Long-term maintenance of domain names

Dan,
I doubt this is a new business opportunity. My
first thought was pobox.com, but they seem a bit
expensive for this service. Your best bet may be
some Registrars with domain parking. 1and1.com
offers this for $.99/month. I believe you can
set some type of autocharge up with this to make
sure the bill keeps getting paid. Register.com
also has a service for $19.99 or $29.99 a year
(depending on features.) I would think these are
your best bets.

Nick

On Jan 17, 2005, at 11:46 AM, Dan Hinckley wrote:

> Does anyone have suggestions for services/ISP's who might offer the
> kind of specialized hosting that would enable my wife, for example,
> to maintain the email addresses even though she doesn't understand
> the first thing about the whole hosting, address creation, email
> program setup, etc.? This assumes she and others would be willing to
> pay a bit of a premium for such support.
>
> Finding a younger person in the clan is probably the best solution but
> failing that, ideas?

Fastmail.fm has treated my aging and somewhat technoilliterate parents
very well, and provided excellent support in a language they can speak.
When they need help, I (the younger person in the family) can log in
remotely and provide assistance.

If you need more than email, it may not be the best, but it's pretty
good.

The only down side is that the Fastmail interface for handling multiple
email addresses in a domain (with multiple fastmail accounts) is less
than wholly straight forward.

DreamHost.com is also a good host and provides good service, as does
HostGo.com.

A local ISP (with people in the same town who can help) can also be a
boon for this sorta situation.

--Nik

> Does anyone have suggestions for services/ISP's who might offer the kind
> of specialized hosting that would enable my wife, for example, to
> maintain the email addresses even though she doesn't understand the
> first thing about the whole hosting, address creation, email program
> setup, etc.? This assumes she and others would be willing to pay a bit
> of a premium for such support.

mydomain.com (I think) allows you to pay an annual fee to register a
domain and forward some reasonable number of email accounts to whereever
you want. So you can point mommymom.com to 912kdswisshosting.com. She
gives out mommymon.com to everyone. It does require some setup and
intervention when/if an ISP change occurs.

On 1/19/2005 15:37, "David Ross" <drdavidrossconsultant.com> wrote:

>> Does anyone have suggestions for services/ISP's who might offer the kind
>> of specialized hosting that would enable my wife, for example, to
>> maintain the email addresses even though she doesn't understand the
>> first thing about the whole hosting, address creation, email program
>> setup, etc.? This assumes she and others would be willing to pay a bit
>> of a premium for such support.
>
> mydomain.com (I think) allows you to pay an annual fee to register a
> domain and forward some reasonable number of email accounts to whereever
> you want. So you can point mommymom.com to 912kdswisshosting.com. She
> gives out mommymon.com to everyone. It does require some setup and
> intervention when/if an ISP change occurs.

Some of the messages in this thread have bothered me (not this one in
particular). The goal here is to make things *easy* for mom in the event
the original poster (and others in his position) depart prematurely.

That's not done by seeking the best price point...it is done by trying hard
to pick a service which has a decent chance of being around for as long as
mom needs it, and which will support mom should she need to call with a
problem she can't really describe very well*, or to fold the business
cleanly (transferring accounts to another quality operation).

The service should also have an auto renewal feature (as most do). That
works (fewer do).

* We've had support calls which were "I can't get on the Internet" which
turned out to mean there was a faulty address in the Outlook Express out
box, which prevented Outlook Express from sending, which causes Outlook
Express not to try to receive. The service you find for mom should be
willing to work through similarly mis-diagnosed problems with the domain.

  --John (just because we've been in the ISP business since 1993 doesn't
mean we'll survive another 11 years...but it is an indicator...we aren't the
service mom should use for other reasons)

At 10:15 PM 01/19/2005 -0800, John W. Baxter wrote:
>The service should also have an auto renewal feature (as most do). That
>works (fewer do).

Better yet, it should accept a one-time payment to finance handling the
domain in perpetuity. Or at least as long as the company and the current
domain name system last.

I would think that a few hundred dollars, perhaps a thousand, would be
enough. Obviously it's a big chunk of change, but not excessive to fund via
a will when the email identities of a number of friends and relatives for a
decade or two are at stake.

Edward

Edward wrote:
> Long-term maintenance of domain names
>
> Message #5: Re: Long-term maintenance of domain names
> Posted by edward on 07:04am Jan 20, 2005
> Posted via email
>
> At 10:15 PM 01/19/2005 -0800, John W. Baxter wrote:
> >The service should also have an auto renewal feature
> > (as most do).That works (fewer do).
> >
>
> Better yet, it should accept a one-time payment to finance
> handling the domain in perpetuity. Or at least as long
> as the company and the current domain name system last.
>
> I would think that a few hundred dollars, perhaps a thousand,
> would be enough. Obviously it's a big chunk of change, but not
> excessive to fund viaa will when the email identities of a
> number of friends and relatives for decade or two are at stake.
>
> Edward

Network Solutions offers (and has under several changes of ownership)
"100+ year $9.99 per year" 'save 70% best price' domain name registration.

[Now there's a new definition of hell - 100 years of DNS service from Network Solutions. I strongly warn everyone away from NSI. We had huge problems with them over the years until we finally got everything moved over to easyDNS. -Adam]

--
Greg

> [Now there's a new definition of hell - 100 years of DNS service from
> Network Solutions. I strongly warn everyone away from NSI. We had huge
> problems with them over the years until we finally got everything
> moved over to easyDNS. -Adam]

I'm going to second this, and also chime in about people I know that
didn't receive notification that their domains were about to expire. In
more than one case, the domains were snapped up by parkers.

Marilyn

Quoting GP <gregpuzaearthlink.net>:
> [Now there's a new definition of hell - 100 years of DNS service from
> Network Solutions. I strongly warn everyone away from NSI. We had
> huge problems with them over the years until we finally got
> everything moved over to easyDNS. -Adam]

Seconded. I've never had a good relationship with Network Solutions, or their
parent company Verisign. I've moved 2 domains from Network Solutions
(originally registered when they were the only game in town) and it
took over a
week each to get them moved.

I do currently run some credit card approvals through Verisign's processing
system. That hasn't been as traumatic, but I've been digging around for a
better solution at a similar cost.

Kevin

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Re: Long-term maintenance of domain names

I'm new to this group and after reading only your paragraph below,
thought of sharing with you the name of the domain service where my web
name is currently parked. So far, they have several features that
automatically renew and protect my website in case I forget. They are
very reasonable and after they were recommended by G4 TechTV, the
ScreenSavers' program, I was happy to agree with their their
recommendation of them:

http://registerfly.com

I hope this helps with what you're looking to do.

Regards,
Patricia :)

At 02:24 PM 01/21/2005 -0800, GP wrote:
>Network Solutions offers (and has under several changes of ownership)
>"100+ year $9.99 per year" 'save 70% best price' domain name registration.

Beyond the major problem which Adam already noted -- it's NSI -- this is
only the domain registration. To keep email flowing for users in a domain,
the services needed are

   1) domain name registration
   2) DNS provision
   3) mail server, either POP or forwarding

NSI only provides the first. easyDNS has a package with all three (email
forwarding for the third), but no long-term pricing. Others also have
packages of the three services, but I haven't run across long term or "in
perpetuity" pricing.

Edward Reid

Edward Reid wrote:
>
> At 02:24 PM 01/21/2005 -0800, GP wrote:
> >Network Solutions offers..."100+ year $9.99 per year" 'save 70% [ ... ]
> Beyond the major problem which Adam already noted -- it's NSI --
> this is only the domain registration. To keep email flowing ...
[ ... ]
> NSI only provides the first. easyDNS has a package with
> all three (email forwarding for the third), but no long-term
> pricing. Others also...
[ ... ]
> Edward Reid

I certainly stand corrected. Several much more knowledgable folks
weighed in on this subject. All I meant to do was forward NetSol
"propaganda" sent to me which mentioned the fact that they _said_ "100
years" worth of registry for a fixed amount. I have no stake in NSI
(other than to _now_ wonder where I should go when my time is up!).
Engage Re-Lurk: Make it so.

[No worries, Greg. Your post was a great chance to warn people. :) -Adam]

Greg

At 09:32 AM 01/24/2005 -0800, Patricia Juarez wrote:
>they have several features that automatically renew and protect my website
>in case I forget.

That's another interesting data point. If you can trust one of your users
to take over your email account and transfer the automatic renewal payments
to a new account, then any service providing the three requirements
(registration, DNS, email server) and also auto-renewal could provide the
needed service. The issue then becomes what promise they make about long
term operation.

(Of course, whatever account you are using for automatic payments will
probably die with you, so unless you can pre-fund the service, someone has
to take over payment.)

Edward Reid

Some ISPs may offer this but many don't. Self-employed geeks like me often
do.

I maintain quite a few small domains for clients. Renewing the domain name
and keeping the e-mail setup (and spam filters) in good shape is a small
part of the package. I have a couple of clients for whom that's pretty much
all I do.

For a simple setup, the billing for my time on this is typically tens of
dollars per year.

There are lots of people like me out there who will be your on-call
geek/consultant. Look in your yellow pages, or look in the newsletter of a
local PC or Mac users' group - most computer stores will have them, or look
for a Web site - where you will probably find a few small ads from people
like me.

-------------------------------------------
Tim Hicks, Content Strategist
TRH Communications, Victoria, B.C.
http://www.trh.bc.ca

I highly recommend GoDaddy.com (silly name, outstanding service and pricing) for domain name registration and mail.

http://www.godaddy.com

I've been using them for over 4 years for all my clients. 10 years of domain name registration for $69.50. Email for as little as $9.95/year.

At 9:32 AM -0800 1/24/05, Edward Reid wrote:
>only the domain registration. To keep email flowing for users in a domain,
>the services needed are

I interpreted the original request as arranging for domain management
after one's death, in which case you also need to arrange for someone
to keep the domain running and make any needed changes. I would
think that these kinds of arrangements should be part of a will, and
one's estate could provide money to pay for ongoing services and
maintenance.

Besides the financial aspect, there's also the issue of arranging for
someone to take over the management if one was unable to do so. That
could mean obtaining the passwords for logging into the hosting site,
or arranging for a 2nd account that can manage the domain.

Also, this issue extends beyond just maintaining domain names.
Recently, there was a controversy in the news because the parents of
an American service member killed in Iraq wanted to access their
son's email account. They asked Yahoo to provide the password, but
Yahoo refused citing their privacy policy.

If you wanted people to access your webmail or personal computers
after your death, then you'd probably want to make specific
arrangements for them to do so. Conversely, if you did not want them
to have access, you might want to explicitly arrange for your
accounts and computers to be erased.

Finally, a similar issue arises with small organizations, such as
nonprofits, that maintain an online presence. You want to make sure
that just because someone leaves (or is fired from) the organization,
it doesn't lose access to everything. One consideration is to ensure
that the registration, etc. is in the organization's name rather than
the individual that happened to set it up initially.

--
Larry Rosenstein
lsralum.mit.edu

At 9:32 AM -0800 1/24/05, Patricia Juarez wrote:
>name is currently parked. So far, they have several features that
>automatically renew and protect my website in case I forget. They are

I suspect that most companies would allow for automatic renewal, but
you have to remember that credit cards have expiration dates, so
these services won't renew themselves indefinitely. I ran into this
recently because I had arranged for automatic TurboTax updates. But
my credit card expired before this year's update, and because I
forgot to resolve it, the automatic updates ended.

--
Larry Rosenstein
lsralum.mit.edu

Kevin wrote:

Seconded. I've never had a good relationship with Network Solutions, or their parent company Verisign. I've moved 2 domains from Network Solutions (originally registered when they were the only game in town) and it took over a week each to get them moved.

Perhaps Adam will nuke this because it's off-topic, but I can one-up you on that. I have a domain it took me literally three years to transfer. I would try for a couple of weeks, several faxxes and phone calls, and give up in utter frustration for 6 or 8 months, and then go through it all again. I won't bore you with the details, but I *finally* got it moved a few months ago.

[Nuke a message that says bad things about Network Solutions? Perish the thought! They caused me so many headaches over the years that I'm going to be paying them back as long as they exist. :-) Amusingly, after I transferred one domain away, I got a call from a survey firm ostensibly doing a random survey of people who owned domain names. I had to keep asking the guy if I could go lower than 1 on a scale of 1 to 10 on any question that surrounded Network Solutions. And when he was done, I asked if Network Solutions was the sponsor of the survey, and when he said they were, I gave him a some general feedback that I felt they were one of the worst companies I'd ever had the misfortune to do business with. -Adam]

And I also want to endorse Patricia's endorsement of Registerfly - they're great!

On 1/25/2005 13:23, "Larry Rosenstein" <lsralum.mit.edu> wrote:

> Finally, a similar issue arises with small organizations, such as
> nonprofits, that maintain an online presence. You want to make sure
> that just because someone leaves (or is fired from) the organization,
> it doesn't lose access to everything. One consideration is to ensure
> that the registration, etc. is in the organization's name rather than
> the individual that happened to set it up initially.

You want a role account for the contact, and you want the mail handling for
that role account address to be easily adjusted.

  --John

At 1:23 PM -0800 2005/01/25, Tim Hicks wrote:
>Some ISPs may offer this but many don't. Self-employed geeks like me often
>do.

        And what about when you (or I, since I can offer similar service
see <http://mmcc.beda.ca/>) kick the bucket? Should we be trying to form a
cross linked network to take over each other's clients if the need should
arise?

On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 09:37:56 -0800, Johann Beda <st-tidbitsbeda.ca> wrote:
> At 1:23 PM -0800 2005/01/25, Tim Hicks wrote:
> >Some ISPs may offer this but many don't. Self-employed geeks like me often
> >do.
>
> And what about when you (or I, since I can offer similar service
> see <http://mmcc.beda.ca/>) kick the bucket? Should we be trying to form a
> cross linked network to take over each other's clients if the need should
> arise?

This is something not enough people plan for. I can give one example
from personal experience. I ran a business in which, at the time I
bought it, had three main suppliers of computerized systems, with a
4th just starting to worm his way into the market.

The second year, there were only 3. One of the companies the chief
janitor, head programmer, and CEO (it was a three person operation,
but the other two were not involved in the programming) dropped dead
of a massive coronary. The other two didn't even know where the source
code was, and couldn't have done anything with it if they had.

Remember, backups don't apply just to your data. You need a backup
for YOU as well.

If you are supporting people, your records need to be concise and
clear enough that your designated executor will be able to reconstruct
your files, if needed. Your executor should, if at all possible, have
more than a passing familiarity with your business. You have to have
a will that lays out where things are, who has what, who needs to do
what, and what, if any, exit strategy your clients have.

No one wants to think about it, but you also don't want to leave
people who rely on you out in the cold if you get hit by a passing
meteorite, either.

--
<http://2blog.kreme.com/>