How to protect your domain from theft/hijack
By ronhi
You might have never been a victim of domain theft but it is a real thing and there are many people out there that are victims. The rule of thumb in domain management and domain security is "it's better to be safe than to be sorry." So it’s important to make sure you have put into account all the possible measures to ensure your domain is safe from attack/theft. And now I can hear you asking,
“Do you mean to say there is such a thing as domain theft?”
Oh yes. There are
lots of fraudulent people online who are hawking and prowling looking for easy
prey. I will try to shed more light on this as I discuss the tips you need to
take into consideration in order to protect your domain. So here are the tips
Tip 1. Renew on time
If you have a good web host, you will get email notifications at least a month before the domain expires. Sometimes, you might get too caught up in the helta skeltas of life that you forget to renew your domain on time. Or sometimes, you might just miss the email notification and by the time you read it, the domain has already expired. Of course you can always register the domain again but the problem is there is no guarantee. An expired domain is available for anyone to register and if your domain is a hot one, some unscrupulous guy will register it and load the page with Google ads. If this happens, you can go to whois domain search tool which will give you the administrative contact of the current owner and you might buy it back. However, the person may refuse to sell it to you and even if he does, he will sell it to you at an exorbitant rate. Trust me, it happens all the time.
To avoid all this, make sure you have marked emails from your web-host as important and make sure they are not redirected tot the spam folder. If your web-host allows it, I would recommend you activate the auto renew feature.
Tip
2. Get a reliable web-host
An email to a web-host is all it takes to make very important changes like name servers, packing and many other things. If someone sends a fraudulent email and your web-host thinks it is you, he/she might effectively hijack your domain name. Getting a reliable web-host might cost a little more but still, it is worth the while. I have always believed that as far as web-hosting is concerned, cheap is very expensive in the long run- I could be wrong-but I highly doubt it. A good web-host will not agree to share your information by anybody- not even your spouse unless of course you have added the person as one of the contact persons. A good web-host should also have active support via live chat or should respond to your email inquiries promptly. I personally love bluehost for these very reasons.
Tip 3. Protect your Email
If you are using a free email provider like yahoo, hotmail and the others, make sure your account is active. The main reason for this is because these free email services usually suspend inactive accounts. If your email account is suspended, it means someone else can register for the same address and he can use that email to contact your webhost and your webhost would have no way of knowing it is not you. You might also want to make sure you keep your email safe from attack by having a strong password and by always remembering to sign out when using a shared computer. The commonest mistake people make is thinking that closing the tab or the window is the same as signing out. It’s not. When you close the tab/window without signing out, the next person that will open the browser will be taken right into your inbox.
Tip 4: Contact Details- what your web designer never told you
When your web designer also registers your domain name for you, in most of the cases, he will use his contact details. That means that he has complete control of your domain name. I know you might not be the technical type and you might prefer to leave that to your web designer and that is okay if you are sure you can trust him. But just so you know, if you ever disagree with him/her, he can do anything with your domain. He can put your website offline, he can pack the domain on his website (meaning that anybody that goes to your domain will be redirected to his website), or he can decide to hijack it altogether. I know I sound pessimistic but try to look at it like someone that builds a car and makes sure it has airbags…I wouldn’t call him a pessimist.
So how do I know whether I am the contact person for my domain name?
Am glad you asked. Go
to whois.sc, type in your domain name and press the return key. You can request
for changes to be made where necessary if need be. Let me explain in the table below what you will
get from the whois.sc records and what it means
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Whoisc.Sc results and what they mean
What you will see
| who it should be
| More details
|
|---|---|---|
Domain name:
| yourdomainname.com
| This is the domain name you entered in the search bar
|
Registrant Contact:
| make sure you are the one listed as the registrant contact.
| In most case, your web desinger will be listed as the contact
|
Administrative Contact:
| The person that has administrative control of the blog/website
| If you have an IT Guy on staff, this is should be him. If not, you can assume the role as well
|
Technical Contact:
| Do you have an IT guy on staff? This is his place
| If you have an IT Guy on staff, this is should be him. If not, you can assume the role as well
|
Status:
| locked means a third party can’t move the domain. That is good for you
| If your cirrent webhost doent provide this feature, you might want to move to one that does
|
There you have it! all the best as you secure your domain name from any possible theft/hijacking and may you have a safe and happy blogging!
Comments
@ Brett, thanks for reading and thanks for your feedback
Wow...Thanks for the information. Great Website Tip.
tammyfrost, thanks for reading and commenting. AM glad you found it helpful
Great info ronhi. Thanks for sharing. Tell me I want to register my blog, what should I do and which is the best web-hosting company I should go for?
@Patkay, Thanks for your comments. The best webhosts for kenya are sasahost and deepafrica. They have great support. I always recommend using word-press for blogging. Its simple to use even for beginners and it has so many features like comments for visitors, archiving of posts etc.
Once again you made it my friend, I think domain name is your area I will never touch it as I can't do it better than you; so now you are safe. really great Job ronhi and voted up.
Great hub, voted up. I am working part time writing content for a very active web designer, and I have accompanied him on a lot of client meetings. He is very open and explains all of this to his clients and guides them in registering the name themselves if they chose to do so, but so many of his clients have had bad experiences with their domain names. This is important info, I hope it gets lots of exposure.
@icciev, thanks for reading and thanks for your encouraging remarks.
@stephaniedas, thanks for your feedback too. Its good to know there are some trustworthy people out there...Thanks again
Great piece of information. Lovely and important. Great work
Ubanichijioke, thanks for reading and thanks for your feedback
Excellent information, never knew people went to such extent to even steal domains, thanks for the information voted up and interesting. Have a good one. 11/2/11 12---am
lyns, thanks for reading and thanks for your comments. Have a goodnight...or should i say good morning?
i am still using gmail for regirtration of domain names and i do not know how to set up a email id in outlook or create a id in hosting services ! Any help ?
@aruni, Gmail is fine. here is how you can setup Gmail on outlook
To setup an account in outlook, you need to elect
Go to Tools, Account Settings... from the menu in Outlook.
Go to the E-mail tab.
Click New....
Select Microsoft Exchange, POP3, IMAP, or HTTP is
and click on next
Type your name
Enter your full Gmail address under E-mail Address:.
Check the Manually configure server settings or additional server types
Select Internet E-mail
and click next
Select IMAP under Account Type:.
Type "imap.gmail.com" under Incoming mail server:.
Enter "smtp.gmail.com" under Outgoing mail server
Type your Gmail account name under User Name:.
If your Gmail address is "aruni@gmail.com", for example, type "aruni".
Type your Gmail password under Password:.
Click More Settings ....
Go to the Outgoing Server tab.
Check My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication is .
On Advanced tab, select SSL.
Server port # is 465
Okay,next, finish, close.
If your webhost gives you access to Cpanel, you can setup email accounts in cpanel and accessing them by typing yourdomain.com/webmail. Once you login in, you can use roundcube, horde or squirrel to read your mails. You will also find useful instructions on how to setup your emails in outlook.
Hope that helps. All the best!
Brett.Tesol 7 months ago
Sound advice for any website owner, particularly new owners who are not very experienced with the ways of the world wide web.