Domain Names

The owner of a domain can be a company, individual or organisation and is referred to as the legal registrant of the domain.

When registering domain names, the name given in the “Company Name” field when you sign will then be the legal owner of the domain name. If you wish to register as an individual, please ensure you enter your name in the “Company Name” field, information like “n/a” will be rejected by the registry.

If you’re a web designer, or reseller it’s important that you register domain names in the name of your customer to avoid any ownership disputes at a later date.

Once a domain is registered, it is still possible to change the ownership.

Please note that the contact details for your account (that we use to contact you regarding renewals etc.) are stored and updated separately from the Whois details stored for your existing domains. If you make any changes to one, the other will not be affected. So please remember to check the whois information on each of your domains and keep these up to date.

The Whois database is a global database of domain registration details. The information displayed in the results, referred to as Whois info, will include contact details. As well as technical information, such as the domain’s DNS servers, and the status of the domain. Most information on the Whois report is straightforward and easy to understand.

The key fields are:

Registrant
The registrar of record denotes which registrar the domain is registered through.

Dates
The dates displayed on the Whois show the date the domain was first registered, the date that the domain will expire on and also the date that the domain was last updated. The last updated date will change when amendments are made to the domain, e.g. name servers are updated or the domain is renewed.

Nameservers
The nameservers that the domain resides on.

Domain Status
There are a few different statuses that a domain may have. When checking your domain you will generally see the two below, this status is registrar-lock, which means that the domain is protected from fraudulent transfer requests:

Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited

Other statuses to look out for are:

Status: redemptionPeriod http://www.icann.org/epp#redemptionPeriod

This means that the domain has entered Redemption and you will need to pay an additional fee before it can be renewed.

Status: clientHold http://www.icann.org/epp#clientHold

This can either mean that the domain has expired, or that it has been suspended pending verification.

.uk domains

The only information that is displayed is;

• Domain name

• Data validation status

• Registrar

• Relevant dates; registered, expiry and last updated dates

• Status of domain

• Nameserver information

The Registrar field denotes which registrar or ISP the domain is registered with. The .uk extensions work differently from gTLD’s as they each have an IPS tag assigned to them.

The new Nominet Data Validation process will affect all Nominet domains (.uk .co.uk .me.uk .org.uk .ltd.uk .plc.uk) for any new or existing registration and registrant data changes.

Nominet will try to validate the legal registrant name and address using their own data sources, if they cannot validate details they will ask the registrar to have the data validated, and so our below process will kick in.

• An email will be triggered to the registrant asking them to follow the link to a verification page.

• On the verification page registrants have to upload a document to prove that the name and address are correct, documents accepted;
o Companies House certificate
o Official company or trade register
o Valid driver's license
o Valid national ID card
o Utility bill (last 3 months)
o Bank statement (last 3 months)
o HMRC tax notification (last 3 months)
o Official letterhead
o Company stamp or seal

• Uploaded documents will be checked manually.

• If document is sufficient, the registrant data will be flagged as verified.

• If document is not sufficient the process will re-start; another verification email will be sent, the reason the document was rejected will be at the bottom of the email

• If the details are incorrect the option will be there to update the data, once updated the process will start again; Nominet will do an automatic check and if still not correct another verification email will be sent.

• Data must be validated within 30 days.

• Domains that are not validated after 30 days will have what’s called a ‘Data Quality Lock’ applied and the domain suspended.

• Domains with the Data Quality Lock, suspended domains cannot be renewed or transferred.

You can update the Whois details for your domain(s) via your control panel, under "Domain Management", click on the domain you want to update then go to “Whois Contact Details”.

When entering new whois information you need to ensure:

- There are no special characters in the contact name or address details, i.e. & sign
- Fields have valid information entered
- Telephone/fax numbers are in the correct format (as shown in the 'Phone No. format' link, i.e. +44.1419316785)
- There are no spaces entered at the beginning or end of text.
- The country code GB, and not UK, is used. Or the appropriate 2 letter country code as required.

If you have followed the instructions above and receive an error, it may be that there is an issue with your domain, please provide the new Whois information by raising a question through the online helpdesk and we will investigate this for you.

Due to the new Data Protection regulation your personal details will no longer be shown the public Whois. Whois information will be accessible to parties that have a legitimate interest but you can purchase our Whois privacy package to prevent this. Please see here for more information about this; https://www.yoursupportservices.co.uk/domain/gatedWhois.

Since the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force on 25th May 2018. The .UK Whois no longer displays the registrant’s name or address, unless they have given permission to do so. If you do with to display your information please raise a ticket from your control panel.