FAQs – Domains

The easiest name for your customers to remember is your business name. The next best thing is a catchy phrase, noun or adjective to describe your business. If you are not able to find a domain name that fits your image, call GKG and ask one of our friendly customer service members to assist you.

Our user friendly online registration process takes only a few minutes to complete. Due to the update schedule of the registry and the root servers, it may take up to 48 hours for your domain to be listed in the DNS tables.

The domain name that you choose can now be up to 63 characters long before you add the http://www. pre-fix or the TLD (.com, .net, .org, .info, .name, .biz, .cc, .tv, .us).

GKG is committed to offering some of the most competitive prices on the web for domain name registration. In addition, GKG offers bulk pricing and reseller programs that drop our prices to rock bottom levels. Please see our pricing page for current pricing details.

What is domain forwarding or domain aliasing?

Domain forwarding (also known as URL forwarding, URL redirection or domain aliasing) is a service used for making a web page available under another domain name.

Example: If you have a domain named 'example.com' and you wanted to forward any visitors to www.gkg.net, you would set up your URL Forwarding so that anyone who types 'http://www.example.com' into their browser would be instantly redirected to 'www.gkg.net'.

GKG.NET, INC. offers URL Forwarding in our Parking Services. Both Basic (Free) and Deluxe ($2.95/year) Parking services have URL Forwarding features.

With Basic (Free) parking you get one (1) URL Forwarding option to define, and with Deluxe ($2.95/year) parking, you get up to 100 URL Forwarding options to define.

In addition, GKG.NET, INC. also offers a cloaking (sometimes referred to as masking) option. Enabling the cloaking option will load the target website (www.gkg.net) into the users browser, but keep the desired or entered name (www.example.com) in the address bar.

There are many uses for this type of service, such as domain misspellings, multiple domain names all going to one website, etc.

What is a domain name?

A domain name is also called the URL or web site address. This is the unique name that your customers will type into a browser to access your web site information. No other person or company will have the same address as you.

URL is an acronym that stands for Uniform Resource Locator. Technically, a URL is an addressing construct used for identifying and locating computers on the Internet. While computers use Internet Protocol (IP) numbers to locate each other on the Internet, people find them hard to remember. Therefore, Web Addresses were developed to permit the use of easily remembered words and phrases to identify Internet addresses. For example, the web address gkg.net represents the company GKG. When you type GKG.NET in a web browser or send e-mail to someone at GKG.NET, the Domain Name System (DNS) translates gkg.net into the IP numbers used by the Internet and connects you to GKG.

Think of it as a networked extension of the standard filename concept: not only can you point to a file in a directory, but that file and that directory can exist on any machine on the network, can be served via any of several different methods, and might not even be something as simple as a file: URLs can also point to queries, documents stored deep within databases, the results of a finger or archie command, or a myriad of other items.

In order to pay for a domain using a check or money order, send your check/money order along with our offline registration form (clearly typed out). Please note that there is a $15.00 check handling fee. Mail this with your payment to.

GKG
Attn: Domain registration
PO BOX 1450
Bryan, TX 77806
USA

To pay via PayPal, you can simply send your payments to paypal@gkg.net.

It's a good idea to follow up your payment with an email to either support@gkg.net or billing@gkg.net to make sure that the payment and any documentation has arrived.

.edu, .gov and other special TLDs each have their own regulating organization. These domain extensions have specific regulations and requirements and are therefore managed by single registrar to control and approve applications. For your information, .edu is managed by Educause and .gov is managed by GSA Federal Acquisition Service. As more TLDs get added year to year, we will consider applying for domains made available to public registrars.

GKG proudly supports all of the following TLD's: .com, .net, .org, .info, .name, .biz, .cc, .tv. and .us. Check back with us for potential additions.

We do offer price breaks if a domain is registered/renewed for 5+ years, and an additional break if registered for a full 10 years. Please note that the 10 year option is available only when registering the domain for the first time and on the last day of the domain's registration period.

We also offer bulk pricing if you register multiple domains at one time. Please see the bulk pricing page for more details. Also, please see our hosting prices page for current web hosting package details.

Perform a WHOIS search and you should be able to obtain contact information for almost any domain.

Your domain is considered registered as soon as you have completed the online registration process. Due to the update schedule of the registry and the root servers, it may take up to 48 hours for your domain to be listed in the DNS tables. However, you may log into our system to make Account and Domain Management changes immediately.

Up to 500 domains can be registered at once online if using the same GKG account name, DNS and payment information.

If you are hosting your own web site, then you may use it immediately. If you are hosting with us on one of our cPanel hosting plans, you will be able to use it immediately. If you are hosting on one of our Plesk plans, then you can start using it as soon as your account is setup. However, remember that it may take up to 48 hours for the root servers to update. If you are having difficulty viewing the web site after the 48 hours, you should contact the host provider.

If you have registered a domain with an accredited ICANN registrar such as GKG and receive an electronic confirmation, your domain cannot be used by anyone else. The only time that another entity can register your domain name is if the name is not renewed before the expiration date. Name availability is verified by accredited registrars such as GKG through the SRS (Shared Registration System). This system prevents a domain name that is successfully registered through GKG from being registered through another domain name registrar.

GKG is accredited to register top-level domains (TLD's) such as .com, .net, .org, .info, .name, .biz, .cc, .tv and .us TLD's. More TLD's may be supported in the future.

You will always be given the chance to renew your domain registration before anyone else has the opportunity to register it. However, GKG will follow the following steps very closely:

60 days prior to the domain expiration date, you will receive an email with renewal instructions.
30 days prior to the domain expiration date, you will receive another email.
15 days prior to the domain expiration date, a third email is sent.
Finally, on the day of expiration, you will receive one more email.

It's very important that you keep a valid email address on file with GKG at all times*, so that you don't miss any important emails that we send out. We will not attempt to contact you in any other way, other than email.

If you fail to renew the domain, it will be placed on registrar lock/hold, meaning that it will be removed from the root DNS servers, and will be unavailable. GKG will *try* to keep the domain in this state for between 1 and 15 days. There are no guarantees on this timeframe, and GKG has the right to delete a domain name at any time after the expiration date.

After a domain name is deleted, it enters what is known as Redemption Period. Customers may take advantage of GKG's domain restore service to restore deleted domains to active status for up to 30 days after deletion. To restore expired domains please go here: https://www.gkg.net/protected/domain/renew.

* As per our Domain Registration Agreement, domain contacts are responsible for maintaining current contact information. Back to top What if I misspell my domain name?

Domain name registrations are non-refundable. However, if you have misspelled your domain name and you notice the mistake within the first 48 hours, the mistake is only within 1 to 2 characters, and the correct spelling of your desired domain name is available, we can fix it for you. Please do NOT register the correct spelling! Please contact us at support@gkg.net and let us know the incorrectly spelled domain name, the correct spelling, and we will attempt to fix it for you. Please remember that if more than 48 hours has past, that we may not be able to assist you. This is ICANN and registry policy and we have zero control over this.

Basically, it's a person or company that has registered a domain name in bad faith. In other words, they have no intention of using it for a website or at least a legitimate website.

The contact information in the whois database is required to be public per ICANN. Which means if you lose your domain name, no matter how obscure you think your domain name is, someone will register it the minute it becomes available. They hope to sell it back to you for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. It only costs around $10/year, so they aren't losing anything.

In addition, many of them now place a parked page utilizing "pay-per-click" (PPC) advertising on the site. This means that people who used to visit your site, will now be visiting their site and they will get the revenue for traffic intended for your site.

Although immoral, this practice unfortunately is not illegal.

ICANN stands for Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers, and is the organization that accredits and regulates registrars (such as GKG.NET).

All accredited registrars, including GKG.NET must pay a fee (currently $0.20 USD) to ICANN for every year a domain name is registered or renewed.

GKG.NET, INC. has worked very hard to provide our domains at a tremendous price and with terrific customer service. However, in order to continue doing so, we must pass this fee onto our customers.

If you have any comments regarding this fee, please direct them to ICANN (www.icann.org). The ICANN Fee applies to .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, and .name.

The registry allows each domain to be registered up to 10 years at any given time.

With Private Registration, alternate contact information is displayed in your Whois listing. You remain the registrant of the domain name, which enables you to view and make changes to your contact information as well as all of your settings associated with your domain name registration. Special email addresses are listed with your domain in Whois that forward to your real email address. All postal mail and faxes are received by GKG.NET, INC. and will be forwarded to your real address, if you so desire. There may be additional fees for forwarding this information.

Here is what the whois record looks like for a domain with Private Registration:

Registrant:
    GKG.NET Domain Proxy Service
    GKG.NET Domain Proxy Service Administrator
    302 N. Bryan Street
    Bryan, Texas 77803
    US
    +1.9796935447 (FAX) +1.9796947060
    mydomain.com@privatedomain.gkg.net

Administrative Contact:
    GKG.NET Domain Proxy Service
    GKG.NET Domain Proxy Service Administrator
    302 N. Bryan Street
    Bryan, Texas 77803
    US
    +1.9796935447 (FAX) +1.9796947060
    mydomain.com-admin@privatedomain.gkg.net

Technical Contact:
    GKG.NET Domain Proxy Service
    GKG.NET Domain Proxy Service Administrator
    302 N. Bryan Street
    Bryan, Texas 77803
    US
    +1.9796935447 (FAX) +1.9796947060
    mydomain.com-tech@privatedomain.gkg.net

Billing Contact
    GKG.NET Domain Proxy Service
    GKG.NET Domain Proxy Service Administrator
    302 N. Bryan Street
    Bryan, Texas 77803
    US
    +1.9796935447 (FAX) +1.9796947060
    mydomain.com-billing@privatedomain.gkg.net

    Registrar..: gkg.net (http://register.gkg.net/)
    Domain Name: MYDOMAIN.COM
        Created on..............: 01-JAN-2005
        Expires on..............: 01-JAN-2006
        Record last updated on..: 01-JAN-2005
        Status..................: ACTIVE

    Domain servers in listed order:

     NS1.MYDOMAIN.COM
     NS2.MYDOMAIN.COM

You can Purchase Private Registration Services for $2.85/year (first year free with registration).

Your information should appear in the whois database within 24 hours of the domain's creation date and time. GKG does not guarantee the accuracy of whois database information.

In addition to our commitment to provide you with the highest quality product at the lowest possible price, we pride ourselves on providing the best customer service in our industry. We believe that our customers deserve prompt, friendly, and courteous service when they contact any representative of GKG.

You can reach a GKG customer service representative in several ways:

Email us at support@gkg.net
By calling 1-877-695-1790 (US) or 00-1-512-696-1410 (International)

Note: We only speak English, so non-English speaking customers please email us, allowing us to translate.

If your domain is not currently set up with basic parking, go to https://www.gkg.net/protected/parking/add and select the domains you are interested in adding parking to. Click "Continue" at the bottom of the list and proceed through the end of the parking sign up process. Upon completion, the nameservers for all affected domains will automatically be changed to NS3.GKG.NET and NS4.GKG.NET to ensure that your parking will be functional.

If you are interested in upgrading your parking to deluxe parking, go to this page and put check boxes next to each domain you wish to upgrade. Then select the "upgrade to deluxe" link at the bottom of the list of parked domains. You will be taken through the payment process and automatically upgraded to Deluxe parking.

To manage your parked domains, please visit our Parking Configuration section and log in using the username and password associated with the domain. Once you have logged in, the services available for your domain(s) will be displayed at the bottom of the Parking Accounts box.

To upgrade your parking package, visit our Parking Configuration section and click on "upgrade to deluxe" at the bottom of the Parking Accounts box.

First, cloaking will not work in old browsers, so be sure yours is up to date.

Second, be sure your DNS is directing traffic to our parking servers. For assistance with this, please contact support@gkg.net or call our support center.

If you need to remove the cloaking feature: go to www.gkg.net/protected/parking/config and log in with the username and password associated with the domain. Select the domain to modify then, under the "Hosts" tab, click the 'uncloak' link.

By selecting to park a domain with GKG, we will automatically provide DNS entries for your domain (this means GKG will answer for the domain name). GKG provides two parking packages during the registration process:

1) Deluxe Parking allows you to register a domain and the ability to administer some additional services such as.

100 URL Forwardings (cloaking available)
1 POP3 email account with 10MB Quota
100 email aliases
Webmail also available (additional $9.99/year)

Please see our pricing page for current pricing details.

There is no training required. The administrative modules are so simple, it's just point, type and click.

2) Basic Parking includes:

1 Coming Soon page -or-
1 URL Forwarding option (cloaking available)
5 Email aliases

Yes, log into our Renewal section using your GKG account name and password currently associated with the domain. For a current list of prices that includes domain renewals, please go to our Pricing Page.

Private registration, if active, will automatically be renewed when you renew your domain name. If your domain name is not yet expired, then you can log into your control panel using your GKG Username and password and select the domain name you wish to remove private registration on and press CONTINUE.

At the top of the domain information screen, you will see a line that says: "Registration Type: Private make public?" The make public link will turn off Private Registration for this domain name. Note: Your contact information will now be visible to anyone performing a WHOIS lookup on your domain name.

You can now renew the domain without the Private Registration feature. This can also be done during your renewal process.

If your domain name is already expired, then please send an email to support@gkg.net asking that we remove the Private Registration from your domain name and we will take care of that for you.

You may also call our offices and we can help you renew the domain over the phone.

Yes, GKG can restore all of the TLD's we currently support.

No, the domain will be restored to the EXACT state it was in before it was deleted. You are free to make changes after the domain is restored. You must however, keep the domain registered at GKG.NET for a period of at least 6 months.

After a domain is deleted, it enters a 30 day "Redemption Period." To restore an expired domain, go here:https://www.gkg.net/protected/domain/renew.

You may also request a domain to be restored offline, by filling out either of the following forms and sending them to us via fax or mail:

For payment by Cashier's Check/Money Order, use this form.
For payment by Credit Card, use this form

The restore service only extends to domains that have been deleted in the last 30 days; however, GKG may take up to 2 days to process restore requests.

The restore service currently costs $80.00 (U.S. Dollars) per domain to be restored payable by cashier's checks, money orders or credit card. Payment by wire transfer is available for an additional $25 fee ($105 total). Please be aware that many of our competitors charge much more than we do for restoring a domain name, some as high as $250 per domain or more!

NOTE: Restorations that are paid for via credit card must agree to a 6 month Admin Transfer Lock. You will be allowed to make changes to your domain upon restoration, but to prevent fraud you will temporarily be unable to transfer. Back to top My domain name is in redemption period but I don't want to pay the restoration fee. Can I just wait for the domain name become available again?

You can certainly do that. The domain should be made available again by the registry within 45 days of the date it was deleted. However, when it is made available again, it can be registered by anyone, and quite possibly will be grabbed by "Cyber Squatters". These people will try to sell your domain name back to you for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

The decision is yours, but our experience has shown that you will probably not have very much luck with this process.

The restore service allows customers to restore deleted domains to active status.

The registries do not give us an exact date in order to allow a first come first served basis for domain names. This is supposed to help in decreasing the amount of domains that are grabbed by cyber-squatters.

The losing registrar has the ability to reject a domain name transfer request that is initiated by GKG.NET for any of the following reasons:

Evidence of fraud
UDRP action
Court order by a court of competent jurisdiction
Reasonable dispute over the identity of the Registered Name Holder or Administrative Contact
No payment for previous registration period (including credit card charge-backs) if the domain name is past its expiration date or for previous or current registration periods if the domain name has not yet expired. In all such cases, however, the domain name must be put into "Registrar Hold" status by the Registrar of Record prior to the denial of transfer.
Express written objection to the transfer from the Transfer Contact. (e.g. - email, fax, paper document or other processes by which the Transfer Contact has expressly and voluntarily objected through opt-in means)
A domain name was already in "lock status" provided that the Registrar provides a readily accessible and reasonable means for the Registered Name Holder to remove the lock status.
A domain name is in the first 60 days of an initial registration period.
A domain name is within 60 days (or a lesser period to be determined) after being transferred (apart from being transferred back to the original Registrar in cases where both Registrars so agree and/or where a decision in the dispute resolution process so directs).

The transfer contact will be notified via email in the event that the domain name cannot be transferred.

You may check the status of your transfer at any time by going to the Transfer View section of our web site. This does not apply to Manual Transfers.

Once you have initiated the transfer with us, we will send the current registrant or administrative contact an email requesting authorization to transfer the domain. To accept or reject the transfer, the contact will need to log in with the unique URL with the unique username and a unique challenge key. The challenge key is a series of letters and/or numbers. The contact must agree to abide by GKG's service agreement found here.

To transfer a domain as a GKG reseller, you can transfer as you would normally, and once the transfer is completed, send an email to support@gkg.net requesting that we associate your newly transferred domain to your reseller account.

Go to: https://www.gkg.net/protected/domain/modify and log in with the username associated with the domain.
Select the domain you wish to transfer and click 'continue'.
Click the "Transfer Username" link next to the contact(s) you wish to transfer. We recommend beginning with the Billing Contact and changing the Registrant last.
Repeat this process for each of the four sections to completely transfer the domain to the new GKG username.

The transfer can take as little as 48 hours but may take up to 12 days to complete.

The average is 6 days. To speed this process up, we encourage you to respond to any and all emails sent to the contacts requesting authorization.

Transfer prices can be found here: https://www.gkg.net/transfer-in. The price includes the transfer and one additional year to the expiration date.

GKG uses a No Fault Transfer System, meaning that you are not charged for the transfer until your domain is successfully transferred to GKG.

We provide, in accordance with ICANN policy, 5 days to approve or cancel the transfer request.

If the domain expires and you renew the domain within 45 days past the expiration date, you will want to wait until the 46th day to transfer the domain. There is a registry rule that states that any domain renewed and transferred within 45 days past the expiration will lose the year paid to the losing registrar.

Example: If 123.com expires with registrar ABC on January 1, 2014 and the customer renews the domain on the February 10, 2014, the customer will want to wait to transfer the domain name on the 46 day after the expiration date (after February 15, 2014).

Note: Some registrars also have a policy that you can not transfer for 60 days after renewing a domain. You need to check with the losing registrar if they have such a policy.

Per ICANN and registry policy, the domain must be at least 60 days old before a transfer will be allowed to another registrar.

Back to top I submitted a transfer request to GKG but the email address that the current registrar has on file is incorrect. How soon can I resubmit my request?

The request can be resubmitted as soon as the transfer batch is closed. To look up the transfer status, log in here. If you try to resubmit the request while the current batch is open, the request will be denied.

We recommend that you contact the registrar and have the email address changed. If the batch is not closed by the time that the email address is changed, please send a request to transfers@gkg.net requesting that the batch be closed. Once closed, GKG will send a confirmation email and you will be able to resubmit the transfer request.

If you need to pay by check or money order, you will be directed to follow the manual transfer process.

To do a manual process, you need to make sure that the domain is in good standing (IE: not expired) at your current registrar, unlock the domain (many registrars lock their domains against transfers), and obtain the authorization (also known as the EPP) code.

Send that information along with your GKG account name, and your payment (include a $15 check handling fee), to:

GKG.NET
C/O: Domain Transfer Dept.
PO BOX 1450
Bryan, TX 77806

If you don't respond to the confirmation/cancellation email, the domain is automatically transferred, unless the domain has the Transfer Lock option set to ON. Then the transfer is automatically rejected.

If the domain has expired with the current registrar, you will need to renew with the current registrar. Important Reminder: If the domain expires and you renew the domain within 45 days past the expiration date, you will want to wait until the 46th day to transfer the domain. There is a registry rule that states that any domain renewed and transferred within 45 days past the expiration will lose the year paid to the losing registrar.

Example: If 123.com expires with registrar ABC on January 1, 2002 and the customer renews the domain on the February 10, 2002, the customer will want to wait to transfer the domain name on the 46 day after the expiration date (after February 15, 2002).

If the transfer is rejected through the online transfer system for any reason, GKG.NET will not charge your credit card. If the transfer does not go through for any reason, you will need to contact that registrar to find the problem. After this issue is resolved please try the transfer again by completing the online form.

A transfer lock is there for your protection and prevents the transfer of your domain name to another registrar without your approval.

With the transfer lock on, requests to transfer your domain to another registrar will be automatically rejected. Transfers to other accounts within GKG.NET, INC. are still allowed.

To find your Authorization code, please visit and log into your control panel. If you have more than one domain select the one you wish to modify and click continue. On the next page you should see a box called "Domain Information" and in there you will see your authorization code. This code is case sensitive.

A transfer contact is usually the current registrant for the domain or an authorized agent for the domain. If there is a problem with the transfer on our side, we will send a notification to the transfer contact.

In almost all cases, you will need to verify that your email address as listed in the WHOIS database is correct and that you can receive email there, you will need to unlock the domain if it is locked, and you will need to obtain the authorization code.

Only the Registrant and/or Administrative contacts listed in the whois database for the domain will receive the email authorization.

In addition to our commitment to providing the highest quality product at the lowest possible price, we pride ourselves on providing the best customer service in our industry. GKG will also add an additional year of registration to your domain totally FREE of charge once the transfer is completed. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

Some of the most common reasons a domain transfer fails are:

The domain is expired or very close to expiring
No response to the authorization emails
The authorization email was denied by a contact
The domain is on registrar lock/hold or registry lock/hold
The domain has the Transfer Lock option enabled
The wrong authorization code was used

Ultimately, you would need to check with the losing registrar to find out the reason.

To use an IDN to navigate to a Web site, the user types the IDN in the browser's address bar or clicks an active link. Most modern browsers will already recognize the IDN as a DNS query. The IDN is resolved and the desired Web site appears in the browser.

In most cases, now that Unicode support has become more universal, domain names will appear in their native characters. For example, a Chinese domain name may appear as .com.

All trademark issues will be handled in the same manner as English domain names, that is through the UDRP.

GKG uses registry-standard name prep conversion and encoding algorithm to convert native language characters into ASCII compliant codes.

Back to top How will internationalized domain names appear in the Zone file, as the actual name in the native character set, or as the ASCII transformation?

When in the Zone file, internationalized domain names will appear as the encoded ASCII character string. For example, the RACE encoding of domain.com will be stored as bq--gde6djht.mltbd.com.

In WHOIS, the internationalized domain name will appear in RACE format, such as: bq--gde6djht.co.

As the protocol evolves, the beginning of the string (bq--) could change.

Domain names are unique registrations for each language. Therefore, a user must request registration information by initiating a WHOIS query for the domain name, in each language (native character set).

Availability of languages is dependent upon Unicode and registry support. Many scripts (especially Latin) are used for a very large number of languages. Unicode covers all the languages that can be written in the following scripts:

Latin
Greek
Cyrillic
Armenian
Hebrew
Arabic
Syriac
Thaana
Devanagari
Bengali
Gurmukhi
Oriya
Tamil
Telegu
Kannada
Malayalam
Sinhala
Thai
Lao
Tibetan
Myanmar
Georgian
Hangul
Ethiopic
Cherokee
Canadian-Aboriginal Syllabics
Ogham
Runic
Khmer
Mongolian
Han (Japanese, Chinese, Korean ideographs)
Hiragana
Katakana
Bopomofo
Yi

However, individual registry support may vary.

Internationalized domain names (IDNs)are domain names represented by native language characters. Registrants can register these second-level domain names in available characters.

The native language domain name will be followed by .com or .net for example: .com).

The encoded form of the internationalized domain name (including any TLD), may contain up to 67 characters. The characters can be letters, numbers, and/or hyphens. Hyphens may not begin or end a domain name. The internationalized domain name transformation software will reject the name if the encoded conversion exceeds the limit.

FAQs – Domains

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