FAQ for Domain Holders

 The answer to this question depends on whether your domain is being administered by a DENIC member or by DENICdirect.

In the first case (your domain is being administered by a DENIC member), it is only your provider who is in a position to deal with questions and any other matters concerning your domain. If, despite that, you contact DENIC directly, there is nothing we can do except pass your message on to the DENIC member in charge, so there is no way that you can save time. If it happens that you can no longer contact your provider or if you make no progress with your provider, DENIC is able to give you provisional assistance until you find a new provider.

In the second case (your domain is being administered by DENICdirect), you can contact DENIC directly with any matter that may concern you. As a DENICdirect customer, you should realize that you can help shorten the processing time considerably and reduce the need for clarifying details afterwards by using the special standard forms that DENIC provides for many different types of transaction.

To improve our services the whois servers will be equiped with a local database for status enquiries. The local databases receive the domain data from the registry database which leads to a short delay. As soon as the status of a domain is based on data older than five minutes an aditional line will be delivered. Please note that this is not the case when you use the web-whois.

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 Domain: denic.de
 Status: connect
 
 % DB time is <JJJJ-MM-TT> T<HH:MM:SS> +02:00
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The output of the line "DB time" will only occure with status queries when the data is older than five minutes. Otherwise the line will be omitted.

According to artice VIII clause 1 of the DENIC Domain Guidelines the administrative contact (Admin-C) is the domain holder's authorized representative for the domain, and thus the contact for DENIC.

The Admin-C is required because without this person the domain holder would be the only one authorized to make legally binding statements with regard to the domain. Particularly in case of domain holders that are legal entities like limited liability companies (German GmbH) or public limited companies (German AG) this would be hardly feasible. In such cases the right to make legally binding statements would rest exlcusively with the legal representative of the legal entity, i.e. the managing director or a member of the executive board. The only other solution would be a third person authorized by the legal representative outside the framework of the registration procedure. Since this person would, however, not be registered with DENIC as an authorized representative, he/she would have to prove his/her authorization every time DENIC or the provider administrating the domain would take action; and that would be really laborious.

To solve this problem and to make domain administration as easy and efficient as possible DENIC (like nearly all other domain registries) has created the role of the Admin-C. With the Admin-C, the domain holder officially registers an authorized representative with DENIC, who will then be entitled to make statements in the name of the domain holder without having to prove his/her authorization in every individual case. As the term “administrative” contact already proposes the role of the Admin-C is limited to mere administrative functions. The Admin-C does not have any own rights with regard to the domain. Those rights are reserved exclusively for the domain holder, who – according to article VII clause 1 - “holds the material rights to the domain”.

Being the authorized representative of the domain holder the Admin-C thus is comparable to the authorized representative a proprietor and/or a person filing an application for the registration of a trademark in accordance with § 76 (1) clause 1 of the Trademark Regulation (MarkenV) of the German Patent and Trademark Office can nominate and who then serves as the contact for the Office.

The term "Provider Change" is used when administration of a domain is transferred from one provider to another. Since the order to register a .de can only be submitted to DENIC through a member of DENIC or through our DENICdirect service, the provider change (CHPROV) transaction at DENIC refers to the transfer of responsibility for administering the domain from a member or DENICdirect to another member or DENICdirect. The DENIC member in charge or DENICdirect is entered by DENIC in the domain data. This DENIC member handles all communications with DENIC about the domain on behalf of the domain holder. Only this member is authorized to submit any customer orders to DENIC that might lead to modifications in the domain data.

The initial request for the registration of a .de domain can only be submitted to DENIC through a company that is a member of the DENIC Cooperative or through our DENICdirect service. The same applies to any administrative measure affecting existing domains: it is still the same DENIC member or DENICdirect that is in charge. The DENIC member (or DENICdirect) in charge of administration is entered in the domain data at DENIC and is the sole organization that has the right to submit orders from the domain holder to us to change the domain data (such as a change of address or a deletion). If your provider is not on the list of DENIC members, they will cooperate with a DENIC member or with DENICdirect.

If you want to change providers, you should inform your current provider about your intention and request creation of an AuthInfo. The current provider will check if the request is issued by an appropriately authorized party (the domain holder or the Admin-C). The future provider will then submit a provider change request to DENIC or, if they are not a DENIC member to the DENIC member with whom they cooperate. This request is then processed by DENIC and the domain is assigned to the new provider.

Sometimes delays occur at this point. They may be due to one of the reasons listed below:

• You have informed your current provider about the intended change, but that provider has not yet recorded an AuthInfo.

• You have forgotten to inform your current provider.

• Your provider needs some clarification and cannot get in touch with you.

In all such cases, check whether an AuthInfo has been stored for the domain and whether you have received it. Your provider will certainly help you to solve any problems.

There have been cases in which customers have tried to change providers by terminating their contract with the first provider, authorizing deletion of the domain by the first provider and then getting the new provider to register it again. We urgently warn you against trying such a procedure! Once DENIC has deleted the domain, it is available for registration by whoever asks for it first. You run the very definite risk to loose the domain! This cannot happen if you use the proper provider change procedure because the holder data recorded with your new provider will be entered immediately when the change is effected. That is why you should always insist on applying this procedure.

If you have any questions about the cost of a provider change, please contact your provider. Each provider defines potentially applicable fees themselves.

A provider change runs in two phases: First you request your current provider to obtain an AuthInfo. Then the new provider can use this AuthInfo to move the domain.

At least four parties are involved in a provider change. These are the DENIC member who has been administering the domain to date, the DENIC member who is to take over administration in future, the domain holder and DENIC. If either the current provider and/or the future provider is not a member of DENIC, they will also both be involved in the process.

You, the domain holder, start the provider change process by telling your current provider that you want another provider to administer your domain in the future. In the next step, the current provider sends an AuthInfo to DENIC. If this provider is not a DENIC member, they first of all send the application to create an AuthInfo to the DENIC member with whom they cooperate. This member then forwards the application to DENIC. Before submitting any such application, the current provider must make sure that the change was really initiated by the domain holder and not by a third party.

You, as the domain holder, send the AuthInfo to your new provider, who will use it for the provider change request. Then the provider change is implemented and the data in DENIC's database are updated accordingly.

 Yes. That can happen. What matters here is how much time you want to allow for the transfer. For all provider changes, we recommend you to allow a certain period of time during which your domain will be accessible through both providers. That will permit you to set up your new Internet presence without needing to rush. You can ask your old provider to establish a link that will simply pass on any incoming message to your new homepage, then to complete the formal Provider Change and, finally, to close down your old homepage.

The more time you allow for this transfer and the more thoroughly you plan it, the less likely there are to be problems. DENIC's recommendation is to plan for a transitional period of 2-3 weeks.

 If your domain has been transferred for administration to another provider without your consent and without you even being informed, you should first of all contact your provider, who will try and sort the matter out for you. It is also advisable to seek the viewpoint of the new provider, since there may simply have been a genuine mistake, given that there is not always a malicious intent underlying such incidents. If you find that you are getting nowhere with these contacts, you can then get in touch with DENIC, who will need a description of all the steps you have already tried.

 If you have been assuming that a particular domain was registered for you and that someone else has been registered as the domain holder from the very beginning, the first thing you should do it to check if you have entered into some sort of agreement (possibly with your provider, your advertising agency or even someone else) whereby another person was to be named as domain holder and not you. If that is not the case, you'll have to resolve the matter directly with the other party registered as being the domain holder. It might well be worthwhile applying to DENIC to have a DISPUTE entryplaced on the domain, making it impossible for it to be transferred to anyone else. DENIC cannot do anything for you in this situation, since the person registered has become the domain holder in fact, even if something different was perhaps agreed with you or at least if that had never been your intention.

 The first thing you should do is to make sure that there isn't a sound reason for the change in the domain holder. It might be that you have concluded an agreement of transfer or that either you or DENIC has terminated the Domain Contract (perhaps because a court judgement against which there is no appeal has gone against you). If that is not the case, you should next contact your provider and request an explanation and/or a reversal of the change. Sometimes such mistakes happen without any form of malicious intent, and they can be corrected immediately with little fuss and outlay. If your provider is unable to help you, you can then turn to DENIC to investigate the matter. You should send DENIC all the documents that might be helpful in clarifying the situation.

 If you want to delete your domain you should contact the provider currently in charge of administering it. Make sure that you are as precise as possible, so that your provider really knows what you want and that there is no risk of misunderstanding what your intention is. Vague instructions like "I don't want my domain any more" or "please switch off my domain" do not indicate that you want to delete your domain for ever and that you want DENIC to remove it from its system. It might be that you just want to terminate the service contract with your provider. Many providers supply of a special form for requests for the definitive deletion of domains.

If your domain is being administered by our DENICdirect service, all you need to do is to complete and sign an original of the Deletion Form for DENICdirect Customers and send it to us.

Once DENIC has received a Deletion order it is too late to stop it. The domain concerned will then be immediately available again for registration by other prospective holders.

 If you want to delete your domain, your first contact should always be the provider currently in charge of administering it. It is only in extremely rare, genuinely urgent cases, that you can contact DENIC directly to ask for assistance. This might happen if a provider waits an unnecessarily long time before executing an urgent deletion order. In such cases, you must use DENIC’s own Deletion Form. You must, however, also send us a detailed written statement telling us why the deletion is urgent and what you have so far done with your provider to bring about a deletion of the domain. We need the originals of this written statement and the Deletion Form; a fax will not do. If you just send us the form without the additional explanations, we regretfully have to inform you that we will not be able to process it.

 Fundamentally, holding a domain is inheritable, so the heir of the late domain holder replaces the deceased person. Such an heir will need to show evidence of the inheritance to his/her provider or DENIC and will then be entered in DENIC's database as the new domain holder. The heir, of course, also has the right to delete the domain or to transfer it to someone else.

It is different with the function of administrative contact (admin-c). This is not an asset as such and can hence not be inherited. If the admin-c dies, the domain holder has to appoint a new one. The same applies, of course, to the technical contact (tech-c).

 The short answer is perhaps. It will depend on what you have agreed in the contract with your provider. Naturally, DENIC cannot comment on such matters or check provider contracts. If anything is unclear, please contact your provider directly.

 Before a newly registered domain becomes accessible round the world it has to be included in the .de zone. This is usually done the next time the name servers are reloaded following completion of the registration. The same applies to modifications to name server entries for domains already registered. In the past, it used to be DENIC's practice to update the .de name servers only once a day. Since 13 August 2007, we now update twelve times a day. The following are the approximate times for the name server updates:

Daily:
 Updating the .de zone: between 1:00 and 2:00 CET
 This zone contains all the domain jobs that DENIC confirmed before 1:00 CET.
 
 Updating the .de zone: between 3:00 and 4:00 CET
 This zone contains all the domain jobs that DENIC confirmed before 3:00 CET.
 
 Updating the .de zone: between 5:00 and 6:00 CET
 This zone contains all the domain jobs that DENIC confirmed before 5:00 CET.
 
 Updating the .de zone: between 7:00 and 8:00 CET
 This zone contains all the domain jobs that DENIC confirmed before 7:00 CET.
 
 Updating the .de zone: between 9:00 and 10:00 CET
 This zone contains all the domain jobs that DENIC confirmed before 9:00 CET.
 
 Updating the .de zone: between 11:00 and 12:00 CET
 This zone contains all the domain jobs that DENIC confirmed before 11:00 CET.
 
 Updating the .de zone: between 13:00 and 14:00 CET
 This zone contains all the domain jobs that DENIC confirmed before 13:00 CET.
 
 Updating the .de zone: between 15:00 and 16:00 CET
 This zone contains all the domain jobs that DENIC confirmed before 15:00 CET.
 
 Updating the .de zone: between 17:00 and 18:00 CET
 This zone contains all the domain jobs that DENIC confirmed before 17:00 CET.
 
 Updating the .de zone: between 19:00 and 20:00 CET
 This zone contains all the domain jobs that DENIC confirmed before 19:00 CET.
 
 Updating the .de zone: between 21:00 and 22:00 CET
 This zone contains all the domain jobs that DENIC confirmed before 21:00 CET.
 
 Updating the .de zone: between 23:00 and 0:00 CET
 This zone contains all the domain jobs that DENIC confirmed before 23:00 CET.

 This data has been rendered public in the whois query for some very good reasons.

Firstly, it is important to be able to contact you if ever there are any technical difficulties caused by your domain or its use, which might lead to problems for others. Of course, it would normally be your provider who would sort out such technical problems for you, but that does not affect publication of your data. It may happen that your provider is partly to blame for the technical difficulties and, ultimately, you, the domain holder, will be held liable (and that includes liability for any legal consequences).

Secondly, your data must be made public, so that, if your domain is the source of an infringement of somebody else's rights, it will be possible to establish against whom to proceed, if need be.

Against this background, incidentally, the German data-protection authorities have expressly approved of the publication of personal data in the whois query. Further information on this subject is to be found, for example, in the thirteenth data-protection report by the government of the German federal state of Hesse (sections 9.2 and 9.3) and also in its fifteenth data-protection report (section 8.7).

If you do not want to have your address made public, the only option you have is to get the domain registered by someone else whom you trust. This other person will then be the legal domain holder instead of you, and their address will, of course, be made public in the whois query.

 DENIC sends invoices for the administration of individual domains only to customers of our service DENICdirect. There are three possible circumstances in which you might have received an invoice from DENICdirect: 

• You or your authorized agent requested DENIC to register a domain or to make a Provider Change;
• Your domain is already being administered by DENICdirect, and the annual renewal fee is due;
• Your domain was in a state of TRANSIT with DENIC and you didn't complete either a Provider Change or a Domain Deletion within time limit set. 

If you believe that you have received an invoice from us that is a mistake, please contact our service DENICdirect immediately.

 There are several different possible explanations for this. The first thing you should do is contact your provider or DENICdirect if you are a customer there.

If it has become impossible to contact your provider, if your provider is unable to help you or if a DENIC information page is displayed instead of your website, you should contact our Hotline for assistance.

 MRI is the abbeviation of Mail Registry Interface and is an interface with which DENIC-members can send requests to the registration system via e-mail.

 RRI is the abbreviation of Realtime Registry Interface and is an realtime interface with which DENIC-members can send requests in realtime to the registration system.