Web Hosting Blog

In order to have a website, you need a domain name so people can find you on the internet. For example, ours is Hostbaby.com.  Your domain name registration is totally separate from your monthly hosting fee. It’s an annual charge of about $10 or so, to maintain your domain registration.

You may have purchased your domain name through Hostbaby, or through Godaddy.com or Namecheap.com or any of the other registrars out there. Regardless of where you purchased the domain name, you do have to pay to renew it annually.

The problem: You may get an email or a snail mail telling you it is time to renew your domain name. It looks really official, festooned with flags and eagles. But is it real?

The emails often read something like this:
In order to avoid loss or cancellation of the domain name use the link below to renew the domain name. Click to renew your domainname: www.domainrenewal-online.org/blah blah blah
When we have received your payment we will start the renewal process instantly. You will receive a confirmation when the renewal process is completed.

The problem is, this mail or email likely is NOT coming from your real registrar. Instead it’s an overly-aggressive marketing pitch designed to look like an official renewal notice. They want you to transfer your domain name to their registrar, so they can over-charge you to renew it annually.

So, the question is how do you find out who your actual registrar is? Go to this link:

http://hostbaby.com/whois.php

You’ll see a simple interface with just one input box. Enter your bare domain name in that box, for example:

hostbaby.com

(without the http://www.  part).

It will return a bunch of information, but the thing you are looking for says “Registration Service Provider:”. If you purchased your domain registration thru Hostbaby it will say this:

Registration Service Provider:
HostBaby, hostbaby@hostbaby.com
503-256-4450
http://www.hostbaby.com
This company may be contacted for domain login/passwords,
DNS/Nameserver changes, and general domain support questions.

If you have purchased your domain name thru Godaddy.com it will read like this:

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)

Now check out the notice you received – if it is not from your official registration service provider, then you can safely ignore it.

The main thing to know is that if you want confirmation or have questions about any of this stuff, you can contact Hostbaby 7 days a week and we’ll give you the straight scoop. You can always email hostbaby@hostbaby.com or call us at 1-888-448-6369 and we’ll check it out for you.