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Archive for the ‘Domain Names’ Category

How to use Domain Names to Protect your Online Brand

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

It is important to begin developing strategies to protect your business’ brand as soon as you launch its web presence. A key element of your online brand is a good domain name.

You can find strategies for selecting a good domain name in a number of places. However, some basic principles to keep in mind are to try and keep the domain name simple, keep it close to your business name or how people refer to your business, and make it easy to pronounce and spell by avoiding hyphens, numerical characters and unusual spelling if you can.

Once you have selected a domain name that is available, you should register your domain with a reputable domain name registrar (a service that Digital Pacific provides). It is then time to start protecting your brand. It’s best to start doing this before you launch your presence, as the process will become more difficult and costly as your brand grows in popularity.

How to use Domain Names to Protect your Online Brand

Prevent Domain Prospecting

Domain name prospectors buy domains that might be used by businesses that aren’t yet online. They are gambling that once a business decides it wants the domain name, it will be prepared to buy the domain off the prospector for an inflated price. This is also referred to as cyber squatting, and is a practice that has extended to buying similar sounding domain names and obvious misspellings of common words. Prospectors will often set up small portal web pages at a domain and use broadly relevant links to take advantage of affiliate marketing and advertising. These portals generate revenue through page views, high click through rates and affiliate purchases.

Domain prospecting is an issue for you and your business because typos happen all the time. Less savvy internet users may not even realise that they have typed in the wrong address and will think that a domain prospector’s useless page is your business. This is not a good outcome for you as you are unable to control the experience that these potential clients have while they are searching for your products and services.

Strike First

A quick and effective way to stop someone from squatting on variations of your domain name is to register the most likely variations yourself. You should consider registering variations across the major top level domains of .com, .org and .net, as well as the country level domains of your main markets for maximum protection. For example, in Australia this means registering .com.au, .org.au and .net.au domains where possible. AuDA, the body responsible for the governance of Australian domain names, places specific restrictions around registering many of the .au domains. This will reduce the likelihood of opportunistic squatting around your .au domain names, but will not protect you completely.

Guard Against Bad Publicity

Another domain name phenomenon worth watching is disgruntled customers (and sometimes competitors) using variations of your domain name to publish negative impressions of your brand. A common technique is to add the word “sucks”or something similar to the end of a domain name and use the site to publish negative reviews and opinions of a service. A well-known example is the large number of sites that have been created to discuss the service of PayPal (try typing “paypal sucks” into Google for a taste). While it won’t be economical to register every potential offensive domain, it could be to your benefit to own and control the more obvious options if you operate business that focuses on customer service.

Be Ever Vigilant

Protecting your brand through domain name ownership is not a “cheap and easy” task. Less reputable organisations will continue to look for new ways to gain an advantage off the back of your brand, and different techniques will continue to be developed. However, protecting your domain name has clear and immediate benefits for all businesses serious about owning their brand and reputation online.

How to use Domain Names to Protect your Online Brand

Tags: au domain, Domain Names, how to build a website, online marketing, tips and tricks, Web Hosting, Website
Posted in Domain Names, Marketing and PR, Web Hosting, Website Marketing | No Comments »

IPv4 Exhaustion – Is The Internet Running Out Of Room?

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

As you may have already read, the internet is, in theory, about to run out of IP addresses. “What does that even mean?” I hear you ask, and I’m glad you did.

There is a lot of conflicting information about this address situation (also known as “IPv4 exhaustion“) and what it means for internet users, with the most obvious concern cited that somehow the internet is about to “run out of room”.

Rest assured that this is not the case. There are plenty of IP addresses for everybody.

What is an IP address anyway?

IP stands for Internet Protocol, which is a way for devices to communicate with each other over a network. While the technical details of the Internet Protocol and the network communications protocol stack are many and detailed, it is enough to know that every device that communicates on a network that uses IP needs to have a unique number. This number is referred to as an IP address. Almost every network currently in use, including the internet, uses IP as part of its underlying framework.

There are two versions of IP in use today: IPv4 and IPv6.

Why does it look like we are running out of addresses?

The way that IP is structured creates a finite number of possible addresses. The allocation of these addresses is managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which allocated the last large blocks of addresses earlier this year. While there are still many addresses available in already allocated address blocks, it is true that the supply of new IPv4 addresses is “exhausted”.

IP addresses were allocated inefficiently in the early days of the internet, leaving a large number of addresses unused and in the hands of private corporations and government bodies. As the number of people and devices attempting to connect to the internet has grown, the pressure has increased on the publicly available number of IP addresses.

While techniques such as private network addresses and Network Address Translation have been developed to combat the issue, IPv4 exhaustion remains.

IPv4 exhaustion is a concern as IP addresses underpin something that makes the internet easier to navigate — domain names. While machines can remember a series of numbers for a server address, it is not as easy for humans. Domain names were invented as a way of assigning natural language to IP addresses. After all, it is easier to remember www.digitalpacific.com.au than it is to remember 203.19.59.122.

Luckily for everyone, IPv6 is waiting in the wings.

What is the difference between IPv4 and IPv6?

The key difference between IPv4 and IPv6 in relation to the problem of IPv4 exhaustion is the number of addresses available for use. IPv4 uses a 32 bit numbering system, which allows for 2^32 or 4,294,967,296 theoretical unique addresses, although in practice the number available is smaller. By contrast, IPv6 uses a 128 bit numbering system, increasing the number of theoretically available addresses to 2^128, or approximately 340 undecillion (a number so large as to be almost meaningless).

Why are we still using IPv4 if IPv6 solves the problem?

A substantial obstacle preventing wide scale adoption of IPv6 is that software and hardware support is still maturing. While the latest versions of most operating systems now support IPv6 natively, hardware support is still immature, particularly at the consumer level. Consumers replace hardware such as routers and switches less often than they upgrade their software, leaving a large amount of legacy hardware still in use that is not IPv6 ready or capable.

Another issue is that IPv6 was not designed to be interoperable with IPv4. Anyone who wishes to offer an IPv6 service has to run it alongside an existing IPv4 service and use special network gateways to translate between the two different versions. This arrangement requires a service provider to maintain two separate services, increasing the amount of resources required to operate their business.

Should I be worried?

Short answer: no.

For the average internet user, the internet will continue as it has always done before. For example, Digital Pacific was recently assigned around 64 million IPv6 addresses, guaranteeing that your favourite web hosting company won’t run out anytime soon. This does not include all the IPv4 addresses still available for Digital Pacific customers.

The techniques that have been pioneered to combat IPv4 exhaustion will continue to provide enough space for the internet to keep growing in the short term. These techniques also buy time necessary to enable IPv6 adoption to increase and to enable more IPv6-ready consumer hardware to enter the market.

For now, there is still enough room for everybody.
IPv4 Exhaustion Is The Internet Running Out Of Room?

Tags: Domain Names, IP address, Web Hosting, Website
Posted in Domain Names, Random, Web Hosting | 1 Comment »

Domain Registration Scam

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

We’ve told you about domain renewal scams before and would like to bring a similar one to your attention. Once again we’ve chosen to call this a scam even though it is technically a legit, yet deceiving, business practice.

This letter was forwarded on to us from one of our customers who own a .com.au domain. The way the scam operates is through a document sent in the mail that looks like an invoice for your domain. In reality it’s asking you to register a slight variation of your domain name at a heavily inflated price. As you can see on the letter the stated domain is a .com where the recipient owns a .com.au domain.

Domain Registration Scam

Because these letters look like an invoice a lot of people are paying them, no questions asked, especially with the prospect of receiving a free gift (a portable DVD player in this case) for paying before a certain date. As we said, technically this is a legal operation – notice the ‘this is an invitation to register’ in small text – but it’s extremely misleading and unethical and we don’t want people to be taken advantage of!

What to do if you get one of these letters? Throw it in the bin. Or if it’s from a different letter, please let us know about it so that we can bring it to the attention of our readers.

Tags: domain name scam, scam
Posted in Domain Names, Random, Support, Webmaster | 2 Comments »

The Newbie’s Guide to Getting Online

Monday, June 21st, 2010

Web hosting, bandwidth, domain names and code – where to start?! We understand that getting a website set up for the very first time can be a little on the overwhelming side for those not experienced. Choosing what’s going to work best for your needs takes into account numerous factors, but we’ve tried to make it easier with this handy guide.

The first thing on the list is a web hosting plan.

Web hosting is essential when wanting to set up a website because it acts as the place that stores the files, images and documents that make up your website. This space is basically a partition of a server (or large computer) that the Internet can have access to. Plans come in all different sizes, and they have varied features depending on your specific needs. If you aren’t planning on anything extravagant for your first website, then the more basic shared web hosting packages will probably suffice.

>> Read more in the Different Types of Web Hosting Explained.
>> Learn more about Digital Pacific’s Web Hosting Plans.

Are you debating between web hosting in Australia versus overseas? You might want to have a quick read-through of the benefits in hosting locally as opposed to internationally before making your final decision.

>> Take a look at these 5 Reasons to Choose Australian Web Hosting.

Choosing a domain name is the second essential step.

The domain name acts like an address to your web hosting account so that when a Web user enters the address, your information (website) is accessed and displayed. There are no real rules to choosing a domain name, but a little forethought can go a long way.

>> Take a look at these tips for Choosing the Right Domain Name.

With so many people getting online than ever before, you might find that your preferred domain name has already been taken. If it has, don’t worry! It just means you might have to get a bit more creative.

>> Take a look at these Creative Ways to Choose a Domain Name.
>> Learn more about domain registration through Digital Pacific.

The biggest step in getting online is deciding how to build the website.

This all depends on your personal website needs, your knowledge and your budget if you decide to have someone else do the dirty work for you.

>> Read more in How to Build a Website.

If your needs are basic, and your coding knowledge limited, there are the possibilities of using an easy Sitebuilder or installing a content management system. A CMS is generally constructed so that individuals can make updates and changes without having to deal with any sticky code.

If you do know a bit of code and are willing to sit down and do the work, then it might be worthwhile checking out some great tools that can help with the process.

>> Read more about these Awesome Tools for Coding Websites.

Finally, you will want to put the finishing touches on your site just before it goes live.

Did you forget to insert your keywords? Did you check the way it looks in different Web browsers? There are a million and one things to look at when dealing with a website, and if you want to make the best impression possible, you will want to go over all of them. However, it might not be possible to do that, so at least look at the big ones, such as spelling and grammar of the content, navigability, links and buttons.

Of course, we can add numerous items to this guide, but these are the important ones for those that have never been online before and just want a way to make it happen quickly. After you have this all covered, you can start looking at other activities associated with having a website, such as website marketing and SEO.

As always, you can give our sales team a call (1300 MY HOST) if you have any questions on getting set up for the first time. We are always happy to help!

Tags: Choosing a domain name, getting online, Guide to Getting Online, how to build a website, newbie's guide, Why Choose Australian Hosting
Posted in Domain Names | No Comments »

AuDA’s NEW Domain Name Drop List

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

AuDAs NEW Domain Name Drop List AuDA, the Australian domain authority, has recently released the Domain Drop List on their official website. The Domain Drop List will mention all domains in the .au domain that are about to be purged from the registrant system, and then put back on the market as available to be registered by anyone who so desires. The list contains both domains that have simply expired and domains that have either been deleted by the previous owner, or by auDA themselves. This, along with other policy changes, first appears daunting to current .au domain owners, but upon further review provides several benefits to those using the list to their advantage.

A Word of Caution

Being in the business of domain names, we at Digital Pacific cannot stress enough how important it is to stay on top of your domain renewals. Registering a domain name does not entitle you to that domain name forever; when a registration period ends, and the domain name has gone without renewal, the domain name is then put on the drop list. Once officially purged, the domain name is put back on the open market.

Just imagine losing a business domain name, a crucial part of your Internet business identity and online marketing endeavours, just because you forgot to make the renewal date.

Now, with the Domain Drop List, auDA also mentions the exact time that these names will be purged from the system and put back on the market. Anyone who is desperately after a certain domain name will now know exactly when they are able to attempt a registration, meaning it might be a bit more important for you to know your renewal dates.

What can you do?

Don’t worry! Simply staying on top of your renewal date is key. If you can do that, then there should be no problems with your account, and no cause to lose your domain name. Also, with the recent policy changes from auDA, you can create a common renewal date if you have more than one domain name. This keeps you from having to manage multiple domain renewal dates.

Besides the expired domain names, the drop list also mentions the domain names that have been voluntarily canceled by the domain owner. These domain names are those that the previous owner has decided he/she no longer wants. However, these previous owners are still able to forfeit their cancellation at any point up to the purge date if they should change their mind.

In some cases, auDA is the one that has decided to cancel the domain names, in which case they would also have to be the ones to overturn this decision before the purge date.

The Benefits of auDA’s New Policies

It’s not all “watch your back” with the new policy rules in place by auDA. They actually open up some doors to those willing to use them and the Domain Drop List to their advantage.

Entrepreneurs, for example, might find it useful to choose a domain name that has been previously owned, and here’s why:

Some of the domains on the drop list may still be receiving visitors from the past owner’s efforts to build up the website. This could mean instant traffic for your newly acquired domain name.
Some of the domains on the drop list may already have links coming in to the site. Looking at this from an SEO perspective, choosing a dropped domain can possibly give domain owners a great head start.

For entrepreneurial individuals that are either looking to diversify a business or start a new venture, the domain drop list is an excellent first place to look. You may be pleasantly surprised by what is about to be dropped and enjoy additional benefits by choosing to snatch one up.

Other Policy Features to Note

Before the new policy changes, auDA used to run purges at random times unknown to the public. Now, the purges will take place daily at either 1:00pm AEST or 2:00pm AEDT, further adding to the exact knowledge that the public has for when to acquire a recycled domain.
Renewals for domain names may occur up to 90 days before the expiry date. The expiry date is automatically set for 2 years after the original expiry date.
After a domain name reaches its its expiry date, there is a 30 day period during which time the domain may be renewed by the current registrant. If the 30 days passes, the domain is put on the drop list.

If you happen to find a domain name you are interested in on auDA’s drop list, you can visit our homepage after the expiry period to start the domain registration process.

For further reading, check out Domain Name Basics and Frequently Asked Questions.

How do you feel about auDA’s new Domain Drop List and policy changes? Do you like the idea of seeing the exact purge dates for expired domains on the auDA website?

Tags: au domain, auDA, auDA domain drop list, domain drop list, Domain Names
Posted in Domain Names | 2 Comments »

Happy Belated Birthday, Dotcom!

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

Did you know that the dotcom domain celebrated a milestone birthday last week? March 15, 2010 marked the 25th anniversary of the day the very first dotcom domain name was registered.

It was 1985, and one company – Symbolics computers – registered the very first domain with a dotcom address (symbolics.com). You were probably oblivious to this achievement as it was not a popular topic at the time. In fact, only 5 other companies took advantage of registering dotcoms that very year, showing just how slow the dotcom revolution was to catch on in the beginning.

Twelve years passed before the one millionth dotcom was registered, but now is a completely different story. Today, over 60% of that 12 year achievement is completed in just one month!

Can you remember life before the growth of the dotcom domain?

Advertising, shopping, connecting with friends and businesses; dotcoms have become so popular in our everyday life that most people perform these actions via one daily. It seems that the majority of people jump directly on the Internet when needing to research a product, and many simply resort to typing in the company name plus a dotcom at the end to find a website. Most advertisements for products and services in papers, magazines, radio and television will end by making a call to a domain name. Today, choosing a catchy domain name is pretty much just as important as choosing the business name itself.

The interesting part of this whole process is the claim that it wouldn’t have been made possible without the institution of the first popular web browser. This was the point where the Internet moved from basic government and education use to a more commercialised focus.

In honour of dotcom’s big birthday, let’s celebrate by taking a trip down memory lane.

1. In what year did you register your first dotcom domain name?
2. Do you still maintain that website today?
3. How has dotcom as an institution impacted your life?

And, if you don’t already own a dotcom domain, you can change that by registering your very own through Digital Pacific. For more details, be sure to review the Domain Registration page.

Tags: 25 years dot com, 25th anniversary .com, Domain Names, domain registration, dotcom
Posted in Domain Names | No Comments »

Creative Ways to Choose a Domain Name

Monday, January 25th, 2010

1.Use Keywords

When a good domain name is taken, such as one matching your business name, then using a combination of keywords is a good alternate route. Make a list of words and phrases that web users might be entering into search engines to find a site like yours, and then come up with a catchy combination that you can still register.

2.Use Hyphens

Break up words in your desired domain name with hyphens if the name is already taken.

3.Different Extension

The .com and .com.au extensions are going to naturally be the most popular and well-known extensions to Australians, so the chance of your name being gone is more likely on these extensions. If possible, try choosing another extension, such as .net and .net.au if the registration requirements can be met.

4.Drop Letters

Flickr made a bold move by dropping that last vowel, but it has been something both innovative and marketable on their behalf. However, marketable is the key word here. If you do decide to drop a letter, you will need to make sure this name is marketed quite well in order to make sure web users are accessing the right page.

5.Domain Hacking

Domain hacking has become quite popular these days with the rollout of numerous new domain extensions. The extension .me, for example, has led domain registrants to choose cute domains like love.me and contact.me. It is also possible to split a word up to include the extension like in revie.ws. As with dropping letters, these types of domains need to be marketed well in order to ensure the web user will understand where the extension is involved.

6.Acronyms

Acronyms are a great way to break down long names and phrases into a short and memorable domain name. Of recent popularity are the acronyms brought about by texting slang, such as omg.com (Oh My God) and idk.com (I Don’t Know).

7.Subdomains

Subdomains easily open up a number of witty domain name ideas. Subdomains go in front of the main domain name and can combine with the main domain to both categorise and create something catchy. A quick example could involve the main domain of for-you.com. If this website sells different products, there could be subdomains tossed in like flowers.for-you.com and chocolate.for-you.com.

8.Merge Words

Creating new words from merging two keywords or descriptive words is yet another creative option. Wordoid is a website that specially helps with this process. All you do is enter in a word that you would definitely like to have in your name, and then it “automagically” presents you with various ideas.

9.Prefixes and Suffixes

The iPhone has now caused a trend of applications that are named starting with the letter “i”, so it is always a possibility to follow suit and try adding a prefix of your own. Fun suffixes can also turn a normal and used up domain name into something new. Take the popular –ster ending that can take a normal domain from blog.com to blogster.com and so on.

Posted in Domain Names | No Comments »

Domain Renewal Scam – Warning

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

Knowing how important the domain name is to individuals and businesses online, some sneaky scam artists are tricking people into renewing the domain name early, and transferring domain registrars in the process. There is one company in particular that we have received various letters on ourselves that we would like to point out to unsuspecting domain owners. We have also decided to label it as a scam even though it is technically a legit, yet shady, business practice.

Domain Renewal Scam Warning

Since domain owner information and domain expiration dates are listed in the public WHOIS directory, this company is taking advantage of this knowledge and sending out domain renewal notice advertisements (that look like bills) in advance. The whole point of the advertisement / bill is to make it appear as though you must pay in order to maintain domain ownership. However, even though the advertisement / bill makes the company seem to be the current registrar at face value, the fine print actually states that this is a form to TRANSFER domain registration from your actual registrar to this new company.

For this one particular company that plagues Australian domain owners, the problems are as follows:

Most domain names are only registered on a yearly basis, so by the time the domain finally rolls around for renewal, the owner may have forgotten the exact name of the company initially used. The individuals too busy to tend to the fine details could possibly respond to the advertisment / bill with payment without understanding the true meaning.
The wording on the front of the document, which looks like a bill, does actually state it would call for a domain transfer, but those that don’t read the document thoroughly could easily overlook this fact because of the way the document is designed.
The fine print on the back is extremely lengthy and small. Most people will not take the time to read this information and simply overlook it as technical drivel. Come on, you know you do it, too.
The payment sent to this company is non-refundable should issues arise and the domain transfer is denied. The company then states that it will try to register the domain name from the date of expiry and onward, but even if the company is unable to register it, the fee is still non-refundable.
The fee for the domain renewal can be quite high. So, when a person might be spending $19.90 for a one year .com domain name renewal with Digital Pacific, the company in question is charging more than twice that amount.
The company is technically American based, but they have acquired an Australian billing address that they paste all over the letter. This adds to the confusion of the Australian domain name holder.

The best way to avoid domain renewal scams, such as this, is to just be aware. Know when your domain is set to expire, and best of all, know the name of your current domain name provider.
The best thing to do if you get one of these letters is to put it straight in to the paper recycle bin. Don’t even give it any thought.

Have you ever received a sneaky letter like this pertaining to your domain name? If so, we’d love to hear about it so we can keep our customers informed.

Added 31/03/10
As an addition to this post we have just been made aware of another domain renewal scam that may be doing the rounds. Please be aware of the following email.
Domain Renewal Scam Warning

Added 17/09/10
Yet another domain name scam. Please be aware of the following email.

Domain Renewal Scam Warning

Tags: au domain, domain, domain letter, domain name letter scam, domain name renewal scams, domain name warning, Domain Names, domain registration scam, domain renewal group, domain scams, renewals, scams
Posted in Domain Names | 7 Comments »

Free Domain Names Giveaway – Get ‘em while they’re hot!

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

You can stop pinching yourself because you are definitely not dreaming. Digital Pacific is making it easier, and cheaper, to get your business online with a free domain name giveaway. Now, with every 3, 6 or 12 month subscription to a business web hosting plan, we will provide a registration of your chosen domain name… for free!

Eligible domains: .com.au, .net.au, .org.au, .id.au, .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info.

The domain name registration will not cost you a thing, and it is necessary in order to get your business online and build an image on the web anyway. All it takes is the purchase of any 3, 6 or 12 month business hosting plan, from Basic to Enterprise, and your business will be equipped with everything it needs to get started.

As always with something this good, you know it won’t last forever. So, hurry up and order your business web hosting, get the free domain, and tweet it on the cyber streets to all your friends. This deal is only valid through October 31, 2009.

*To take advantage of this offer, please visit our Business Web Hosting page and use the order now links.

Tags: Domain Names, free domain names
Posted in Company News, Domain Names | No Comments »

How do I transfer my domain?

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

Sometimes a domain name provider may charge a lot more than another for domain names. Because of this, a very popular support call to Digital Pacific involves the question, as seen in the title, “How do I transfer my domain name?” Normally, this question is asked in the sense that a customer has already purchased a domain name from another provider and would like to transfer it to Digital Pacific, perhaps to take advantage of a decreased registration fee. Since this is such a popular topic, we have decided to focus on the process in this article.

Why would I transfer a domain name?

Domain name transfers change the entity responsible for the domain records. Perhaps you would like to take advantage of cheaper registration fees, or just because you would like to keep all domain names and hosting in one place with the goal of making management easier. It is important to note that a domain name is the same no matter where the domain name is held.

Important Note

Before completing and submitting any transfer forms, we suggest that you update the nameservers of your domain to point to Digital Pacific at NS1.DIGITALPACIFIC.COM.AU and NS2.DIGITALPACIFIC.COM.AU. Completing this process will help to ensure your website stays active after the domain finishes the transfer and gets put into a locked mode for a few days.

Basic Process

Usually, the process to transfer a domain name will be laid out on the domain provider’s website, you can perform a domain name transfer without any intervention from the current registrar, as long as you have your domain transfer password you can move your domain name to any registrar of your choice. Below we are going to let you know the steps to keep in mind if you are transferring a domain name to Digital Pacific.

To transfer a .au domain name to Digital Pacific, you must first do two things:

1) Make sure your email address associated with the domain is valid so you can receive the domain transfer initiation email. To do this simply log in to the members section where your domain name is currently registered and update your email address.

2) Get your domain password, which you can do by using the domain password retrieval tool on the auDA website.

When you have these two items sorted, fill out the domain name transfer form after which time Digital Pacific will send the initiation email. You MUST click on the link in this email for the transfer to begin, if you don’t click this confirmation link the transfer is void. After you have confirmed the transfer it should take in the area of 2 to 5 days to complete which will be confirmed by an email from Digital Pacific.

The cost of transfer is free if the domain name is not set to expire in the next 90 days.

To transfer a global domain name (.com, .net, etc.) to Digital Pacific, you must do three things first:

2) Get your EPP code, which you can do by contacting your current provider. In most cases you will be able to see your EPP code or transfer password from within your current registrars management section. They usually hide it somewhere tricky just to make life a little harder for you when you are taking your domain name management from them.

3) Whilst you are in the management console make sure domain transfer lock is OFF at your current provider. This is a mechanism that stops people from stealing domains via some sneaky methods.

When you have these three items sorted, fill out the domain name transfer form after which time Digital Pacific will send you the initiation email. You MUST click on the link in this email for the transfer to begin. After you have confirmed the transfer it may take up to 7 days to complete which will be noted by an email from Digital Pacific.

The cost of transfer is the same as the cost of a new domain registration, however the transfer process also adds another 12 months on to the current expiry date, so essentially you are not really paying for a transfer but also another 12 month extension. It is important to note that a global domain must be renewed at the current provider, before transfer, if it is set to expire in the next 7 days. We have had customers attempt to transfer domain names one or two days prior to the due date that, in most cases render the domain inaccessible.

So, if you feel the need to move your previously purchased domain names to Digital Pacific, we hope this gives you a bit of guidance for the process. By doing so, you can better manage your domain names and hosting, or just get a great rate for future renewals.

If everything you have read above is too confusing, please give us a call and we can help with the process.