How to Safeguard Your Domain Name Registration

If you're like the majority of Network Solutions® customers, you have registered a domain name: your business name, your family name, or something equally important. Now that you've registered the name, the last thing you want is to lose the domain name registration to someone else. You may be surprised to learn it happens virtually every day, to individuals and businesses alike. Fortunately, you can take a few simple steps to help keep your domain name registration up-to-date and under your control. But first, it's helpful to understand how a registrant can lose a domain name registration. There are two primary methods: domain registration hijacking and failure to renew a registration.

Although we won't go into the specifics of how fraudsters hijack a domain name registration, they usually take advantage of out-of-date account information to transfer a domain name registration to another registrar. So it's important to pay special attention to any email from a domain name registrar, Internet service provider, or Web hosting provider notifying you of a change to your domain name registration account information. If you didn't request the change, contact your domain name registrar immediately.

Take Simple Steps to Secure Your Domain Name Registration

While accidental rather than deliberate, a domain name renewal failure is often a result of incorrect account data. For example, if the email address listed on the domain name registration is out of date, domain name renewal notices will not reach the registrant, who may not realize the domain name registration term is about to expire. To help protect your domain name registration, follow these simple guidelines:

• Lock It Up: Most domain name registrars offer mechanisms for "locking" your domain name registration; such as Network Solutions' Domain Protect. When the lock is engaged, your domain name registration can't be transferred to another registrar until you remove the lock.
• Keep It Current: Make sure all of the contact information on your account is up-to-date, especially email addresses, so domain name renewal notices and other important messages will reach you.
• Keep It Private: Did you know that the name and contact information for each domain name registrant is listed in a public database called WHOIS? Network Solutions offers private domain registration, which protects your privacy by replacing your personal data with alternate information in WHOIS and forwarding to you all non-spam correspondence received at the alternate address.
• Make It Automatic: Sign up for automatic domain name renewal, which triggers an extension of your domain name registration before it expires. Network Solutions offers Auto-Renew free with every domain name registration and bills the domain name renewal fee to the credit card listed in your account. To minimize domain name renewals altogether, consider signing up for a multi-year domain name registration, which Network Solutions offers at a discount.

To check the status of your domain names registered with Network Solutions, as well as Private Domain Registration, Domain Protect, and Auto-Renew domain name services, log in to Account Manager.

The Bottom Line: Make sure your domain name registration remains yours by taking advantage of domain name services like locking and automatic domain name renewal, and keeping your contact and billing information up-to-date. Finally, choose private domain registration to protect your personal information in the WHOIS database.