Whois protection...is it really a must?

[Halcyon]

For those of you more involved in registering domains and offering somekind of web hosting...is it really a must to pay extra to get Whois protection?

I know is not much at all (US$2.88/year per domain), just wondering how useful it is to hide your registration info from the public view.

TIA

 

[nightelf]

I don't think is worth it. It could even become a problem in the future if you don't use a known registrar.

With Whois Protection you are transfering the ownership of your domain to the registrar. If they close you could lose your domain.

 

[Halcyon]

With Whois Protection you are transfering the ownership of your domain to the registrar. If they close you could lose your domain.

Uhm, this is a new twist that I was not aware. You are right, the registrar becomes the legal owner of the domain :-(

How risky is this compared to having all your personal info available to everyone...I guess that is the question to ponder on.

 

[savar]

For those of you more involved in registering domains and offering somekind of web hosting...is it really a must to pay extra to get Whois protection?

I know is not much at all (US$2.88/year per domain), just wondering how useful it is to hide your registration info from the public view.

TIA

If you have a business address & phone number, there's no need to hide it. If its your personal information, then definitely hide it.

 

[wiseguy27]

Just to avoid spam, junk mail and telemarketing calls, hide it - choose a good registrar though - someone you can trust (not the cheapo ones who may not be reliable).

 

[Halcyon]

Just to avoid spam, junk mail and telemarketing calls, hide it - choose a good registrar though - someone you can trust (not the cheapo ones who may not be reliable).

I always thought this would be the main reason to contract Whois protection. It would be interesting to compare similar domains, one with the other without WHois protection, and monitor which one gets more spam...

 

[zim]

I don't have it and don't see buying into it either. In all my years of being a domain owner I have only received a dozen or so snail mail junk advertisements.. no phone calls.. spam mail is hard to pin point if it originated from there or not. I don't think it is needed. I use namesecure.com and they offer a lock-protection security feature for free, not the same thing as Whois protection, they say it prevents someone from stealing my domain and moving else where.. who knows if it really does that but it is part of the registration.

 

[desenso]

For those of you more involved in registering domains and offering somekind of web hosting...is it really a must to pay extra to get Whois protection?

I know is not much at all (US$2.88/year per domain), just wondering how useful it is to hide your registration info from the public view.

TIA

I would say it's pretty important if you have any interest in maintaining some sense of privacy.

First of all, I believe you are legally required to provide correct information. The biggest problem with having your information out there is spam - you'll get insane amounts of it.

You'll also get extremely sketchy SNAIL MAIL to the address listed on there. Companies that try and pretend like you have to renew your domain with THEM, even though they weren't your original registrar.

Aside from that, who wants their address and phone numbers up on display for anyone to see?

I'm sure you've spent $2/year on some incredibly silly things -- why not protect your privacy a little for such a trivial amount?

I have about 20 to 30 domains and I pay for privacy on all of them, including about 20 on GoDaddy where the privacy renewal is an extortionate $10/domain per year. I'll never register another domain with GoDaddy.

 

[nightelf]

I think is important to take into consideration what type of site you have.

It might be ok to use whois-protection on personal sites, but in business sites would not be a good idea. Scammers use domain protection to hide their info, and I would not trust a business site without a valid contact info.

 

[Halcyon]

Like I stated in my intial post, money is not the issue...so setting that aside, there are valid pro and con arguments that in my personal opinion tilt the scale towards going the extra yard and getting Whois protection...most importantly:

Who wants to have his personal info up for grabs by anybody out there...

 

[Foxglove9]

I've have a few websites for almost 10 years and kept everything public. Never got spam or marketing from anyone.