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Monday, 22 June 2009 13:56 |
Stage 2: Active.
Time Period: 1 to 10 years.
When a domain is registered it is ACTIVE and can be used to host website, email, parking pages and suchlike. An active domain does not have to be used, and some domain owners prefer to keep unused domains without DNS services until they are developed or sold.
Stage 3: Auto Renew Grace (or Expired) Period.
Time Period: 0 to 45 days.
Within 24 to 48 hours of a domain reaching it's expiry date, most registrars will deactivate the domain name. This can mean that any services used with the domain name, such as the website and email service can be stopped. Some registrars will allow email services during this period so that domain owners are able to receive renewal notices. During the EXPIRED period a domain can be renewed without incurring extra renewal costs. When a expired domain is renewed the renewal date starts from the previous expiry date - not from the date of renewal. This period typically lasts for up to 45 days. It should also be noted that some registrars will change WHOIS details and DNS server records during this period, and the registrant may need to manually restore them after renewal.
Stage 4: Redemption Period.
Time Period: 30 days.
At the end of the Expired period, an expiring domain name is put into a 30 day redemption period. During this period all services on the domain name are stopped (which means that the domain is no longer visible in the Zone File), and registrars change the WHOIS records of the domain to reflect that it is no longer active - WHOIS will show the domain to be on REGISTRY_HOLD. The original registrant can renew the domain during this period, the there is a financial penalty for renewal on top of the renewal fee. This penalty is normally over $100, but can be as high as $350.
Stage 5: Pending Delete.
Time Period: 5 days.
At the end of the Redemption Period, the domain status moves to PENDING DELETE. This means that the domain is scheduled for deletion , and cannot be renewed by the original registrant. At the end of the 5 day pending delete period the domain name is removed completely from the central records and the domain is returned to AVAILABLE status - outlined in Stage 1 above.
Summary:
The stages above mean that there is a significant delay between a domain expiring and it being deleted - often this delay is almost 3 months, which is something that is often not understood by people new to the domain industry.
Although the theoretical life cycle of a domain contains the 5 stages above, many premium domain names never reach the Redemption Period and Pending Delete stages of the cycle, as registrars will often renew premium domain names at the end of the and then auction them off to the highest bidder. Even when a premium domain does reach the deletion point there is often intense competition to secure the re-registration, and there are quite a few companies that specialise in capturing dropping domain names, such as Snapnames, Pool and Namejet, so there is little chance of being manually able to register these names after they are deleted.
Note:
Understanding the deletion process is crucial to both managing a domain portfolio and for obtaining deleting domains. Domains that do get to the end of the deletion cycle are added to the daily deletion lists published by the central registry during the pending delete stage, and this mass deletion happens daily started at 11am PST - generally taking around 2 hours. The daily domain drop itself has a very specific structure, which will be covered in detail in a follow up post.
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