How We Rescued a Lost Domain Name and Website Within a Few Days (Robbie's Story)

Robbie Avenaim is a drummer and sound artist, and the director of Safe In Sound. When he came to us, his digital life was in a tangle: a domain name had slipped out of his control and one of his websites had disappeared.

In his words:

"Carla handled my tangled digital mess like a pro — recovering my domain name, rescuing one lost website and getting it live within a few days, and completely redesigning my other site into something I'm genuinely proud of."

How a rescue works

Every case is a little different, but the steps are usually the same.

1. Find out who holds the domain. Public records show which company the domain is registered with and when it expires, even when the owner's details are hidden.
2. Prove it's yours. Old invoices, emails from the registrar and business records all help. The registrar is the one who can hand control back.
3. Get the website back. If the files still exist with the old host, we copy them. If they're gone, public archives such as the Wayback Machine often hold copies of the pages, text and images that can be rebuilt into a working site.
4. Rebuild it properly. Rather than restoring an old, out-of-date system, we usually rebuild the site so it's fast, secure and needs very little upkeep.
5. Point the domain at the new site, and check that email still arrives.

How to make sure it never happens to you

Most lost domains aren't stolen. They're forgotten. A card expires, a reminder goes to an old email address, or the person who set it up moves on.

• Register the domain in your own name (or your organisation's), not your web designer's.
• Use an email address you'll always have as the contact on the domain.
• Turn on auto-renew, and keep the payment card up to date.
• Keep a copy of your website somewhere other than your hosting account. We keep every client site in its own private GitHub repository.
• Write down where everything lives: domain, hosting, email. Keep it in a password manager.

If something of yours has gone missing, or you're not sure who controls your domain, book a free chat. The sooner, the easier.