Best way to beat Whois

[mundi]

i know once you are online, got a domain, got an ip, everyone knows all your personal info. there isnt anything i can do about that, i have heard that some hosting companies will hide all that for you at an extra cost. well, mine thought i was crazy, does any body know a good hosting company that will do this, that also has fantastico?

 

[-db-]

I'm assuming you registered your domain thru your hosting provider?

Regardless, for less than $1 (99 cents to be exact) you can get a proven and reliable privacy protection service from RegisterFly. You will need to transfer your domain there. If you do this, then your host has no control over your whois records.

Other registrars offer similar services, but they are more expensive.

 

[redhippo]

namecheap provides free whois guard with every name purchase!

 

[mundi]

yes, through my hosting company..hmm, so im thinking i should just register a new domain....., but i like mine! fits perfectly, so if i transfered it, would i need to switch hosting companies? well i know i probably need to cantact my hosting company for that. ok, thanks guys, i am bookmarking this thread.

 

[dc1pop]

you shouldnt need to change host. You will just have to set your namservers to point to your hosting sapce. You can have a domain somewhere else to your hosting many people do

 

[mundi]

thanx, im definately doing this. thanx so much guys. im just soo scared, i have had a fraud call to my home, and it was all about bank accounts. its kinda late now, but i think it would still be better to do this switch. thanx once again

 

[IAmAllanShore]

GoDaddy is almost $9 a year for privacy.
Registerfly .99
Namecheap "free" (Pay a premium on the names though, right?)
Also, I pay $30 a year for a PO box to keep things a little safer.
-Allan

 

[mundi]

i am definately going to do the po box thing too, wow i cant believe i didnt think of that! thanx

 

[RJ]

Get a PO box ($30/yr) at the Post Office and a free voicemail number from an online provider. Both can be used for all your business transactions and are perfectly within the rules of whois.

Try k7.net for free or cheap voicemail.

 

[Raf]

These are definately very nice tips, if you want to go the least expensive root however you might want to transfer your domain. RegisterFly has some nice deals this week, I'm not sure if it's still on but they have transfer for $5.00 USD, which includes another year of registration for that domain. Once transferred you simply buy their whois protection for $0.99/domain and then attach it to the domain which you just transferred.

 

[EbookLover]

GoDaddy is almost $9 a year for privacy.
Registerfly .99
Namecheap "free" (Pay a premium on the names though, right?)
Also, I pay $30 a year for a PO box to keep things a little safer.
-Allan

I don't know, the last I checked, namecheap's regular domain price of 8.88 is lower than both RF or GoDaddy.

But don't forget, the free whois privacy offeris is only for new registrations or tranfers for 1 year. After that, if you renew the domain with them, you'll have to purchase it for $4.88/yr/domain. But that is still cheaper than GoDaddy even if GoDaddy has a sale for $7.95 (+9.00 for whois privacy).

RF...well, you get what you pay for. Time spent worrying about your account & your domains and trying to contact TS, CS, or BS adds up and time is money.

As far as price and service goes, Namecheap has 'em all beat. But GoDaddy has good support, too.

If you go on price alone, you will most likely be disappointed.

Also, in my experience, it is best to NOT buy domains from hosting companies. They charge too much usually. I have seen hosts that actually charge only 4 or 5 dollars for domain reg, however there is a catch, you do not have much controol over the domain as far as DNS changes and whois changes. Also, if you want to take that domain elsewhere, you will have to pay a hefty transfer fee to your host and then the transfer fee to the new registrar. Bottom line is, buy your domains from a business who is primarily a domain reg and buy your hosting from companies who are primarily web hosts.

 

[mundi]

thanx for all these tips guys, as far as money, if it isall about ONE domain, and safety, money wouldnt be an option, but i am glad to see it so cheap. for someone buying/selling domains (im thinking about doing) i see how it would add up. thanx for the voicemail tip also, wow i feel like such a simpleton for not thinking of this stuff!

 

[marisolblue]

I have used protectfly on several of names and it has worked very well for me.

 

[Mark]

I can understand folks trying to prevent Spam etc ... - But , Unless you've got something to hide , Why try to beat it ? - If there isn't any "Real" Contact info on the actual site ... You better believe I'll check whois etc ... before I'll buy anything from a site - If it is "Private" - I'll either shop elsewhere or Get a buddy to run it on a Better Whois (Paid Plan) ....

Like I said - If you are a Person holding thousands of domains or a decent sized Corp - I can see it ... But if you are Joe Schmoe trying to sell a few products - I'd rethink it or make sure there is Some accurate Contact Info on the Site !

Just my 2 bits ......

 

[mundi]

all4cost, i do understand where you are coming from, but

I don't know if anything like this has ever happened to anyone here, but
a cupole of weeks ago i recieved a call from a guy who said he was a travel agent, he spoke for about 5 minutes before i got 2 words in, as he was talking he told me that i won a $400 travel package for openig up a new account with MY BANK, he knew the routing number, my name, and adress to the T. when he got done speaking, i told him that i was not interested, and he is like, why? its totally free. so i listened to him for about 3 more minutes, he at the end asked me for my social security number, and bank account number, that he needed to VERIFY it before he could send me the package, i once again, told him that i was not interested, he started arguing with me, instead of hanging up i was waiting to ask him what travel agency he was from, and what his name was, and then he just hung up on me.

i callled my bank to see if they actually did have any of these promotions going on

they said that they did not, and any promotions they had going on that was in affilliation with any other company, we would recieve contact from the bank itself, not there affiliate.

they reported it as fraud.

my only question, is how did this happen?

i just recently finished my website and signed up for an account with my bank, there is NO transactions in my bank account except from me testing my site and sending myself money through paypal, i have had no customers, no purchases, i do not have a debit card yet,

my bank told me to call paypal to see if there is anything weird in my account.

i logged in and checked myself as i was on the phone with them, looked fine from my end

they told me that there was nothing wierd going on......

i asked myself..

HOW ELSE WOULD THIS HAVE HAPPENED???????????????????

questions i was aked...

1) Do you have a domain name registered in your name? The Who-is records are public It would be fairly easy to get your name and address from that source.

i did not know this, yes, now i do.

2) The bank routing number is probably easy to get as well... as long as the scam artist knows where you bank. How would he/she get that info? Not a clue, but it could be an "inside" job... someone at the bank leaking info. Possibly someone - not necessarily you - carelessly disgarding sensitive papers (always shred bank statements!). There have been horror stories about boxes of school records, bank receipts, etc (you name it!) being just left at the curb for trash pickup.

not at all. have never used the account.not at all. the onlt time i have ever used my bank account is with paypal. and the only thing i used it for, was to send money from my savings account that is in my personal paypal account to my checking account that is in my business paypal account. i recently opened up both of these accounts last week. i have no checks to write yet, no debit card yet, nothing. i have not even gotten a bank statement or so much as walked into the bank and withdraw money. the only time i made a transaction was when i opened it and put my initial deposit, and testing it with paypal, thats it.


3) Since you've alerted your bank, see if PayPal is willing to monitor your account somehow. Also, consider changing your PayPal password!

did all this.

ok, i got scared, shut my bank account down, emptied my paypal account. 4 days later, i recieved an email, not sure if it was the same person or not. this email told me that i had won a subscription because i had opened up my bank account. i deleted the email, and have not had any accounts open since.

so, i would rather lose the business that is worried about me, then continue to get harassed, and be scared.

 

[William9]

my only question, is how did this happen?

This isn’t a security board, and I am not an expert in security. But, please repeat that question and include which of the following did not have definitions updated within two weeks:

• anti-virus program,
• firewall,
• popup - cookie blocker (eg. pest patrol), and
• anti-trojan.

Also, include the results of a current system scan.

Yea, don't post, the results are self explanatory.

 

[fract0s]

At Godaddy (http://www.godaddy.com) You can get your personal information which you signed up with to get the domain hidden for an extra small fee.

 

[Mark]

This isn’t a security board, and I am not an expert in security. But, please repeat that question and include which of the following did not have definitions updated within two weeks:

• anti-virus program,
• firewall,
• popup - cookie blocker (eg. pest patrol), and
• anti-trojan.

Also, include the results of a current system scan.

Yea, don't post, the results are self explanatory.

Agreed - More than likely had nothing to do with "Whois" info -

:imho: Banks and Telephone companies are usually the worst "leak" for personal info - A company recently "TRIED" (Actually we were billed for it and everything ) to add a VoiceMail plan to my Fiance's Phone Bill. The funny thing is - I was the one who supposedly added it (Even though that phone is 100% in her name) and they had everything down to my Mother's maiden Name as a "Safety" word - This information is not in my whois info .... Banks and phone companies get hacked everyday ....

 

[Kenny]

....little nasties lurking about, peeking at your 0's and 1's...

Run these plus your normal stuff since each could find stuff the others miss and if you find any keylogger or hi=risk toe-jam dont even bother digging it out, save your text and dox and data files to a differnt hdd, write that to 0's and start new. Your setting up a biz, you want to start clean and secure, everything installed scanned and clean before it goes in and dont connect until all security is up and running, then update.

online scanner, good for another point of view
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp
Bills Beta... acually a new package on a really good hunter.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
Go here and download HiJack This, read the tut's. This is a long time friend to internet users.
http://www.tomcoyote.org/hjt/


I'm not a sec/specialist either but that guy was up-inside you, and keeping your sys tight is just good prevention for the future.

Last note, a new nasty is around and can mask as a gif or jpg... make sure all open, dont just bulk load archives if pix....It sux but just another hitch in the gidy-up.
Good Luck

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

Register fly will do it for 99 cents as mentioned, but it also has a lower level of protection for free. I prefer to get my domains direct from them and not go through hosting companies unless it's a free domain with hosting deely.