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Warning about using NameCheap and .IS domains

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dncafe

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Why you should not buy a .IS domain through NameCheap and instead should buy it directly from the registry, for the same price.

I recently registered a .IS domain name through NameCheap. Being a member of their site for more than 10 years, I figured I was familiar with the whole checkout process and what I was getting with a country code domain.

Before I confirmed my order, it clearly says: "Privacy and Uptime Protection" as one of the included features, so I could assume that my whois information was going to be protected, which seems to be a standard thing on NameCheap (since they had to compete with registrars like NameSilo who offer free whois privacy for life).

About a day after that I was having issues setting the name servers, so I did a WHOIS check and saw my details were exposed.

It turns out your WHOIS is not protected and it's displayed through the registry over at ISNIC.is

Other issues with this is that you can't manage the domain name directly through NameCheap's website, you have to create a second account at ISNIC.is (so why am I even using NameCheap). If you try to change the domain name on the whois contact, it will automatically create 2 accounts that you have to keep track of, while still trying to manage this through NameCheap. The whole setup is a mess.

During this whole process the NameCheap staff provide poor customer service and offered nothing but canned responses.

If you're set on buying a .IS domain, which I'm sure not many of you are, I would recommend staying away from NameCheap and getting it directly through isnic.is
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
While I agree on what you say regarding namecheap, ie. they should warn about the peculiarities of cctlds (in fact, I consider namecheap to be the worst registrar when it comes to cctlds due to some harsh rules and lack of information),
we all know that, many cctlds are a pain in the bottom with weird rules.

The only thing I consider as positive with having an account at .isnic is the fact that, when owning a number of .is domains on various registrars (like I do), they can all be managed via one account at .isnic so, if a certain registrar creates problems (which they often do when it comes to cctlds), one can always manage the domain independently.
 
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To be fair the lack of WHOIS privacy and forced ISNIC account creation are a requirement of ISNIC rather than NameCheap. Also their strict requirements make it impossible to use DAN/Afternic/most other landing pages etc, causing issues when trying to sell. The most annoying thing r.e. managing .is through NameCheap is when touching anything name server related - issues every time. Too much time wasted contacting support at both places, each one blaming the other.
 
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I wanted to clarify that this is a restriction of the .is registry, not our own, and this restriction affects all registrars, not just Namecheap. That said, only the registrant country and email address are shown in whois. More information on the requirements for .is domains is at https://www.namecheap.com/support/k.../10105/36/is-domain-registration-requirements.

Whenever a domain is added with certain whois requirements, we also provide that detail when the domain is added to the cart per the below.
2019-07-23_1047.png



As you say, we at Namecheap do promise privacy protection. That is indeed the case for all registries that support privacy. Some do not allow privacy and we must be compliant to sell their domains on our platform. Some countries also have further restrictions, such as residential requirements. It would be nice if we could avoid these issues, but alas, as others stated before me, this is a restriction that no one single registrar can circumvent. We can only adhere to certain registry requirements to sell on our side. My apologies for any inconveniences you have faced.
 
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