NIGHTMARE: My Domain Name is in Bureaucratic NO-MAN'S LAND!

The Situation:

* My domain was originally hosted by IDTweb.com, which also held the domain registration. (Excuse me if the terminology is not exactly correct.)

* Two years ago, I transferred the registration to Intellispire, around the same time that I was forced to find another host because IDTweb was getting out of that end of the business to concentrate on Internet telephone service.

* I signed up ipowerweb to host my site and all went well.

* I knew that my domain registration was due for renewal in mid-December of 2005, so I contacted ipowerweb to say I wanted to transfer it to them. That's where the whole mess began.

* When I tried to contact Intellispire to get the information (password?) needed for the transfer, I discovered Intellispire had gone out of business and there was NO way to access my records.

* Ipowerweb told me to contact IDTweb, which -- as mentioned above -- had gone out of the web hosting business and, in any case, would not have the information I required. Just to confirm that, I contacted IDTweb, but it seemed no one there even remembered when the company did hosting (must have a lot of staff turnover there!), much less anything about my account.

* Then my website was taken offline in the two weeks before the Christmas hoilidays, which, obviously, was the most important period for a site selling products that could be used as gifts. Ipowerweb again said it could not proceed.

* I then (are you getting tired yet? And this is the SHORT version) contacted Internic, which was very understanding but said I had to call Tucows, the holder of the registration that it had sold to Intellispire (a re-seller).

* I contacted Tucow's OPENSRS COMPLIANCE person who also was understanding and very nice. He said he wasn't sure that they could remedy the situation, but that I should send another Domain Name transfer request, along with all sorts of company and personal i.d.

* THEN...suddenly my web site was back up again! I was more confused than ever. Heck, I figured, if it's all straightened out, I'm done with it. WRONG!

* (BTW, throughout this entire time period, the domain name WHOIS page showed that my site had been renewed until Dec. 2006.)

* Two days ago, the site was once again offline. I contact Tucows and was informed that my domain name was now in REDEMPTION PERIOD and I would have to go through a process to get it back and that the cost would be "quite expensive" ($150 +/-, he estimated).

* Finally, last night (1/27/05) I emailed Tucows recounting the entire tale. The answer I received convinced me that I had fallen down the rabbit hole and plunk into the middle of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party: I should contact the ipowerweb billing dept (domain transfer section) to resolve the problem. But...but...but...that was precisely the VERY FIRST place I went to at the beginning of my quest.

So, dear friends, I seem to be running on a bureaucratic Mobius strip. Will this ever end? Will I find a fix? I'm staying tuned, but my batteries are running low.

Ideas, suggestions, whatever are INVITED and WELCOMED!

And thank you for wading through the post.

-- David

The web is one tangled net for sure. I have a similar situation going on with MelbourneIT in Australia. They are the registrar for a domain name that I have owned since 2002 and are Interland's registrar where my domain has been hosted. I registered and bought the hosting both from Interland for rediculous prices back then. On my last registration renewal, MelbourneIT was very quick to take my outrageously priced $35 for one additional year for the domain name renewal, and they were quick to allow me to update my personal information on my account records with them (email had changed, address had changed, etc).

It came about that I wanted to finally do something with the domain, but wanted to get off of Interland's hosting where I'm paying a rediculous $26.00 per month, and I wanted to transfer my domain registration from MelbourneIT to godaddy and transfer my hosting to a different company where I could more effectively accomplish my goal for a tenth of the cost.

Godaddy was great as always, they set up everything on the transfer, nearly immediately. Only one snag. I had to confirm the transfer request from my email address on record on a whois lookup, which non-surprisingly enough MelbourneIT never updated (and since the email is defunct, I never got it). OK, I sent several requests to MelbourneIT to update it, and after nearly 6 months it's still not updated.

In addition I switched my name server records on my account at MelbourneIT to point to my new host and guess what. After 4 months, they are still not updated.

So welcome to limbo. Be comforted in the fact that you are not alone.

Thanks, but while your sad tale gives me hope that SOMEONE will know how to solve this, it doesn't really bring comfort and relief to my aching stomach and persistent headache.

What's with the Australia bit when you live in Pittsburgh (which WILL win next week...I'm a Jets fan, so I've seen the Steelers in the big game a bunch of times since my team was in it)?

Also, on the General Discussion Forum, it says there were nine (9) replies to my post, but the only one I can find is yours. Know why?

-- David

My mistake. Only one (1) reply. I read the wrong line. Wishful thinking, I guess.