[sydandad]

My domain has been overtaken, and I don't know how to access it -- this is my business domain, solely registered to porovide my business e-mail address (forwarded to yahoo), and now email sent to carol@caroljaka.com seems to disappear into nowhere.

Because I wasn't getting emails people had sent, I tried to go to the e-mail control panel, found it doesn't seem to exist anymore. I registered this domain through msnnethosting.com, which I believe was booted out of existence through an ICANN complaint filed by Microsoft.

What was my domain -- caroljaka.com -- is now a standard listing of ad buttons (homes for sale, apartments, dating services, etc.). This is a medium-sized crisis -- I can contact all clients and give them another address (my Verizon email, for instance), BUT:
How can I get my domain back -- I mean access its content, be its admin, fix it?
The registry still shows caroljaka.com as taken and nontransferrable -- but it doesn't seem to be mine anymore -- my own name has been stolen, what do I do? Can't very well buy it from myself?

Web email isn't my strongest area (and I'm still struggling with designing my web site), but I'm decently computer- and web-literate. Can someone help me? I have no idea who I can even ask what to do? Thanks for your help,

Carol, the domainless

[bradly]

Hi Carol,
I did a whois on your website, and it appears it expired on March 31, 2007 (4 days ago)

_____
_____

Domain name: caroljaka.com

Registrant Contact:
MSN.Net Hosting
D Mehta (domainRegistrations@msnnethosting.com)
+1.3526921259
Fax: none
3072 W Hwy 90
Lake City, FL 32055
USA

Administrative Contact:
MSN.Net Hosting
D Mehta (domainRegistrations@msnnethosting.com)
+1.3526921259
Fax: none
3072 W Hwy 90
Lake City, FL 32055
USA

Technical Contact:
MSN.Net Hosting
D Mehta (domainRegistrations@msnnethosting.com)
+1.3526921259
Fax: none
3072 W Hwy 90
Lake City, FL 32055
USA

Status: Locked

Name Servers:
dns1.name-services.com
dns2.name-services.com
dns3.name-services.com
dns4.name-services.com
dns5.name-services.com

Creation date: 31 Mar 2006 12:38:03
Expiration date: 31 Mar 2007 12:38:03

_____
_____


That's why its not working. You better re-register it again (if it is not too late) if you want to keep it.

Your hosting company should have notified you that it would expire, but apparently they didn't.

Good luck!

[sydandad]

Thanks for the response, Bradley. Any bit of help is welcome as I'm feeling utterly lost on this one.

When I checked whois (before my first post) I found the following:

Domain Name: caroljaka.com
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.enom.com
Referral URL: http://www.enom.com
Expiration Date: 2008-03-31 <----------------------***
Creation Date: 2006-03-31
Last Update Date: 2007-04-01

and:

Extended Info IP Address: 69.25.142.10
IP Location: United States
Website Status: active
Server Type: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
Cache Date: 2007-04-03 21:30:48 MST

ENOM, Mehta, etc., is the outfit that ran msnnethosting.com before it was transferred, according to an ICANN ruling, to Microsoft (understandably) for deliberately trying to mislead people into thinking they were registering through Microsoft. This is the link to that ruling: http://www.domainstatute.com/domain-...f4/652942.html. That decision concludes, "Accordingly, it is Ordered that the <msnnethosting.com> domain name be TRANSFERRED from Respondent to Complainant [the complainant being Microsoft]...Dated: May 23, 2006". That site also has some tabs such as "Someone Took Your domain? Report it!" that I need to look into.

Did you go to www.caroljaka.com and see what's there?

It seems my Verizon and Yahoo emails are also behaving strangely -- people aren't getting my emails, and I'm not getting much from other people. I am at a loss as to what to do.

Any more thoughts? Thanks again,

Carol

[AbvAvgUser]

The domain is registered with http://www.enom.com. The whois of your domain name is in compete mess! It shows to be valid till 31st Mar 2008 but it is also shown as expired on 31st Mar 2007.

After a domain expires, it is in Redemption Grace Period for 30 days. This is to help people renew it if they missed the dead line. But I don't think you could do this. After the grace period it goes for deletion. It then gets deleted from the domain name database within 5 days.

There are three options with you now.

1. Contact enom and try to get it from them.
2. Back-order it. So that as soon as it available for registration, it wil get registered automatically. However, this is comparatively expensive (about US$ 20)
3. Wait for it to be available again and register on your own.

[sydandad]

Thanks, AbvAvg,

As the ICANN arbitration decision mentioned in my response to Bradly states that the name was transferred to complainant (Microsoft) from respondent (Enom), I'm not sure Enom has much to say about it anymore, but I am trying to contact Enom or msnnethosting (if it still exists -- that's' the name that caused the complaint). So far I've struck out trying to contact Microsoft.

Meantime, I emailed domainstatute.com, location of the ICANN decision, and got a reply this morning, saying, in part, "It may be possible to recover the domain name, depending on whether you had used the term in commerce before they [who's "they"?] registered it as a domain name. If that's the case, please elaborate on its use in commerce."

I responded, saying not only has it been my business email address for a year, it's also my own personal name, etc.

I will also look into your suggestions and let you know what happens.

Thanks again for helping,

Carol

[AbvAvgUser]

msnnethosting was listed as registrant (i.e. owner) of your domain name. So all the domains that they owned might have gone to M$ as per arbitration award. However, this is really unlikely in my opinion. The arbitration award must be about the domain name msnnethosting.com and not caroljaka.com.

There is one more thing. If the disputed domain name has moved from ENOM, then your domain name is unlikely to be with M$. The WHOIS of your domain name still shows that it is with ENOM whereas msnnethosting is with register.com. Try entering into a correspondence with ENOM

From the response of domainstatute.com I feel they have misunderstood your query. They seem to be thinking that you are reporting a squatting. They want you to prove that you have used this domain name for business before the domain name could be handed over to you. They have taken your query as a squatting complaint.

As a last resort, spend US$20 and back-order the domain name at godaddy.com.

Really, when I read about all such incidences I realise the importance of choosing a right service provider! You really need to have proper control over your domain names.

[sydandad]

Hi AbvAvg,

Yes, the dispute was about msnnethosting.com. The Enom web site tells me the reseller was pangeawebhosting.com and I should deal with them directly. I've sent an email and will try calling them.

Re the email from domainstatute.com, my understanding of "squatting" is flimsy -- would it mean someone else registered my site before I did? Or after I was using it? How could someone use/access a domain after I registered it? Somebody must be responsible for taking control of my web site and preventing me from accessing it.

Back-ordering my name would help in the future, I suppose, but if this isn't resolved soon, I'll need to establish another email & website for my business, so that if or when caroljaka.com becomes available again, it would mean changing my identity yet another time. Why would someone even want to keep this domain from me?

Is godaddy.com reliable?

Thanks again for your help. I know this isn't a very interesting problem, and I really appreciate the time and effort you've spent helping me.

Carol
__________________________
msnnethosting was listed as registrant (i.e. owner) of your domain name. So all the domains that they owned might have gone to M$ as per arbitration award. However, this is really unlikely in my opinion. The arbitration award must be about the domain name msnnethosting.com and not caroljaka.com.

There is one more thing. If the disputed domain name has moved from ENOM, then your domain name is unlikely to be with M$. The WHOIS of your domain name still shows that it is with ENOM whereas msnnethosting is with register.com. Try entering into a correspondence with ENOM

From the response of domainstatute.com I feel they have misunderstood your query. They seem to be thinking that you are reporting a squatting. They want you to prove that you have used this domain name for business before the domain name could be handed over to you. They have taken your query as a squatting complaint.

As a last resort, spend US$20 and back-order the domain name at godaddy.com.

Really, when I read about all such incidences I realise the importance of choosing a right service provider! You really need to have proper control over your domain names.[/QUOTE]

[AbvAvgUser]

For once, I will not trust these pangeahosting.com guys. They are the same people as msnnethosting. They even mention that on their site. Don't forget you are in this problem because of them!!

godaddy is absolutely reliable! You can go with them. But IMHO, they are comparatively little expensive. Anyway, it is not a hugh amount. But you can look for cheaper alternatives.

domainstatue assumed that you are complaining about squatting i.e. they feel you want a particular domain name which someone else has registered. Just ignore what they have written. They don't seem to have understood the problem in the first place!!

You are right about change of identity. But do you have too many options?

[BlueF]

Yikes! My domain was stolen by the scumbags at enom.com. How people live with themselves who do this, I'll never understand. Anyway, all that frustration aside, to the original poster.... any luck on recovering your domain?