CO.CC Free Domain Name

[adamparkzer]

I've had a CO.CC domain name for a while, and I use it for redirection. Even though I don't use it as my main redirection domain, it's still nice to have it.

I noticed a while ago that under the Domain Management for adamparkzer.co.cc, there's an expiration date set for December 29, 2009 - one year after I registered the domain.

I tried contacting CO.CC staff to see if I could get some information about this expiration date, but nobody responded.

Does anybody know what this expiration date signifies? Does it mean that I simply can't use my redirection service one year after registering it? And what happens to the domain then? Seeing as it's free, can I just reregister it?

 

[zubair12]

You just register it again and use it for free after 1 year

 

[adamparkzer]

Then is there really a point of setting an expiration date?

 

[garrettroyce]

I was wondering that myself. Not that anyone would want to steal my domain name, but it would suck if someone waited for the exact second your domain expired and got it before you.

I think the issue is since the domains are mostly free, they want to recycle the inactive ones back into the pool of names.

 

[adamparkzer]

Just curious, I was looking at your blog today, Garrett, and I noticed that when you sign up for a domain for CO.CC, it shows how much you have to pay. In the example that you used in your blog, it said that it costs $0.

That made me think, is refreshing the inactive domains the only reason they're setting this expiration date? Does CO.CC make your domain expire, but when you go to reregister it, you have to pay them money if your CO.CC domain had high popularity in the time that it was active?

 

[garrettroyce]

I really don't think so. But, that is a very good question. Hopefully someone who's been around the business longer than I do has that answer

Thanks for checking out my blog, by the way :biggrin:

 

[Picard1595]

Sadly a while ago co.cc changed there TOS so that after the first year you have to pay 3 dollars per year for your co.cc domain. Really its better to put the 3 dollars towards a tld which is why i am no longer using an co.cc domains

 

[adamparkzer]

Sadly a while ago co.cc changed there TOS so that after the first year you have to pay 3 dollars per year for your co.cc domain. Really its better to put the 3 dollars towards a tld which is why i am no longer using an co.cc domains

Wow, that makes me sad. All this hype about free domains and stuff, then you find out that the small print makes you pay after a year. I really hope CO.NR doesn't do anything like this in the near future, or else I don't know what I'm going to do.

 

[lala123]

Actually, you'll have to pay $3 to continue using co.cc domain after 1 year free.
If you delete your domain, then you have to wait for a week to re-register it. But, it can't be used anymore, co.cc will block it, at least they will block the DNS Management. So, you can't use DNS Management anymore although you can configure it. But it won't work. It does happened to me, I'm very confused.

Co.cc is no longer free.

I think $10 for 5 years co.cc domain registration is cheap. But, if you would like to pay for a domain name, just choose another premium domain, your co.cc sub-domain could not be WHOISed, more over, your site could not be displayed on the Alexa whatsoever. So it doesn't really worth for a paid co.cc domain.

CO.NR just a redirection service, don't have much features like co.cc. There are many domain redirection service on the Internet.

 

[Picard1595]

Actually, you'll have to pay $3 to continue using co.cc domain after 1 year free.
If you delete your domain, then you have to wait for a week to re-register it. But, it can't be used anymore, co.cc will block it, at least they will block the DNS Management. So, you can't use DNS Management anymore although you can configure it. But it won't work. It does happened to me, I'm very confused.

Co.cc is no longer free.

Heh is that not what I just said

 

[adamparkzer]

Actually, you'll have to pay $3 to continue using co.cc domain after 1 year free.
If you delete your domain, then you have to wait for a week to re-register it. But, it can't be used anymore, co.cc will block it, at least they will block the DNS Management. So, you can't use DNS Management anymore although you can configure it. But it won't work. It does happened to me, I'm very confused.

Co.cc is no longer free.

I think $10 for 5 years co.cc domain registration is cheap. But, if you would like to pay for a domain name, just choose another premium domain, your co.cc sub-domain could not be WHOISed, more over, your site could not be displayed on the Alexa whatsoever. So it doesn't really worth for a paid co.cc domain.

CO.NR just a redirection service, don't have much features like co.cc. There are many domain redirection service on the Internet.

I knew there was something fishy about the expiration date. Most services that are genuinely free don't have stuff like expiration dates. But either way, I don't really need DNS management or other special features that come with CO.CC. I'm fine with keeping that all on my x10Hosting subdomain, then using CO.NR redirection.

I agree that $2 a year for a domain is cheap, but then again, you have to remember that this is CO.CC, not an extension that is commonly known. Even .INFO is much more internationally accepted than CO.CC, and .INFO can be purchased for $1.99 a year from GoDaddy.

 

[garrettroyce]

I checked out CO.NR. The problem with them is they don't support DNS. So, they redirect to your site instead of point the domain to your site. They have some way (they call it "cloaking") of changing the URL to look like they aren't doing this. I'm guessing it's some kind of proxy. It is free forever though.

 

[adamparkzer]

I'd rather go with a domain name that I know I can have forever. I give out my URL all the time, and seeing as I probably wouldn't pay $3 a year to keep http://adamparkzer.co.cc, I would have to go back to everywhere I distributed my URL and modify it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick with CO.NR as long as it exists, and use it as redirection.

Just curious, Garrett, do you have plans for what you're going to do after your CO.CC names expire?

 

[lala123]

My group's co.cc domain will be expired on November, we will pay for the domain fee, just because many users of us are familiar with the domain and our website are listed on the google search. We can't leave that domain, althought I actually don't like it anymore.

Co.nr is not a proxy, it's just a redirection service, which co.cc also has and even better than. Co.nr also required you to put their logo on your homepage. There are many redirection services have cool URL for you without company logo placing requirement.

And also, using a redirection URL is great if you want to share short URLs with your friends, but it is not really efficient in web promoting.

 

[adamparkzer]

So I dug this old thread up and unlocked it because I had stuff to add. I FINALLY got a response from Co.CC customer service about the expiration dates.

It states on the CO.CC homepage that renewal for personal websites are free. However, when I try to renew my personal domain name (adamparkzer.co.cc), it says that I must pay $3. How do you guys determine what counts as a personal domain and what counts as a commercial domain?

Dear Sir,
Thank you for contacting us and using our service.

As you probably know, if your domains are for personal use only, you do not need to renew them.
You do not need to mind the warning. It is just a notice. We will inspect your domain in the future.

If you need more help, contact us again.

Best Regards,
CO.CC Service

So apparently, the expiration date doesn't really mean anything if they decide your website is personal, and the free is waived after your website is reviewed.

 

[zen-r]

Hehe.

You could have just saved yourself the bother of contacting them, & read this page here ;

http://forums.x10hosting.com/off-topic/99141-free-sub-domain-provider-allow-add-zone-records.html

 

[adamparkzer]

Hehe.

You could have just saved yourself the bother of contacting them, & read this page here ;

http://forums.x10hosting.com/off-topic/99141-free-sub-domain-provider-allow-add-zone-records.html

Oh. I didn't see that.

Either way, I sent this email literally months ago, and I was so excited to finally receive a response that I had to pull this back up and let everyone know. lol

 

[zen-r]

Some people complain when the Support response from x10 is a little slow.

Perhaps they should re-think their opinion now.


It looks like the speed of replies from .co.cc takes some beating!