FatCow Web Hosting & Domain Names

What is Domain Privacy

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN), the international governing body for domain names, requires every registrar to maintain a publicly accessible Whois database for all domain names registered. Whois records include the domain owners' personal contact information: name, phone number and mailing and email addresses. Domain Privacy service allows you to hide your personal information in order to protect you from receiving unwanted communications from spammers, solicitors and the general public.

If necessary, you can temporarily disable domain privacy on your domain so that others can verify your ownership of the domain. You can then re-enable privacy whenever you want.

NOTE: Disabling Domain Privacy does not cancel the service. Please contact support if you want to cancel Domain Privacy for your domain.

What is NameSafe?

NameSafe is a domain service that allows for a greater level of security towards making changes to a domain name on your account. NameSafe protects against:

• DNS changes
• Name Server changes
• Contact information changes
• Unwanted renewals
• Adding/removing Domain Privacy
• Domain locking

No changes can be made to a domain name that has NameSafe enabled until the service has been temporarily deactivated, which can only be done by the owner of the administrative email address associated with the service on a hosting account.

NOTE: At this time, only domains registered through FastDomain are eligible for NameSafe.

Lock or unlock your domain

When the domain is locked, no domain registrar transfer process can be initiated by anyone, even the legal owner of the domain. If you wish to transfer a domain to a different registrar, you must unlock it first. Once your domain is configured as you wish, you should lock it for increased security.

To lock a domain:

1. Log in to DomainCentral
2. Click the "+" next to the domain that you want to transfer to expand the domain settings menu.
3. From the Overview tab, click Domain Lock (you can also select the Security tab to directly reach this menu).
   
   
   
   
4. Once on the Security tab menu, click Unlock Domain.
   
   
   
   
5. A confirmation message will display once your domain is unlocked.
   
   
   

To unlock a domain:

1. Log in to DomainCentral
2. Click the "+" next to the domain that you want to unlock to expand the domain settings menu.
3. From the Overview tab, click Domain Lock (you can also select the Security tab to directly reach this menu).
   
   
   
   
4. Once on the Security tab menu, click Unlock Domain.
   
   
   
   
5. A confirmation message will display once your domain is unlocked.
   
   

Purchase Domain Privacy

Typically, you would purchase Domain Privacy when you reserve or renew a domain name. However, if you did not purchase Domain Privacy at that time, you can still buy it for a domain that has already been registered.  

1. Log in to DomainCentral
2. Click the "+" next to the domain that you want to make private to expand the domain settings menu.
   
   NOTE: You can also click the red "Add" link to the right of the domain name to be directly taken to the Security tab.
   
   
   
   
3. From the Overview tab, click the Security tab.
   
   
   
   
4. Click Buy Domain Privacy, then proceed through the registration process to purchase privacy for your domain.

Enabling or disabling domain privacy

To enable domain privacy:

1. Log in to DomainCentral
2. Click the "+" next to the domain that you want to disable privacy for to expand the domain settings menu, then click the Security tab (you can also click the red "Disabled" link next to your domain to be directly taken to the Security tab).
   
   
   
   
3. On the Security tab menu, click Enable Domain Privacy.
   
   
   
   
4. A confirmation message will display once privacy has been enabled for your domain.
   
   
   
   

To disable domain privacy:

NOTE: Disabling Domain Privacy does not cancel the service. Please contact support if you want to cancel Domain Privacy for your domain.

1. Log in to DomainCentral
2. Click the "+" next to the domain that you want to disable privacy for to expand the domain settings menu, then click the Security tab (you can also click the green "Enabled" link next to your domain to be directly taken to the Security tab).
   
   
   
   
3. On the Security tab menu, click Disable Domain Privacy.
   
   
   
   
4. A confirmation message will display once privacy has been disabled for your domain.
   
   
   
   

Purchase NameSafe

NameSafe is usually purchased when registering a new domain name. However, you still have the option to add this service for domains that have already been registered.

1. Log in to DomainCentral
2. Click the "+" next to the domain that you want to purchase NameSafe for to expand the domain settings menu.
   
   
   
   
3. Click the Security tab.
   
   
   
   
4. Click Buy NameSafe Protection, then proceed through the registration process to purchase NameSafe security for your domain.
   
   NOTE: Please ensure that the email address used for the administrative email address is valid. Any changes that are to be made to this once NameSafe has been purchased must be done so by contacting Support .

Unlock NameSafe

NameSafe protects a domain even with Domain Privacy enabled, as it provides a second layer of security that is exclusive to the administrative contact of the domain. When the domain has NameSafe enabled, no action can be taken with this domain until the domain is unlocked.

To unlock NameSafe:

1. Log in to DomainCentral
2. Click the "+" next to the domain that you want to unlock NameSafe for to expand the domain settings menu.
   
   
   
   
3. Click the Security tab.
4. There will be a warning indicating that the domain is protected by NameSafe. Click unlock.
   
   
   
   
5. A message will appear stating that an email has been sent to the administrative email address that is associated with the domain. This email contains a link that, once clicked, will unlock NameSafe and allow the owner of the administrative email contact to make changes to the domain.
   
   NOTE: This link can only be used once, and will expire after 24 hours. If either of these criteria have been met, then a new link must be generated from DomainCentral to restart the unlock process.

Why is Domain Privacy not available for my domain?

Why is NameSafe not available for my domain?

Eligibility Requirements for Domain Privacy

To qualify for domain privacy, your domain must meet the following requirements:

• The following TLDs are eligible for domain privacy: .COM, .NET, .ORG, .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME, .CC, .TV.


• Domains must be managed through Domain.com or through one of our specific Registrar Partners.
• Find your domain's registrar
• Transfer your domain to FatCow's registrar

Eligibility Requirements for NameSafe

To qualify for NameSafe, your domain must meet the following requirements:

• The following TLDs are eligible for NameSafe: .COM, .NET, .ORG, .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME, .CC, .TV.


• Domains must be managed through Domain.com or through one of our specific Registrar Partners.
• Find your domain's registrar
• Transfer your domain to FatCow's registrar

Receiving legitimate correspondence with enabled Domain Privacy

If someone attempts to contact you through your domain contact information, our registrar partner will review and forward information to you based on the method of contact:

• Via postal mail: The Registrar will forward all correspondence received via registered mail to your Administrative contact address. All requests received by non-registered mail will be discarded.


• Via Web/email: The Registrar will advise the senders of email to the address listed in the Whois database to visit a Web form to resubmit their message.
  
  • This Web form will have mandatory fields for: domain name, contact to send message to (all, Registrant, Admin, Billing, Technical), subject of the message, message body, reply-to email address.
  • Successful requests will be sent to the selected contacts.


• Via telephone: Callers will be instructed to use the Web form or to send registered mail.

If you need all correspondence to get through to you can temporarily disable privacy on your domain.

To ensure that you receive important information about your domain, be sure to keep your domain contact information up to date.