New HTML Formatted Renewal Reminders
If you’re reading this, you’re likely (hopefully) a customer of Register4Less, Inc., and have received news from the R4L Team about our new hosting and domain renewal reminders.
The purpose of this blog post is to add a little background to how and why the renewal reminders have changed. This is all a part of the process we have undergone for moving as a reseller for another ICANN Accredited registrar to being directly accredited ourselves.
Modernizing Old Code
The code that used to handle renewal reminders is some of the older code R4L has developed. Back when this was originally developed, the structure of user accounts was designed under the assumption that all domains within an account would belong to the same customer, and contacts for all domains in an account would be the same. So when a reminder was sent, the code would look up an address from one of the domains in the reminder message and use that address. This has now been updated so emails are grouped by customer account, and then further be addresses that are common in the domains.
Add Web and Email Hosting
In the past, we have sent renewal reminders for domain expiry once per month for all domains that were set to expire within three months, were expired but not in the redemption period, and that were not marked as let expire. Back when the reminder code was developed, we did not have upgraded hosting solutions, so when that was added, hosting reminders were sent as separate notices. This has now been integrated into one monthly reminder, and we can now provide you the option of syncing hosting renewal dates with their associated domains.
Per-Domain Notices
In the past when we were reselling domains for another registrar, we did not deal with the ICANN mandated per-domain renewal notices, as this is the direct responsibility of the registrar. When we became accredited, we used the service of a company that provides a common interface to connect to the various registries. This was done to expedite the process of going live as a direct accredited registrar. The per-domain notices that use text attachments for the list of expiring domains is a message that was sent by this provider on our behalf. While we still connect through this supplier (for now…), we have opted out of their per-domain notices and now send these directly.
Our Upcoming New Look
We’re working on a new design for the interface of Register4Less.com. The current colour scheme and look and feel for the site is being modernized. The renewal notices will also provide you with a preview of the new design we will be coming out with for our website.
Thanks!
As always, thanks for your support of Register4Less, the non-evil domain registrar, and now full-service hosting company. If you have questions, suggestions for the blog (please, ideas, questions, suggestions are always welcome), please write to our support team.
Cheers!
The R4L Team.