It’s been a brute of a day. It’s 3am and I’m still working… Why? A website hosting firm hit the wall, sending a dozen sites I’ve worked on in the past offline. OK, I don’t have contractual arrangements for these sites, but I do have moral obligations. So what do you do when a host goes belly-up and you have clients pressing you on the phone?
The answer, as I’ve today discovered, depends if you’re trying to retrieve a .co.uk or .org.uk domain, as opposed to a .com, .org or .net. For the former you can deal with the nice people at Nominet who have a convenient page about how to deal with an insolvent domain name registrar, and a system (as their super quick and efficient help desk informed me) that allows you to change registrar direct on the Nominet site for a charge of £10+VAT. So 3 .uk domains were saved in a flash.
Contrast that with the .com, .org and .net domains where I am still messing around trying to get hold of agencies, resellers etc. and Nominet was such a pleasure to deal with, the highlight in an otherwise dire day.
A rare commitment to quality of service that goes beyond the contract. I know who to call if I ever need someone I can rely upon for web design and maintenance.
Somehow the old server has come back online, but the company still does not reply to support requests or calls… Is there life in them yet?
The firm in question is, ironically, called Adept.
Don’t suppose you’d care to name the hosting company in question?
Jon,
Good to know that an efficient, independent internet business operates within the UK.
All the more reason to remind Mandelson and co to keep their meddling government hands off it.
Michael.
Jon,
Both the European political parties and you have moral obligations, but you distinguish yourself by assuming yours.
Good luck to you and your clients in sorting out the problems.