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The timing of this is an amazing coincidence — I recently “lost” my domain in the same way. I bought it originally on Namecheap but have since transferred all m

by hbosch 8y ago

The timing of this is an amazing coincidence — I recently “lost” my domain in the same way. I bought it originally on Namecheap but have since transferred all my domains into a singular Google Domains account. My main domain, where I have my personal site and all my important emails, disappeared without notice on Wednesday the 9th last week. No expiration notice sent, no information as to what had happened. I contacted Google as soon as I noticed and hey have been alright to deal with. Fortunately I am a Gsuite customer. I had to pay a fee to renew and another fee to restore, which was over $100. It’s been in “restoration” mode, ie offline, for days now and I am unable to even touch the DNS records until it’s back. I’ve already lost a week of uptime with zero recourse. FWIW I use a .co domain, and my site was throwing (for 24hrs or so) a splash page saying the domain was suspended. Eagerly awaiting for it to come back but I’m totally in the dark as to timing.

creeble 8y ago
Did the domain expire, or was there some other issue? I just transferred some .com domains to Google from Name.com, I hope these expiry problems are limited to non- .com TLDs...
- Alupis 8y ago
  I've always received multiple emails from them leading up to a domain expiration. Not easy to miss, unless your whois email contact isn't current. (Google Domains gives you free whois privacy, but they use that contact for notifications)
  - anothergoogler 8y ago
    I get so many emails from Google leading up to and after expiration it's a nuisance. As for parent's issue, I think if you let your domain expire that's 100% on you.
    - jethro_tell 8y ago
      Yeah it's hard to feel bad when they start warning you 90 days in advance
- hbosch 8y ago
  The domain did expire, though I was never made aware of the upcoming expiration. My assumption is that there was some glitch between Namecheap, Google, and the .co domain authority... but I still don’t know exactly how my domain expired so silently. All my other domains were purchased through Google, this one was transferred in. It really was a massive headache. I have no idea how long it would have taken me to notice (site is my authoritative presence on the web, but is a static personal page — no marketing or sales) and my email is a light trickle of messages by design: bills, bank statements, close personal relationships. Fortunately my brother told me his wedding invite bounced a day after going offline so I could follow up relatively quickly. I filed a ticket with Google and got first line support within an hour. They confirmed it was still in Googles system. Then I was assigned a Senior Specialist who called me on Monday to confirm ownership. It is now Wednesday and my DNS records are still inaccessible. If I were you I would definitely set an independent annual reminder to check your domain status, just in case.
  - jtl999 8y ago
    I note my domains expiration dates and renew them at least 30 days before. Your not the only person whose had issues recently with Namecheap not sending renewal emails.
    - 0x0 8y ago
      Yeah, NameCheap is pretty flaky with the warning emails. I once had their WhoisGuard service expire (it was on a different renewal phase from the actual domain, for some reason), and I never received any warnings about the service expiring until they sent an email to notify me that the WHOIS records had been automatically updated. I've since added a monthly calendar reminder to log in to all registrars and verify all services are still enabled and correctly configured with plenty of time left.
    - MiddleEndian 8y ago
      I have the opposite issue with namecheap. I have my domains on auto-renew, and every time they're about to be due for their renewal, namecheap sends me a scary email saying I don't have the funds to renew, and only the next day do they auto-renew my domain.
- djsumdog 8y ago
  I've used name.com for years and thankfully haven't had any of these issues. Still domains are so cheap and these horror stories are so common that I realize this can happen with any registrar. There isn't enough publicity over issues like this for people to leave en-mass, so financially I can see this happening. I know one small registrar company and it's like 10 people and they write everything in Perl and run everything in Docker. Fun thing about name.com. I suggested it to my girlfriend and it turns out they don't require e-mail validation. She mis-typed her e-mail address when she registered, and now she can't get into her account. Forgot password doesn't work because it tries to e-mail an address that doesn't exist. She tried to contact them several times but I don't think the support staff understood the situation.
mehrdadn 8y ago
Idea: Write a Google Script that periodically checks the domain for expiry, then inserts an email directly in your inbox if there is an issue.
- magic_beans 8y ago
  This solution is a bit over-engineered, don't you think?
  - mehrdadn 8y ago
    I'm confused, how is it over-engineered?
    - 2RTZZSro 8y ago
      This is the job of the registrar
      - mehrdadn 8y ago
        I wasn't trying to justify otherwise?
        2RTZZSro 8y ago
        If you have to engineer a solution due to problems caused by the failures of those you depended on to deliver the expected level of service then the entire solution is over-engineered.
        mehrdadn 8y ago
        Over-engineering is when you make something to be more robust than is necessary for it to work successfully. Evidently depending on the registrar actually failed here (just as it has for many in the past), and this will surely happen again in the future. I don't see how making your system robust to failures that actually come up is over-engineering. It sounds more like just plain old engineering. (And I honestly also fail to see what is productive about pressing on with this conversation.)
Sembiance 8y ago
Can I ask why you chose to leave namecheap for Google?
- hbosch 8y ago
  I use Google services for all my domain-connected stuff via Gsuite; that includes Hangouts, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Contacts. On a whim I decided to transfer in the domain. I also use Google Domains, now, to register domains for no specific reason. There are no features or perks that I know of that compelled me to choose one registrar over the other. It was just a random act.

by hbosch 8y ago

creeble 8y ago

Did the domain expire, or was there some other issue? I just transferred some .com domains to Google from Name.com, I hope these expiry problems are limited to non- .com TLDs...

Alupis 8y ago
I've always received multiple emails from them leading up to a domain expiration. Not easy to miss, unless your whois email contact isn't current. (Google Domains gives you free whois privacy, but they use that contact for notifications)
- anothergoogler 8y ago
  I get so many emails from Google leading up to and after expiration it's a nuisance. As for parent's issue, I think if you let your domain expire that's 100% on you.
  - jethro_tell 8y ago
    Yeah it's hard to feel bad when they start warning you 90 days in advance
hbosch 8y ago
The domain did expire, though I was never made aware of the upcoming expiration. My assumption is that there was some glitch between Namecheap, Google, and the .co domain authority... but I still don’t know exactly how my domain expired so silently. All my other domains were purchased through Google, this one was transferred in. It really was a massive headache. I have no idea how long it would have taken me to notice (site is my authoritative presence on the web, but is a static personal page — no marketing or sales) and my email is a light trickle of messages by design: bills, bank statements, close personal relationships. Fortunately my brother told me his wedding invite bounced a day after going offline so I could follow up relatively quickly. I filed a ticket with Google and got first line support within an hour. They confirmed it was still in Googles system. Then I was assigned a Senior Specialist who called me on Monday to confirm ownership. It is now Wednesday and my DNS records are still inaccessible. If I were you I would definitely set an independent annual reminder to check your domain status, just in case.
- jtl999 8y ago
  I note my domains expiration dates and renew them at least 30 days before. Your not the only person whose had issues recently with Namecheap not sending renewal emails.
  - 0x0 8y ago
    Yeah, NameCheap is pretty flaky with the warning emails. I once had their WhoisGuard service expire (it was on a different renewal phase from the actual domain, for some reason), and I never received any warnings about the service expiring until they sent an email to notify me that the WHOIS records had been automatically updated. I've since added a monthly calendar reminder to log in to all registrars and verify all services are still enabled and correctly configured with plenty of time left.
  - MiddleEndian 8y ago
    I have the opposite issue with namecheap. I have my domains on auto-renew, and every time they're about to be due for their renewal, namecheap sends me a scary email saying I don't have the funds to renew, and only the next day do they auto-renew my domain.
djsumdog 8y ago
I've used name.com for years and thankfully haven't had any of these issues. Still domains are so cheap and these horror stories are so common that I realize this can happen with any registrar. There isn't enough publicity over issues like this for people to leave en-mass, so financially I can see this happening. I know one small registrar company and it's like 10 people and they write everything in Perl and run everything in Docker. Fun thing about name.com. I suggested it to my girlfriend and it turns out they don't require e-mail validation. She mis-typed her e-mail address when she registered, and now she can't get into her account. Forgot password doesn't work because it tries to e-mail an address that doesn't exist. She tried to contact them several times but I don't think the support staff understood the situation.

mehrdadn 8y ago

Idea: Write a Google Script that periodically checks the domain for expiry, then inserts an email directly in your inbox if there is an issue.

magic_beans 8y ago
This solution is a bit over-engineered, don't you think?
- mehrdadn 8y ago
  I'm confused, how is it over-engineered?
  - 2RTZZSro 8y ago
    This is the job of the registrar
    - mehrdadn 8y ago
      I wasn't trying to justify otherwise?
      - 2RTZZSro 8y ago
        If you have to engineer a solution due to problems caused by the failures of those you depended on to deliver the expected level of service then the entire solution is over-engineered.
        mehrdadn 8y ago
        Over-engineering is when you make something to be more robust than is necessary for it to work successfully. Evidently depending on the registrar actually failed here (just as it has for many in the past), and this will surely happen again in the future. I don't see how making your system robust to failures that actually come up is over-engineering. It sounds more like just plain old engineering. (And I honestly also fail to see what is productive about pressing on with this conversation.)

Sembiance 8y ago

Can I ask why you chose to leave namecheap for Google?

hbosch 8y ago
I use Google services for all my domain-connected stuff via Gsuite; that includes Hangouts, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Contacts. On a whim I decided to transfer in the domain. I also use Google Domains, now, to register domains for no specific reason. There are no features or perks that I know of that compelled me to choose one registrar over the other. It was just a random act.