FatCow Web Hosting & Domain Names

Overview of a Domain's Life Cycle

Domains have four stages of their life cycle:

• Active
• Expired
• Redemption Grace Period
• Pending Delete
  

Domain Life Cycle - Active Domain

Active

After a domain is purchased, it can be renewed up to 10 years. This limit is set per ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), who are the international organization in charge of regulating the management of domain names. For more information on ICANN, please go to www.icann.org .

We begin sending reminders to renew your domain name starting at 60 days prior to the renewal date. These messages are sent to the Administrative email address on file with your domain. Please ensure that this email address information is accurate, as it is the domain owner's responsibility to ensure that a domain is successfully renewed.

To update the email address on file with your domain:

1. Log in to DomainCentral.
2. Select the domain you wish to modify, and click the "+" icon to the left of the domain name.
3. Select the Contact tab in the domain settings dialog.
   
   
   
   
4. Update your contact information, then click Save to confirm your changes. A confirmation message will display when changes have been made.
   
   NOTE: If your updated information is not displaying correctly, click Refresh in the bottom right corner to update the information in this tab.
   
   
   
   

If we are unable to secure payment on or before the domain renewal date, your domain name will expire, and will enter the Expired phrase of the domain life cycle.

Domain Life Cycle - Expired Domain

As early as one day after a domain expires, your domain name will be deactivated and replaced with a parking page indicating that the domain name has expired. To retrieve the domain name from its expired status, at least a 1 year renewal fee must be paid. Log in to DomainCentral and renew your domain.

At 30 days after a domain expires, the registrar has the ability to enter the domain into its "redemption grace period" or an auction program. If a third party purchases the domain name during this auction, the domain name will not be available for the original owner to renew it.

Domain Life Cycle - Domain in Redemption

At 30-45 days after a domain expires, if a domain name has not yet been renewed by its original owner, and has not been purchased by a third party, the expired domain name will enter its redemption grace period.

Registry redemption grace periods are defined by each registrar, but are most commonly a 30 day period.

NOTE: If a third party purchases the domain name prior to it entering the registry redemption period, the domain name will not enter redemption and will not be available for renewal by the original owner.

To retrieve the domain from this status, we reserve the right to charge a redemption fee of $160 (in addition to the renewal fee). Please create a ticket in your Support Console to request assistance in recovering a domain name from redemption. 

Domain Life Cycle - Domain is Pending Deletion

If the domain name completes the registry redemption grace period, the registry will hold the domain name for a period of approximately five days before releasing it again to the public for general registration. At this time, the domain may be purchased by anyone at a regular rate defined by a webhost or domain registrar for that type of domain.

Renew a Domain

Domain renewals must be done through DomainCentral. DomainCentral lists all domains currently associated with your account, and you can see the number of days left until a domain must be renewed. You can also update a domain's DNS settings and purchase Domain Privacy for your domain in DomainCentral.

To renew a domain, please refer to the steps listed in the Domain Renewal knowledgebase article.

Enable Automatic Domain Renewal

FatCow offers a service that allows domains to be renewed automatically, as long as an account has updated payment information associated with it. This service is called the Automated Domain Renewal Service, or ADRS, for short. This service can be enabled for a domain at no extra cost in DomainCentral.

Please refer to the Enrolling a domain in Automated Domain Renewal Service knowledgebase article for more information on enabling ADRS for a domain.