After nearly a year, I have finally regained control of my original domain name

www.docbaun.com is back on the Internet!

Short Version:  An RSS feed I watch told me today that the domain was finally "released", so I snatched it back up again.

Longer Version:  The ass-bag "domain squatter" company that put a "hold" on my domain after ICANN released it 6 months ago apparently thought nobody would want it, so they finally let go of their "hold" and I grabbed that puppy up faster than you can say "Visa or Mastercard"!!

Longest Version:  On June 1st, 2009, the 10th year since I first opened up www.docbaun.com as my domain on the internet, my registration with Network Solutions finally expired.  Because I had moved (twice since registering my domain) and could not provide (a) a current utility bill from the address I was living at when I originally registered the name in 1999 - which, of course, I COULDN'T since THAT was on Harrison Street in Fresno and that was, in fact, FOUR addresses ago...or (b) could not prove sufficiently to Network Solutions that I was Matthew Baun, DESPITE faxing them a copy of my driver's license AND sending them a certified copy of MY BIRTH CERTIFICATE.  Because of all that, my inability to demonstrate to Network Solutions that I was Me, they refused to allow me to renew the domain name - since only the holder of the domain can do that - and while I WAS the holder of the domain, Network Solutions wasn't buying it, and so, June 1st of 2009, my 10th year of holding the domain, I lost control of the domain (registration expired) and the whole "cold" domain process started....it goes like this....

1) If the holder of a domain does not renew before the domain's registration is up, ICANN (the government body responsible for administering Internet domains) will "park" the domain for 6 months to give the current holder time to re-register their domain.  Network Solutions wouldn't let me do that because they were not satisfied of my identity, so we went to step....

2) After 6 months, if a domain's previous owner does not re-register, ICANN releases the domain name to the public.  At this point (which would have been December 2009), I SHOULD have been able to re-acquire the domain name from another Registrar OTHER than Network Solutions (such as GoDaddy or Tucows or the like), since the domain "name" was up for grabs again....however, Network Solutions, through a subsidiary company they own, put a "hold" on the name - that is, using their subsidiary company as a front man, they "applied" for the right of First Refusal for the name, which is otherwise known as "parking" a domain name - and I COULD have purchased the domain name (www.docbaun.com) from their puppet company in December....for the cost of $400!!!  At this point, since they are both a Registrar AND a purchaser, they (Network Solutions) could, in theory at any rate, have just continually put "holds" on the domain name until the end of time - I would have to either cough up $400 bucks to get my own domain name back, or do what I did since I couldn't afford that - just learn to live without it.....but then today we get to step.....

3) Network Solution's puppet company (I think it's called Hollywood Advertisements or some such nonsense like that) apparently decided the "name" was something nobody else was going to purchase for $400 bucks, and since I wasn't going to give them $400 bucks to get my domain name back, decided it wasn't worth the $9 per year fee to ICANN to "park" a domain nobody was going to buy, so they released their hold on it....

At about 9am Eastern Time today (26 Aug 2010), the domain name (www.docbaun.com) became freely available again....and when I found out (while checking my RSS feeds at about 10 am my time today), I zipped over to my current server space provider (IPOWER.COM, which registers names through Tucows), and gobbled that baby back up as fast as fingers can fly on a keyboard before someone ELSE tried to put another hold on it .... and so....

www.docbaun.com, after over a year, is finally back under my control again.  And instead of $400 bucks of Dane-geld to get it back, I got it back for about $20 bucks (for two years, no less!).

And I, personally, learned two very important lessons from the whole experience which I want to pass along to you, the readers....

First, NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH NETWORK SOLUTIONS!!!  If you have a domain name with them now, TRANSFER IT to some other Registrar like TUCOWS or GODADDY - it's a headache to transfer an existing domain (believe me I know!  I went through that headache when I tried to move THEMOVIEMAILER.COM from Affinity's Servers to GoDaddy back before I lost docbaun.com), but when the headache is over, you will be able to rest easy, knowing that when it comes time to re-register your domain name Network Solutions won't try to screw you like they tried to screw me....and

Second, anytime you move, or change your mailing address, with WHATEVER registrar your domain name is with, always make sure your contact information is CURRENT - because from all my research, Network Solutions isn't the only assbag out there that pulls this stunt.