12 Jan

Recent ICANN changes – WHOIS Verification Requirements

Just read that starting January 1, 2014, domain registrars will be required to send out emails to verify registration of a domain and if you don’t respond to the verification email, you could end up having your website becoming non-functional as the domain name server will be changed by the registrar if there is a lack of compliance.

Starting in January, when any customer (new or existing) registers or transfers in a domain, they will be sent an email with a verification link. Customers must click this link within 15 days or their domains will be set to parking. To remove the domain from parking, the customer must click the verification link in the email. Once they have completed the verification, they will not need to verify again unless they change their contact record, in which case another verification email will be sent with the same requirements.

Verifying the Registrant’s contact information

As a part of the Whois Data Accuracy specification, ICANN expects the Registrar to verify the contact information for the Registrant contact of each gTLD domain name, within 15 days of

* a domain name being registered with unverified contact details,

* a domain name being transferred in, or

* the contact information of the Registrant contact information being modified.

Some important aspects of this process:

1. The verification email will be sent out as soon as the email address is associated with a domain name. Additional reminders will be sent on the 7th and 14th day, if the verification isn’t done until then.

2. The verification email will be sent out from the Reseller’s email address. It shall be a compulsory system mail, which shall not be customized or turned off.

3. In the 15 day verification notice period, the domain name will continue to resolve. The domain holder will not be obstructed from using their domain name in any way, unless they don’t complete the verification process in the allowed time.

4. Once an email address has been verified, then all subsequent registrations, transfers or contact updates that use this email address will not require any verification.

5. Once a year, we send out a Whois Data Reminder email to the Registrant of the domain name, in accordance with ICANN guidelines. We shall monitor the delivery status of these emails – if the mail sent to a registrant email address of a domain name were to bounce back, our compliance team will review the case and take appropriate action against the domain name.

Internet Corporation of Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN) published an updated Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). These changes are scheduled to go into effect January 1st 2014 and will affect all domain owners both with TetraHost or another domain registrar. To review a quick technical summary of the policy change check ICANN RAA 2013 Changes Article.

Note: TetraHost has no control in this process. Should a domain verification fail, only ICANN has the control to override your DNS records and serve the domain verification pending page.

If you have anymore query or confusion regarding the whole process, please contact us immediately by email, phone or livechat.