Domain Name Registrars
A domain name registrar is a company that manages the reservation of Internet domain names. A domain name registrar must be accredited by a generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) registry or a country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) registry. The management is done in accordance with the guidelines of the designated domain name registries. Originally all domains were registered though Internic, then Network Solutions, and now there are several competing registrars in an open marketplace.
Contents
Top 5 Registrar services
The Good
- Name Silo best value, low cost, free DNS and Free Contact Privacy WhoisGuard
The Bad
- Namecheap - NO LONGER RECOMMENDED, unless you like to have your domain names constantly suspended even though you have paid. 2015 - they now use the WhoisGuard scam to extort money from customers
- Dotster - New control interface, now offering free DNS too. 2015 - they now use the WhoisGuard scam to extort money from customers
Other Registrars
- Network Solutions - not a good value, but the oldest and lest likely to go defunct.
- Name.com - another popular registrar.
- 1&1 - offering low cost email and hosting starting at a dollar.
*. Top 5 picks selected by affiliate author review (www.techreviewcentral.com).
Comment
In late 2015 NameCheap aka eNom domain registrar started to suspend user accounts for noncompliance of the ICANN valid whois public contact information policy. However, NameCheap eNom will provide a service, at additional cost, to obscure your whois contact information with their own, and they call this WhoisGuard. This makes no sense, since people were simply creating alias contact information in the past for their own privacy, but now through this trickery you have to pay for this or have your domain randomly suspended without prior notification. Either way, it is not a valid whois contact and therefore the NameGuard is just as much a violation of the ICANN rule, however, ICANN has no true enforcement ability. ICANN relies on the Registrar to enforce the ICANN requirement. So, sleazy registrars such as NameCheap aka eNom observed an opportunity to increase their revenue by strong arm tactics. They started to suspend customer domain services and hold hostage the domain unless the customer agrees to pay extra for the NameGuard service, or expose their personal contact information. For the private citizen this exposes their own home residence and phone, possibly creating a danger to their family, including children.
NameCheap is a terrible company. They suspend the domain, and then blame ICANN. It is dishonest. ICANN has no enforcement power. It is a mafia like tactic to bully individual customers into paying extra for an addon service that does nothing more than obscure the personal contact information, something the individual could do themselves before. Even with WhoisGuard, the customer is still in clear violation of ICANN policy. It is a total scam! Do not be scammed! Do not do business with NameCheap, eNom, or any other registrar that uses this dishonest tactic.
Additional Resources
HowTo Use NameCheap.com covers many of the common tasks associated with domain transfer and management within this registrar. Namecheap not only offers domain name registration, the company offers DNS hosting at no additional cost. Their DNS management tool is also covered in the guide.
