Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with domain

Help me own my name.

cmoj — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:59:40 -0800

How do I approach someone about buying their domain name, and then what do I do if they agree? I have a highly unusual name. In fact, as near as I can tell there is only one other person with my Firstname Lastname. He owns firstnamelastname.com, but doesn't seem to have updated it in a couple of years and I'd like to buy it from him. I have no idea how much to offer or what to do if he accepts. I'd also prefer not to create an enemy of the other me by swiping it when his registration expires.

Name/domain for private photo network for parents.

signal — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 18:39:54 -0800

Please help me pick a name and domain for our website/app. We're a private network for parents to upload, backup and share their kids' pictures. Strong privacy and backup should be the main differentiators over the competition.

Initial market is Latin America, but looking to expand to English speaking countries and rest of the world quickly, so it should work in English (and not be too weird in Spanish). We'd prefer a .com, but other TLDs might work as well.

Crowdsourcing company + domain name?

signal — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 18:26:32 -0800

Shoudl I use a crowdsourcing site for my company's name and domain? I need to change my company's name and domain. I'd like to do it in as short a time as possible. I have funds, but not enough for a real naming company.
I'm looking into one of many crowdsourcing sites that specialize in names / domains. What's your experience with this? Especially interested in success or horror stories.

I sew and I translate. What do I call my business(es)?

ClarissaWAM — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:33:27 -0800

So I finally want to get a name / logo / site for my little side business(es). I do (German-English) translation, localisation and copywriting on the one hand, and I sew colourful accessories on the other. Unfortunately I can't even get past the "what do I call this thing?" hurdle. Can I even have just one name? So I'd like to have one site/name for both, but they seem almost antithetical - for translation I have to be reliable, accurate and so on, whereas my sewing is whimsical, cute and a bit out there (if you want an idea of the stuff I make, check out my Tumblr which is linked from my profile). The only "common denominator" I've found is that they're both "tailor-made". Kinda. Pen, thread, needle, craft, words... I'm so stuck! Any ideas welcome!

Or is it just a very bad idea to mix two completely unrelated businesses? What speaks for/against it? The idea was to use subdomains, words.name.com and sew.name.com or whatever. I realise it may be a lost cause, but the more domains I have to maintain (I'd like to have a blog), the less likely it is they'll be updated. Plus business cards become more cluttered. Coherence is good. Right? I don't know anymore.

PS. I'd love to be little-rainbow... something or other. Not very translatey unfortunately. Oh, and I want to avoid using my name for various reasons.

Retrieving Domain name from Domain Name Sitter

leftfooter — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 03:32:51 -0800

Hi Guys, I have a domain name in mind that I want to register for my new web design business. Currently it is owned by a domain sitting company, hugedomains.com. They want almost $2,000 to buy the domain name. Obviously I am less than eager to fork over that amount. So, here is a solution I am toying with. I was looking into incorporating as an LLC, under the same name as my wanted domain (it is available). This will cost around $300.

Then as a corporation, I can trademark the name of the company (also available) with the US Patent & Trademark Office. This will also cost around $300.

After I have completed the above 2 steps, I believe that I am then entitled to approach the Domain Sitting company and demand that they hand over the domain.

Has anyone gone through a similar scenario? The way I've explained it above, is that how it works? Or am I in cuckoo land and completely misinformed?

Any input is truly appreciated.
Thanks.

An email domain provider that starts with M

aetg — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:36:13 -0800

I'm looking for an email provider that starts with m and ends with .net Hi, I am trying to help my uncle log on to his email account that he has forgotten the password for. The yahoo email wants to send a fix your password link to his alternate email which is suggests is @m........net, but he can't remember what email it was. Unfortunately, since we can't figure out what the domain is we can't figure out how to log on to it.

This email domain will probably be a popular one, its not going to be something that runs off his name or something. The email is probably at least 5-7 years old also. We already tried msn, but that is a .com and didn't work regardless.

Thanks!

Using the trademark-domain dispute system for good?

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 09:57:39 -0800

We're setting up a new business and plan to register a trademark which has been abandoned in the US and is dead in other trademark jurisdictions, too. Way back when the original user of the name was active, they registered (domain).com for the absolute maximum number of years. It is up for renewal next year, but... ...the tricky part. The domain is now owned by Marchex. It seems they won't let domains go for less than tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars. If we re-register the trademark successfully, is it worth using ICANN's uniform name dispute policy to improve our negotiating position to get our hands on domain.com?

This new company is very small and being bootstrapped from my own pocket, so keeping costs as low as possible is critical. I'm afraid that if we send an IP lawyer in to negotiate for the domain before the trademark is securely registered we could tip our hand and really screw ourselves over.

I have no problem compensating them for the domain, but this domain is not worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, that's totally crazy.

Any other ideas for how to work this? Thanks in advance, hive mind!

How can I efficiently harvest Google's entire cache of my website?

croutonsupafreak — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:35:33 -0800

I stupidly let a web hosting account expire without backing up and transferring my site to my new server. I'm talking to the host to try to get access to my data (fingers crossed), but in case that does not work out: Is there a way to efficiently harvest Google's entire cache of a specific domain? Something else I should consider? I would like to act fast on this, and I don't have any programming/tech-fu skills.

Someone wants to buy my 4-letter domain. What's it worth?

skywhite — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 06:40:44 -0800

For a decade I've had a 4-letter English word domain at .be and a law firm contacted me about buying it. Two months ago I got polite emails from a marketing/advertising company asking if I want to sell my .be domain I've had for a decade, which I haven't been using as a blog for a year. I wasn't interested in selling but now I've gotten an email from a law firm, saying that their client previously contacted me indirectly, and now asking me to call them to hear an offer from them.

I previously tried helpfully informing that marketing company that there were other domains which have this word available for registration, but they said they did not want other domains.

I have no idea what the law firm is going to offer, although I assume it's a first offer. I know that the domain frenzy long ago died down but this appears to be a product or name of a Belgian company that wants to brand itself so it might have some value.

Any ideas what range of prices would be reasonable to sell? (If it helps, the domain I have is a 4-letter English word like 'pick,' 'mate' or 'foot' where it can be a noun or a verb.)

How private is a private domain?

sock, the puppet — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 05:56:06 -0800

When buying a web domain, one is given the option(for an additional fee), to make the domain "private" where the owner of the domain is hidden from public view. Then the question is, how private is a private domain? Can a web smart person or internet ninja find out the information? The desire is to hide the domain and completely non-work related blog from my employer.

How do I forward a register.com domain without the ads or fees?

nestor_makhno — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 04:57:57 -0800

I have a domain, myname.com, that I want to have forwarded to my Google Sites webpage. My old domain company did it for free but now that I signed with register.com they want either a fee to do it or I have to accept their annoying banner ad. How do I get around this? Did I make a mistake going with register.com? Do I need to reregister with another company that has free forwarding?

Help me help the machines talk!

roygbv — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 12:58:05 -0800

Networking filter: I'm a young (still learning much) SysAdmin for a pretty large site. I inherited the network configuration, and now I'm trying to troubleshoot some strange issues: workstations losing connectivity without rhyme or reason, and slow web browsing. We are having issues with some workstations on our domain losing connection to servers on the domain. We are also having issues browsing the web efficiently – pages load quickly after a 4-6 second delay.

The configuration is as follows:
- Cable Modem connected directly to Hardware Firewall
- Hardware Firewall – set as the Router / Primary Gateway
- Domain Controller – set as the DNS for the domain (running DNS and DHCP)
- Member Servers (4x) – each with a static IP, no DNS or DHCP roles
- 3x gigabit network switches (unsure of the config, done before my time at the site)
- Workstations – we have approx 90 workstations that get IPs from DHCP on the DC

The DHCP scope is set from 192.1.1.111 to 192.1.1.230. Devices with static IP are outside of the DHCP range. Some devices have DHCP reservations.

Domain resolution is slow in web browsers on client PCs. Seems to be an issue with DNS, because after about 4-6 seconds of stall time everything loads very quickly. If I run ipconfig /all on a client PC, I see the primary gateway as the firewall IP, and the DNS as the domain controller IP.

On the Domain Controller, for the active NIC, DNS is set manually to the DNS provided by the ISP.

Forwarding zone on the domain controller is set with the ISP DNS IPs and Google’s DNS IPs.

On the hardware firewall, DNS is set to the ISP DNS IPs.

How can I troubleshoot? Are there error logs I can check to diagnose our network issues? Are there common points of failure I can check? Might this be an issue with our network switches?

Thanks MeFi! I much appreciate the help.

Taking up space on the Interwebs

The Biggest Dreamer — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 10:31:52 -0800

What should I do with my custom domain name? I plan to let it expire.. but I'm stuck with it until 2014. Note: I already have a domain and hosting that I am planning to use for my personal/professional/family stuff.

This particular domain name is a variation of/play on my first name + adjective, but the domain name itself wouldn't really mean much of anything on its own. It currently points to my Tumblr but I don't really want to maintain a blog like that right now.

What are some cool/fun/useful/? things I can do with this domain name?

How to remove personal info from fraudulent DNS listings?

jalexei — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 09:17:02 -0800

I've stumbled on a couple of internet domains registered in my name and contact information that I've got nothing to do with - not sure how to proceed. They were set up around 9 months ago, and I do recall having some odd charges show up on a credit card in the same period - the account was closed and the charges reimbursed, but I'm concerned some of the fallout from that incident is still floating around with my name and address on it.

The registrars are listed as "Internet.bs" and "0101 domain" and I've found a couple of small hosting sites in NJ and PA (Linode and 1&1 Internet). My instinct is to start there, but I'm uneasy having never heard of any of them (not that there aren't 10 gazillion domain resellers and web hosts I haven't heard of, but still) and was wondering if folks had any different ideas about who to contact and how to unravel this - Thanks!

.com.au | .com

jacanj — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:39:14 -0800

What is a quick and cheap domain registration and mail forwarding option from mybusinessname.com.au? I have mybusinessname.com with bookings@mybusinessname.com as my advertised email address. An advertiser "fixed" my email address to be bookings@mybusinessname.com.au. Adding the au extension that he thought was missed.

I need to buy the mybusinessname.com.au domain and setup so any mail will forward to the existing mybusinessname.com address. What's the quickest, cheapest way to do this?

I see CrazyDomains will do it for $1-$2 /month. Is there a better option? I'm not a fan of a business describing themselves as "Crazy".

Concerns about .fm domain registration?

r-senal — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 13:34:57 -0800

What are some concerns, if any, for purchasing a .fm domain versus using the standard crop of top level domains? I'm based out of the U.S. and looking at purchasing *mylastname*.fm for the purpose of email. I've looked at just about every various of my name (my initials and combinations of first, middle and last names) and they are all taken. Do I need to be concerned that I would be unable to renew the domain in the future due to it being a country code top-level domain?

Help me register a domain for URL shortening

cjorgensen — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 13:26:57 -0800

How can I discover a short URL that is available to register? I would like to register a domain that can be used as a URL shortening service (I want to roll my own). Obviously, the obvious ones and cool ones don't seem to be available.

I want 6 or less characters. I want a stable TLD, so no .ly domains (besides, they have cut off the short domains to non-Liberians).

I've spent the last hour or so entering in ideas and having them all be taken. Seriously, at this point I'll take a nonsense URL as long as it's short.

My biggest issue isn't coming up with ideas, but rather a search strategy. Every time I enter in an idea I get back, "We're sorry, jl.me is taken. Would you like to register reallylongurl.com?" I would like to get back suggestions on only short domains.

I'd take suggestions on open ones in memail. Or suggestions on how to find them here (my bigger concern).

Bonus if the domain can be registered at pairing.com. Double bonus if the domain doesn't cost more than your average domain. Triple bonus is I don't end contributing to global unrest by funding terrorists.

How do you eliminate the Apple ID login popup window on a Mountain Lion install for newly created users? In both 10.8 and 10.8.1?

Feel the beat of the rhythm of the night — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 06:30:51 -0800

How do you eliminate the Apple ID login popup window on a Mountain Lion install for newly created users? In both 10.8 and 10.8.1? I found a site that included instructions for the creation of plist values that get copied to the default user, but they don't seem to work. It might be the recent upgrade to 10.8.1 that broke it.

The new users are mobile accounts that get created upon login through an Active Directory binding to a domain. The computer will be used by many (many) different people with different logins and I don't want these users to have to bypass a screen before they can use the machine in question.

Is there a simple (client-side) way to allow web access to one domain only on a machine?

glibhamdreck — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 11:56:32 -0800

Is there a simple (client-side) way to allow web access to one domain only on a machine? I'm trying to set up a little touchscreen terminal at a business in order to make their site easily available to in-store customers. I figured I'd just set the browser full screen and disable "right" clicking. However, I'm not sure of a way to disallow the site's outbound links.

I don't have the experience/vernacular to do anything beyond the very basics on the server-side of things. So, I'm hoping there might be a software solution for this one computer.

(Also, I don't think a local offline copy of the site would work that well here either -- as it's a relatively frequently updated Wordpress site.)

Besides disabling the extra-domained links, are there any other settings I should consider for this site-specific terminal project? Thanks for your help.

How to delegate Google Apps contacts outside of domain?

Slackjaw37 — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:33:13 -0800

Paid Google Apps accounts cannot share (delegate) contacts with users outside of its domain. Has anybody come across this issue and been able to work around it? I've been looking at a few of the 3rd party Marketplace Apps but they all seem pretty clunky with wildly varying reviews.

How to Buy an Expiring Internet Domain

laswingkid — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 14:34:33 -0800

I want to buy an internet domain name that is expiring in 3 days. I though it would be a simple process, but looking into it, I was quickly overwhelmed. Here is the info on the current domain: Registrar: HOMESTEAD LIMITED DBA NAMEVAULT.COM / Whois Server: whois.namevault.com / Referral URL: http://www.namevault.com / Name Server: NS1.FASTPARK.NET / Name Server: NS2.FASTPARK.NET. Honestly, I don’t really understand this info but I think it may be important. can anyone offer me advice or point me to webpage with current info about this process? (A Google search turned up several posts but they’re all years old.) Thanks!

Help me get my blog back up!

peanut_mcgillicuty — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 12:51:53 -0800

Why did my blog disappear? I maintain an anonymous personal finance blog (so hopefully you can help me without the specific URL) and six months ago I got hold of my domain name and set it up through DomainClub.com.

Yesterday I noticed that www.domainname.com and www.domainname.blogspot.com were both returning page not found errors. I checked the Blogger backend and the DNS records and nothing has changed - everything is *exactly* according to the instructions in Blogger for adding a custom domain. Blogger has no known issues with redirects right now. I did a live chat with Domain Club and they said that the A records and CNAME were all entered correctly (which, duh, it's been working for six months and I didn't change anything and nothing got hacked). They said there is nothing wrong on their end. After an hour of turning the redirect off and on in the Blogger dashboard, both pages started showing up again.

But today I started getting reader emails that my site is down. So I check, and sure enough - both URLs return page not found errors again.

When I delete the custom domain from the Blogger dashboard, domainname.blogspot.com shows up fine. When I add it back, both domainname.com and domainname.blogspot.com go back to returning page not found errors. So clearly, this is some sort of an error with the forwarding, right? And Domain Club would have responsibility for this, not Blogger? Their live chat is off for the weekend but I've sent them a message - I'm just wondering if there's anything else *I* can do right now. Most of my traffic comes in on the weekend, so this sucks.

I'm relatively new to this whole managing domain things, so what should my next steps be?

Thanks!

Bulk domain name checkers?

pete_22 — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 01:10:02 -0800

What are the best online tools for checking domain name availability? I'm looking mainly for "bulk" sites where you can type in a list of words and see in a single table which ones are available in which TLDs. Here's one example. I'd be particularly interested in one that automatically included domain hacks, e.g. if one of my words is "colors" then it'll check for colo.rs in addition to colors.com, colors.net, etc.

Note: this isn't for domain squatting or other nefarious purposes, I'm just going through lots of potential names for a product and want to check them all quickly without wading through all the "extras" and upselling on a typical registrar's site.

I also remember seeing one site that checked the availability of a username (not in bulk though) on dozens of different services at the same time. Does anyone know what that was?

Is there any way to prevent external sites from linking to me?

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 12:27:05 -0800

Is there any way to prevent external sites from linking to me? I am temporarily managing the main website for my employer. Google has recently flagged this site as "compromised" because some external (link farm?) sites are linking to non-existent query pages on our site.

(Note: I am neither a developer or a webmaster, but seeing as how I am the most technologically aware person in our very-small company, I have been tasked with managing our site for now. I know just enough to get myself in trouble.)

There are approximately 400 of these incoming links, all related to prescription drug purchasing (ex: mydomain.com/?query=cymbalta-overnight-delivery). These URLs do not exist in either our database or our CMS (Joomla, if it matters), and no malware has been installed on the site. I am fairly confident that the back-end has not been compromised.

However, all these incoming links are causing Google to mark our site as "compromised". Also, many of our clients are US federal government agencies, some of who have let me know that they are no longer able to access our site on their network. This is decidedly Not Good.

I have blocked all query URLs via robots.txt, and asked Google to remove them individually from their search results, but I'm not sure that will be enough to un-block our site for these clients. I'm also concerned that new links will keep popping up and this will be a never-ending project for me to monitor.

Is there any way to prevent these external sites from linking to us at all? (I know who the culprits are.) I've done some basic Googling and haven't found much, but I'm hoping AskMe will have some suggestions. Any help is much appreciated!

(Anon because, well, work-related. Also incompetence-related.)

*Bonus question: any idea what the motivation behind this is, other than to give me a major headache? I can't quite figure out how this benefits these sites or draws more traffic to them, since all links are incoming and just redirect to our homepage.

Need video clips

kenaldo — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:57:49 -0800

I need to find a resource (or resources) where I can download old black and white clips. I have an idea for a project that needs about 2 to 3 minutes of old b and w videos depicting scenes that are very wholesome (leave it to beaver style, families, fun, uplifting, etc) and troubling things (police brutality, atomic bomb explosions, negative stuff).

Is there somewhere I can go sift thru clips and download this type of stuff? Public domain type stuff? Thanks peeps.