Modifying the Whois (Contact Details) of Domain Names


Modifying the Whois (Contact Details) of Domain Names

Typically, Domain Name Contacts are of the following types:

Registrant Contact

Administrative Contact

Technical Contact

Billing Contact

In the system, Contacts are independent of a domain name. All contact information that you have used for registering any domain name, is maintained separately in a Contact database. This allows you to re-use the contact information for any other domain name registration without having to fill in all the values again. Think of this as linking Contacts from your Contact database to the domain names you register. Whenever you change any contact information in any Contact, it will automatically change that information in every domain name which uses that contact information and reflect the same immediately in the Whois lookup results of your domain name.

Whenever you change the contact information of a Registrant Contact that is associated with a Domain Name the contact change has to be approved by both the losing and the gaining registrant. The changes can also be authorized by a Designated Agent

What is Designated Agent (DA)

The ICANN Transfer Policy allows the sponsoring registrar to serve as a Designated Agent (DA). The Designated Agent is specifically authorized by the Prior Registrant and New Registrant to make any change on its behalf, through consent that must be obtained from both individually at least once by the sponsoring registrar.

When modifying the name and/or company and/or email address details of the registrant, the user will be provided two options:

Registrant Authorization not required -- Appoint Registrar as Designated Agent:

Registrar acts as Designated Agent and authorizes the change request. Under this option, the registrant cannot opt out of the 60-day lock. If both the Prior Registrant and New Registrant authorized the registrar to serve as DA, the change request will apply immediately. If only one has authorized the registrar to serve as DA, the change will only occur after the Prior Registrant or New Registrant, whichever is required, consents to the requested change.

Registrant Authorization required -- Maintain Status Quo:

As it currently is handled now, the Prior Registrant and New Registrant receive email messages asking to approve the change to the Registrant contact. Option to opt out of 60-day lock will be provided to the registrant.