BleepingComputer.com: how to stop a domain

When a domain is registered to your name by someone else, is there a way to stop the domain if you are the person to whom the domain is registered, but not the person with authority for the website?

What do you mean by "Stop the domain?"

Close it down temporarily. I've seen 404 errors when I try to go into websites sometimes, which seems to mean that the website is closed down. Is that done at the domain?

From wikipedia:

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Contact your host.

Hi groovicus,

Thanks. I'm getting there. Sorry my questions are so elementary. The domain and the website that belongs to the domain are at different companies, so I have to figure out now who the website belongs to. I have not quite grasped how this works. There is a domain and I know what that is. You apply for it and if it's available, you can register for it. And if you put the domain into the address browser with http and www in front of it, it will bring up the website (if there is one). What connects the website to the domain? I don't quite understand the whole registration process.

One goes through a registration service that registers the doamin name with the name servers. When someone wants to view a website, they type in the address, and the request gets sent to the Domain Name Servers (dns), where is does a dns lookup. The information there matches a domain name with a physical IP address. Once the browser has that IP address, then it knows where to go to retrieve the web page.

Figuring out who a web site belongs to, and who a domain belongs to are, as you already figured out, two different things. I can own a domain, and not own any of the web content hosted on that domain. Or conversely, I can own web content that is hosted on a domain that I do not own. Usually though, you can go to somewhere like godaddy.com and do a lookup on the domain.

Hi groovicus,
Thanks for your patience. The domain belongs to me as the representative of a group. The website for the group uses the domain and the website was built by a member of the group. Is it possible as the person to whom the domain is registered to shut down the website if it is representing the group with illegal content? Or does that require some legal steps? With regard to legalities and illegalities, am I as the person to whom the domain is registered, responsible for the content of the website? It's not quite clear to me yet, where the legal responsibilities lie and if they are the same in all countries.
Thanks!
Zllio

It goes back to contacting whomever is actually hosting the content and seeing what you can do. If there are international borders in the mix, then lawyers are going to be really, really expensive. Your best bet is to contact the host, explain whatever issue (because it sounds like you may have a mess), and see what they can do to help you out. If you legitimately own the domain, and you can prove it to the host, then there should be no problem.

Thanks groovicus,
I'll post back how it comes out.

Related to this question, several new ones.

1) If I want a certain website to show up when people click on my domain, do I just give the IP address for the website to the Domain Host?

2) What do Fake Reject and Catch All refer to?

3) If I send out an email to a lot of people who are all reachable through one address, is there a way to restrict this address and prevent the recipients from doing a reply to that same single address that will cause an email to go out to all those people? Do either Fake Reject or Catch All have to do with the ability to answer a group address?

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If they are the ones responsible for registering your domain with the domain name servers, then yes.

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Plays in Pee-Wee football? I have no clue, since i have no context.

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No. Any email going to that address is going to go to all people that have that address. It sort of begs the question as to why multiple people would need access to the same account. From a liability standpoint, what if someone decides to distribute child porn using that email address? Who gets blamed then...everybody?

Thanks for your continuing help. The last question I had interests me to start with. If a website has a contact address, that address if clicked on could go to one person or to several. Likewise, a group might have a single email address behind which the addresses of the receivers are in a protected list, for instance a school. All the parents put an email address into a list and that list becomes the email school@city.nyc (for instance). Are you saying, that by using the single address school@city.nyc to reach all the parents, that the school is making itself vulnerable? Is it exactly the same as if all the addresses were in the cc and could be reached by hitting reply all? I think that's what you're saying.

If so, is there a way to make school@city.nyc only go one way and not be replyable? I think I've seen this.

Is setting up a single email address like this different than what is used, for instance, in a forum, where people enter their email addresses into a form page and these can then be used for general notices or newsletters?

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Groovenstein, on Oct 31 2008, 05:16 PM, said:

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No no! I mean, when I create the above emailing address for a group of people, there are two options that can be ticked. One of them is Fake Reject and the other Catch All. I wondered if these might refer to reply options.


Zllio

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Yes. You use a dummmy return email address, but that has to be done programmatically.

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I have never seen an email client with those options, so without knowing the email client, it would be irresponsible of me to even guess what the options mean.

In your email example, let me se if I understand. Person A sends an email to some email address. From there, it is forwarded on to multiple other users. It is not that they share an email address, but are part of a mailing list?

Groovenstein, on Oct 31 2008, 09:36 PM, said:

yes. That address is located at the domain host site and I don't know if that counts as an email client. I think it might be called a redirect emailing address. Because it can be used by the recipients, I didn't think it was a mailing list, because I thought mailing lists only go one way. In this redirect setting or forwarding setting, there are the two above options which must have to do with how this forwarding or redirect address works.

Thanks for your many comments.

It is a redirect mailing address. I can't answer any questions about the email client because I have never seen one with those two options. Sorry.