Keeping Track of Domain Expirations? 39
phutureboy asks: "Between providing hosting for several dozen web sites and consulting for a number of clients who run their own servers, lately I find myself overwhelmed with keeping track of domain expirations. Although the domains which I've personally registered are consolidated under one Register.com account, there are many others spread among multiple registrars, to which I may or may not have administrative access. It would take days or weeks of frustration to audit them all and make sure my clients' contact information is up to date. Does anyone have any tips for dealing with this mess?"
hmm - maybe a calendar????? (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.gnu.org/software/gcal/gcal.html
I know exactly what you mean... (Score:4, Interesting)
The best solution that I've come up with so far is to have all of the domain registrars use the same email address (in this case admin@mydomain.com) which I use ONLY for contact with the registrars, and I put it under a very heavy spamfilter rating.
Then the only problem is that I have to remember to check that email account once a week or so.
Jared
Yes. 6 simple steps (Score:2, Informative)
2. Open Konsole
3. In the Konsole window type "whois
4. Set Alarm in Evolution for 1 month prior to above domains expiration date. Then cut and paste who is output into the notes section of the alarm.
5. Repeat steps 3 through 5 for all domains.
6. On the second day, find something useful to do with your time and quit being such a putz.
Re:Yes. 6 simple steps (Score:2)
Domain Reminder (Score:5, Informative)
Re:From their website. (Score:2)
Re:Domain Reminder (Score:2)
Re:Domain Reminder (Score:1)
Transfer... (Score:4, Interesting)
switch (Score:2, Interesting)
not an ad ! my former employer used them.
(no subject) (Score:1)
Try AutoRenew (Score:4, Interesting)
I register everything in my customers names except for the technical contact and then I turn on the AutoRenew option for each one. Godaddy then sends me a few notices as a reminder before actually renewing them. I never worry about losing them.
I actually foot the bill for the auto renew as a bonus for hosting with me and customers like that, it's a good sales point to let the customer know once you have reeled them in. The little things mean a lot.
Hope this all helps.
Re:Try AutoRenew (Score:1)
Re:Try AutoRenew (Score:2)
I would say that the best price/features combination should win.
Personally, I find the package offered by eNom to be very comprehensive, their suppot quite good and the price cheap - as long as you buy through a reseller and not directly from eNom (e.g., $8.88/year from n [namecheap.com]
Re:Try AutoRenew (Score:1)
I fully agree.
I looked at namecheap.com and it looked pretty interesting. However, I had two bad first impressions about them.
First, they are running their site on Microsoft W
Re:Try AutoRenew (Score:2)
> two bad first impressions about them.
>
> First, they are running their site on Microsoft Windows. That gives me
> questions about the intelligence of the company and security of your domain
> registrations. It is likely to have about as much security that Hotbot,
> running on MS Windows, did when they had thousands (or was it millions) of
> their email accounts compromised. We don't really want every virus that
Do the multiyear registration -- 10 Years ~` $150 (Score:3, Informative)
In 10 years, the Internet and world will probably be a very different place. Get the monkey off your back.
Found it, 10 - year registration for $7.95 /yr (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.koredomains.com/ [koredomains.com]
Make the problem go away!
Someone had 6 steps. I..5! (Score:5, Funny)
2) Buy 12 post-it notes (you can get more if you're on a high-end budget. But get a val-u-pak, then.) Also buy a pencil (not a pen -very important!)
3) If you don't have a wall or refrigerator door, get one.
4) For each month, take a post-it note, write the month's name on top. For each month-labeled post-it, write down the *name of company; *domain in question; *registrar used; *logins, passwords etc.; *contact information (which you update when it changes); *day the domain expires; *any other useful info (you can create a code for this so it's easier to store in the small space.)
5) Apply post-its in annual order to the wall or refrigerator door. If you store sensitive data such as the domain password for IBM, you can place the note *inside* the freezer box of the refrigerator. VERY secure.
Hope that helps!
.
Keeping track of domains (Score:1, Informative)
If you don't feel like setting up a database... (Score:1)
You don't have to wait... (Score:2)
Impose some rules (Score:1, Redundant)
But then to prevent getting into the situation again, you should impose some "rules" - which is what I did:
1. All new domains must be registerd with the "approved" registrar, by you. You will not deal with any domains that are not.
2. Any domains you are taking over must transfer to the approved registrar before you will commit to managing them.
3. Any transfer away from the approved registrar automatically relieves you of any r
Whaddabout a shell script? (Score:2)
Why not just write a shell (or Perl) script to run a whois on each of your clients' domains, grep'ing for "xpires on:" (or whatever) and stripping out all non-date info.
Next, have it write out all domains with a month or less before expiration to a file. If the file is not empty, have it email the results to the appropriate people (I'd make it you -- and you can notify your clients if they maintain control over the domains).
Finally, run your script as a weekly cron job.
If you're extra-serious about
Tell MS! (Score:2)
Grab.
You answered your own question. (Score:2)
OK, here is the solution I came up with (Score:2)
1. I wrote a quick batch/commandline PHP program which will retrieve and parse the whois information for a list of domains on a daily basis, and mail an expiration report to me. It's not perfect but it works. The script can be downloaded here: http://www.axis80.com/domain_watcher_20031209.tar . gz [axis80.com]
2. When each client's domain comes up for renewal, I'll check their contact information and make
Plug for GoDaddy (Score:2)
Move your domains over, hit the button, and they all now expire on the same day. One post-it note on the fridge, one payment.
(I said "looking at", not "using" since naturally I'm reserved about leaping into something just because the marketing looks good