A recent article in Wired magazine points out the importance of keeping your domain name registration up to date. Any firm or organization—including AIA chapters—that have Web sites with their own Internet domain (such as AIA.ORG, AIAAUSTIN.ORG, AIAKY.ORG, etc.) needs to make sure it knows when its registration expires. Domain names must be registered and paid for for a year or two—sometimes more. If these registrations are inadvertently allowed to expire, they may be legally taken over by others.

Unscrupulous characters, most often pornography purveyors, often buy up recently expired Web sites. Their motivation is twofold—they can:
1) Capitalize on links embedded around the Web to draw eyeballs to their sites
2) Make you pay them to regain your domain.

Do not let this happen to your Web site!

What to do?
Most of the tools you need to check on your domain registration can be found at VeriSign's Web site. Search for your domain name registry record to verify its expiration date. Search only for the last 2 segments of your web address (i.e. AIA.ORG, leaving off the "WWW"), and make sure you select "Search WHOIS by: Domain Name." Network Solutions' (now VeriSign) Web interface has links and tools to help you deal with any corrections you need to make. Use this site to make sure the contact information for your domain record is current and correct. Don't assume your Internet service provider is doing this for you.

If your Web address looks something like this: www.providerx. com/~aiaky/, domain registration is less of an issue for you, since the owner of "providerx.com" is responsible for domain registration. If you are less than confident about your provider in this regard, you may want to take some kind of action. Remember, you can use the WHOIS link above to check the expiration date for any domain name, including that of your own "providerx.com."

Feel free to contact me with any questions by email or 202-626-7512.

Copyright 2001 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.