Whois privacy questions...

[aww]

With all the years I've been working with domain names I've never needed whois privacy but now I have a client that insists on it so I need to do some research.

But prices seem silly (way too high) at godaddy/enom so what's the scoop? Can I get it cheaper? Apparently at godaddy you can reuse the privacy on multiple domain names? Doesn't seem to be the case with enom?

Appreciate any advice, thanks!

 

[onewordonly]

some registers offer it free like stargate but I personally hate the control panel interface they use.

 

[shockie]

if you're looking for privacy on just one domain, go with namecheap (free for one domain).

in the long run, the cost of privacy anywhere isn't that much compared to how much you're making from your client, but if you find it really adding up then you can charge extra for whatever you're doing.

there might also be some registrars out there that charge privacy per registrant, not per domain, but those are only worth it if you need privacy on a lot of domains.

 

[aww]

Ah thanks for the info so far.

I noticed 1and1 has "free" who privacy but because they don't allow registration for more than 1 year at a time and they do not have any method for SPF in their DNS, it makes them too featureless for my needs.

Correct me if I am wrong but namecheap is NOT a registrar but a reseller? After the registerfly fiasco I am amazed people buy from anyone else but directly under a registrar.

 

[shockie]

correct, namecheap is a reseller of enom as registerfly was once. and actually, registerfly had separated from enom and was an icann accredited registrar when it went down.

 

[aww]

Ah, you are right. In fact it's reverse logic - a reseller under a registrar going under would actually make the customers (in theory) more safe than a stand alone registrar going under.

I do like enom so I may give namecheap a good lookover.

I wish they stated somewhere that if you buy 2 years on a domain you will get two years of whoisguard free and not just one.

 

[seeker]

at namecheap you get it for free for 1 year.
to extend it you neeed to buy after the year is over.
However (a nice trick) is that if you buy another domain (lets say a year down the road), you still get a whois privacy for free that you can apply to your original domain, hence not having to pay for a new one!

 

[aww]

Er, that can get really messy. I need stability without rebuying games.

I don't think people realize if you turn off whois privacy for even one day (ie. to transfer out or it expires) it gets archived by a few services and anyone can look it up. So they basically "got you" once you commit.

 

[seeker]

it doesnt get turned off.
at namecheap, with every reg , you get a whois privacy alootment.
you can apply it to extend the whois privacy service of any name.

Otherwise, go with eNom or Moniker (which are both superb).
also, If I remember correctly, www.resellerclub.com offers them free for the duration of the reg. From what I understand, as long as you select it there and renew the domain, it is always under privacy.

 

[aww]

Ah I totally forgot about directi - I even have a really old account with them I've never used. Will have to investigate some more... thanks!

(enom is good but $8 for privacy is insane - there was a $2 sale last month or so but it's long over I think)

Can someone give me an example of what a directi/resellerclub whois looks like with their privacy? They are really sketchy about it. They do have nameservers and SPF so they meet that criteria.

 

[alanchau]

Moniker offers $1/year domain privacy to NamePros members.

DomainTools.com does archive WHOIS records, however only when a WHOIS lookup is performed on the domain. If you turn off WHOIS privacy, make sure you don't use DomainTools.com and hope no one else does.

To be honest, I'm surprised that Name Intelligence hasn't been hit with a lawsuit because of this, somewhat similar to Archive.org (which does, however, allow you to hide archives of your website using a robots.txt file).

 

[aww]

Name Intelligence can't be sued for archiving publicaly available info. If anything it's ICANN's fault. Other ccTLD's have private data like UK and a couple others.

There are other services than Name Intelligence who gather such data and it always funny to read where people think it's because they query their name. NI does direct registry data downloads and have contracts with several registrars. They gather if you query or not.

 

[alanchau]

That certainly doesn't explain why Google.com has WHOIS records archived for every day this year, and another non-popular and non-premium domain's last archived WHOIS record is dated 2006-03-08. Unless Name Intelligence has a contract with MarkMonitor.

 

[aww]

Remember that Google.com's DNS literally changes every minute of every day, so if they are checking the domain it will see a new IP every time it does, hence all the records.

MarkMonitor is a very aggressive group and I would not be surprised if they did have contracts with Name Intelligence. In fact it's extremely likely.

They may have some kind of algorithim in checking certain names with certain ranks, etc. I could be completely off on this but they do seem to gather alot of data regardless if anyone seems to be watching or not.

Also, they are not the only group doing that kind of tracking.

In any case, watch your privacy carefully if it's that important to you. For me, it's just really about reducing hassle and less management each year.

 

[alanchau]

Further to my research, the domain MegaYachts.com which was sold at TRAFFIC New York (June 18, 2007) has no WHOIS records in 2007 prior to June, however since then, there has been an archive almost every single day.

 

[gazzip]

Answerable.com (formerly website.in) offer whois privacy for FREE

I'll PM you an example so you can see what the whois info looks like


.

 

[Dave_Z]

Name Intelligence can't be sued for archiving publicaly available info.

They can be, actually. Just that no one's willing to pay a lawyer to handle it. :D

 

[-NC-]

I thought network solutions TOS stated that the whois results cannot be stored or redistributed?

anyway, back to the original topic, i think dynadot does privacy for $2 a domain,
and IIRC it's free at reseller club and for bulk names you could you could always register an LLC in nevada to use in the whois to give a layer of privacy.

 

[Name Trader]

Although NameCheap is an eNom reseller, they are excellent choice for domain registration with privacy. You can get renewals with privacy for about $11/yr. In fact, if you run into some kind of problem with your registration, (ie it gets stolen) they have better contacts to push buttons than if you go with eNom directly (who won't lift a finger to help you). Moniker is a good choice also, and they have never had a domain stolen.

 

[aww]

I found two more solutions, both of which are owned by DirectI (resellerclub)

domaincentral.com and answerable.com
Both have free whois privacy.
But they do not have free DNS management.

Domaincentral charges 4.39 for DNS on 50 domains
and Answerable charges .99 for DNS on 50 domains.

So depending on how many domains you want with privacy, NameCheap is good for a few, Answerable is better for a dozen, and DomainCentral beyond that.

(I went with NameCheap + coupon)