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Let’s say you’ve read an interesting article or come up with an idea for which you’d like to create your own website, so after much deliberation, you decide to register the domain name verygooddomainname.com to launch a new business.
Our story begins on 12 July 2021, when you’re ready to launch your business.
For ease of reading, in this article we have simplified the 30- and 60-day periods to 1 month and 2 months respectively. This means that when 1 August is extended by 30 days, 1 September appears, rather than 31 August.
2021 – Domain name registration
During the domain name registration process, aWh’s domain name system checks:
- Is the desired domain extension (.com) available?
- Is the domain name available?
Depending on the domain extension, you may need to meet certain requirements; for example, you must be a citizen or resident of the European Union to register a .eu domain. With the .com extension, however, you need not worry: it is available to everyone and there are no specific requirements.
Following a successful check, the system creates the domain name record and forwards the data to the back-end system, including contact details, the creation and expiry dates, and the DNS servers.
2022 – Domain name renewal
It’s now been 10 months (60 days before the expiry date); today is 12 May 2022. Great, business is going well and your website is attracting lots of visitors.
However, the domain name nagyonjodomainnev.com is due to expire soon, so this is your first notification regarding this. As you would like to keep your website accessible online, you will renew it for a further two years on 13 May 2022.
The domain name is due to expire on 12 July 2024.
2024 – The forgotten renewal
Two years have passed, and other things in life have taken priority; the website at nagyonjodomainnev.com is no longer as important. Consequently, despite all the notifications (60 days, 30 days, 15 days, 7 days and 3 days before expiry), I forgot to manually renew the domain name. The domain name expires on 12 July 2024.
Following this, a grace period of up to 45 days (auto-renew grace period) begins for the domain name (this period varies depending on the domain extension; for example, it is 30 days for .hu domains), during which the domain can usually be reinstated for the standard renewal fee.
If renewal does not take place within 45 days, the domain name will enter a 30-day redemption grace period, during which it can still be restored, but at a significantly higher fee.
There are now two options:
- If you allow it to expire permanently, the domain name will be released, meaning it will once again be available to anyone.
- You don’t want to risk losing your domain name, so you’re requesting a restoration
2024 – Restoration
The domain has been suspended and was almost lost; in a few days’ time, it will be returned to the public domain name registry. The 45-day grace period has expired, but the domain name can still be restored during the redemption period. Not wanting to risk someone else acquiring it, after a few days’ thought, he decides to hold on to the domain name for a little longer and will restore it specifically on 20 August 2024.
This process is very similar to renewal, but registries often charge a much higher price (an increase of around 400 per cent for .com domains).
During the restoration process, the domain name is extended by one year and reactivated. Once the process is complete, the domain name will be fully operational and the associated hosting services will be available again.
2024 – Enabling automatic renewal
To avoid any future problems, you’ll need to enable the automatic renewal feature on 21 August 2024.
This ensures that your domain name is automatically renewed every year, provided you have a valid payment method set up in your account.
Lessons learnt and recommendations
- Automatic renewal: It’s always worth enabling automatic renewal to avoid any problems arising from your service expiring.
- Monitoring notifications: Keep an eye on the notifications sent by the registrar before the expiry date.
- Multi-year registration: Consider registering your domain name for several years to secure ownership in the long term.
- Updating your contact details: Please ensure that your contact details are up to date, as any omissions may result in your domain name being suspended or deleted.