Unable to Terminate Domain Registration

[wraith808]

I've had my domain registration services with Hover/Tucows for a while, and have been very pleased.  However, something strange happened, and I wanted to verify what I was told.

I had a domain for a client.  That client terminated services by non-payment.  I kept it around for a while, but then terminated the last renewal period.  I received a notice from ICANN about the registration, and checked it out.  First I went to the URL... and it was pointed to a questionable alternative site.  That alarmed me, as I'm the registered domain holder.  I then went to Hover to try to terminate, and there was no way to terminate.  I've terminated before, so I was a bit perplexed.

So I was able to get into support chat, and they said I could only let it expire.  They said that this was a recent change to domain policy.

Has anyone heard of this?

[rgdot]

Terminate meaning you have a domain registered (not hosting), say until December 2017 but want to get rid of it October 2017? Never heard that being possible, surprised to read you were able to do that in the past.

[wraith808]

Terminate meaning you have a domain registered (not hosting), say until December 2017 but want to get rid of it October 2017? Never heard that being possible, surprised to read you were able to do that in the past.

-rgdot (October 01, 2017, 08:14 PM)

Yes, exactly.  And I've done it on Hover, GoDaddy, and Network Solutions before.

[Shades]

I share the experience of rgdot. Here in Paraguay, but also in the Netherlands you pay for the registration and a predefined amount of time, a year in almost all cases. The Dutch registrars can be notified if a domain does not need to be registered anymore (or transferred). But that means that the domain only goes offline (or being transferred) after that predefined period.

Did not check this here in Paraguay, as I only have my own domains registered and I'm pleased with those provided services.

Likely because the organizations like RIPE (Europe and north of Africa) have their processes automated and don't want the administrative hassle of early terminations/transfers, at least that is what I assume.

[Deozaan]

I've also never heard of that being possible. But I suppose I never tried since I figured they are paid for in advance so there's no point in trying to release them early.

[wraith808]

As the number of people chiming in that they didn't know it was possible are rising, I figured I'd post GoDaddy's method of doing the same (as I can't show Hover's, of course)

Canceling Domain Registrations with GoDaddy:

https://www.godaddy....cancel-my-domain-412



The other strange and troubling thing about this is that it was redirected to the other questionable domain with me still as the contact.

[PhilB]

There is no mechanism to terminate a registration for most (all?) TLDs given they are for fixed periods. With UK domains we can 'detag' a domain to put it out of reach of any one registrar without the registrant contacting the registry, but it still exists until it expires, and .. iirc .. we'd have to delete the nameservers first to actually render the domain non-functional. I can't really remember as I've only ever had to detag one domain once (a knuckledragger of a customer who was confused about what they had bought and was angry about it and then making threats to "come over and sort [us] out").

Any registrar offering a cancellation option is probably doing so to quell complaints from angry people who don't understand and "just want it gone" from their account, and they just remove it from the customer's control panel account, but it still exists.

Likely when you do this, they redirect the domain to traffic monetisation platforms to get a few fractions of a cent per pageload serving ads.

There's a lot of questionable activity by registrars who change the nameservers of 'expired' (but not yet 'in redemption') domains to similar traffic monetisation systems the moment (or very shortly after) they expire - or perhaps because you 'disabled' the domain in their panel somehow -  this is probably what has happened to this one?

[wraith808]

Likely when you do this, they redirect the domain to traffic monetisation platforms to get a few fractions of a cent per pageload serving ads.

There's a lot of questionable activity by registrars who change the nameservers of 'expired' (but not yet 'in redemption') domains to similar traffic monetisation systems the moment (or very shortly after) they expire - or perhaps because you 'disabled' the domain in their panel somehow -  this is probably what has happened to this one?

-PhilB (October 02, 2017, 10:09 AM)

I thought that might be the case, so when I cancelled a domain before, I checked to see if it was seen as able to be registered with another registrar.  It was, at the normal rates.  That's no guarantee, but it is pretty telling.

[Stoic Joker]

IIRC Hover will do the private whois free. That might be a quick-n-dirty way to get your name off of it quickly