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Digital Marketing

Domain login

When you register a domain, you get the ability to set the domain’s name servers. This means you can control where the domain’s website is hosted, and where the domain’s email is hosted.

To move your website to Tectalic, you need to be able to provide us with access to your domain management login account. We need this so that after we go through the Final Review and you approve the new site, we can implement the new web and email services for your domain. We don’t need ongoing access to the domain login, and we don’t need to transfer the domain away from your existing registrar.

At the correct time in the Go Live process, we will update the domain name servers to:

  • ns1.tectalic.net
  • ns2.tectalic.net
  • ns3.tectalic.net

A domain management login (or “domain login” for short):

  • is NOT the same as the username/password you use to access your email
  • is NOT the same as the username/password you use to access your web hosting account

A domain management login IS your login at the domain registrar with the ability to update the name servers.

Name servers are special URLs that usually start with ns – for example, Tectalic has three name servers: ns1.tectalic.net, ns2.tectalic.net and ns3.tectalic.net.

When your domain was first registered, the domain registrar would have sent details of the domain management login to the registrant. So a search of your records (maybe your email archive) could be what is needed. Note if we register a new domain for you as part of your website project, we’ll register the domain in your name and provide you with the domain login for your future reference.

When you find your domain login, you can check it by:

  • going to the domain registrar and going to the domain management login page
  • entering the username and password to login in
  • checking you have access to the name server update function

Can’t find your domain login in your records? Here are some tips on tracking down a domain login.

Lookup Whois information

If you have a Mac, you can use the Terminal utility (look in Applications under Utilities) and type in whois mydomain.com at the Terminal prompt. Otherwise, you can do a lookup using Domain Tools Whois Lookup, or just google ‘whois lookup’ to find another whois service. Take note of the Registrar Name, and also the various contact details. Now search your email archive for any emails that include the name of the registrar, or the name of the Registrant. If you are lucky, you’ll find the original notification of your domain login. If not, at least you now know the name of the Domain Registrar your domain is registered through.

Using the Forgot Your Password Facility

Once you know your Domain Registrar, go to their website and look for their domain management login. All registrars have some kind of ‘Forgot Your Password?’ option. Sometimes you can enter your domain name to start this process, or sometimes you need the email address you registered the domain with. If you are having trouble finding the Domain Management login, you aren’t alone. Read on.

Finding the Domain Management login

All registrars make it very easy to look up a new domain name, but for whatever reason they often make it very difficult to find the domain management login. Here are some links to popular registrars and their domain management login pages, so at least you know what you are looking for:

Domain Resellers

What if your domain is shown as being with a particular registrar, but they don’t seem to know about it? It could be the domain was registered by one of their resellers. Resellers can be very large operations, or very small (with no website). Your best chance of getting in touch with an unknown reseller is to go back through the memory banks to find out who originally registered your domain for you, and to ask them.

Recovering an auth key for your .com.au domain

If you have a .com.au domain, you can find out what the current registered email address is for the domain, and if it is yours you can request the domain auth code to be emailed to that address. auDA Recover Domain Password. If you do this, you need to understand that there is an auDA recognised Domain Password (sometimes referred to as the auth key or auth code). Some Domain Registrars us your domain name and this password as the combination to log you in to their domain management facility. Others don’t, and have a different domain management login/password combination.

Still Can’t Find It?

If you don’t know your domain login AND you don’t have access to the email address registered for the domain, you have a problem. This can happen if someone else registered the domain on your behalf and you can’t contact them anymore. And it can get pretty complicated if the domain was registered through a reseller. If this is the situation, you need to contact the domain registrar help desk, explain the issue and go through the process of proving you are the real domain owner.

The Domain Transfer Option

In some situations you might decide it is easier to transfer your domain to a registrar you find easy to deal with. If you have the domain auth code (which you can recover from auDA, outlined above), you can use that to transfer your domain to a new registrar. And once you do that, you’ll get a domain management login notice from the new registrar.

Why Registrars Seem To Make It Hard

Domain registrars can’t just go updating the ownership details on a domain just because someone calls up claiming to be the owner. If they did that …. well, anybody could call up and talk their way to getting control of a domain they liked. And you might find your treasured domain transferred out from under your feet, off to a new owner in a distant land. So be patient, send through your proof of ownership and eventually you’ll get access to your domain login.