dns lessons learnt
So I was thinking about hosting this blog myself for a number of reasons:
- I’m a developer – even if I don’t write my own blog engine I at least like to know I can tweek and rebuild someone elses! Sort of a half-way house to the Jedi route…
- I like to own my own data. Makes me nervous not being able to do my own database backups.
- A developer trying to raise his own internet profile and using a hosted WordPress blog – I may as well have an aol.com email address!
So first thing – the vanity domain. I used to have nickmeldrum.net registered just because I liked it. So I went to see if I could renew that one.
What do I find out? Unfortunately my lease ran out and ENOM (a major domain name reseller, who unfortunately my hosting provider use) have some daylight robbery charges to get it back because it is in this “Redemption Grace Period”. Sounds so nice of them huh? Their excuse for charging $250? “It’s a 2 stage process.” Well gee – so your support guy has to hit 2 buttons instead of 1?
I just plain can’t afford $250 for a vanity URL right now. My hosting provider has warned me that once it drops out of this grace period it will likely be auctioned for even more cash. Well if that happens so be it. I can’t really imagine anyone else assigning so much value to it, so I’m just going to leave it and live with the far less nice domains nickmeldrum.com and nickmeldrum.co.uk for now.
Oh and I suppose I would recommend transfering your domain our of ENOM’s reach to avoid their ridiculous fees – just google “enom transfer domain” for details on how and who to transfer it too – seems plenty of other people don’t like their fees either!
If anyone knows more about this and can help me get my domain name back for a reasonable cost, let me know!
There is so much ugliness in domain name reselling and the activities of the big names in the business it really pees me off.
So back to the point – Never let your domain name expire! Even if you aren’t using it – keep it going just to avoid the future hassle. Kind of like when my cousin pointed out that here in the UK it can sometimes be more cost effective to keep your car insurance going even if you don’t have a car in order to not lose your no claims discount!