This is, I am sure, an old story...

I have been asked to help someone whose web site author has
disappeared.  There is no animosity between the parties -- the guy has
simply become un-contactable for no known reason.

Now, the domain (a .co.uk) name was taken out in the designer's name.
The hosting, too, is in his name (fasthosts) and there is an urgent
need for some updates.

I have looked at Nominet's site and FAQ's and as far as I can see
there is no alternative but to use their Dispute Resolution Service to
get the domain name back.  Am I right?  Is there any other method?
(Sadly, it is possible that the registrant has died, and I see that
there is a special mechanism for that, but without being sure there is
no way that helps.)

The trouble with the DRS is that the company whose site it is makes very
little money and simply can't afford the fees that inevitably seem to
be involved if a dispute involves a party that does not respond.

Since there is no animosity, it would suffice to get access to the
hosting.  Does anyone know if this is even possible?  I suspect it is
harder than getting the domain back (which would allow the hosting to
be moved).

-- 
Ben.

On Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:03:10 +0000, Ben Bacarisse put finger to
keyboard and typed:

>This is, I am sure, an old story...
>
>I have been asked to help someone whose web site author has
>disappeared.  There is no animosity between the parties -- the guy has
>simply become un-contactable for no known reason.
>
>Now, the domain (a .co.uk) name was taken out in the designer's name.
>The hosting, too, is in his name (fasthosts) and there is an urgent
>need for some updates.
>
>I have looked at Nominet's site and FAQ's and as far as I can see
>there is no alternative but to use their Dispute Resolution Service to
>get the domain name back.  Am I right?  Is there any other method?

Email or phone Nominet and ask. They're nice people; they do actually
respond to queries.

>(Sadly, it is possible that the registrant has died, and I see that
>there is a special mechanism for that, but without being sure there is
>no way that helps.)
>
>The trouble with the DRS is that the company whose site it is makes very
>little money and simply can't afford the fees that inevitably seem to
>be involved if a dispute involves a party that does not respond.
>
>Since there is no animosity, it would suffice to get access to the
>hosting.  Does anyone know if this is even possible?  I suspect it is
>harder than getting the domain back (which would allow the hosting to
>be moved).

Again, I'd suggest contacting Fasthosts. They may or may not be
helpful - a lot depends on whether they decide to be pedantic about
customer privacy or whether they're prepared to discuss things with a
downstream customer of their customer. But they may be able to sort
something out.

Mark
--
Blog: http://mark.goodge.co.uk
Stuff: http://www.good-stuff.co.uk