Month: March 2017

What is WHOIS?

WHOIS is a system for looking up information about domains. WHOIS will always show the following information:

  • The status of the domain
  • The creation date, expiration date, and the date the domain was last modified
  • The name servers

If one of our customers has opted out of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or if a domain is with another registrar who does not offer GDPR protection, this additional information will be shown:

  • Contact information for the Registrant (Owner)
  • Contact information for the Administrative and Technical Contacts
  • Contact information for the Billing Contact may be shown depending on the type of domain

You can look up information about domains on our WHOIS page.

Renewal Bills

Any renewal notices or bills we send will come from an @pairdomains.com or @pair.com email address. If you receive an email from a different source, it is not from us. The email might be a legitimate bill from another provider or it might be a scam. If you need help determining if a bill is legitimate, please contact us.

We only send renewal notices or bills by email. We do not send postal mail for bills. If you received a bill, invoice, or renewal notice by postal mail, it is not from us.

Getting Copies of Bills

You can view, print, and email copies of statements for completed orders online:

  1. Log into the Domain Name Management System.
  2. Select Invoices from the drop-down navigation menu.
  3. Click the date of the statement.
  4. To email a statement, enter the email address, and click Send.
    To print a statement, click Printable Invoice.

If you need an invoice before making a payment, please contact us.

VAT Policy

If the Registrant Contact for a domain name resides in a country that uses a Value-Added Tax (VAT) system, customers can provide us with a VAT ID.

If a VAT ID is provided, we will not collect VAT and you will be responsible to declare the purchases and pay any applicable taxes.

If a VAT ID is not provided, we must collect the required VAT based on the rate of the country of residence for the Registrant Contact. This rate is based on VAT rates available to us, and may not necessarily reflect the rate that is appropriate for your particular filing status. It is your responsibility to ensure that taxes are paid in full.

You can follow these steps to enter or change the VAT ID:

  1. Log into the Domain Name Management System.
  2. Select Account Settings from the drop-down navigation menu.
  3. Click Tax Settings.
  4. Enter a VAT ID, and click Add.

We are required to verify that VAT IDs are valid. We automatically check VAT IDs using databases from the European Commission Taxation and Customs Union. If we are unable to automatically verify a VAT ID, we will contact you and request verification from your local tax authority.

Our VAT ID for Pair International is NL824093720B01. For B2B transactions, we are a United States company.

Registering Your Own Name Servers

You can register name servers within your domain, like ns1.example.com and ns2.example.com. Most customers will not need to do this, and you should only do this if you manage your own name servers.

You can follow these steps to create a name server based on your domain:

  1. Log into the Domain Name Management System.
  2. Select Account Settings from the drop-down navigation menu.
  3. Click Child Hosts.
  4. Select the domain of the name server, and click Continue.
  5. Enter the new name server name and IP address, and click Create.

This will register the name server with every top-level registry that we work with.

You can follow these steps to change the IP address of a name server that is registered through us:

  1. Log into the Domain Name Management System.
  2. Select Account Settings from the drop-down navigation menu/
  3. Click Child Hosts.
  4. Select the domain of the name server, and click Continue.
  5. Click Modify next to the name server.
  6. Enter the new IP address or addresses, and click Modify.

Extra Security Questions

Do you want extra security beyond Two-Factor Authentication, preventing transfers, and locking domains?

We can add an additional security question to your account. We would need to call you and get the correct answer to the question before we would make any changes to your account and domains. As an example, if somebody sends us documentation authorizing us to change the Registrant email address, we would still call you and require the correct answer to the security question before we would change the address.

Please contact us if you want to add an extra security question.

Refund Policy

We automatically refund any transfer that is not completed. The refund is made as soon as the transfer is canceled.

We cannot refund on registrations or renewals. The costs are non-refundable because it is not possible to unregister a domain or remove years from a domain.

Weebly

Weebly plans that are cancelled within 14 days are eligible for a refund. The cancelation must be completed within 14 days. We will refund the full costs for the cancelled Weebly plan, but not any domain name registration, transfer, or renewal charges.

Weebly plans that are upgraded or downgraded cannot be refunded. However, any remaining pre-paid full months of the previous plan are eligible for a credit towards the new plan, up to the cost of the new plan.

Example 1: If you pay for one year of a Pro Plan ($139/year) and upgrade to a Business Plan ($299/year) during the second month, you have 10 pre-paid full months. That will allow a credit of $115.83 towards the Business Plan.

Example 2: If you pay for one year of a Pro Plan ($139/year) and downgrade to a Starter Plan ($89/year) during the second month, you have 10 pre-paid full months. The credit cannot exceed the cost of the new plan ($89), so you would not get the same $115.83 credit that you would on an Upgrade. Instead, the credit would cover the entire cost of the Starter Plan for one year, but would not carry over to any other services of future years on the Starter Plan.

Protecting Domain Names

If you want to protect your domain, we have a setting to automatically reject outbound transfers. When you register a domain or transfer it to us, there is a checkbox to enable this setting. It is checked by default, so unless you uncheck it, you are already protected from unauthorized transfers.

You can change the setting at any time by following these steps:

  1. Log into the Domain Name Management System.
  2. Click the domain you want to update.
  3. To allow transfers, uncheck the box labeled Transfer Protection is ON, and click Update Protection. If you see Transfer Protection is OFF, then transfers are allowed.

    To prevent transfers, check the box labeled Transfer Protection is OFF, and click Update Protection. If you see Transfer Protection is ON, then transfers are not allowed.

Domain Locking

If you want more security, we allow you to lock domains. Locking prevents transfers and any changes to the name servers or contact information. Locking requires use of Two-Factor Authentication. If you want to lock a domain, you must first turn on Two-Factor Authentication.

Unlocking a domain requires logging in, requesting to unlock your domain, and then contacting us to confirm unlocking.

You can follow these steps to lock a domain:

  1. Log into the Domain Name Management System.
  2. Click the domain you want to lock.
  3. Click Lock.
  4. Agree to the terms of service, and click Lock.
  5. Read the warning message, and click Yes.

Information on unlocking a domain can be found in this Knowledge Base Article.

What is DNSSEC?

Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) is a method of adding security to DNS to protect against forged or manipulated DNS information.

Standard DNS information is not authenticated, name servers trust any response they receive. Since they trust any response, it is possible for somebody to send incorrect information to a name server. Once the name server has the incorrect information, anyone else who uses that name server will see the incorrect info. An attacker could use this to temporarily disable or redirect a domain.

DNSSEC adds security by letting name servers verify that DNS info is coming from the correct place. When DNSSEC is set up, DNS records are digitally signed. When checking records, name servers check for a signature and compare it to the correct signature. If there is no signature or if the signatures don’t match, the name server will not trust or save the incorrect information.

Failure to keep DNSSEC records up to date can cause problems with resolving DNS records. If you use Pair Domains DNSSEC, we keep the records up to date, so this should only be an issue if a domain uses DNSSEC on other name servers.

The registry for UK domains, Nominet, accepts no liability in relation to the use or operation of DNSSEC records. They will take reasonable steps to correct any error that is the result of a mistake on Nominet’s part, but they accept no liability for the error.

To learn how to use DNSSEC, please visit our Knowledge Base article Using DNSSEC.

Two-Factor Authentication

We offer two-factor authentication as a way to keep your account more secure.

An account name and the associated password are required to log into an account. Two-factor authentication adds an extra level of security to the login process. After entering the account name and password, you will need to enter a single-use authentication code.

There are free authentication apps like Authy (which is available for Android and iOS) and Google Authenticator (which is available for Android and iOS). Most password management apps support two-factor authentication.

Codes cannot be sent by email and cannot be sent by a voice phone call.

Please follow these steps to turn on two-factor authentication:

  1. Log into the Domain Name Management System.
  2. Select Account Settings from the drop-down navigation menu.
  3. Click 2FA settings.
  4. Click Turn on 2FA.
  5. Use your authentication app to scan the QR code.
  6. Save your recovery information.
  7. Enter the code from your app, and select Complete 2FA Setup.

Setup Notes

1Password has a two-factor authentication setup guide. LastPass has a two-factor authentication setup guide. Please note: setting this up requires logging in to LastPass through their website, not the desktop app.

If you want to use a YubiKey, please visit their support page for instructions.

If You Lose or Replace Your Phone

Depending on the app you use, you might be able to access codes on a new phone, or you might need to use your QR code or recovery key to set it up on the new phone. If you app does not have codes for us, we cannot provide a code or key. Those can only be obtained during the set up. If you don’t have recovery information, we will need to turn off two-factor authentication if you want to log in.

If you know you are going to replace your phone, you can export settings from Google Authenticator and then set them up on the new phone. Please visit our page about Exporting Authenticator Setups.

Turning Off Two-Factor Authentication

If you can log in, you can disable it from Account Settings. If you cannot login, please contact us. We will need to verify your identity before we can turn off two-factor authentication.

Transferring Between Accounts

If a domain is already with Pair Domains, you can change the ownership without needing to pay for a transfer. Instead, domain names can be moved between accounts. There is no charge for moving domain names between accounts or for creating new accounts.

To move a domain from one account to another account, you can log into the account that currently manages the domain:

  1. Log into the Domain Name Management System.
  2. Click the domain to move.
  3. Click Move Domains.
  4. If you want to create a new account, click Create a New Account.

    Alternately, if you want to move to an existing account, skip to     Step 7.
  5. Fill in the Account Contact information for the new account.
  6. Choose an account name and password, and click Create.
  7. Select the domain(s) to move.
  8. Enter the new account name, and click Start Move.

You will be prompted to enter the password for the current account.

We will send an email to the current Registrant Email asking to confirm the move. After the current Registrant confirms the move, we will send an email to the new Registrant Email asking to confirm the move. The move will not be completed unless both the current Registrant and new Registrant confirm it within three days.

Please Note: Moving a domain name to a different account will  trigger a request to verify contact information on the new account. You can find more information about verifying contact information in our Knowledge Base.

Please Note: Domains with Weebly sites cannot be moved this way. If you have not done much work on the site yet, you can delete the Weebly site, and then move the domain.

If you need to keep the current site, we can move all Weebly sites associated with an account to a separate account that has never used Weebly before. However, we cannot move individual Weebly sites. So if you have multiple Weebly sites on an account, we can move all of them or none of them. If you want to move all of them, you can contact us to move the domains. Unfortunately, it is not possible to move domains to Weebly sites if the destination account has used Weebly before.