In a thin domain registry the domain contact information is held by the registrar. The registry whois just holds a referral to the registrar, the registration, expiry, update date, nameservers and domain status. A thick domain registry holds all of the contact information needed for the domain names. After a transition of .ORG to a […] The po...

Registrar Data Escrow (RDE) is an ICANN mandated process that registrars must follow to store a copy of the customer's whois information with a third party. Smaller registrars will deposit the information weekly (larger registrars in higher frequencies) on the server of the RDE provider in an encrypted format. Should your registrar go out of [̷...

TheTransfer Emergency Action Contact ("TEAC") is a contact that each registrar must provide to ICANN through ICANN's Radar Interface. This contact is to be used by other registrars, ICANN and the registries if there's a need to quickly address issues with domain transfers between two registrars. The contact must respond (non-automated) to inquiries...

The FOA (Form of Authorization) is an ICANN mandated message (basically an Email template) that the registrar needs to send to the "registered name holder" when an incoming (gaining) or outgoing (losing) transfer request is received. The gaining side FOA is used in order to obtain the registered domain holder's permission in order to transfer [R...

During a recent webinar, ICANN went through the new Expired Registration Recovery Policy ("ERRP") for registrars – here's the summary and what you need to know. Please make sure that you read the original Expired Registration Recovery Consensus Policy if you need any more details. Registrars have to comply with the new policy by August [̷...

A frequently asked question is, how much does it cost to become ICANN accredited. Here is a quick summary of the fees payable to ICANN: One time fees $3,500 non-refundable application fee Ongoing fees $4,000 annual fee variable quarterly fee ($800-$1,200) – amount depends on ICANN budget and amount of domains under management $0.18 fee [̷...

ICANN has contracted KMPG to run a compliance audit where all of the registrars will be audited over a term of three years. The first 1/3 of registrars has received their questions on November 27th, 2012 and will have to respond by December 17th, 2012. As one of our clients is part of the current

A current working group formed by the ICANN Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council is looking at how a domain name should be locked during UDRP proceedings. If you have anything to say in this matter, I suggest you participate in the related survey, as we just did. I'm actually a bit surprised that this

Below you will find a copy of the renewal of the dot-com registry agreement with VeriSign as proposed by ICANN. You can also find our submission on the ICANN website. The deadline for submitting comments is at 23:59 UTC today. The contract proposes an renewal of the agreement with VeriSign (as opposed to opening the

5 items to keep in mind when setting up an ICANN accredited offshore registrar.

The registrar DomainName.com is for sale.

When ICANN introduced the mandatory Registrar Data Escrow (RDE) for registrars in 2007, the program was a direct result of the problems experienced with the registrar RegisterFly. ICANN requires all registrars to deposit a copy of their whois information with an approved RDE provider in order to protect registrants from the loss of their domain....

The world of ICANN and the registries is full of cryptic acronyms – which luckily enough for us creates lots of space for consulting opportunities ;-) Now here is the latest one, BTAPPA, a new registry service by Verisign that was approved by the ICANN board on December 9th, 2009 and the necessary amendment was

Registrars that want to stay up to date on outgoing transfers and would like to give their registrars a timely chance to cancel stop pending transfer requests should not rely on the daily FTP reports provided by the Registry. There are three methods available for obtaining information about the status of incoming & outgoing transfers: Transfer...

If you are a newly ICANN accredited registrar and also new to all of the ICANN processes, the options for participating may seem endless and yet the amount of influence you have may seem hopeless. One group that you should consider joining is the Registrar's Constituency in order to make sure your voice is heard at

We've received word that some technology providers for hosted registrar systems are charging their clients (who are often on long term contracts) up to $7,000 in order to comply with ICANN requirements, such as the Registrar Data Escrow (RDE) . While we feel that all mandated services should be part of a standard solution, there may

Due to a recent question on DNForum by DNGod ("Can buy ICANN-accredited registrar"), I decided to finally update and publish this post, which had been sitting around as a draft for a while. Thank you for the inspiration :) Apply versus Buy If your organization has decided to become an accredited registrar, there are two choices in

[Last Updated on March 16th, 2010] Since many companies often mostly concentrate on the perceived cost savings of becoming an ICANN accredited registrar, we felt it would be a good idea to summarize the actual cost of maintaining an ICANN accredited registrar. For smaller domain portfolio holders, this may actually not hold true – becoming an...

Especially for those registrars that currently rent their Verisign Batch Pool connections to Drop-Catching systems such as Snapnames or eNom a looming deadline may have dropped of their radar screen. ICANN has now notified a number of registrars that has ignored previous requests to sign up for the Registrar Data Escrow program and will be

After being in the business of helping commercial registrants DomainCocoon for over a year, Oakville based DomainCocoon Inc. has launched the company's website,