Frequently Asked Questions

1. Go to the following address: http://register4less.com
2. Locate the “Secure Login:” section (upper left-hand side of the page)
3. Enter the domain name you want to access with it’s extension (i.e. “.com”, “.net”, etc. e.g. “mydomain.com”)
4. Enter the username and password for your profile
5. Click on Manage domain

Note: If you cannot remember your username/password, see this page

• From your account, you can:

  • manage contact information,
  • create a sub-user account that provides someone else limited access,
  • update the DNS information if you’re using external hosting,
  • create and manage your own DNS servers(advanced),
  • manage hosting services and upgrades,
  • manage email services,
  • manage domain renewals

Many other domain management tools are available to you under the management interface. If you’ve just registered your first domain with us, why not try logging into your account now and have a look around?

Step by Step Instructions:

1. With the domain’s current registrar
   • ensure that the admin email contact is yours and that you can receive email at that address, and have the registrar provide you with the domain’s EPP authorization code.
   • Make sure the Registrar Lock is DISABLED for the domain.
   • Also, make sure that WHOIS/Contact Privacy (sometimes called Private Registration) is DISABLED for the domain.
2. Go to our website http://register4less.com
   • Type in the name(s) of the domain(s) you want to transfer to us (you can do more than one at a time).
   • Click on Lookup Transfer. We’ll look up the domain to see if they can be transferred.

     If the domain shows as not transferable, you will need to contact your current registrar to have the domain unlocked.

   • Enter the Authorization Code provided by your current registrar.
   • If you have an account with us already, log in as an existing customer, otherwise, log in as a new customer.
   • Either fill in (new account) or verify the contact information (existing account) on the order page.
   • Click on the checkbox to confirm your agreement with the special terms and conditions for transferring a domain (it’s yours, you can confirm it).
   • Click on the checkbox to indicate your understanding of the registration agreement.
   • Click on Place Order
   • Follow the steps given on our site to select your payment method and complete the order.
   • We will send an email to the administrative contact for the domain(s) you are transferring. You must click the link in the confirmation request email(s) so that we may submit the transfer to the registry.
   • Optionally, you can have the current registrar confirm the transfer away from them. If you can do that, the transfer will complete more quickly, otherwise, the transfer will complete 5 days after you have confirmed the transfer.

Resets the DNS to which your domain is pointing to our name servers. If you plan to use Register4Less.com to host, park, or want to use our custom DNS hosting service, the DNS for your domain needs to point to our ns1.R4L.com and ns2.R4L.com servers.

Step by Step Instructions:

1. Login to your domain profile (see this page for instructions)
2. Go to the menu for DNS > Change Nameservers
3. Locate the Reset DNS to R4L defaults section
4. Look for and click the Reset DNS button

That’s it!

The Reset DNS button is a one-step operation, so the DNS for your domain will be updated once this button is clicked. You do not need to click the Save Changes button.
DNS information gets cached by your ISP, and depending on the ISP, they can take up to 48 hours to refresh their DNS cache. Most ISPs will update within 4-8 hours. While we update our DNS every 5 minutes, it will take some time for you to see the DNS change reflected for your domain.

Flushing the DNS cache on your computer

These instructions will help you clear DNS cache (if needed). If you are connecting through a router, you will likely need to reset the router to clear DNS cache on it.

To flush DNS cache in Microsoft Windows

1. Click on Start->Run
2. type:

ipconfig /flushdns

Your DNS cache has been flushed.

Note

If you cannot find how to do the above, try this FlushDNS.bat script.

To flush the DNS cache in Mac OS X:

in your terminal, type:

# dscacheutil -flushcache

on older versions of OS X, type:

# lookupd -flushcache

Your DNS cache has been flushed.

To flush the DNS cache in Linux

in your terminal, type:

# /etc/rc.d/init.d/nscd restart

or

# service nscd restart

Your DNS cache has been flushed.

Please note, many distributions do not cache DNS, so if nscd is not installed on your distro, this is not needed.

What is DNS Caching

When you visit a web site, your connection goes from your browser to your ISP, and from there through switches and finally to where the site is hosted. These servers and switches your connection goes through along the way save in cache memory where the services for your domain are. These servers will keep this saved information for a fixed period of time which can range from five minutes to potentially up to a week. The period of time DNS is cached should come from the TTL value given in the zone file for the domain.

How DNS Caching can affect your updates

When you make a change in DNS for your domain, DNS caching can prevent your ability from seeing the update happen. DNS caching usually affects recent visitors to your site, but not most viewers.

What you can do if you’re experiencing DNS caching

You can try contacting your ISP to have them refresh their cached value. In our experience, most ISPs however will not do this for you.

The bad news is that there really isn’t anything you can do in cases like this but wait. DNS caching is a practice that works very well most of the time, and helps improve performance on the Internet. The vast majority of your site’s visitors will likely not be affected by this.

Local DNS caching

In some case, the caching happens locally on your computer. To clear local cache, do the following:

On a Windows computer, go to Start->Run, and type in ipconfig /flushdns

For a Mac or Linux computer, go to the console/shell, type in dscacheutil -flushcache and hit enter.

Renewal Reminders

We send our renewal reminders by email starting 3 months from the expiry of your domain, and then each month thereafter. If you have not received a reminder for your domain, it’s likely that you have not kept your email address on file with us accurately.

When a domain expires

When your domain expires, services for it will no longer work (i.e. web site & email will go down). To renew your domain, you should log into your account with Register4less. If you don’t remember your username & password, please use the Lost Password function to have this sent by email.

The Grace Period

Register4Less.com will maintain your domain for a period of 40 days following its expiry. You can renew your domain during the grace period at the normal registration rate. Renewing your domain will make its services active again. A 5 day period follows the grace period where it transitions from a grace period to the redemption period.

The Redemption Period

Most registries now impose a redemption period following the grace period. The redemption period is 30 days. You may still renew your domain during the redemption period however, this is more costly due to redemption fees charged by the registry. Once the redemption period has passed, the domain enters a 5 -day drop window after which the domain is released.

Should I Redeem my domain?

Dropping domains, especially .com names, are often picked up by domain speculators. It has become very difficult to recover a domain name by monitoring when it will drop. If the domain has value for you, it is advisable to redeem it. If your domain is in redemption, they only guaranteed way to get it back is through a domain redemption.

Monitoring Service

Register4Less.com has also developed a monitoring service for those clients who do not wish to pay the $80 redemption fee.

We do ask that you pay the $35.95 monitoring fee before we can monitor a domain. The domain monitoring service is a bandwidth-intensive program that automates the process of re-registering the domain name as soon as the registry drops it. While we have had good success with this service, it’s not possible to guarantee getting the domain back for you with this service.

We recommend before opting for the monitoring service to consider if we are not able to get the domain back for you, will you regret not having done the redemption renewal. In the event a domain speculator gets the domain, any previous ownership rights you had for the domain are lost.

In the event we are unable to pick up the domain for you, we will credit back to your account balance the $15.95 registration fee to your account balance. The $20 monitoring fee is not refundable.

If you do wish to have us monitor a domain or do a redemption renewal for your domain, please contact our support department by phone (877) 905-6500 or the secure chat from our website.

Got a Virus/Malware on your computer?

Almost all of the time, when a customer’s hosting account is sending spam, their email account’s username and password have been discovered by malware that is on their computer. This virus then will send out the account’s username and password to other computers that are infected with the same malware, and these computers will then connect to the account and send out spam.
When our monitoring system detects that the email account has been compromised and is being used to send spam, we have to disable the account until that computer’s malware problem can be fixed. If we don’t stop the spam from being sent quickly, the IP address of the server will get added to spam blacklists, and other customers using email service on this same server will have problems being able to send email.

Scan Tools

While there are many tools, both free and paid, available, these are the five we’d recommend:

Spigot Search & Destroy
Spybot Search & Destroy has made quite a name for itself over the years, earning accolades from both general and computer-focused publications. Spybot Search & Destroy is the highest ranked freeware tool at 2Spyware.com, a website that ranks malware removal tools. In addition to scanning for malware, Spybot Search & Destroy also has a variety of additional functionality, including a botnet scanner, hosts-file modification (to keep malware from calling home), a secure file shredder, and a dummy code feature (it replaces malicious or questionable adware modules with inert code so the dependent program will keep functioning).
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html

SUPERAntiSpyware (Windows, $30)
SUPERAntiSpyware is available as both a freeware and premium edition like Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware (see below), but the level of restrictions on the freeware edition are considerably higher. The free version is limited to basic on-demand scanning and malware removal. The premium version includes real-time scanning, registry protection, a scheduling service, auto-scan on startup, and 50 startup diagnostics to stop malware infections before they spread. One of SUPERAntiSpyware’s strongest selling points is its high level of compatibility with other protection tools like Avira, Kaspersky, Symantec, and McAfee.
http://www.amazon.com. Search for SUPERAntiSpyware

ComboFix (Windows, Freeware)
ComboFix is just runs with a very basic interface. You download ComboFix, run it, and it takes care of the rest. The basic ComboFix process looks like this: It backs up your registry, checks to see if you have Windows Recovery Console installed, and then it goes to town on your system scanning away through 40+ stages. When it’s done, ComboFix spits out a log file and lists all the malware it found, which ones it was able to remove, and which ones you’ll have to use your Google-fu to look up how to remove manually. It isn’t fancy, but it gets the job done and gives you a detailed report at the end to take to security forums for help if you need it.
http://www.combofix.org/

Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware (Windows, Free and $25)
Malwarebytes’ flagship application Anti-Malware is a shareware malware-removal tool. The principle difference between the free and premium version of the application is real-time monitoring. If you don’t need active scanning against threats, the free version uses the same database and does an admirable job ferreting out infections. Anti-Malware was, for example, one of the few malware removal tools that could detect and remove the Antivirus XP 2008, a spyware application that masqueraded as an antivirus app. The Anti-Malware installation includes another application from Malwarebytes called FileASSASSIN—a helpful tool for deleting files locked by Windows.
http://www.amazon.com/ Search for Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware

When you register a new domain, in most cases it will not be available for 24 hours. The root DNS servers update twice daily, and this delay is a function of how these servers accept changes.

Whenever you change the DNS servers that your domain points to, this propagation delay will also come into play.

When you register a domain, you have the choice of the following free services:

• web site hosting (up to 10 MB)
• URL forwarding
• Domain parking (automatic under construction page)

By default, your domain will be set up for the parking service. As soon as you want to change this service, simply log into your account and update the hosting service for your domain.

If you’re using the free hosting and need more space, upgrades are available.

If you choose to host your web site elsewhere, you can point your domain to your web host simply by logging in and setting the DNS servers to point to the name servers from your web hosting company.

You may choose to opt for our full-service webmail. Our webmail service provides you with:

• 250 MB of space per account,
• compatibility with the mail software of your choice (Outlook, Netscape, Thunderbird, iPhone, etc.),
• Access to your mail from any computer connected to the Internet via our webmail interface.

You have a choice between two different webmail interfaces. These are:

• http://mail.your-domain.com Our traditional webmail interface. Fast, simple layout.
• http://mail2.your-domain.com Our new interface. Features a scheduler, multi-level folders, mail filtering, vacation message, multiple contact profiles, scheduled mailbox maintenance functions, multi-lingual interface, spell checker, advanced search capabilities …

If you choose to not use a mail client program and only use the webmail interface, you can shield yourself from viruses that are designed to attack the vulnerabilities in mail-client software. Because you’re viewing your email through a web site and not downloading the mail into a mail program, virus attachments cannot reach your mail software.

Webmail accounts are priced at only $2/month, and bulk discounts are available for multiple accounts.

At Register4Less.com, we’re committed to providing you with the best possible customer service and technical support.

If ever you have difficulty finding something on our web site, the help system can provide you with step-by-step instructions for all of the domain management functions and other services we provide.

You can also rely on getting quick and effective support from the R4L Support Team. During office hours (9:00 a.m – 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time Zone), requests for support received by email generally get resolved within an hour or less. You’ll also find our support staff answers the phone, so your call can get resolved quickly and effectively. 

Our support staff include people who have designed and coded many of the systems that drive the R4L website and services, so when you do have a support issue you need help with, you can be sure your questions can be answered by someone with the knowledge and experience necessary.