In the early days when a domain name expired, other people can register it immediately. Today Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) made it more complex to protect registrants. They created a “Grace Period”.
After domain name expired it will enter the “Auto-Renew Grace Period” which is 0-45 days. In this phase domains is still in zone (domain name will still resolve). Registrar often use the domain for its own purposes in this phase. During this period the registrar becomes the official owner of the domain but might still allow the registrant to renew it. Many registrar will try to make money by putting up PPC (pay per click) ads on the domain.
After the “Auto-Renew Grace Period”, it will then enter the “Redemption Grace Period” for 30 days which is no longer in zone (domain name will not resolve). Registrars would be able to redeem the name by paying renewal fees, plus a service charge, to the registry operator.
If the domain registrant does not take action to renew the domain within the 30 day redemption period, the domain will went into “pending deletion”, which lasts for 5 days. Once the domain enters into this period, the registrant can no longer renew the domain name. After the 5 days period the domain is deleted by the domain registry, allowing anyone to register it.
Here’s the summary:
- “Auto-Renew Grace Period” 0-45 days
- “Redemption Grace Period” 30 days
- “Pending deletion” 5 days
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15 comment(s)
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Thanks for sharing such a great information.
Cheers, Lisa!
Thank you for information.
Thanks for commenting, Anton!
Thanks for clearing this up. I never fully understood how domain registrations truly worked.
Thanks all the same, Richard
You can actually get your domain back if it goes into the pending delete status (at least from VeriSign). It costs at least $300 though last time I checked, because your registrar has to deal with the registry directly and everything is done manually.
I don’t see the point of this. It was simpler and better in the old days.
It’s not possible to snipe domain names away from people anymore. These new rules are great for the people who originally own the domain name but part of me thinks it should just be their responsibility to stay on top of their registration. If you can’t stay on top of it, it should be your loss and someone Else’s gain.
Nick, I can't agree more - Domain owners should take a certain measures themselves to prevent their domain names dropping out. The new rules are only making domain business not as interesting as before. Now people can just see their websites (and domain names) rot and dusty in their web servers without worrying that someone, more interested and responsible, can take care of their domains better - IMO, this is simply a "domain squatting" and not promoting good Internet practices.
Exactly! :)
I had no idea that it took so long for a domain to expire! I thought as soon as your time was up, it was on the market again.
I had looked everywhere for this article – something that I would do exactly what it said, without all the fuss and hassle. I had already wasted hours of time and who knows how much time on other blogs, so I have to thank you
for this article. Thanks!
This is a little off topic about the domain hosting, but did you guys hear that google is now going to put more weight into the speed at which a website loads as a ranking factor in 2010. This means that your hosting provider better serve up those websites fast.
This seems very fair… just make sure you renew your domain.
Any feedback from you?