Birth Of Nominet

Nominet replaced the original “Naming Committee” when it could no longer cope with demand and is recognised by the UK Government as the UK Top Level Domain Registrar for UK domain names. Nominet is the “not for profit” organisation responsible for most domains ending in .uk.

Not For Profit

“Not for profit” is an interesting term. In fact Nominet makes lots of profit and almost has an embarrassment of riches, through a virtual monopoly. Indeed in recent years the company has chosen to distribute its cash pile through the establishment of a charitable foundation. Ironic this activity was achieved through the loss leading activities of its larger members, who register thousands of domains at little or no profit, and have to provide all of the support, and offer a of free services such as domain pointing and DNS management in order to market the domains.

Nominet Registrations

You are encouraged to register a domain name through a Nominet registrar (ISP or registration agent) who will act as your agent and submit a domain name application to Nominet – or another international registry – on your behalf.

Registering Directly with Nominet

It is possible to register a domain name directly with Nominet. However this requires specialist technical knowledge and equipment. You must also provide the IP addresses of two name servers that are permanently connected to the Internet. It is also an expensive process as Nominet charge £94 including VAT for direct registrations.

WHOIS Opt-out

For individuals and non trading persons, registrants can opt out their address particulars from the public WHOIS service. The registrants name however cannot be hidden. This service should NOT be confused with Domain Privacy available on certain Global Domain Registrations such as .com.

Nominet Domain Disputes (DRS)

Most Nominet registrations are problem free however in about 1 in 16,000 cases someone make a complaint. For many people the Court systems is too difficult and expensive so Nominet operate their Domain Resolution Service, where they act as a “neutral party” in order to provide mediation in order to provide a solution to any domain name dispute.

For more Information on UK Domains:

The Official Nominet Website

Nominet UK Terms and Conditions

However if brand protection lawyers hired by a large corporation are after your domains, you would be best advised to avoid the hastle and just hand them over. Nominet are guaranteed to act in the interests of whoever has the deepest pockets! Indeed some domainers in dispute have opted for the High Court route instead although that is considerably more costly, obviously.

Nominet Online Services

If your are not having much success with your .UK reseller, registrants have been able to directly administer their domains online, with Nominet for some time using their “Online Services.”

https://secure.nominet.org.uk/auth/login.html

While the interface is very basic (there are not nameserver or forwarding options) its possible to initiate a change of ownership via Nominet Online Services, and change even change registrars, for which charge a “cost recovery” fee of £10 plus VAT. If you have any difficulty logging in to Online Services, the best solution is to contact Nominet support. If you have lost your account details and need to re-establish your identity to Nominet, there is an additional fee.

Weycrest UK Domains

Weycrest’s new operating company took the decision to register all new domains via Enom. This enables us to take full advantage of Enom’s advanced API, and domain management/forwarding facilities, which includes a very robust “Anycast DNS” infractructure. Nominet’s EPP services include very little other than very basic domain renewal, registrations and nameserver (modification).

UK Domains registered prior to 2011 by Weycrest Solutions Limited, are now directly managed by Nominet and as such the “WEYCREST” tag no longer exists. Customers with these domains need to contact Nominet directly (by phone ideally) to get the Tag changed to the registrar of their choice. Domains moved via Nominet’s Online Services will incur a charge. We are unable to assist in this respect, and will NOT be raising invoices for renewal for domains registered by the original company. Accordingly Weycrest’s current Tag is now “ENOM.”