Domain name Registrars to Avoid
Non-accredited
Look at
this list.
Companies that can actually register your domain name are listed.
Companies that are not listed are really just passing your registration
through to a real Registrar. Do not trust your domain name to a front
company. How will you find your Registrar if the front company goes
out of business? Who will stop the front company from stealing your
name and selling it to a scalper?
Use a real, ICANN-accredited
Registrar.
Overpriced or underpriced
All Registrars have to pay the Master Registry $6 per year per name.
That's a cost they have to pass on to you. If they seem to be
charging less than that, there is a catch.
Quality Registrars charge $8 to $15 per name per year.
They sometimes throw in secondary name service and email forwarding
at that price. At $12-$18 per year, you get a mailbox and URL forwarding
as well. Avoid Registrars who charge more.
dotregistrar.com
dotregistrar.com has severe Web site implementation problems.
You may not be able to make changes when you need to.
dotster.com
These guys' Web site was revamped with severely broken Javascript.
You may have trouble finding a browser that works there.
Any Registrar too stupid to offer a browser-neutral Web interface
probably has other technical problems. Too bad, they were one
of the pioneers, but they seem to have fallen down.
One user reports their lost password recovery mechanism is broken
and they are unreachable by phone.
Whoops! This just in, Dotster is spamming.
They have hit the bottom.
Verisign aka Network Solutions
This company spams. They extort a $199 ``expedite fee'' from people
who need to get them to fix their own mistakes in a timely manner.
They're unreliable. They charge too much.
They register misspellings of their competitors' domain names
(afilias.info is correct;
afilas.info is a trap...)
to divert people who make typos.
They sell their database to spammers and junk mailers.
They re-arrange their Web site frequently and it becomes
more difficult to use every time.
You can't transfer to another Registrar within 90 days of
your registration's expiration date.
Stay away!
Register.com
The password recovery mechanism does not work. If you
lose your password you have to call their customer service line.
BuyDomains.com
This company spams. They scan Whois for expiring domains and
solicit the registration contacts.
Spamming indicates a poorly-run company.
Hostica
Hostica.com is not an ICANN-accredited Registrar. They are (Dec 3 2001) fronting for
a wholesale-oriented Registrar, Tucows d.b.a. OpenSRS.
One of my users reports Hostica's customer service is poor.
eNom.com
This company spams and hosts spammers, ignoring all complaints.
That's a good indication of widespread managerial incompetence.
I would not trust them with a domain. They might screw up and
transfer it to a scalper, or sell it off themselves.
Stargate, Stargateinc, Resell.biz, etc
I once recommended this company, but no more. They're a Windows shop,
so inherently insecure and unreliable. They redesign their web site
all the time, and every time they change their company name and it
gets more confusing and difficult to use. These days it requires Flash 9. Why?
Currently, I'm trying to figure out how to change the name servers
in a registration I've had there for a long time. The "live chat"
doesn't answer.