Last week, a router manufacturer lost access to two of its customer-facing domains. They use these domains to give their customers access to their router configurations.

A simple oversight led to this company’s missing domain–they did not remember to renew their domain names in time. When they realized the error, it was already too late. Someone had already registered the company’s expired domains using an anonymous domain registration service.

This particular situation has put millions in danger. Currently, when their customers attempt to connect to the domains online, they are redirected to a website that is not affiliated with the company. While that website is not currently a threat, or being used for malicious purposes; it could be in the future.

Why is a Missing Domain Such a Big Deal?

Forgetting to renew your domain registration can be a costly mistake. In September of 2015, Google accidentally sold their domain name for $12. After realizing the mistake, they cancelled the order but they still ended up paying more than $10,000 to get it back.

Money is one major reason losing your domain name is a big deal. When a domain is not renewed in time, it goes up for sale and anyone can purchase it. This means if you lose your domain, it could be held for ransom forcing you to pay the domain owner a lot of money to get it back. Domains that are valuable enough could be held for millions of dollars.

Losing your domain could also leave it open to being registered and then used for malicious purposes. Put in the wrong hands, your domain could be used to spread malware or to gain access to users personal information. This puts your users’ identities in harm’s way and compromises the integrity of your company.

How Can You Prevent This From Happening to Your Company?

It is important to take critical steps to prevent a web domain from going missing at your company. As a domain registrar, we understand how important it is to keep your domain registrations up to date. If you have a domain name for your business, it is imperative that you renew it every year. If you forget, this same situation could happen to you.

4 Tips for Renewing Your Company’s Domain

Check out these ideas if you don’t want to forget your next domain renewal:

• Create a yearly calendar reminder on your phone or computer.
• Setup auto-renew within your domain account settings. Auto-renew is a hassle free way to renew your domains and services. Just be sure that your credit card on file is current.
• Keep your WHOIS information up to date.
• Register your domain for multiple years.

Losing a domain can easily be avoided. Don’t put your business or customers in a bad position by forgetting to renew your domain name.

Already have a domain registered with us? Be sure to enable auto-renew on it. You can auto-renew on both our members and my-noip account management systems. This is the easiest way to ensure your domain registration never lapses.

If your company hasn’t registered a domain yet, keep your website reliable and secure with No-IP’s Hosted DNS services. Don’t risk losing control of your company domain—get started today.