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Ask HN: How to prevent a company from taking my domain name?

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Re: Ask HN: How to prevent a company from taking my domain name?

#81

Post by tzs »

hennell wrote: post #51

In general if you're using it for legit purposes it's hard to take a domain taken even for big brands. You have it first, and unless you're using it for a competitor or to defame them it's hard to claim malice. They should have checked the name was able for them to use before using it. But do make sure you have auto-renew setup etc. If you lose it, they can nab it fast and it'd be hard to get it back.

> But do make sure you have auto-renew setup etc

Instead of auto-renew I register my domains for 10 years, and add an annual recurring event to my calendar to remind me to add another year.

That way I keep the expiration 9-10 years in the future so that if there is ever a big price increase and I need to move to a cheaper domain I've got a long time to make the move.

No need for auto-renew because there is no way that I'd manage to miss the calendar events enough years in a row to have the domains expire, and even if I did have auto-renew the on-file credit card information would be out of date when it is time to auto-renew.

Re: Ask HN: How to prevent a company from taking my domain name?

#82

Post by micah94 »

hmcamp wrote: post #67
kolp wrote: post #49

Domain investor here. Some, but not all of the advice here is absolutely dreadful and is an example of why you should not take advice from random strangers on the internet. Some basic rules if you wish to keep the domain: * Don't offer to sell the domain. If you are contacted by a prospective buyer, just decline, saying that the domain is not for sale. Don't counter-offer or enter into discussions or negotiations. *…

Tell me more about Godaddy, please. Why shouldn’t we use them?

A customer of mine had their website hijacked by Godaddy (copied their website text and pointed to a Godaddy IP). The application stopped working of course because that was hosted elsewhere (with me). They did this because they didn't like what was being sold on the website.

Re: Ask HN: How to prevent a company from taking my domain name?

#83

Post by zizee »

I'm not an expert, this is not expert advice.

AFAIK Trademarks are not automatically an international thing. A business would need to make an effort to register in multiple countries. Trademarks are also not all industries, all at once. McDonald's wouldn't like it, but if my last name was McDonald, and I wanted to setup a lawnmowing business called McDonald's Lawnmowing, they cannot stop me (although you can bet they'd try to scare me off).

I am not sure of your financial position, but it might be economical to register a business name, and even a trademark in your country. This will will give you one more level of protection. They would need to challenge your trademark first. Now, protecting a trademark is not necessarily cheap. It could be a matter of sending a few "piss off" letters in response to their inflated threats, but it could escalate. That said, the same escalation could happen regardless of you having a trademark. Depending on your country, people can (and do) sue other people with no legal standing, and use costs of defending oneself as a cudgel to get what they want.

Re: Ask HN: How to prevent a company from taking my domain name?

#84

Post by quickthrower2 »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #31

Funny story. I have three domains (.com, .org, and .net) of my [first initial][last name][.tld]. Have had them for a long time. A defense law firm in Australia, set up a domain, with [first initial][last name].com.au I used to get regular emails, with terrifyingly personal stuff in them. Many of these emails came from Australian government/court orgs. They probably could have been sued into the mantle for some of the…

Why not have one or two mail accounts on the domain and reject or bounce everything else?

Re: Ask HN: How to prevent a company from taking my domain name?

#85

Post by Shorn »

Hikikomori wrote: post #35
codetrotter wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are only two valid e-mail addresses on the gail.com domain, so it is extremely likely that your photos were rejected by my e-mail provider and deleted. > […] > If you have a question not answered above, feel free to send it to: faq at gail period com. Thanks for visiting. Now I wonder what the other address is. Probably gail@ or mail@. Actually the last one rhymes, I hope she uses that.

Probably snail.

snail.mail@gail.com

Everyone thinks .com is so desirable; but just think, she could have: snail.mail@gail.mail.

Re: Ask HN: How to prevent a company from taking my domain name?

#86

Post by jacooper »

thiht wrote: post #73
sshine wrote: post #2

To prevent domain hijacking: Tip 1: Pick an enterprise-class domain name registry. Tip 2: Set up 2FA that isn't phone-based. Tip 3: Request DNSSEC from your registrar.

> registry Registrar. You can't buy directly from the registry unless you become registrar yourself. Some other important tips: - make sure auto-renew is enabled with a reliable credit card - make sure to update your personal data once a year. Registrars are mandated by the registry to send a reminder email once a year, but for an important domain I'd also set a recurring reminder every year, 2 weeks before expiratio…

I have always skimped on giving real life details to registrars, I don't trust them to handle my data well, especially cheapo ones like namecheap.

Re: Ask HN: How to prevent a company from taking my domain name?

#87

Post by uxcolumbo »

hmcamp wrote: post #67
kolp wrote: post #49

Domain investor here. Some, but not all of the advice here is absolutely dreadful and is an example of why you should not take advice from random strangers on the internet. Some basic rules if you wish to keep the domain: * Don't offer to sell the domain. If you are contacted by a prospective buyer, just decline, saying that the domain is not for sale. Don't counter-offer or enter into discussions or negotiations. *…

Tell me more about Godaddy, please. Why shouldn’t we use them?

The owner / founder likes to kill elephants.

Not a company I’d like to support.

Re: Ask HN: How to prevent a company from taking my domain name?

#88

Post by brtkdotse »

kolp wrote: post #49

Domain investor here. Some, but not all of the advice here is absolutely dreadful and is an example of why you should not take advice from random strangers on the internet. Some basic rules if you wish to keep the domain: * Don't offer to sell the domain. If you are contacted by a prospective buyer, just decline, saying that the domain is not for sale. Don't counter-offer or enter into discussions or negotiations. *…

Amazon.se was registered by a 1-person company Amazon AB in 1997. The reason Amazon didn't launch in Sweden until 2020 was because the person who owned Amazon AB didn't want to sell (but finally did).

Since company tax filings are public in Sweden, you can deduct Amazon paid ~$500k for amazon.se, which in my mind is very cheap.

Re: Ask HN: How to prevent a company from taking my domain name?

#89

Post by severino »

kolp wrote: post #79
lname_dot_com wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about Cloudflare Registrar?

I like them as a company, but I wouldn't use them as a registrar if there was a significant risk of UDRP. Domains are not their core business and customer service is close to non-existent if you're not at least a pro-level customer. For your case, you should use a dedicated domain registrar, such as the ones I outlined earlier. Infomaniak is another registrar that I've found good in terms of customer service and pric…

Thanks! Does it make a difference that the registrar is in your country, or at least in your "continent" (i.e.: EU) for those bad things that can happen like UDRP, etc.?

Re: Ask HN: How to prevent a company from taking my domain name?

#90

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #84
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #31

Funny story. I have three domains (.com, .org, and .net) of my [first initial][last name][.tld]. Have had them for a long time. A defense law firm in Australia, set up a domain, with [first initial][last name].com.au I used to get regular emails, with terrifyingly personal stuff in them. Many of these emails came from Australian government/court orgs. They probably could have been sued into the mantle for some of the…

Why not have one or two mail accounts on the domain and reject or bounce everything else?

I generally like to have the catchalls come to me. If they get spamjacked, then I'll block them. Has not been a problem, to date.

These weren't frequent, so it wasn't a big deal, and I didn't want these to get lost, as they were of critical importance to the people they concerned (like life/death jail/free stuff).

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