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> I've purchased domains from Gandi, pre-paying for multiple years of service such that some domains I have don't need renewing until 2027. Just in case you di

by mikea1 4y ago

> I've purchased domains from Gandi, pre-paying for multiple years of service such that some domains I have don't need renewing until 2027. Just in case you did not know: if you transfer to a different registrar, you will not lose the extra years of registration. You can confirm the expected expiration date of 2027 at lookup.icann.org.

bambax 4y ago
> if you transfer to a different registrar, you will not lose the extra years of registration I did not know that. But how do you do it? And where to find a list of reputable registrars (which seems the rarest of species)?
- Jiocus 4y ago
  As a long time customer, I would recommend Namecheap. I was trying out Gandi since a couple months. On the bright side, they have a lot of additional international TLDs, but that's about it. Gandi has been noticeably more expensive when comparing equivalent domains.
  - Penguinx628 4y ago
    Strong disagree. Migrated off namecheap after their support left a bad taste in my mouth. Also they had a data breach and did NOT notify me as a customer of theirs. https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/116j7iq/fyi_namecheap_is_selling_your_email_or_is/ https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/116j7iq/fyi_namech... https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/namecheaps-email-hacked-to-send-metamask-dhl-phishing-emails/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/namecheaps-em...
    - ldoughty 4y ago
      That article seems to indicate that no customer data was involved... looks like their send-only email key was compromised. Maybe I'm not paranoid enough, but I think there would be too much noise if every company blasted out emails to all customers any time there was ANY security failure, including failures that do not expose customer data... Sure, they should follow up on your who got phishing emails, but I don't see a need to email every customer. I've had no issues with NameCheap, but I just register domains, no other fancy services.
    - Jiocus 4y ago
      Okay, but where did you take your business? That's what we wanna know :)
- ajaimk 4y ago
  Google Domains has yet to cause me angst
  - htrp 4y ago
    Until your entire google account is suspended.
  - mkl 4y ago
    Associating domains with a Google account that is subject to arbitrary automated banning seems like a bad idea to me. It would be fine until it's suddenly not.
  - dahdum 4y ago
    I hope you didn’t register a critical and/or revenue driving domain with them, as others pointed out you are taking a larger risk than you may think.
- cortic 4y ago
  As an ex-customer, I'd avoid namecheap. They are expensive and have given me no end of trouble. I currently use porkbun and namesilo with very few issues so far (about 3 years). You will need to unlock your domain and get an authorization code (EPP Key) from Gandi and then go to your new registrar and select Transfer Domain. Its fairly straight forward.
  - Alupis 4y ago
    You might need to elaborate on what problems you experienced with Namecheap before promoting two relatively unknown registrars. Although, my only experience with Namecheap was for SSL certs back in the day. What happened that drove you away?
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - _carbyau_ 4y ago
    Recently moved to Porkbun. Can confirm positive impressions so far. Reasonable pricing. Straight forward webforms. 2 factor. No trying to slip extra bullshit in. For me the purpose of a registrar is to register a domain. Porkbun might have other capabilities, but for this purpose it was wonderfully singleminded for me.
  - srik 4y ago
    Could you share what troubles you had with namecheap, in vague terms at least if you don't want to be specific?
  - chillfox 4y ago
    +1 on the issues with NameCheap. 1. They routinely fail to auto renew domains despite correct billing details and auto renew being on (I lost some domains to this). 2. They support premium domains, so you can be struck by lightning and randomly have the price of your domains dramatically jacked up (had to drop a domain due to this). 3. The name (NameCheap) no longer checks out, they are not cheap anymore. They stopped being good about 2 years ago.
- mikea1 4y ago
  > But how do you do it? Any registrar that receives the transfer will automatically have the extended expiration date. (The expiration date is actually tracked at the registry.) For reputable registrars, I think you could gather a list from HN comments and then "do your own research" to whittle down the list.
- andrewxdiamond 4y ago
  I moved from Gandi to Google Domains, then later to Cloudflare Domains. CF has the most serious product out of any of them, and they sell domains at-cost as a loss-leader to get you in.
mike_d 4y ago
It depends on the registry, but you cannot extend a domain out past 10 years.
andrewxdiamond 4y ago
Cloudflare domains are sold at cost, and CF is a very rock solid platform (for DNS/registrars at least)

by mikea1 4y ago

bambax 4y ago

> if you transfer to a different registrar, you will not lose the extra years of registration I did not know that. But how do you do it? And where to find a list of reputable registrars (which seems the rarest of species)?

Jiocus 4y ago
As a long time customer, I would recommend Namecheap. I was trying out Gandi since a couple months. On the bright side, they have a lot of additional international TLDs, but that's about it. Gandi has been noticeably more expensive when comparing equivalent domains.
- Penguinx628 4y ago
  Strong disagree. Migrated off namecheap after their support left a bad taste in my mouth. Also they had a data breach and did NOT notify me as a customer of theirs. https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/116j7iq/fyi_namecheap_is_selling_your_email_or_is/ https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/116j7iq/fyi_namech... https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/namecheaps-email-hacked-to-send-metamask-dhl-phishing-emails/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/namecheaps-em...
  - ldoughty 4y ago
    That article seems to indicate that no customer data was involved... looks like their send-only email key was compromised. Maybe I'm not paranoid enough, but I think there would be too much noise if every company blasted out emails to all customers any time there was ANY security failure, including failures that do not expose customer data... Sure, they should follow up on your who got phishing emails, but I don't see a need to email every customer. I've had no issues with NameCheap, but I just register domains, no other fancy services.
  - Jiocus 4y ago
    Okay, but where did you take your business? That's what we wanna know :)
ajaimk 4y ago
Google Domains has yet to cause me angst
- htrp 4y ago
  Until your entire google account is suspended.
- mkl 4y ago
  Associating domains with a Google account that is subject to arbitrary automated banning seems like a bad idea to me. It would be fine until it's suddenly not.
- dahdum 4y ago
  I hope you didn’t register a critical and/or revenue driving domain with them, as others pointed out you are taking a larger risk than you may think.
cortic 4y ago
As an ex-customer, I'd avoid namecheap. They are expensive and have given me no end of trouble. I currently use porkbun and namesilo with very few issues so far (about 3 years). You will need to unlock your domain and get an authorization code (EPP Key) from Gandi and then go to your new registrar and select Transfer Domain. Its fairly straight forward.
- Alupis 4y ago
  You might need to elaborate on what problems you experienced with Namecheap before promoting two relatively unknown registrars. Although, my only experience with Namecheap was for SSL certs back in the day. What happened that drove you away?
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- _carbyau_ 4y ago
  Recently moved to Porkbun. Can confirm positive impressions so far. Reasonable pricing. Straight forward webforms. 2 factor. No trying to slip extra bullshit in. For me the purpose of a registrar is to register a domain. Porkbun might have other capabilities, but for this purpose it was wonderfully singleminded for me.
- srik 4y ago
  Could you share what troubles you had with namecheap, in vague terms at least if you don't want to be specific?
- chillfox 4y ago
  +1 on the issues with NameCheap. 1. They routinely fail to auto renew domains despite correct billing details and auto renew being on (I lost some domains to this). 2. They support premium domains, so you can be struck by lightning and randomly have the price of your domains dramatically jacked up (had to drop a domain due to this). 3. The name (NameCheap) no longer checks out, they are not cheap anymore. They stopped being good about 2 years ago.
mikea1 4y ago
> But how do you do it? Any registrar that receives the transfer will automatically have the extended expiration date. (The expiration date is actually tracked at the registry.) For reputable registrars, I think you could gather a list from HN comments and then "do your own research" to whittle down the list.
andrewxdiamond 4y ago
I moved from Gandi to Google Domains, then later to Cloudflare Domains. CF has the most serious product out of any of them, and they sell domains at-cost as a loss-leader to get you in.

mike_d 4y ago

It depends on the registry, but you cannot extend a domain out past 10 years.

andrewxdiamond 4y ago

Cloudflare domains are sold at cost, and CF is a very rock solid platform (for DNS/registrars at least)