[conspire] (forw) Re: Domain registrars

[Rick Moen]

I wrote:

> 6. Best Practices for Domain Owners
> 
> a) The single best thing you can do to avoid problems and maximise
> satisfaction is always keep domains of interest multiple years away
> from expiration.

I forgot to include the _most_ important addendum to that:

a1)  _If_ by some mishap / oversight, you ever find yourself less than
30 days out from expiration (of a domain you wish to keep), don't even
think of doing anything except immediate renewal.  Even if you hate your
registrar, do _not_ do anything else.  Particularly, _never_ attempt
transfer to a new registrar within a month before expiration.

Why?  For whatever reason, it's been well noted that registrars seem to
be unusually accident-prone during the final month, when a customer
atttempts to jump ship at that dangerous time:  Requests get lost or
never acted on for unexplained reasons, and sometimes the result is an
expired and lost domain.  Don't take this chance:  Pay for immediate,
normal renewal, and only _then_ think about moving to a better
registrar.


The friends who'd asked for advice left their help request as voicemail
on my cellular phone while Deirdre and I were on our Caribbean cruise,
in early December.  They'd waited until _two days_ before expiration at
Network Solution (NetSol), and were considering initiating transfer to a
better registrar -- the worst possible course of action in those
circumstances.

Fortunately, in my absence, they had the good sense to pay the NetSol
renewal and defer choice of new registrar until later, which was the
right judgement call.