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This is exactly why we created a domain name/ssl reminder tool: http://www.expirify.com http://www.expirify.com. A really easy mistake to make and very costly,

This is exactly why we created a domain name/ssl reminder tool: http://www.expirify.com http://www.expirify.com. A really easy mistake to make and very costly, I hope they get it back

zymhan 11y ago
How is this necessary if there is a grace period after a domain expires?
- seren 11y ago
  It is still better to act early than having someone else squatting your address for a few days.
- gokhan 11y ago
  You can't use your domain in grace period until you pay. It gets redirected.
  - kuschku 11y ago
    With ICANN registrars, that is true. DENIC, for example, (which operates seperately and has their own, incompatible WHOIS system), operates .de differently: After your domain ran out, it will get "locked", all DNS settings will be locked they were before, and you get a letter or an SMS. The domain will stay locked for 2 weeks, during that you can enter the code from the SMS or letter on a website to move the domain to another registrar or delete the domain. If you don’t react at all, after 2 weeks, the domain goes into TRANSIT. It still stays locked, but now you get actually billed for it, until you enter the code or delete the domain. Essentially, with DENIC, the domain stays locked until you decide to delete it or move it to another registrar. You can also disable the TRANSIT, in that case, if the domain runs out, after 2 weeks grace period of being locked it actually runs out. Remember: Not all NICs operate like ICANN.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- simonswords82 11y ago
  See above comment from icebraining > Some people manage dozens, or even hundreds of domains. It's quite common in the "custom website design" world for the company (often a small agency) to manage the hosting of the site and domain.
icebraining 11y ago
Shouldn't the registrar do that? Namecheap sends me multiple emails when any of my domains is about to expire, it's just common business sense.
- nadams 11y ago
  1&1 and gandi both offer automatic renewal. In fact I don't think I would use a registrar that didn't offer that. More likely what happened was that the guy who was incharge disappeared and/or his credit card number changed. And when the registrar tried to renew - it couldn't and I'm sure sent tons of emails of "HEY YOU NEED TO FIX THIS". Something similar almost happened to CentOS.
  - mbrutsch 11y ago
    I've been with Gandi for years, absolutely love them
    - nadams 11y ago
      So far it's been rocky with me. I had a VM that I used with what I think is called GandiFlex (I set it to lower the memory during the night and increase during the day) and apparently when my VM tried to scale up the hypervisor didn't have enough memory and for some reason failed to migrate the VM to another hypervisor. This left my VM offline for many hours until I noticed it. Gandi's customer support official response "don't use it". Gandi's management response "you are right - we don't have enough monitoring and are looking into it". With no follow ups. At least they credited me, generously, for their latest outage in their US datacenter.
      - catwell 11y ago
        The registrar part of Gandi (their historical business) is very, very good. The hosting part (more recent business) slightly less so.
  - josephmx 11y ago
    Namecheap and GoDaddy also offer auto renewal. I've never heard of auto renewal not being offered.
MichaelApproved 11y ago
It looks like the service is free. How do you make money on the site?
- jonknee 11y ago
  You could be somewhat sinister and register domains that have been submitted but not renewed and offer to transfer them back for a fee.
  - jfoster 11y ago
    If you only offer it to the original owner and the fee isn't particularly exorbitant, say $10 - $100, it might not even be sinister. Wouldn't you rather pay the slightly inflated renewal than deal with someone who's asking 5 - 6 digits?
- simonswords82 11y ago
  The service is currently free, there's a bunch of ways we might monetise it but for now we're happy putting out there to see how people get on with it.
r1ch 11y ago
Just a heads up, your DNS took a long time to resolve for me. You appear to have an invalid nameserver (ns3.gridhost.co.uk) listed at the root. https://r1dns.com/dnscheck.cgi?domain=expirify.com https://r1dns.com/dnscheck.cgi?domain=expirify.com
- simonswords82 11y ago
  Thanks r1ch! I'll get that sorted :)
wahsd 11y ago
Easy? Really? I get that you are offering a service, but I can guarantee that if there were something as fundamentally and existentially important as securing my domain name, it would not be an easy thing to forget to do. I can't even begin comprehending how one forgets to do such a thing.
- icebraining 11y ago
  Some people manage dozens, or even hundreds of domains. It's quite common in the "custom website design" world for the company (often a small agency) to manage the hosting of the site and domain.
  - simonswords82 11y ago
    Yep, that was exactly the use case we built it for. We scratched our itch. When you've got a group of people all managing domain names/SSL certs for various customers it's very easy to lose track of one.

This is exactly why we created a domain name/ssl reminder tool: http://www.expirify.com http://www.expirify.com. A really easy mistake to make and very costly, I hope they get it back

zymhan 11y ago

How is this necessary if there is a grace period after a domain expires?

seren 11y ago
It is still better to act early than having someone else squatting your address for a few days.
gokhan 11y ago
You can't use your domain in grace period until you pay. It gets redirected.
- kuschku 11y ago
  With ICANN registrars, that is true. DENIC, for example, (which operates seperately and has their own, incompatible WHOIS system), operates .de differently: After your domain ran out, it will get "locked", all DNS settings will be locked they were before, and you get a letter or an SMS. The domain will stay locked for 2 weeks, during that you can enter the code from the SMS or letter on a website to move the domain to another registrar or delete the domain. If you don’t react at all, after 2 weeks, the domain goes into TRANSIT. It still stays locked, but now you get actually billed for it, until you enter the code or delete the domain. Essentially, with DENIC, the domain stays locked until you decide to delete it or move it to another registrar. You can also disable the TRANSIT, in that case, if the domain runs out, after 2 weeks grace period of being locked it actually runs out. Remember: Not all NICs operate like ICANN.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
simonswords82 11y ago
See above comment from icebraining > Some people manage dozens, or even hundreds of domains. It's quite common in the "custom website design" world for the company (often a small agency) to manage the hosting of the site and domain.

icebraining 11y ago

Shouldn't the registrar do that? Namecheap sends me multiple emails when any of my domains is about to expire, it's just common business sense.

nadams 11y ago
1&1 and gandi both offer automatic renewal. In fact I don't think I would use a registrar that didn't offer that. More likely what happened was that the guy who was incharge disappeared and/or his credit card number changed. And when the registrar tried to renew - it couldn't and I'm sure sent tons of emails of "HEY YOU NEED TO FIX THIS". Something similar almost happened to CentOS.
- mbrutsch 11y ago
  I've been with Gandi for years, absolutely love them
  - nadams 11y ago
    So far it's been rocky with me. I had a VM that I used with what I think is called GandiFlex (I set it to lower the memory during the night and increase during the day) and apparently when my VM tried to scale up the hypervisor didn't have enough memory and for some reason failed to migrate the VM to another hypervisor. This left my VM offline for many hours until I noticed it. Gandi's customer support official response "don't use it". Gandi's management response "you are right - we don't have enough monitoring and are looking into it". With no follow ups. At least they credited me, generously, for their latest outage in their US datacenter.
    - catwell 11y ago
      The registrar part of Gandi (their historical business) is very, very good. The hosting part (more recent business) slightly less so.
- josephmx 11y ago
  Namecheap and GoDaddy also offer auto renewal. I've never heard of auto renewal not being offered.

MichaelApproved 11y ago

It looks like the service is free. How do you make money on the site?

jonknee 11y ago
You could be somewhat sinister and register domains that have been submitted but not renewed and offer to transfer them back for a fee.
- jfoster 11y ago
  If you only offer it to the original owner and the fee isn't particularly exorbitant, say $10 - $100, it might not even be sinister. Wouldn't you rather pay the slightly inflated renewal than deal with someone who's asking 5 - 6 digits?
simonswords82 11y ago
The service is currently free, there's a bunch of ways we might monetise it but for now we're happy putting out there to see how people get on with it.

r1ch 11y ago

Just a heads up, your DNS took a long time to resolve for me. You appear to have an invalid nameserver (ns3.gridhost.co.uk) listed at the root. https://r1dns.com/dnscheck.cgi?domain=expirify.com https://r1dns.com/dnscheck.cgi?domain=expirify.com

simonswords82 11y ago
Thanks r1ch! I'll get that sorted :)

wahsd 11y ago

Easy? Really? I get that you are offering a service, but I can guarantee that if there were something as fundamentally and existentially important as securing my domain name, it would not be an easy thing to forget to do. I can't even begin comprehending how one forgets to do such a thing.

icebraining 11y ago
Some people manage dozens, or even hundreds of domains. It's quite common in the "custom website design" world for the company (often a small agency) to manage the hosting of the site and domain.
- simonswords82 11y ago
  Yep, that was exactly the use case we built it for. We scratched our itch. When you've got a group of people all managing domain names/SSL certs for various customers it's very easy to lose track of one.