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Paul_Jewell
November 2nd, 2014, 11:39 PM
Hello,

Over the past years I have been keeping a home server that my whole family uses. The html front page is just a small music business that my mother runs, but mostly we use it for services, such as FTP transfers, which run on other ports. I have had to jump between providers multiple times as they die out or expire my registration. Obviously if I was running a real business which people outside of the family used, I would pay for a real domain name, but for now I would rather not pay if It can be avoided.

I have noticed after doing some preliminary research that most of the free providers have a scheme where you must click a button within exactly a two week window or you have no chance to get the domain name back. (of course they wont send you am email or anything to let you know that its expiring soon) This is how I lost my most recent domain at DOT TK. Yes, I could write up a script to check for the expiring time and click the button for me, but I feel that being able to test it once a year, the chance of success could be vastly diminished.

tl ; dr

Has anyone used or heard of a free domain name provider which does not impose this 'two week window' rule or something similar? An obscure name with low traffic is the use case.

thanks for reading.

P.S.

I would appreciate it if you abstain from posting comments related to 'its so cheap just buy one' or something similar. This should be an informational thread to other users from google who may honestly not be able to afford paying. Thanks.

pqwoerituytrueiwoq
November 3rd, 2014, 12:14 AM
a DDNS provider work for you or do you need a full top level domain?
i am using duckdns for mine

WinEunuchs2Unix
November 4th, 2014, 05:09 AM
It used to be about a hundred bucks a year for a domain name but according to this article it is only 10 to 15 bucks: http://www.thesitewizard.com/domain/renewing-domain-name.shtml

stalkingwolf
November 4th, 2014, 04:41 PM
i pay 8.99 a month for hosting with godaddy and around 15.00 a year for my domainname including the privacy add on.

sandyd
November 4th, 2014, 04:47 PM
Hello,

Over the past years I have been keeping a home server that my whole family uses. The html front page is just a small music business that my mother runs, but mostly we use it for services, such as FTP transfers, which run on other ports. I have had to jump between providers multiple times as they die out or expire my registration. Obviously if I was running a real business which people outside of the family used, I would pay for a real domain name, but for now I would rather not pay if It can be avoided.

I have noticed after doing some preliminary research that most of the free providers have a scheme where you must click a button within exactly a two week window or you have no chance to get the domain name back. (of course they wont send you am email or anything to let you know that its expiring soon) This is how I lost my most recent domain at DOT TK. Yes, I could write up a script to check for the expiring time and click the button for me, but I feel that being able to test it once a year, the chance of success could be vastly diminished.

tl ; dr

Has anyone used or heard of a free domain name provider which does not impose this 'two week window' rule or something similar? An obscure name with low traffic is the use case.

thanks for reading.

P.S.

I would appreciate it if you abstain from posting comments related to 'its so cheap just buy one' or something similar. This should be an informational thread to other users from google who may honestly not be able to afford paying. Thanks.

Try http://afraid.org - though take note of http://freedns.afraid.org/faq/#13

Paul_Jewell
October 26th, 2015, 01:47 PM
Just coming back after a long period to say that I have been using the first suggestion, duckdns, with great success. It is a great honest feature provider and I have had no problems using it.

Thanks for the suggestion!