UKC

Buying domain names, a definitive guide

Are you in the market for a domain name?

girlbooksNo doubt there are hundreds, no, thousands of domain providers out there. So, how do you choose? Can you choose a domain name provider based squarely on price? Let’s see, do you select your car on price? Or your home on price alone… I didn’t think so.

It’s not just about the domain name. What about all the gubbins that you would expect to come with your domain name? In fact, you might not even know what you might need with your domain name – so how does that work?

You need to find a domain name provider that will supply all the features you need – and more, ready for when you eventually work out what to do with your domain.

Let’s explore what features you may require with your domain name.

Make sure the domain is registered in YOUR name

As a minimum you want to reserve the domain name for immediate use or for use in the future should you find the time. Well, all domain registrars meet this requirement – or do they? Well, no they don’t. Many domain name providers will register YOUR domain name in THEIR name. How does that work? Well, they just do and so when it comes to having control over your domain name you simply find it is limited – simply because it isn’t really YOUR domain name. Only choose a domain name host that registers the YOUR domain name in YOUR name.

Ensure you have the freedom to choose any web host

Once you have your domain name you do not want to be tied to a single host as this could negate any saving you make on your domain name. Besides, you should have the choice right? Well, many domain name providers will NOT allow you to change your domain name servers to point to another host. This would tie you in to using that particular domain provider should you need a Web Hosting account in the future. You need to keep your options open. Only choose a domain provider that allows you FREE and UNLIMITED changes of your domain nameservers. This guarantees that your domain name can be used with any web host without restriction or cost.

Can your domain name point to your free web space?

Do you have free webspace provided by your ISP? You probably do, so why buy a hosting package if you already have webspace? Check with your ISP/Broadband Supplier and find out how to upload your new website to your free webspace. So now all you need to do is point your domain name to your free webspace. This usually uses a feature called “web forwarding”. Ensure that web forwarding is supplied as standard with your domain name, you’d be surprised how many domain name hosts charge extra for this feature.

Is your domain name email enabled?

While you are pondering the use of your domain name, wouldn’t it be useful to redirect any email sent to your domain name to your everyday email address? This is called email forwarding and again, is often an extra charge on your domain name after you have purchased. Read the small print before your select your domain name host.

So, to summarise….

Find a cheap domain name host that meets the above criteria and you can’t go far wrong with your domain purchase.

Should you have difficulty, let me save you some time. Here is a UK based domain name provider that meets all of the above criteria and more…Cheap Domain Names – https://www.uk-cheapest.co.uk

Catch-All | Delete Catchall | catch All Email

emailCatchall Addresses & Dictionary SPAM Attacks

Catchall (or wildcard) addresses are the addresses that receive all email for a domain, unless there is a specific address better suited to handle the incoming email. You may or may not have one on one of your domains. e.g.

Bloggs.com has two email addresses, “joe@bloggs.com” and “@bloggs.com” (the catchall). If a mail comes in addressed to joe@bloggs.com, it is delivered to the “joe@bloggs.com” mailbox. If a mail comes in addressed to sales@bloggs.com, it is delivered to the “@bloggs.com” mailbox.

With the ever increasing level of spam on the Internet, people are being more guarded with their email addresses. It’s therefore more difficult for spammers to obtain valid addresses to send their messages to. Rather than scour the WWW for a limited supply of well protected addresses, they’ve come up with a better idea: Find domains through search engines, and then send thousands of emails to common ‘local parts’ at those domains. (The ‘local part’ is the bit before the @ sign)

For example, they might find the bloggs.com domain through a search engine, or a domain registration tool, and then send to the following email addresses:

sales@bloggs.com, info@bloggs.com, webmaster@bloggs.com, john@bloggs.com, peter@bloggs.com, simon@bloggs.com, steve@bloggs.com, neil@bloggs.com, paul@bloggs.com, derek@bloggs.com, etc, etc.

There’s only a small amount of addresses listed here, but depending on the thoroughness of the spammer, there can be upwards of 20,000 variations for a single domain. And, because bloggs.com has a catchall email address – every single message will end up in the one mailbox..

Dictionary SPAM Attacks

This is called a ‘dictionary attack’, and is getting more and more popular with spammers. Quite often, they’ll send these messages out from a huge network of ‘zombie machines’ or ‘bots’, which are virus/adware infected home PCs. Because of this vast distributed network of infected machines sending the mail, there’s no reliable way of blocking the mail.

What’s worse is that some of the dictionary attacks check for ‘successful’ delivery, i.e. if a recipient is not refused at the destination mail server, then the recipient’s address is added to the ‘verified’ list, and possibly sold on to other spammers.

So now, the catchall mailbox at bloggs.com is overwhelmed with 20,000 messages, and because none of the mail was rejected, is on the list of ‘viable targets’ for another attack.

Recently, more and more domains that we host email for have been falling victim to dictionary attacks. A lot of them do not have catchalls, and the spammer’s mail is harmlessly bounced before even being allowed onto our servers, but a few domains have been effectively disabled for many hours, thanks to the catchall accepting the many thousands of email messages. Either the customer’s Exchange/Outlook server falls over under the strain, or the customer has to retrieve all the messages slowly, and then sift through, looking for legitimate mail. This isn’t limited to POP accounts either, as catchall forwards are affected. Both affect the performance of the servers, and impact the quality of service for your domains, and the domains of other customers.

How do I eliminate the SPAM generated from a dictionary attack?

The solution is to remove the catch-alls. We’ve disabled the creation of new catch-all accounts, as we believe that in 99% of cases, there is no need for them to be there. Any existing catchalls on the system have been left untouched, but you are encouraged to phase them out as soon as possible, before your domain finds its way onto a ‘viable target’ list.

Parked Domain Names

Login to your Domain Control Panel to disable the catchall for your domain name.

  • Login to https://www.uk-cheapest.co.uk/members
  • Select “Email Forwarding” from the Functions list
  • Select “Delete” on your [ CATCH-ALL ] alias
  • SPAM to your domain will be instantly reduced

Web Hosting Customers

The following documents will show how your catchall should be set

If you have any questions please contact the HelpDesk for support.

Start the Transfer-In of a Domain

transfer-iconStarting the Transfer-In to UKC

There are many reasons to transfer your domain names to UKC. This is where you begin the process for all domain name types. All domain transfers start here.

Let’s do it

Enter your full domain name carefully into the box below. eg: yourdomain.com

You will be taken straight to the Checkout to complete your transfer. If you need more information, please review the following helpful articles:

How to Transfer non .UK domains to UKC

transfer-iconTransferring Non .UK domains to UKC

The process for non .UK domain names such as .com, .net and .guru is very easy as long as you carefully follow the transfer-in process.

Follow the steps below for a trouble-free transfer

In our example, we will use yourdomain.com but of course, replace this with your actual domain name.

  1. At your current registrar: Ask your registrar to “unlock” your domain name so that you may transfer it away. Sometimes you can do this through your registrar control panel, or you may need to ask them to do this for you.
  2. At your current registrar: Check that your domain admin email address is current and that you can receive emails to this address. If it is not, update the email address to your current email address. The public WHOIS will show this as the ADMIN-C email address.
  3. Go to “Start the Transfer” and enter yourdomain.com and then hit the “Transfer” button. Your domain transfer will be added to the cart and you will be taken to the checkout.
  4. Complete the checkout process. This adds your domain to your Client Area > Domain > My Domains panel. The registry charge a 1 year renewal fee however we return this to you by extending your domain name by 1 year. This is going to be cheaper than renewing for 1 year with your current registrar.

Monitoring the progress of your domain transfer

Non-UK domain name transfers follow a particular process and can take up to 7 business days to complete.

You can monitor the progress of your transfer in Client Area > Domains > My Domains > yourdomain.com > Manage Domain > Information

  1. PendingOwnerApproval: At this stage, an email is sent to the domain admin (ADMIN-C) email address. When you receive this email, you must approve the transfer (usually you just click a link). Then we move to stage 2.
  2. PendingRegistryApproval: Here, the registry are aware of your transfer authorisation and require a few business days to approve the transfer. After this stage the transfer of your domain name is complete.
  3. TransferTimedOut: If you see this then your transfer has stopped. This is usually because stage 1 was not completed and you did not respond to the authorisation email. Contact us to restart the process. There is no additional charge.

Here is an example of your Transfer-In Status:

nonukexample

How to Transfer .UK domains to UKC

transfer-iconTransferring Nominet .UK domains to UKC

The process for .UK domain names is very easy and involves what is called a TAG change. Once the TAG is changed, your domain transfer is complete.

Follow the steps below for a trouble-free transfer

In our example, we will use yourdomain.co.uk but of course, replace this with your actual domain name.

  1. Ask your existing domain registrar to “Change the IPSTAG of yourdomain.co.uk to MICROLITE”. Some registrars provide a control panel for your to do this and others you need to ask the helpdesk to change the tag.
  2. Go to “Start the Transfer” and enter yourdomain.co.uk and then hit the “Transfer” button. Your domain transfer will be added to the cart and you will be taken to the checkout.
  3. Complete the checkout process. This adds your domain to your Client Area > Domain > My Domains panel. There is no fee to pay for .UK domain name transfers.

Monitoring the progress of your domain transfer

Once your IPSTAG is changed to MICROLITE your domain transfer is complete and you will be able to use the domain parking features as with any other registered domain name.

You can monitor the progress of your transfer in Client Area > Domains > My Domains > yourdomain.com > Manage Domain > Information

Here is an example of your Transfer-In Status:

ukexample