestions. it seems i shold begin by canceling the new yahoo web host and get rid of that.

and, i'll try to make contact with godaddy; hey afterall they've been all over the superbowl with their adds. :-)

i'll keep you posted on my progress.

i still am curious why dd extended my end date to 1/30/08 when i have not paid anything.

what is your guess for how long dd may tie up my domain name??? days? weeks?

thanks again,

ron

[mairving]

Most registars will hold your domain for a month or two before they release it to the aftermarket...unless someone has bid on it and then they will release it a bit sooner.

[revron]

late last night the transfer completed so our website is back up. i chose to use bluehost.com which uses fastdomain (???) as the registrar. i am very pleased so far with all that i've read in various forums about bluehost and what i've experienced to date with their sales and ts.

i am soooo glad that i'm no longer associated with domaindirect. my experience with their cs was horrible (not once ever got to speak with a live person) and got only a few email responses from them but ones which didn't answer my ?s.

thanks for all your help and for your suggestions.

ron