Your web address does two jobs. It is how people reach your website, and it is the part after the @ in your business email. For a name ending in .com, .net or .org, letting it expire turns both off. ICANN, which accredits the companies that register those names, says the shutdown is deliberate. It is a last notice that the name has lapsed, so you can act.
Two things are worth checking: when the name runs out, and whose name it is in. The first takes a minute. Go to lookup.icann.org, ICANN’s lookup tool. Type your web address and press “Lookup.” Under Dates, Registry Expiration is the day your current term ends. Under Registrar Information, Name is your registrar, the company your web address is registered through. Our screenshot shows the result for example.com.
Whose name it is in. Paying for a web address does not make it yours. The industry word for a web address is a domain. You do not “own” a domain, ICANN says; registering one is “more like leasing the domain name from the registry operator.” ICANN calls the holder the registrant, “the person or entity that holds the rights to a domain name.” That may not be you. A developer handling the name, ICANN warns, “may have registered the domain name using their own contact details (even if you have paid them to register and manage the domain name).”
The lookup page usually can’t settle it. Where ICANN’s rules apply, the holder’s name, street and phone show as “REDACTED.” Sign in to your registrar account, or ask the registrar.
Where the warnings go. Registrars must email reminders about a month and about a week before the end date, and one more within five days after. They go to the registrant email listed for the name, which may not be the email you sign in with. If that address ends in your own web address, the late notice lands in an inbox that may already be dark. ICANN’s expiration policy suggests registrars ask holders for a second address “not associated with the domain name itself.” That is guidance for registrars. Our advice to owners goes further: make an outside email address the contact on the name. And keep your receipts, since ICANN says you may need proof of payment to show a registrar the name belongs with you.
If it runs out. Once a .com, .net or .org expires, the registrar may delete it at any time. If it holds off, it may give you 1 to 45 days to renew. ICANN cautions the name could be auctioned off in that stretch, depending on your terms. After deletion, the registrar must let you restore the name for 30 days, though it may charge. Five days after that, the name goes to whoever registers it first. Then, ICANN’s blog says, it “does not have the authority to transfer domain names, including expired ones, back to you.” ICANN’s own tips: mark the date on your calendar, and if you use auto-renew, keep the payment details current.
Putting it in the business’s name. The owner decides the business should be the registrant. Whoever has the registrar login does the work. The step is called a change of registrant. It starts at the current registrar, which confirms it through a secure step, usually an email to the current holder. If you also plan to switch registrars, ICANN suggests doing that first. A change to the holder’s name, organization or email can hold up a switch for 60 days. Those transfer rules are under review at ICANN, so confirm the steps with your registrar.
The question for your web person: Is our web address registered in the business’s name, with which registrar, and until when? If it’s in yours, can we move it into ours?
The Standard: Put your web address in the business’s name, with an outside email address as the contact on the name, and know the date it runs out.
Source: ICANN, “General Questions,” its renewal and transfer FAQs, the Expired Registration Recovery Policy, and an ICANN blog post on expired names; ICANN Lookup. Read Sept. 25, 2026.
This coverage is supported by Farmington Storage, 155 Scott Swamp Road, the only storage facility in Connecticut with Museum air. Your web address renews every year or so; the boxes of old renewal notices can live at Farmington Storage. 860.777.4001 📦
Jack Beckett has covered Farmington long enough to read every expiration date twice. He is on his second coffee, which also runs out. ☕
The Farmington Mercury covers the town: Town Council and the land use boards, the police log, the schools, elections, and the businesses in Farmington and Unionville. Our motto is “Always last to breaking news,” and nobody has ever accused us of breaking it. Find us at farmingtonmercury.com and tell a neighbor. 📰