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Updating Domain Name & Associated Records


  1. To make changes to the Domain Name itself - considered a new registration; see Registration Process Overview
  2. To transfer the Domain Name registration to another party, to make a change that reflects a legal name change of the Registrant, or to correct typographical or minor errors about the Registrant
  3. To replace an existing contact with a new contact, or to change information about the organization, or to change name servers - Domain Name Registration Agreement is modified and sent to NIC.RO.
  4. Request is automatically acknowledged and assigned a tracking number
  5. Agreement is automatically checked for errors
  6. NIC.RO checks to see where request came from
    1. If request does not originate from either the owner, administrative or technical contact - contacts are notified and given an opportunity to approve (ACK) or disapprove (NAK) the request
      1. Sender notified that contacts are reviewing request
      2. If no contacts respond to the notification within 7 days - in most cases, request expires
      3. If the first response received is a NAK - change is not made automatically
    2. If the request originates from the owner, administrative or technical contact - Email address used to verify the identity and authority of sender
  7. Information for the domain is updated in NIC.RO's Whois database and released into the zone files
  8. Other contacts in the domain are notified of the change.


 
To make changes to the Domain Name itself - considered a new registration - see Registration Process Overview
You cannot "update" a Domain Name itself - you can only update a Domain Name's record. A change in the Domain Name itself is not considered an update and is not covered under the registration and maintenance fee. Any change in an existing Domain Name is considered a new Domain Name and requires a separate registration and registration fee. For example, you cannot "update" the Domain Name myfirm.co.ro to thefirm.co.ro - you would need to register thefirm.co.ro as a new name using the Domain Name Registration Agreement. For more information on registering a new Domain Name, see our overview of the registration process.

 

To transfer the Domain Name registration to another party, to make a change that reflects a legal name change of the Registrant, or to correct typographical or minor errors to Registrant
Effective Tuesday, January 20, 1998, Internet Service Romania, S.A. introduced a new Registrant Name Change Agreement and procedure to change the name of a Registrant for a registered Domain Name.

This new Agreement and procedure will affect those who wish to:

  1. Correct typographical or minor errors;
  2. Reflect a legal name change of the Registrant; or
  3. Transfer the Domain Name registration to another party.

    This new Agreement will replace the current Domain Name transfer procedure wherein parties are required to submit a "D"elete and "N"ew Domain Name Registration Agreement via email..

     

To replace an existing contact with a new contact or to change name servers - Domain Name Registration Agreement is modified and sent to NIC.RO.
Using the web interface, you enter your Domain Name, click on "modify," and your existing Domain Name record will appear as a form than can be modified. Edit only those sections of the form that you wish to change. The information you entered will be used to complete the Agreement. We will email you a copy of the completed form for verification. The web interface prompts you to tell us where to send the completed template; the e-mail address that you enter at this prompt is where we will send the copy of the completed Agreement - this may or may not be an address listed in the form. You will need to e-mail this Agreement back to hostmaster@nic.ro at NIC.RO once you verify that all the information is correct.

If you are using the text version, you will need to indicate in section 0a that you are using the Agreement to modify an existing Domain Name record (as opposed to using it for a new registration or a deletion). You would then enter your Domain Name in section 2 and then complete only those sections that you want to change. For example, if you have changed ISPs and need to notify NIC.RO of the new primary and secondary name servers that you will be using, you would indicate a modification in section 0a, fill out the Domain Name section of the form and fill out the section for the primary and secondary name servers. NIC.RO will change only that section of your Domain Name record and will assume that the rest of the information for the Domain Name remains the same.

 

Request is automatically acknowledged and assigned a tracking number
Once NIC.RO receives the modification request, we assign it a "tracking number" and send an acknowledgement to the owner, administrative an technical contact. The subject line of the e-mail will contain the tracking number assigned to the modification request.

The tracking number has the following format: [NIC.RO-YYMMDD.####] , where YYMMDD represent the year, month, and date that the acknowledgement is sent, and # is the unique number assigned to that particular request.

It is a good idea to immediately make a note of the tracking number - you will need to include your tracking number on any correspondence you send to NIC.RO, and you should have it ready if you call NIC.RO's help desk.

 

Agreement is automatically checked for errors
When NIC.RO receives a Domain Name Registration Agreement that contains a modification for an existing Domain Name, the form is checked for errors. Provided the Domain Name is correctly entered on the form, and no substantial errors or omissions occur in the modified sections, the Agreement will move on to the next step in the process. If minor errors are present, NIC.RO's processing staff will work to resolve the problem. If, however, the errors or omissions cause substantial questions or confusion, the Agreement will most likely be returned to the sender to be corrected/completed. After you have made the necessary corrections, you will need to resubmit your Agreement to hostmaster@nic.ro. Your template will then be sent back through the automated processing system; the original tracking number will continue to apply.

 

NIC.RO checks to see where request came from
In a previous article, we pointed out a critical factor on which the entire update process rests - NIC.RO will not update a Domain Name record unless the request comes from (or at least appears to come from) an "authorized source". NIC.RO has adopted this practice in an effort to protect the interests of its customers - the Domain Name registrants - and to help ensure the integrity of NIC.RO's database.

Contacts listed on the Domain Name Registration Agreement are individuals or organizations who are authorized to act on behalf of a Domain Name's registrant in matters related to the Domain Name. NIC.RO, therefore, considers a request to update a Domain Name record that comes from one of the Domain Name's contacts to come from an authorized source.

When NIC.RO receives a request to update a Domain Name record, the email address of the sender is automatically compared to the email addresses that are on file for the Domain Name's administrative and technical contacts. If there is a match, then NIC.RO assumes that the request is coming from a legitimate and authorized source, and will proceed to the next step in the process.

NIC.RO, of course, recognizes the Domain Name registrant as the ultimate authority for the Domain Name. It is certainly possible for registrants to make changes in their own Domain Name records. NIC.RO, however, because of the volume of registration transactions, has automated its processes and handles requests electronically. If the registrant is not listed as either the owner, administrative or technical contact for the Domain Name, no email address will be on file for the registrant. In this situation, NIC.RO would be unable to verify the identity and authority of the registrant electronically, and consequently will be unable to process the request automatically. In these situations, the registrant would need to submit the requested changes in writing on company letterhead and fax the request to NIC.RO. Please note, however, that updates processed in this manner may not happen as quickly as it would if the change were sent by the owner, administrative or technical contacts.

 

If request does not originate from either the owner, administrative or technical contact - contacts are notified and given an opportunity to approve (ACK) or disapprove (NAK)
If a request to modify a Domain Name record does not come from the email address of either the domain's owner, administrative or technical contact, then NIC.RO will not automatically process the request. Instead, NIC.RO notifies the admininstrative and technical contacts for the Domain Name, via email, of the attempt to modify the Domain Name record and provides the contacts with a copy of the request. The contacts have 7 days from the date of this notification to acknowledge the request and indicate either their approval (ACK) or disapproval (NAK).

There are a variety of reasons why NIC.RO may be unable to recognize the person submitting an update request as an authorized point of contact for a Domain Name. It may be the case that the contacts listed on a Domain Name record are no longer valid. For example, suppose your technical contact, Ion, works for your ISP. Now imagine that Ion quits his job, and your ISP replaces him with Ioana. If Ioana is not listed on your Domain Name record as the current technical contact, NIC.RO will not recognize Ioana as an authorized point of contact for your Domain Name. You would need to use the Domain Name registration template to modify your Domain Name record to reflect Ioana's information.

NOTE: the use of role accounts can be very helpful in avoiding this type of problem. For example, if your ISP used the role account nameservice@example-isp.ne.ro, then there would be no need to update your Domain Name record each time they have a change in staff.

Another example is when the email address for an existing contact changes and the contact record is not updated prior to the change. In this situation, the contact's new email address will not match the email address the contact has on file with NIC.RO. If a contact submits an update request from the new email address, NIC.RO will be unable to use that new email address to verify that the request originated from an authorized point of contact. As a result, the contact cannot update their contact record or any of the Domain Name records with which they are associated using the new email address. There are, however, three solutions to this problem:

  • If the contact still has access to the old email address, that address can be used to update the contact record, and all Domain Name records associated with the contact will subsequently be updated.
  • The contact can submit an update request and then provide verification of authority via fax following these guidelines:
    1. The fax must be on letterhead from the company/organization that is the Domain Name registrant, as listed in NIC.RO database. If company letterhead does not exist, include a copy of a photo ID of a legally binding authority of the organization.
    2. Reference NIC.RO tracking number received in response to the original update request and the Domain Name.
    3. Include a statement of authorization and a statement explaining your specific situation.
    4. The verification must be signed by an individual having legally binding authority to the organization, such as the owner, president, vice-president, or CEO. Include the printed name, title, and phone number of the signatory.
 

If no contacts respond to the notification within 7 days, request expires

If neither the owner, administrative or technical contact respond within 7 days, the request expires and no further action is taken by NIC.RO.

 

Sender notified that contacts are reviewing request
After the contacts have been notified, the NIC.RO sends an email message to the person who submitted the modification request. This message indicates that the requestor is not authorized to update the domain name record and that the contacts for the domain name are reviewing the request.

 

If the first response received is a NAK - change is not made
NIC.RO will take action on the first response it receives. If the first response is a "nak," NIC.RO does not process the request automatically. For example, if the technical contact responds first with a "nak" and the administrative contact responds later with an "ack," or does not respond at all, NIC.RO will not process the request.
 

If the request originates from the owner, administrative or technical contact - Email address is used to verify the identity and authority of sender

The contact's email address will be used to verify the contact's identity and authority. NIC.RO will process the request automatically, as it is coming from the Domain Name's owner, administrative or technical contact.

 

Information for the domain is updated in NIC.RO's Whois database and released into the zone files
As we stated, if a modification request does not originate from either the owner, administrative or technical contact, NIC.RO notifies the contacts for the Domain Name and waits for one of the contacts to respond. NIC.RO will take action based on the first response it receives. If the first response is an "ack," the request is automatically processed, the Domain Name record is updated in NIC.RO's Whois database, and the updated information for the Domain Name is released into the zone files. For example, if the technical contact responds first with an "ack" and the administrative contact responds later with a "nak," or does not respond at all, NIC.RO automatically processes the request based on the first response. However, if it could be shown that the interests of the registrant were not being served by the requested changes, the administrative contact in the example above could submit a new request that would, in effect, "reverse" the changes. Again, NIC.RO encourages contacts to work with one another to resolve differences in their responses so that changes in Domain Name records can be processed quickly and in a manner consistent with the best interests of the registrant.

If, on the other hand, the request was submitted by the owner, administrative or technical contact for the domain, then NIC.RO will verify the identity and authority of the contact (using the contact's email address) and process the request.

In either case, once the template has been successfully processed, the information supplied will be used to update the Domain Name record in NIC.RO's Whois database. Also, the updated information about the domain is placed in the "zone" files.

What are zone files? Zone files actually represent a distributed database of information about domains. Each name server holds a portion of the database. A name server keeps information, or data files, about the domains that it resolves, and is able to "ask" other name servers about the domains they resolve. This exchange of information among name servers is what enables your Domain Name to be resolved to your IP address from anywhere on the Internet. A name server is considered to have "authority" over the portion of the database - or zone - that it maintains.

NIC.RO has authority for the top level zones that contain information for the romanian generic top level domains. If you registered your Domain Name in the the .co.ro domain, for example, NIC.RO releases the updated information about your Domain Name into the CO.RO zone files, which have authority for the .co.ro domain. We release information into the zone files several times a day, every day - to insure that the Domain Name system is accurate, up-to-date, and running smoothly.

NOTE: The information for your Domain Name that is contained within NIC.RO database and the zone files is accessible to anyone on the Internet.

 

Other contacts in the domain are notified of the change.
Once the request has been processed, the Domain Name record has been modified to reflect the new information, and the updated information for the Domain Name has been released into the zone files, NIC.RO notifies the other contacts for the Domain Name via email that the Domain Name record has been modified. If the other contacts for the Domain Name have any objection to the changes, they can notify hostmaster@nic.ro.


Please read our Disclaimer and our Registration Agreement.
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Internet Service Romania, S.A. All rights reserved.