Hosting Domain For Email - 'awaiting Confirmation From Registrar '.

[Rare Bear]

I've registered a domain so as to have a fixed email address no matter what ISP I use. So far so good. I've changed the name servers as requested by the ISP and to domain does come up as being on my account but with the message 'Awaiting confirmation from Registrar '. Does anyone have any idea how long it should take for the transfer to be complete? The ISP says that it is indeed in progress but it is a couple of weeks now. Does anyone have any ideas?

[DTMark]

Something is wrong somewhere. A change of name servers shouldn't take more than around 24 hours to propagate.

If you go here, for instance, and put your domain name into the box, then look down the results, do you see the name servers that you set as the ones that are specified?

http://whois.domaintools.com/

[The Masked Tulip]

Depends on whom your ISP is?

I was with one UK ISP who, well, they were a nightmare once they got hold of your credit details and had registered and/or hosted via them. Trying to cancel or move away from their hosting proved to be impossible and, in the end, I simply had to let the domain name lapse.

It was only when, having tried to get away from them, that I found hundreds of posts online from other customers complaining. The UK domain hosting is still pretty much the wild west I am afraid. The penalties for firms who abuse their customers in the above way are rare and minute. Because it is technology, and hence most MPs and law-makers do not understand it, the law is sadly lacking IMPO.

I think we need a really punitive fine on a UK host / domain registrar to bring them all into line.

To answer your question - no, it should not take this long. There is something up.

[Rare Bear]

Something is wrong somewhere. A change of name servers shouldn't take more than around 24 hours to propagate.

If you go here, for instance, and put your domain name into the box, then look down the results, do you see the name servers that you set as the ones that are specified?

http://whois.domaintools.com/

Yes Mark, whois shows the correct name servers. In the message 'Awaiting confirmation from Registrar ', is the Registrar the original people who registered the domain or would it be Nominet?

this is the whois info:

Domain name:

mydomain.co.uk

Registrant:

Myname

Registrant type:

Unknown

Registrant's address:

Tower 42 25 Old Broad Street

London

London (City of)

EC2N 1HN

United Kingdom

Data validation:

Registrant contact details validated by Nominet on 13-Feb-2015

Registrar:

original registration agent

URL: http://www.originalagent.com

Relevant dates:

Registered on: 13-Feb-2015

Expiry date: 13-Feb-2017

Last updated: 23-Feb-2015

Registration status:

Registered until expiry date.

Name servers:

ns1.force9.net

ns2.force9.net

WHOIS lookup made at 16:21:17 04-Mar-2015

[DTMark]

To try to be brief:

- The Registrant is you

- The Registrar is the company registering the domain with the central authority

- Nominet (in this case - .uk domain) - is the central authority

Registrars have "tags". A tag is a short code which identifies the Registrar.

- Some Registrars provide hosting services (web and/or email).

- Other Registrars only provide the Registration service.

- When someone tries to look at your website (at that domain name) or send you email, something called a DNS lookup is performed. That connects together the domain name and the actual physical place where the web and/or mail server is.

- The name servers hold those DNS records.

- The hosting company is normally the one providing the DNS service (DNS = Domain Name Service = Name Servers)

So when you sign up for hosting, you can do one of two things:

- Change the Tag so that the hosting company also becomes the Registrar. The host then changes the DNS servers for you.

- Change the name servers to those of the host. The domain remains with the original Registrar.

Sounds like you've done the latter, which is fine.

Also looks like you've responded to the Nominet email to set up your login and confirm your identity.

As it stands, everything actually looks OK.

So the golden question is - have you actually tried to set up the email boxes in your mail program e.g. Outlook, following the instructions provided by the host - first, normally adding your mailbox (e.g. mark@mydomain.co.uk) in their 'control panel', and then adding the account in Outlook?

Ignoring that message you're seeing: does the above work?

What do you see if you put your domain name into your web browser?

[Rare Bear]

To try to be brief:

- The Registrant is you

- The Registrar is the company registering the domain with the central authority

- Nominet (in this case - .uk domain) - is the central authority

Registrars have "tags". A tag is a short code which identifies the Registrar.

- Some Registrars provide hosting services (web and/or email).

- Other Registrars only provide the Registration service.

- When someone tries to look at your website (at that domain name) or send you email, something called a DNS lookup is performed. That connects together the domain name and the actual physical place where the web and/or mail server is.

- The name servers hold those DNS records.

- The hosting company is normally the one providing the DNS service (DNS = Domain Name Service = Name Servers)

So when you sign up for hosting, you can do one of two things:

- Change the Tag so that the hosting company also becomes the Registrar. The host then changes the DNS servers for you.

- Change the name servers to those of the host. The domain remains with the original Registrar.

Sounds like you've done the latter, which is fine.

Also looks like you've responded to the Nominet email to set up your login and confirm your identity.

As it stands, everything actually looks OK.

So the golden question is - have you actually tried to set up the email boxes in your mail program e.g. Outlook, following the instructions provided by the host - first, normally adding your mailbox (e.g. mark@mydomain.co.uk) in their 'control panel', and then adding the account in Outlook?

Ignoring that message you're seeing: does the above work?

What do you see if you put your domain name into your web browser?

Yes, I have tried to set up a mailbox in their control pane. no joy. By their I mean the ISP who is to do the hosting. When I put the name into a browser I just get 'Server not found'. I would appear to have managed to get myself stuck between the people who did the registration and the ISP.

[DTMark]

If you can send me a private message with the domain name and the mailbox name, I can have a look for you - won't take long to establish what is wrong.