If you own or run a website, there are a few new wrinkles you should know about. In the first place, the powers that be at ICANN who run the World Wide Web’s all-important Domain Name System have instituted a new hoop for domain owners to jump through.
Since January 1 of this year, all new domains, any that get transferred or have any owner or contact information changed, must have the domain owner’s email address verified – or else.
The domain’s administrative contact will be sent an email from the registrar with an activation link to be clicked or ICANN will disable the domain. If the message is not replied to within 15 days, the site will not be usable at at all until fixed – not even including email.
This whole procedure violates just about every safety tip SWCP has issued to users to help everyone stay safe online. So Southwest Cyberport will do all we can to track the process, make it easy, prevent shutdowns, and keep it secure. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience.
It can be expected that bad guys will try to take full advantage of this situation. Remember that no legitimate message will ever ask for your username or password. If you have any doubts, please call or email Tech Support. But whatever you do, please don’t ignore it.
Note that this validation message will be sent only to that email address you set up for your domain’s “administrative contact,” so make sure you still use it. SWCP members can check out their Whois status by logging into our Members Portal and clicking on the Whois Info or Domain Renewal links.
Also, WordPress owners who have updated to version 3.7 and up, be aware that there is now an automatic updating feature. This should prove very convenient for most users, but for those with older or a large number of plug-ins, or even those being worked on, it could cause some problems. Unfortunately, the only way at this time to disable the function is to to hack the code. In wp-config.php, simply add this line:
define( 'AUTOMATIC_UPDATER_DISABLED', true );
