I hate to say it, but I don’t really like handling other people’s domain names for them, although I do it for family. In my field, I’ve seen too much. Domains hold such power, that they can become pawns in billing issues, divorces, big corporate lawsuits, thefts, fraud, or even just spitting matches between webmasters & clients. Yes, I have seen outright domain hijacks done. It’s horrifying to be…
…on the phone with somebody who has found themselves in this situation and not be able to help them. On such occasions I have found myself saying, “Make him an offer, or get a lawyer. There is nothing I can do to recover your domain for you today.” And it’s true. I cannot.
Amazing as it is, there really are some people in the world who are fashionably computer illiterate, but yet are running big businesses that their own lives depend on, and likely those of their employees. These people know how to delegate. It’s how they succeed so well. But there are some things that should never be delegated.
A business owner needs to know how to own and manage his/her own domain names, just as if they were his/her patents. if a web consultant ever asks for a domain name’s authorization codes – “so he can set up its hosting” —
RUN FOR THE HILLS — IT’S A LIE
The only thing authorization codes mean are who owns the domain, and to which registrar its renewal fees are paid at each year. They do not have a fig to do with where a domain’s website files are hosted. Handing a web consultant the authorization codes to your domain name is like signing over ownership of your house to the landscaper, just so he can get in the garage to roll out the lawn mower. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it.
Attention business owners, non-profit owners, club owners, individuals – anybody who owns a domain: If you are contracting with a web consultant, and he is offering you hosting, just respond with, “What do I change the domain’s nameservers to, to point to your hosting?” That’s it. If you were able to log in at a registrar’s site and register the domain, if you’ve been able to log in at the registrar’s site and pay the renewal fees on your domain every year, it is not beyond your ability to just log in one more time at the registrar’s site, and change the nameservers on your domain to whatever the web consultant says they should be.
This, and this alone, define where a domain’s website files are hosted. This and this alone, directs the traffic flow of visitors from the phone book (the registrar’s database), to the destination – viewing the website. Never ever share the authorization codes — unless, and this is a big unless — you are selling the domain and giving up ownership.
Next time, how to search on a new domain without getting scammed by sniffer code that creates so called pre-owned high-priced “premium” domains that never actually existed before your search.
Yes it’s true. It does happen. And yes, you can beat it.
