You Should Renew Your Domains Before They Expire

You Should Renew Your Domains Before They Expire

Thanks to what I assume was an issue with someone’s company card, Samsung forgot to renew a potentially dangerous domain, leaving it to be purchased by Anubis Labs chief technology officer and nice guy João Gouveia. According to Motherboard, the domain associated with Samsung’s S Suggest app “ssuggest.com” was seemingly abandoned, giving Gouveia (or any hacker) the opportunity to purchase it.

Image credit: C Flanigan/Getty

I remember the first domain I let expire. I bought areyoucool.cool after hearing about Sesame Street using the domain name in an episode. I had it redirect to my personal page as a joke. Cultural ephemera aside, when it came time to renew I was hesitant in paying the $US20 ($26) fee. You, like Samsung, know what happened next.

In short, after archiving a few annoying emails about it, I lost my totally cool domain. What I didn’t know is that I could’ve gotten it back even after a few days of deliberation after its expiration. If you miss your domain renewal deadline, don’t fall to your knees in despair, cursing God for your memory lapse. Thanks to ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, you have a few days to obtain your domain name even after it expires. You’ll be fine.

Set a reminder

It’s simple. Whenever a domain is registered, throw an item in your calendar to-do list app a year from now with your domain name in it. If you aren’t that religious with your appointments, then your email address will function in the same manner. Domain registrars usually send you reminder emails when your domain is nearing its expiration date. In fact, it’s required, according to ICANN:

Registrars are required to send renewal reminders 30 and five days before (and five days after) the expiration of a domain name. The registrar must display on its website the methods for sending these notices.

Buy more years

Of course, you can always just shell out a few more bucks and kick the can down the road. Your domain registrar may offer multi-year registration options, so if you’re sworn to using something like, oh, I don’t know, samsung.com, you can just buy in bulk and keep it moving.

Avoid redemption

In total, you have about 70 to 75 days to recover an expired domain. Be warned, though. The longer you wait, the pricier it may be.

After your domain expires, it enters what’s called an Auto-Renew Grace Period, where for up to 45 days you can easily renew your domain. That doesn’t mean your domain works (it won’t) but it means no one can snatch it from you until you decide whether or not you’d like to renew it.

All domains, after expiring, enter a 30-day Redemption Grace Period, where you can reacquire your expired domain name. Domain registrars may charge a redemption fee for the service, however (GoDaddy charges $US80 [$105] while Hover charges $US175 [$230]). When they charge a redemption fee also varies based on the registrar.

Every domain registrar handles the details of domain renewal differently, though they all follow similar ground rules. All domains should be renewed through the original registrar, and all are required to renew domains lest they break the Expired Registration Recovery Policy. In that case, you should file ICANN’s domain renewal complaint form to get started on the process to getting your domain back.


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