

Ask HN: How to rescue trapped domain name? - tocomment

So when I first started hosting my site many years ago I used grokthis and I registered my domain name there too.  Now the domain name is expiring and I need to renew.<p>But grokthis is out of business and I don't get any responses to my emails!<p>I'm panicking, I only have 10 days until the domain expires.  Does anyone know what to do in this situation?  The name is utilitymill.com.
======
tocomment
I noticed on whois that the registrar is listed as eNom, INC.

I found this one their help page:
[http://supportcenter.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/24...](http://supportcenter.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/247)

Unfortunately I'm not listed on the contacts for the domain so I'm not sure if
it will work. I went ahead and submitted a ticket anyway.

~~~
iharris
I was in a similar situation a couple years ago - I had to renew a domain
whose registrar was eNom Canada and I wasn't listed as the site owner. I just
explained the situation fully and offered to pay for the renewal myself and
they eventually helped me out. They seemed pretty accommodating when renewals
were involved, a transfer would probably require you to jump through more
hoops. Good luck!

------
kaolinite
I have no idea I'm afraid but I just want to say - your site is fantastic. I
hope you get to keep your domain as I can see a number of uses for your site.

~~~
tocomment
Cool thanks! Let me know if you have any questions or feedback.

(Though you may have to access it by the IP address soon .... :-(

------
steventruong
The whois shows this:

Eric Windisch (nospam@bwbohh.net) +1.2152691915

You can try giving him a ring directly

~~~
tocomment
Good point. I didn't try calling yet. I'll give that a try.

~~~
tocomment
Nope, phone number is dead.

------
cadab
Even after its expired, i'm sure its held for another 3 months before anyone
else can buy it.

~~~
GauntletWizard
It's held for three months, but only the first month is your window to rebuy;
After that, the two months are an opportunity for the registrar to squat and
charge you exorbitant fees.

------
mtrimpe
I hope mine is not the best answer, but if you can't manage to prevent the
expiry you at least need to be prepared for an attempt to 're-register' your
domain.

When your domain does expire it will end up on a 'just expired' list and there
are a bunch of bots auto-registering every expired domain that looks remotely
interesting.

If it gets that far, at least make sure you're prepared to try and snatch it
before the other bots get it.

