Domain Name Renewal
Domain Names need to be renewed. Unlike car registration, you will not be sent a domain name renewal letter in the mail. Domain name renewal notices are sent by email and therefore it is very important to ensure that your email address and other contact details are kept up to date. Unless you transfer your domain to another domain name registrar, you will continue to pay your domain name renewal to the company where you bought your domain name from.
You should renew your domain name before the expiry date but domain names can be renewed for a period of 30 days after the domain has expired. The rules may vary but for global domain names, (which is administered by ICANN) if your domain is not renewed 30 days after it has expired, the domain name goes into redemption lock. At this time, all the zone files of your domain are removed from the domain name service and your email and website will stop working. You then have 30 days to renew your domain before your domain goes back to the public pool of available domain names. There is a fee associated with removing the domain from redemption lock. The fee is US $200, so we strongly advise you to renew your domain or transfer your domain to avoid this situation. If you do not want to pay the redemption fee, you can wait for the redemption period to expire, approximately 30-35 days and buy your domain back from the general pool BUT you may find that your domain is bought by somebody else before you are able to buy it back. Snatching expired domains is big business - so assume that if you don't renew your domain name, somebody else will.
If you have already bought your domain name from another registrar, you can activate a domain name transfer for free. There is no charge to transfer your domain and your website will be unaffected by changing domain name registrars. The only services that could be affected are free services offered with your domain name like free domain forwarding. You cannot transfer global domains that have been recently bought or renewed and you must wait until a period of 60 days have elapsed before you can transfer your domain to another registrar.
It is strongly recommended that you do not leave domain name transfer or renewals to the last minute. Allow at least 2 weeks or more for global domain name transfers.
Many people are unaware of the practice of monetizing domain names and although they may feel that they have no need for their domain name, the domain name itself may be valuable. http://osdir.com/ml/network.dns.dotau/2008-05/msg00001.html
Some people may even think that if they let their domain expire, they may be able to register it again later. Often this is not true and if you you have inbound links to your site, good keywords in the domain or a high page rank, you may find that your domain has just become a prize catch for someone else. There are registrars who do not care that a customer's domain expires, because they know they can register that domain before it goes into the general pool and sell it for thousands, tens of thousands or more.
Renewal Notices
The first domain name renewal notice is sent 60 days before your domain name is set to expire and we strongly recommend that you renew your domain name as soon as you receive your first notice. You will also get additional notices, if you do not renew your domain name.
It is a good idea to check on the expiry date of your domain name and the email addresses of the registrant and administrative contacts.
How do I know when my domain name is due to expire?
You will need to login to your domain name registrar and check when your domain name is due to expire. If you bought your domain or transferred your domain to Passion Computing, please login here.
If you have forgotten where you bought your domain name, you will need to do a whois lookup. Click here for instructions on how to find out who your domain name registrar is.
How do I know what contact details are listed for my domain?
You will need either login to your domain name management to do a whois lookup and this will tell you where your domain is registered and the name of the current registrar. It may or may not tell you the email address of the domain name registrant. You will need to go to the place where you registered your domain name and enter the name of your domain name and click on "forgotten password". Your domain password will be sent to the email address that is listed as the email contact for that domain.
A message should tell you the email address where the domain password was sent. (Some domain name registrars do not have a domain name system that allows you to login and update domain name contact details, and in such cases, you should contact the domain name registrars if you cannot find the paperwork relating to your domain name.)
What happens if I no longer have access to the email address listed as the domain name contact?
The easiest way out of this situation is to search deep in your email box and find the original email sent to you when you registered your domain. Once you have located your domain name username and password, go to the website where you bought your domain and login, you should then be able to change the domain name contact details like address, phone number and email address.
If you cannot find the login details, you should write a letter to your domain name registrar and explain the situation. You may be asked to prove that you are the domain name registrar by providing credit card details, company records, etc.