Well, the cat’s finally out of the bag: NameCheap is now officially an ICANN-accredited registrar. You’ll find the logo at the upper right of their website.
So is this good news? Let’s see.
As a recap, NameCheap started out like any other company. Given the costs of starting your own registrar (about at least $50K, I think), not too many parties can really afford the costs of acquiring and maintaining that status.
So the next best thing is to be a reseller for a registrar. That’s exactly what NameCheap did by being a reseller for domain registrar eNom.
If you registered your domain name through NameCheap during that time, it’s actually registered with eNom. However, you manage it with NameCheap directly.
And since NameCheap is now a registrar, I think this is where NameCheap’s users and potential customers will be really “curious” about. Can’t say I blame them.
I’m speculating at this point since NameCheap hasn’t sent an email to its users as of this post about that (which I’ll correct once I got a copy or someone posts such). But just to try to help calm any “nervous” NameCheap users out there, let me share my thoughts based on my own experience with a registrar and having exchanged thoughts with my (former) peers.
Before I go on, I hope you won’t mind I somewhat do a “refresher” on Registerfly. This is to help understand what can possibly happen.
When Registerfly first acquired their since-terminated registrar status, they “proactively” requested their clients’ domain names be transferred to them from eNom. Unfortunately not all were successful, and those that failed created lots of otherwise avoidable headaches.
I do recall NameCheap’s CEO Richard Kirkendall having posted about this somewhere. Basically since he’s fully aware of the Registerfly saga, he and the other NameCheap personnel will likely let their clients’ domain names originally registered through their eNom reseller account stay there.
Next, they’ll subsequently process new registrations and/or transfers through their own registrar accreditation. Doing this gives more control, especially on being able to handle mission-critical issues like spam complaints.
So more or less, NameCheap won’t likely transfer domain names with their eNom reseller account to their own registrar on their own. They’ll let their users decide by themselves if they want to.
Now I don’t mean to instill any FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) scenario here, but I’d like to share one recent experience why transferring your domain name from their eNom account to their registrar itself can make sense.
An internet marketer I know has one of his domain names with NameCheap through eNom. Basically he uses the domain name as an online payment processor.
A few weeks ago, the marketer sent a bulk email to his PayDotCom list (including me) promoting some products. Unfortunately it appeared some didn’t take it well, and a few promptly forwarded his email to eNom and complained it’s spam.
Subsequently eNom notified the marketer about it but gave him 24 hours to reply. But since the marketer didn’t reply, eNom shut down his domain name, cutting off any website and email access.
The marketer eventually found out what happened. He contacted NameCheap’s CEO Richard, explained his issue, Richard then forwarded the details to his eNom contact, and it was resolved after a few days.
If the marketer didn’t have a direct contact to Richard, he might have gone through NameCheap’s “normal” customer support channels. That would’ve taken longer to resolve that issue, and he would’ve lost more money because of eNom’s shutting down the domain name.
Of course, this is an isolated case. But it so happens I’ve read of eNom doing that a couple more times to other clients’ domain names for similar (or worst) reasons.
Of course, this doesn’t mean NameCheap won’t absolutely shut your domain name down due to spam or what-not. They very well can, and it’s within their right to do.
One unfortunate reality is that various registrars are being “pressured” into taking proactive measures against domain names used for spamming, phishing and the like. I won’t be surprised if NameCheap has had its share.
OTOH, I’ve seen how proactive Richard is, a rarity among domain registrar CEOs. I have no doubt he’s willing to assist as long as it’s brought to his attention quickly, and I’ve “seen” how he handled issues like the one I just discussed.
Long story short, moving your domain name from eNom to NameCheap will “cut the middleman” if you especially have critical issues. Obviously NameCheap can do more stuff for domain names with them, but they’ll at least be in a better position to assist you should problems occur.
However, I do recommend you read your agreement with them, and ask them questions or raise your concerns. The important thing is to know what you’re getting yourself into.
Be aware, be responsible.
Edit: It turns out NameCheap finally setup their own support forum. Richard also confirmed there re: transferring:
http://community.namecheap.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=467
Wether you choose to remain with the status quo or transfer to the new registrar will be entirely up to you. You will not be forced to transfer and you won’t notice any difference in your control panel if the domain remains with our partner.
Thanks, Richard!
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NameCheap Now An ICANN-Accredited Registrar
Well, the cat’s finally out of the bag: NameCheap is now officially an ICANN-accredited registrar. You’ll find the logo at the upper right of their website.
So is this good news? Let’s see.
As a recap, NameCheap started out like any other company. Given the costs of starting your own registrar (about at least $50K, I think), not too many parties can really afford the costs of acquiring and maintaining that status.
So the next best thing is to be a reseller for a registrar. That’s exactly what NameCheap did by being a reseller for domain registrar eNom.
If you registered your domain name through NameCheap during that time, it’s actually registered with eNom. However, you manage it with NameCheap directly.
And since NameCheap is now a registrar, I think this is where NameCheap’s users and potential customers will be really “curious” about. Can’t say I blame them.
I’m speculating at this point since NameCheap hasn’t sent an email to its users as of this post about that (which I’ll correct once I got a copy or someone posts such). But just to try to help calm any “nervous” NameCheap users out there, let me share my thoughts based on my own experience with a registrar and having exchanged thoughts with my (former) peers.
Before I go on, I hope you won’t mind I somewhat do a “refresher” on Registerfly. This is to help understand what can possibly happen.
When Registerfly first acquired their since-terminated registrar status, they “proactively” requested their clients’ domain names be transferred to them from eNom. Unfortunately not all were successful, and those that failed created lots of otherwise avoidable headaches.
I do recall NameCheap’s CEO Richard Kirkendall having posted about this somewhere. Basically since he’s fully aware of the Registerfly saga, he and the other NameCheap personnel will likely let their clients’ domain names originally registered through their eNom reseller account stay there.
Next, they’ll subsequently process new registrations and/or transfers through their own registrar accreditation. Doing this gives more control, especially on being able to handle mission-critical issues like spam complaints.
So more or less, NameCheap won’t likely transfer domain names with their eNom reseller account to their own registrar on their own. They’ll let their users decide by themselves if they want to.
Now I don’t mean to instill any FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) scenario here, but I’d like to share one recent experience why transferring your domain name from their eNom account to their registrar itself can make sense.
An internet marketer I know has one of his domain names with NameCheap through eNom. Basically he uses the domain name as an online payment processor.
A few weeks ago, the marketer sent a bulk email to his PayDotCom list (including me) promoting some products. Unfortunately it appeared some didn’t take it well, and a few promptly forwarded his email to eNom and complained it’s spam.
Subsequently eNom notified the marketer about it but gave him 24 hours to reply. But since the marketer didn’t reply, eNom shut down his domain name, cutting off any website and email access.
The marketer eventually found out what happened. He contacted NameCheap’s CEO Richard, explained his issue, Richard then forwarded the details to his eNom contact, and it was resolved after a few days.
If the marketer didn’t have a direct contact to Richard, he might have gone through NameCheap’s “normal” customer support channels. That would’ve taken longer to resolve that issue, and he would’ve lost more money because of eNom’s shutting down the domain name.
Of course, this is an isolated case. But it so happens I’ve read of eNom doing that a couple more times to other clients’ domain names for similar (or worst) reasons.
Of course, this doesn’t mean NameCheap won’t absolutely shut your domain name down due to spam or what-not. They very well can, and it’s within their right to do.
One unfortunate reality is that various registrars are being “pressured” into taking proactive measures against domain names used for spamming, phishing and the like. I won’t be surprised if NameCheap has had its share.
OTOH, I’ve seen how proactive Richard is, a rarity among domain registrar CEOs. I have no doubt he’s willing to assist as long as it’s brought to his attention quickly, and I’ve “seen” how he handled issues like the one I just discussed.
Long story short, moving your domain name from eNom to NameCheap will “cut the middleman” if you especially have critical issues. Obviously NameCheap can do more stuff for domain names with them, but they’ll at least be in a better position to assist you should problems occur.
However, I do recommend you read your agreement with them, and ask them questions or raise your concerns. The important thing is to know what you’re getting yourself into.
Be aware, be responsible.
Edit: It turns out NameCheap finally setup their own support forum. Richard also confirmed there re: transferring:
http://community.namecheap.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=467
Thanks, Richard!
Check Out These Other Posts: