Which E-mail in Whois?

[William9]

These factors should be considered in selecting an E-mail for Whois:

1. It is risky to use your ISP as an E-mail address. Eg. Excite@Home went bankrupt. If your E-mail was with them and did not change it, your domain still indicated that e-mail when it dropped.

2. An e-mail at a domain that you own eg. [email protected] is less likely to be disrupted by an ISP disruption.

Based on personal experience, I determined:

1. That is a small risk in forwarding E-mails from your domain to your ISP. Eg. having emails to Liesuresuitsonline.com forwarded to Larry@ISP. Based on tests of one of my registrars, e-mails for about 2 days a year simply did not make it to my ISP. Thus, one should also consider the reliability of the nameserver of the registrar of the domain. Some registrars are rock-solid, others appear to have lapses.

2. A Pop3 account at a rock-solid registrar offers accessibility anywhere and the risk related to forwarding is averted (free to $10/year). But I still seek others comments on that?

3 Do not use your best domain for your e-mail at that is the one you are most likely transfer (sell)?

4. There is the risk that you could lose the domain that you use for e-main in a UDRP, but only if you are a dummy. That risk is significantly less than the ISP going bust.

5. [email protected] appears more professional than [email protected].

6. Dan Tobias in another thread indicated there may be a risk having the e-mail going to the registrar of the domain you are using. I personally see that risk balanced, that is using another registrar for e-mails may be just as likely to increase problems as reduce them.

Most importantly, I am interested in what your thoughts are on whether I addressed all the issues? What do you do? TIA

 

[.biz]

use yahoo.com. it unlikely that yahoo will go bankrupt. even it does, someone will take over and continue the service.

 

[consumernet]

x

 

[William9]

Thank so much everyone for the thoughts so-far:

.BIZ – USE YAHOO - Unlikely to go bankrupt.

Consumernet – NOT YAHOO,…- Insecure [More assessable, but by everyone!]

OZONE – USE AN ISP - Secure – [But Exite@home was secure as it went under].

Consumernet – NO PERFECT ANSWER – [Considering the undesirable effects of each answer, which is the least undesirable???].
TIA

 

[dtobias]

My own preference is to use an address within one of my own domains -- that doesn't put me at the mercy of an ISP or a free email service, and I also think free email addresses (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) look cheesy. If you own multiple domains, it's best to use one representing your (personal or company) name as the one for your WHOIS address, as this is most logical and least likely that you would sell it or lose it in a UDRP.

There is, however, the drawback that if the email address in the WHOIS record is within the same domain name that the WHOIS record is for, that if something is screwed up by the registrar or the hosting provider for that domain, and it stops your email from working, then that could cause you trouble trying to resolve the trouble by switching registrars.

I get all my email through POP mailboxes provided by my web hosting provider (Dreamhost), which I access entirely through my own domains. Thus, none of my email addresses are dependent on what ISP I'm using at the moment, so I can change that whenever I want without cutting myself off from email contact. Lots of people don't think of that, and get locked in for life on some really lousy online service (usually AOL) because they foolishly gave out their email address there to all their friends and now they don't want to change it. (To me, "@aol.com" in an email address screams "I'm a Moron!")

 

[GeorgeK]

sex.com uses an AOL address for the contact info. It's not necessarily so bad, as long as one knows to change it in the event one switches ISPs. For the sophisticated users, like Gary Kremen and users of this forum, it doesn't matter too much which email they use -- make sure to backup the email address with domain lock, to be extra safe.

 

[dvdrip]

Well I use an an address with my website that is a .gr.
No sales or transfers with .gr + a grace period of 6 months after it expires.

 

[DomainPairs]

Don't forget there is a growing industry in picking up hotmaill addys that have been inactive for six months and hijacking domains. What's wrong with having a name for domain holdings and using that. You can even give it a PO box and get some confidentiality. You can also make sure that spam from registry searches goes into a different box.

 

[William9]

Dan Tobias indicated above that he gets his email through POP mailboxes provided by my web hosting provider…

I appreciate what everyone said, but that seems to be the top solutions for now.

Thanks again everyone for your thoughts.

Good luck.

 

[Shiftlock]

I don't see this as a real problem. Use whatever email you want. If you lose the email address for some reason, just update your contact info. Anybody with outdated whois info is just asking for trouble. I can think of dozens of domain-related issues that are more worrisome.

 

[William9]

Shiftlock indicated: “I don't see this as a real problem. Use whatever email you want. If you lose the email address for some reason, just update your contact info. Anybody with outdated whois info is just asking for trouble. I can think of dozens of domain-related issues that are more worrisome.”

It is a real problem Mr. Shiflock sir. Many VALUABLE domains are dropped because the owner cannot obtain control of the E-mail in whois.

Personally, I have domains scattered over 20+ different registrars. I did not plan that, it just occurred after I participating in many different landrushes [Info LR1, Info LR2, .BIZ, .BIZ b2b, and .US]. To obtain my lost password from those registrars (I am an idiot and lose them)– yes, I have to get it by the e-mail in whois.

I assure you Mr. Shiflock, he who controls the e-mail in whois, controls the domain. I also suggest that you read to scan the various posts about methods used to steal domains, in most cases it is done by controlling the email by some sort of spoof.

Back to the issue – in your case, it should be planning for the future – to avoid a problem.

Good luck.

 

[Shiftlock]

I'm well aware that domains can be hijacked by gaining control of the Administration email. I also have a large number of domains at many different registrars. I keep track of them with a simple Excel spreadsheet. My point was this - the real solution is to organize your domains and stay on top of things. If you're sloppy, you're asking for trouble. No matter what email address you use, there may come a day when you have to change your contact info. Don't fall asleep at the wheel, and you don't have to worry about it.

 

[jberryhill]

"Don't fall asleep at the wheel, and you don't have to worry about it."

I agree. Consumernet has a point with "there is no good answer" in that people will ask the question and want to know the "best" thing to do. It turns out that no matter what you do, you need to remain mindful of the vulnerabilities of whatever you do.

 

[William9]

Shiflock indicated:

Don't fall asleep at the wheel, and you don't have to worry about it.

However, my ISP can go out of business whether I am asleep or awake.

Sleep on it.

William

 

[William9]

Jberryhill indicated:

…you need to remain mindful of the vulnerabilities of whatever you do.

I agree entirely. In fact, that was the point of my post. I was seeking others’ input on the control risks and strengths of each of the possibilities.

Than you everyone for your input, good luck.

 

[Shiftlock]

Originally posted by William9
However, my ISP can go out of business whether I am asleep or awake.

So if that happens, change the administrative email address associated with your domains. I think we're going in circles here.

You're going to say: But sometimes I forget the logins and passwords for my domains.

I'm going to say: Don't do that.

 

[DomainPairs]

Is it easy to change the admin email address if the admin email address doesn't exist any more?

 

[William9]

DomainPairs indicated:

Is it easy to change the admin email address if the admin email address doesn't exist any more?

Thank you DomainPairs as that is one of the many issues. In brief, it depends on the Registrar. Some require positive confirmation to those changes. But you can buy NO-charge insurance by taking the advice indicated above in the thread. OR - you could take Shiftlock’s advice and don’t bother with insurance – just don’t get involved in an accident.

Good luck.

 

[Shiftlock]

Originally posted by DomainPairs
Is it easy to change the admin email address if the admin email address doesn't exist any more?

No.

 

[GeorgeK]

Shiftlock: depends on the registrar. If it's OpenSRS, it's trivial to change the admin email address, using the web-based management interface. If one loses the password, though, that's when one gets into trouble.