Need opinions on web design issue...

[daveleau's wife]

I wanted to get opinions from any fellow web designers/programmers out there, or anyone else who wants to chime in!

I'm designing a web site for a client who has a .org domain name registered with a third party. That is, he pays a small local company to host his site, and also had them register his domain name for him. Since the company registered his domain for him (through Network Solutions), all of their contact info is associated with the domain. So if you do a Who Is directory lookup, you'll see the name, email, and contact info. with this company's name on it. My client's email address is nowhere on the account.

If this hosting company were to go out of business and drop off the face of the earth, my client would have no way of proving to Network Solutions that he owns and pays for the domain. If for some reason he lost contact with this company, it would be a huge headache to prove the domain is his. (I've dealt with Network Solutions on an issue similar to this, and it was pure h-ll trying to deal with them.)

My question: Is it unreasonable to request the user name and password for the Network Solutions account? Right now, the hosting company is refusing to give my client that info. Also, it is unreasonable to ask that the email on the account be changed to my client's address?

I would appreciate anyone's thoughts. Sorry for the long post - I was trying to be brief! Thanks for your time!

-wendy

[Whir]

Well, it's not unreasonable to ask for access to what he's paying for, but the company doing the hosting is not doing it very well. He should have his own account with his own login and password. They won't be giving him their information any time soon.

It certainly isn't unreasonable to expect HIS information to be on his account and registry through NS. It sounds to me like his hosting company is ripping him off. Unfortunately, since they own the domain name, if he wanted to move to another server, he'd have to change that. Kind of stuck there.

On the other hand, if he wants to move, I could host his stuff.

[daveleau's wife]

Thanks for your comments! I haven't dealt with this problem before. Most hosting companies (or whoever registered the domain name) give my clients their username/password for the account.

I wish my client would move to another hosting company. He likes this guy because he's local and can pick up the phone and call if he has any problems. I talked with the guy on the phone and he's an arrogant jerk. My client is concerned that his info. is not on the account, however. He sees the wisdom in having his info. associated with the domain name to be able to prove it is his.

I appreciate your time.

[M_Six]

Ditto what Whir said. If your client paid for the domain name registration, then he/she is entitled to access and change the account. I've registered a bunch of domains through my hosting company and they always send me the access info so I can go in and make changes.

EDIT: BTW, say Hi to Dave for us. He's missed here.

[crouse]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveleau's wife

Right now, the hosting company is refusing to give my client that info. Also, it is unreasonable to ask that the email on the account be changed to my client's address?

-wendy

Not at all unreasonable, and if it were my client I would let the hosting company know if the information wasn't changed in a week, he would find a nice registered letter from the local courthouse or would have the sherriff serving him small claim paperwork. (I've done this).

Usually that gets peoples attention, because if I have to go to court over something this silly, then the person on the other end is gonna pay for my time. I just finished dealing with a customer whose previous webmaster refused to give him the domain name he had paid this guy to register (he put it in his own name). I made a phone call to him and explained how much this would cost him after he lost in small claims court.... roughly $4000 here. He decided it was cheaper to just give the guy his domain name back.

People that do things like this are out #1 to keep the clients in thier pocket.... not by good service, but by "holding" somthing over them. That irritates me alot. #2 to try to make "extra" $$ by selling them the domain later, #3 make a markup on the domain name ..... service for keeping it register etc.

On a side note..... my clients all have their info listed, not mine, unless it's in the tech column...... all my clients are listed as the domain owner and THEY pay whatever the registrars costs are plus one hour for my time to mess with it.

My thoughts are that the "host" is afraid he will lose business if he doesn't have something on his customers....... (sounds like extortion doesn't it ).... I'd venture to guess he's rather high priced

Good luck.....

[daveleau's wife]

Thanks so much for the feedback, guys! I appreciate it. I hadn't talked with anyone who had dealt with this before, so I wasn't sure what the standard is. I am going to give your feedback to my client. This *really* helps!
And I will tell Dave 'hi' for you! He's a busy man these days with flying and studying and lots of other activities!
-wendy