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Retrieving a lost domain name isn't a big deal if you know to approach the right person at the right time

BANGALORE, INDIA: The true worth of losing a website is hardly realized until you know for sure that it cannot be easily salvaged. The ensuing unstoppable freaky thoughts can sap your mind. What if a stranger is posting incongruous stuff that's a departure from your unique identity. Much worse, what if it is being owned by porn makers? OMG! You are name jacked.

Something of that sort happened to Delia Ephron, a writer. She recalls those moments in her blog: "I hadnt looked at my Web site in a while, but I figured that, with a novel coming out, I should bring it up to date. So I Googled http://www.deliaephron.com (I never had gotten around to bookmarking it) and it wasnt there. Instead there was a message: This domain is for sale."

She felt violated and was desperate to get the name back as it represented her life, her hard work, her accomplishments, point of view and more. After months of unrestrained court cases, and facing the harsh reality of the virtual world, she won in the end. She got back her identity, her website, not before going on a domain-buying frenzy. Now, she is the owner of deliaephron.net, deliaephron.name and also delia-ephron.com. Did you just think that her domains are too complicated to be taken away? Perhaps that wasn't the criteria at all.

Not everyone could be as lucky as Delia. Domain name thefts aren't uncommon in the world where every name you look for seems competitive given the rush for sensible and easily-remembered names that seamlessly associate with one's identity. However, it is not entirely impossible to get back the lost name and the website, though it rarely comes for free.

When a person registers a domain name it is mandatory to pay a yearly fee to the domain names registry just to keep the name associated with their IP address. Losing domain names could be the result of failure to renew it on time or someone fraudulently taking control of it without legally buying it.

In the first case, it is never too late to renew it with the registry of domain names, but not before checking if it's already up on sale or being auctioned. If it's on sale, most appropriate would be to bid to buy it.

But if someone has already bought the domain and using it, then it requires some really nice etiquette to get it back. Use your charm, try to convince the person why you want it back. It's highly likely that a request to the new owner works if he has bought it with the sole intention of reselling. So, just find out how much is your name worth, offer to buy it yourself, he would be more than happy to sell it. You shell out his price and own back your domain.

Apart from this, what if your domain name is stolen, I mean taken away fraudulently or if you are name-jacked? Companies losing control of their domains might face serious consequences.

In the know-all Internet age, it shouldn't be too tedious to know the hosting company of the website. Tools like Netcraft generously show up the hosting company names. For example domain name registrars Net 4 and Verisigngives you the entire details about the website-- registration date, hosting company, server etc.

Read more:
How to find your lost website